Prey

Julia found her breathing coming in quick spurts now. She felt nervous about potentially hyperventilating. Mick looked over once and smiled at her, which seemed to do a lot for calming her down.

They passed more doors on their left and right sides now. Julia frowned. What was this place? Where were they? All of this built into a mountain? It didn't seem possible. It was some sort of engineering feat to say the least.

A laser pulse flashed past Julia's face making her scream. Mick shouted at her.

"Get down!"

Another laser shot over her head. Julia fell to the floor and aimed the laser rifle down toward the end of the seemingly endless curving hallway. She could just vaguely see heads moving about down at the end.

Mick kept firing his gun but the bullets almost seemed to fall short of the targets. Julia found the trigger on her own gun and squeezed.

A bright pulse of laser shot out of the end and streaked down toward the end of the hallway. She heard a loud shriek and saw one of the creatures fall dead.

"Keep shooting!"

Julia took a deep breath and kept finding her targets. One after another she shot and took out each one that came into her view.

"We can't stay here!"

Julia nodded, shooting another round down. "Where?"

Mick pointed to Julia's side of the hallway. "There's a door about fifty yards ahead. Make for that!"

Julia got to her feet and ran ahead. She kept firing, hoping the stray blasts would take out another dinocreature or at least make them keep their heads down. How many of those things were there anyway?

She reached the door.

"Mick! Come on!"

He ran for the door.

A bright laser blast caught him high in his right arm, spun him, and he landed on the floor in the middle of the corridor.

"Fuck!"

"Mick!"

Julia ran back for him, firing another volley down at the end of the corridor. She reached Mick. The laser wound looked like it had already cauterized itself. There was black char on Mick's right shoulder. The M16 looked useless, blown apart by the laser blast.

"You okay?"

He nodded but she could see his teeth were gritted against the pain. "Just get me to the door."

She had to use one hand to help him while she kept trying to fire at the other end. More laser bolts came at them now.

"They're getting closer," said Mick. "We need to get out of here."

The door hissed open and they fell through it. It slid shut with an equally sinister hiss.

Julia collapsed. She felt exhausted.

Mick was breathing hard next to her. "Cripes this hurts."

She looked at the wound. "It doesn't look all that bad to be honest with you."

"Lucky I had the M16 up or it would have taken my arm off," said Mick. "The poor gun took the brunt of it."

"They'll come for us," said Julia.

Mick looked around. There was a lot of sweat staining his forehead now. The pain must have been extreme.

Mick pointed. "Two doors off of this one. You got any psychic inclinations about which one will lead us out of here?"

"Is there a way out of this complex?"

Mick looked at her. "Complex?"

"This place. Wherever the hell we are."

Mick smiled. "We're on a ship, Julia."

"A ship? You mean a space ship?"

"Yeah. Why do you think it took me so long to find you? This thing is huge. It's the entire mountain."

Julia's mind reeled. "The entire mountain? That doesn't make any sense."

"Think of it as camouflage then. They disguised an entire spaceship to look exactly like a mountain. The tunnel we were in, the jungle, it's all a part of the greater vehicle."

"My God."

"It's huge," said Mick. "Took me hours to figure my way around it, and that was only using the main corridors. They'll have those cordoned off somehow."

"And you don't know any other ways off this thing?"

Mick grimaced. "Shit that hurts." He looked at her. "No. My AAA membership didn't have a map for this place."

"Don't be sarcastic." Julia glanced around. Two doors. One or the other. One might lead them off this ship and back into the cold of Antarctica or it might lead them deeper into the spaceship.

Some choice.

Behind them, a sudden flurry of noise sounded beyond the door they'd come in through. Mick pointed at the control box next to the door. "Better fry that thing or we'll have company real soon."

Julia shot the panel and watched the circuitry pop and fizzle. She turned back to Mick. "I don't know which one to choose."

"There's another reason we have to get off this thing," said Mick.

"Why's that?"

"Because if they feel we're too much of as threat, they might simply lift this thing off and take us home with them."

"Home?"

"As in other planet."

Julia pulled Mick to his feet. "I've already got a home. And I want to get the hell back there."

"Which one?" asked Mick.

Julia looked at the two doors. Both of them looked the same. Which one to choose?

More activity behind them made her yank Mick toward one of them. She held him up. "You trust me?"

He smirked. "Only a little bit."

"That's enough," she said.

And then pressed the button to trigger the door on he right.

It slid up and she pushed them both through it, praying it was the right choice.

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