Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Haven’t we already walked past this pile of stones?” I heard David’s voice behind my back. For a supposedly emotionless machine, he truly struggled to hide his amusement, “I was a fool to trust you 

and your tracking skills.”

I rolled my eyes and let out a short breath trying my best not to yell at him. The situation was frustrating enough even without his sarcastic remarks.

“It’s not my fault your system doesn’t work down here,” I pointed out, “maybe we should turn you off for a bit and refresh it?”

I could swear on everything that was dear to my heart that I actually heard him frown in response and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t satisfying.

“Next time you are more than welcome to ask Charlie to be your navigator,” he hissed.

I stopped and turned to him. Seeing the priceless expression on his face forced me to cover my mouth with my hand to avoid giggling. It wasn’t the brightest idea to laugh out loud on a new planet especially when your android’s programme suddenly stopped working and you had to trust your senses alone.

“Stop mentioning him so often, I might think you actually like him.”

“Have the gate on the ship suddenly opened I would not mind throwing him out into the void,” he declared.

“Oh, we all know that.”

I shook my head and headed back in the right direction. Or at least the one I believed was correct.

I took a few steps forward when I suddenly felt David’s tight grip on my arm. His free hand quickly covered my mouth.

At first, I thought he was trying to scare me to get revenge for my earlier comment but then I heard something odd in the distance. Something huge was running towards us, its speed screwed up the measurements of my suit and caused it to turn off completely. I was left with nothing but a gun in my hand and David by my side in a total darkness.

“What is that?” I whispered.

I had my heart in my throat. This planet was not supposed to be inhibited. That’s what our scanners showed us but then again, everything seemed to be going downhill from the moment we left the deck. First, we lost connection with the rest of the squad, David’s  navigating system failed and now it turns out we’re trapped in the middle of nowhere with something potentially lethal.

“I have no clue,” David replied and pulled me closer.

The thing must have stopped because the rustling sound was gone. I looked around but without the night vision, it was mostly irrelevant. I had to rely on David alone.

The sound came back, this time I heard it from behind my back and what even worse, it got really close. David turned his head immediately but failed to detect the source of the noise. This damn thing was moving way too fast.

“Stay behind my back,” he ordered, keeping his eyes on the field, desperately trying to identify this entity.

I wanted to argue, after all, I had my gun and my aim was excellent, but the tone of his voice was peremptory and instead I remained quiet.

Every time the creature stopped I felt like the tension was devouring us. The anxiety was getting harder to endure as the circle in which the thing seemed to be moving was tightening around us. We were standing there for no more than few minutes but it felt like forever. I didn’t want to be served as a main dish on a silver plate for some kind of alien.

The silence fell upon as once again. The only thing I could hear was the sound of the heart beating against my chest. We stood there, observing the field but there was no trace of recent activity. Everything was peaceful.

“We have to reach the treeline,” David whispered.

I looked over to our new destination. The distance wasn’t long but considering the fact that we had just encountered a new life form I knew it would cost us a lot to get there.

I took a step forward, trying my best to keep as quiet as possible but it wasn’t simple. The gun felt heavy in my hands and I was left painfully helpless without my night vision and hearing enhancement. Knowing that David was right next to me was reassuring though.

The thing came back, speeding at us and making noises that made my skin crawl. I didn’t even have the chance to scream. I tried to escape but I was too slow. It jumped at me and pinched me to the ground. I tried to shoot it, but it was fool’s errand. I shut my eyes, believing that was the end as something sharp was tearing through my skin.

But the weight of the entity was soon removed from my body.

The impact of David’s hit must have confused the beast because it was still lying on the ground when he was carefully picking me up. I instinctively wrapped my arms around his neck and I noticed a slight smile on his lips.

It didn’t last long though, the thing was back on its feet and ready to strike again. This time David was chosen to be its prey. He let go of me when the creature jumped at him. When I hit the ground my vision became blurry and the pain got even worse. In the corner of my eye, I could see David who was desperately trying to free himself from under the beast.

I reached out and tried to find my gun, but a splitting headache was successfully sabotaging my efforts. Finally, I felt metal under my fingertips and quickly grabbed the shotgun. I tried not to think about a limited amount of bullets in the clip.

I inhaled and aimed at the enemy, hoping for the best, then pressed the trigger. A loud noise cut the air and for a brief second, nothing happened. I was sure I’d missed and prepared the gun for another round but suddenly, the alien screamed and run off in the opposite direction.

I dropped the gun and laid on my back, breathing uncontrollably. Luckily, David was in a much better condition. He made his way back to me and knelt right by my side.

“Hey, Y/N, don’t close your eyes, stay with me!” his voice was panicked, “I’ll get you out of here, I promise.”

Thanks to his inhuman pace we made it to the treeline quickly but the thing vanished. I didn’t want to give in to a false hope but a spark of it already ignited in my heart. Maybe we did scare it off?

David placed me on the ground and took a glance at the wound.

“It might sting a bit,” he warned, pulling the first aid kit out of his backpack. I bit my lip and prepared for the injection. He then bandaged the cut and looked back at me.

“How do you feel?”

“It’s not that bad,” I replied, the pain was becoming numbed by the medication, “Do you think it will be coming back?”

He looked around, listening carefully.

“I believe it did not expect us to fight back. We might have enough time to head back before it decides to take another chance at us. Are you able to walk?”

I tried to take a few steps but the wound was preventing me from keeping a steady pace.

I didn’t have to say anything. David lifted me off my feet and smiled softly when I leant my head against his chest.

“You saved me. Why?” he whispered.

“Because I care about you,” I confessed, too tired to suppress honesty.

He pressed his lips to the top of my head and I could feel the corner of his mouth lifting in a heart warming smile.

“I do care about you, too. A lot in fact.”

“Good,” I replied and threw my arms around his neck feeling safe enough to drift away.