Кристофер Голден - The Predator - The Official Movie Novelization

“Dad?” Rory said.

He glanced down, satisfied himself that Rory was running alongside him. Casey had put the kid down. She’d shot at the creatures herself, had carried Rory, helped to save his life. She might be a scientist, but she had proven to be just as formidable as he’d suspected from the moment he’d seen her chasing the Predator.

“You’re okay, kid,” Casey said now, speaking up when McKenna failed to.

“I’ve got you, Rory,” he added belatedly.

“What are they?” Rory asked, as they all crowded through the broken fence and raced toward the RV.

McKenna began to answer, but then he heard Lynch start in on a string of terrified profanities. The Loonies all pulled up short, bringing their weapons to bear. McKenna looked up to see the Predator itself, standing on top of the RV, waiting for them.

Casey said McKenna’s name, very quietly.

Rory took a step backward.

McKenna took aim. But the Predator was all business. It fired a single shot that obliterated a lamppost at the edge of the ball field, purely to show them all what it could do to them if it chose to. The lamppost melted and exploded, all at the same time. Whatever the weapon was, nobody wanted it aimed at them.

The Predator signaled to them, gesturing for them all to lower their weapons. Several of the men glanced at McKenna, ready to follow his lead. If he started shooting, or gave the order, they would open fire. They had seen what the Predator’s weaponry could do, but they had all had their chance to opt out of this fight and instead they had committed themselves to combat. None of these men were backing out now.

McKenna opened his mouth to issue an order—

Rory bolted for the school, the only shelter nearby.

“Kid, go!” Casey called, urging him on.

McKenna followed on his son’s heels. He felt the target on his back. If the Predator wanted him dead it would take only one shot, right now, and he’d be just as much wreckage as that lamppost. He wanted to scream to Rory to run a serpentine pattern, but the school was just ahead, and he knew that as long as he could keep himself between the Predator and his son, Rory would have a head start. The Loonies would buy them even more time. The only thing that mattered in that moment was his boy.

He glanced back and saw the Predator leap down from atop the RV. The Loonies moved in. McKenna spared a moment to hope they weren’t all about to die—then he faced front again.

The lobby doors were locked. McKenna kicked them open and he and Rory barreled into the empty building, footfalls echoing across the vacant lobby. Both of them were breathless, wordless. No words were necessary. McKenna knew he wasn’t as smart as his son, but he also knew they were both working overtime trying to figure out how to survive this.

Rory kept running. McKenna needed to slow him down, to keep the boy with him—protected. He reached for Rory but the kid squirted further ahead, running for the stairs. Going up seemed like a terrible idea—once they were upstairs, they’d have to find a way down that didn’t involve jumping—but Rory had nearly reached the steps and McKenna had no way to stop him.

“Wait,” McKenna gasped. “Rory—”

The lobby doors exploded inward. The blast nearly lifted McKenna off his feet. A cloud of shattered wood blew across the floor. Glancing back through the massive hole in the entryway, McKenna could see the Loonies rolling on the pavement, clutching at their ears, deafened by the blast.

In through the swirling cloud of debris stalked the Predator, its silhouette flashing McKenna back to the jungle. Yet again he cursed himself for not killing the alien when he’d had the chance.

Rory had headed up the stairs. McKenna followed at top speed, using the settling cloud of debris to buy him precious seconds, even whilst knowing that those seconds wouldn’t be nearly enough.

McKenna chased Rory out of the stairwell and into a long hallway. Rory’s sneakers slapped the linoleum. McKenna just needed him to slow down a moment, but damn, the kid was fast.

“Son, come on!” McKenna snapped.

Rory glanced over his shoulder and, at last, pulled up short. McKenna had more to say, but Rory’s dreamlike expression startled him to silence. The kid wasn’t even looking at him, just staring… past him.

A throaty clicking sound came from behind him. McKenna turned to look down the corridor, marveling that the Predator could be that fast, that it had already caught up to them. But no, it wasn’t the Predator. This sound was different. It came from outside the line of high windows set into the outer wall. Turning, McKenna spotted a massive silhouette out there in the dark and he stiffened, his mind trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

Ice flowed along his spine and he reached out a hand, instinctively trying to put Rory behind him. He had no words left for this new thing. It was a Predator, yes, but the monster framed in the window had to be some kind of next-gen bullshit, because this creature stood at least eleven feet tall.

McKenna didn’t have to say a word. As one, he and Rory began to back away from the windows. Together, they twisted around to flee for the next turn in the corridor, and found the Predator waiting for them. The one from downstairs. The original, the bastard from the jungle, who now wore a borrowed helmet and wanted his original gear back.

Rory practically plowed into the Predator. It swatted him aside and the kid went sliding along the smooth floor. Something skittered out of Rory’s hand, a long black gizmo that McKenna thought looked like a video game controller or a big TV remote. He only got a glimpse of the thing before the Predator shot out a hand and grabbed the chest of his jacket. McKenna threw a punch at its body, and realized his mistake when his fist smashed against armor.

The Predator slammed him against the wall, so damn strong it could have killed him with very little effort. Instead, it cocked its head and seemed to scan him—and McKenna realized that was precisely what the alien was doing. The tech in the helmet must have been searching him for something that it didn’t find. Still holding him against the wall, the Predator turned and fixed its gaze on Rory.

No , McKenna thought.

The Predator’s head twitched, its focus no longer on Rory but on the black gizmo on the floor. It was clear that whatever that thing was, the alien wanted it.

Just take it, McKenna tried to mumble. Just take it and go.

Maybe, if he’d been able to get the words out clearly, the Predator would simply have done as he asked. But then McKenna heard the clicking noise outside the window again. He started to glance that way, and was aware that the Predator was also whipping its head round, alarmed by the sound—but too late. Abruptly the wall erupted, plaster debris flying everywhere, and an impossibly large arm smashed through the hole and reached for the Predator.

Stunned, McKenna dropped to the floor as the Predator let him go and raised its weapon. But before it could fire, the massive arm shot forward and the huge hand on the end of it tore the cannon-like gun from the Predator’s hand and crushed it as if it were cheap tin. Dropping the weapon, the massive arm of the Upgrade Predator swung and swatted the original Predator effortlessly aside. As the Upgrade Predator hauled itself through the hole it had made, and the original Predator scrambled to its feet and rushed forward to confront it, McKenna took his chance and jumped up. Turning away from the Predators, he ran back along the corridor, toward the stairs, scooping up a still-dazed Rory as the howl and clash of the fighting aliens resounded behind him. His only hope was that the creatures would keep one another occupied long enough for him to get his son to safety.