Marc Cerasini - AVP - Alien vs. Predator

Lex drew a compass from her utility belt and, with the sleeve of her coat, wiped the Day-Glo green blood from her face. She read the compass, then glanced around the column-lined stairway.

“What now?” Sebastian asked.

“We keep moving and stay on this heading.”

Weyland clutched his chest and moaned. A cough wracked his frail body. He dropped to his knees and began to hyperventilate. Lex hurried to the man’s side.

“Take it easy,” she said, grabbing his shoulder.

Weyland’s face began to turn blue. His mouth gaped like a suffocating fish.

Without breaking eye contact, Lex took Weyland’s head in her hands and held it. It was clear that he had taken too much air into his lungs and that they were beginning to freeze.

“You have to control your breathing,” she coaxed. “Take slow, steady breaths …”

She took shallow breaths herself, to teach Weyland by example, and soon his own breath became less forced, less labored.

“Slow, steady… that’s it,” Lex said as the tension drained from Weyland’s face and he visibly relaxed. Finally, Lex led Weyland to a step and sat him down.

“I’m okay… I’m okay,” Weyland croaked, trying to wave her away and rise again.

Suddenly a looming shadow appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

“Come on, we have to get out of here,” Lex cried, hauling Weyland to his feet. Hobbled, the billionaire tried to use an ice axe as a cane, but his arms were as tired as his legs—too exhausted to support him now. Slowly, Weyland slumped against the wall, teetering on unsteady limbs.

“No,” he gasped. “I can’t… it’s hard enough to stand…”

Every word Weyland spoke seemed to sap more of his waning strength. Lex could see that the strain of the chase and the constant exposure to the frigid air had ravaged what little remained of the man’s disease-ridden lungs.

“Weyland—”

But the man cut her off.

“Save it,” he said with some of his old authority. “This is all my fault.”

His intentions were clear. Weyland was going to sacrifice himself in order to give her and Sebastian more of a head start.

“I’m not letting you die down here,” said Lex.

Weyland grinned. “You didn’t, Lex. Go. I’ll buy you whatever time I can.”

The Predator was coming, moving very deliberately up the stairs. Weyland spied it and grabbed the ice axe, brandishing it like a weapon.

“Go! Go now,” he cried.

Lex reached for Weyland, but Sebastian grabbed her arm and dragged her up the stairs. Weyland and Lex shared a final look, then the man turned to face the presence growing nearer.

Not bothering to cloak itself, the Predator walked right up to Weyland. The human rose to his full height, staring impassively at the otherworldly creature. For a long moment, Weyland faced the Predator squarely, eye to eye, then lifted the axe and charged.

The Predator reached out, snatched the axe out of Weyland’s hand and tossed it aside as Weyland’s futile swing carried him past the Predator and set him stumbling down a step into an elaborately etched wall panel.

The creature turned and stared down at Weyland. As blank eyes on the Predator’s faceplate glowed with crimson fire, the human felt a strange warmth inside his chest. Reaching out, the Predator clutched Weyland’s shoulders, held him fast and examined him from head to toe.

Then, snorting contemptuously, the creature pushed Weyland aside and turned his back on him.

Weyland understood what that meant. Somehow the Predator could sense his frailty and did not regard him as a threat—in fact, Weyland was sure that, to this monster, he was nothing more than a sick, helpless animal!

Choking on a rush of helpless rage, Weyland clenched his teeth and searched for a way to strike back. He had no weapon, but his fingers closed on the oxygen tank slung over his back.

Ripping the cylinder off his shoulder, Weyland set the tank down and propped it against his foot. Kneeling, he opened the valve until it was gushing full blast. As pure oxygen filled the chamber, he yanked an emergency flare from his utility belt and held it up.

“Don’t you turn your back on me!” he cried.

At the sound of the human’s voice, the Predator spun—and Weyland ignited the flare.

The combustible oxygen instantly exploded in a bright yellow fireball that engulfed the Predator. Clutching the tank and directing the oxygen flow, Weyland doused the thrashing, flailing creature with blistering fire.

When Weyland heard the Predator’s pain-wracked cries echoing off the walls, he laughed like a madman. “That’s right, you son of a bitch! Burn…”

The black silhouette in the center of the conflagration screeched again. Then, still wreathed in flames, the Predator lurched forward as it unsheathed twin wrist blades. With one quick thrust the Predator plunged the long, wicked knives into Charles Weyland’s soft, unprotected belly.

Weyland died with scarcely a sigh, blood starting from his nose and mouth. Snarling, the Predator hauled the limp, bloodstained body into the inferno to be consumed. But with Weyland’s corpse came the oxygen tank, still clutched in his dead hands. Licked by the flames, the pressurized contents of the cylinder detonated like a bomb. A billowing orange blast and a bright yellow fireball surged along the stairway, scorching everything in its fiery path.

Lex and Sebastian stumbled blindly through the semidarkness, once again lost in the maze of stone corridors. The pyramid rumbled as it shifted shape yet again, shaking the dust of millennia loose to choke and blind them. Over the noise and the pounding of their boots on the stone floor, they heard Weyland’s cries, then the explosion.

“Weyland!”

“You can’t help him,” Sebastian said, dragging her along.

Lex struggled against him.

“Lex, we have to go… hurry!”

From behind came a blast of hot air—and something else. They both saw a flickering light at the far end of the corridor. Then a fiery figure hurled out of the darkness toward them—the Predator, its form sheathed in roaring flames that did not seem to harm the creature in the least.

Sebastian grabbed her arm and they both ran. They hadn’t gotten more than a few yards before Lex heard the sound of massive feet pounding through the darkness, gaining on them.

Sebastian rounded a corner and spied a stone barrier rising up from the floor directly in front of them. If it closed before they got through it, they would be trapped in the corridor with the Predator.

By the time they reached the threshold, the barrier was halfway up. Sebastian lifted Lex and practically threw her over the stone wall. Then he leaped up and caught the edge, hauling himself across the top of the door and down the other side.

Just as the opening was about to seal, one of the Predator’s throwing disks sailed through and ricocheted off the far wall in a shower of sparks.

On the opposite side of the door, the Predator turned away from the stone barrier to see a black monstrosity uncoiling from a pillar, its segmented black exoskeleton blending in perfect camouflage with the architecture.

Rearing up, the Alien prepared to strike.

But the Predator was faster. Its throwing disk streaked through the air and bit deep into the Alien’s shoulder, severing its arm. Then the metallic disk arced gracefully around and vanished into the shadows.

The Alien flailed its ravaged limb, spraying acid blood on the surrounding pillars.

The Predator slammed into the Alien, its booted foot snapping its foe’s bony chest plates. The monster howled as it was hurled to the floor, the Predator weighing it down. They battled, hand to hand, as the Alien’s lifeblood gushed from its hemorrhaging stump.