Miss Grasshopper - Chapter Four

Sue wasn't sure how it happened, but some primal part of her acted before her thinking mind caught up. She grabbed Melanie, and pushed her back. Then, with a lack of squeamishness that caught her by surprise a moment later, she wrapped a hand around the squirming alien lodged in the nook of Melanie's neck and ripped it out.

Blood spurted out, and Melanie let out a sigh as she stumbled back and down.

Sue was left with an alien in her hand. It flapped a long, skin-covered wing, and its toothy beak opened up as it tried to take a bite out of her.

She brought her arm back, then spiked the alien down onto the floor. It crashed there, then spun itself around in a flurry of wings and dangerously clawed little legs.

Her handgun came up, and she fired into it until the gun clicked empty.

"Sue?" Melanie said. "It's, it's okay," she said.

Sue was hyperventilating, she realized. They'd had some courses on identifying panic attacks in students, and she couldn't help but notice that a lot of those same things were happening with her at the moment. She closed her eyes, for just a moment, and recentred herself.

There was no noise from aliens rushing over. They were safe. For the moment.

Sue opened her eyes, and looked down towards Melanie. "Are you oka--" The words choked in her throat.

Melanie was laying in a pool of her own blood. She had a hand pressing down over her neck. Skin was flayed, and Sue felt her stomach churn violently at the sight.

"Oh my god," she said as she fell onto her knees next to Melanie. "No, no, we can fix this," she said.

Melanie shook her head. "I don't... I don't think this is something a band-aid or a kiss can fix." She smiled.

Sue blinked quick, hands hovering uselessly. "I, give me a moment!" she begged.

Her augs connected to an emergency line. A robotic voice immediately told her that the service was past its maximum capacity, and that she wouldn't be given a free credit to reimburse the cost of the call.

Sue hung up, then refocused. Melanie had reached out and was holding her hand. Hers were cool, but strong, a grip that demanded attention, but wasn't so hard that it hurt. "Sue, it's okay," Melanie said.

"No. No it's not!" Sue said.

Melanie shifted, then removed her hand from her neck and shoulder. There was a spurt of blood, and Melanie blinked dumbly for a moment before reaching for... for her gun. She pushed it towards Sue. "You're going to need this. To stay safe," she said.

"Melanie, please!" Sue said.

Melanie smiled again. Her breathing seemed a little short, and Sue noticed her eyes failing to focus. "I always thought I'd pass on like my mom. This might be better, I guess. Do you know what she told me?"

"No?" Sue asked. Her own eyes were teary.

"Be a good grasshopper. It's important to... to..." Melanie frowned for a moment, and her entire body seemed to relax. Then she blinked and for a moment, focused her entire attention on Sue. She smiled.

Sue sat there, staring. It took a minute before she started to cry. It hurt, her chest was a hole. She grit her teeth, her mouth almost a smile as she sucked in air and let it out as gasping sobs.

Then noise. The tinkling of glass, the swish of something moving. Sniffing from down the corridor and down the stairwell leading up to this floor.

Sue took in a deep breath, then swiped a hand past her nose. She paused, then fished out a tissue from a pocket. It was a trick she'd picked up from Melanie. There was never a moment where a good teacher didn't need a tissue for something.

She stood, feeling as if she hadn't slept in a week. Her eyes refused to look down. The smile was still there, because not even death would rob that from Melanie, but the sight of it was a twist of Sue's heart that she couldn't afford.

Sue started walking.

Walking was good. It meant movement, it wasn't hard on the knees. She sniffed, and tried not to think about Melanie.

Not until the first alien popped its head out from the stairwell before her.

She screamed, but it wasn't fear. It was something a lot worse.

Sue brought the gun up and fired. She knew how to aim, even if she had little practice. The first three trigger squeezes ended with three rounds punched into the head of the first alien. The next to blasted holes into the next.

Sue didn't wait for the aliens to charge. She charged them. She was still screaming.

The aliens didn't retreat, but they did die, even as she stumbled after them down the stairwell and down the first flight of stairs.

The gun clicked empty, and she scrambled for a moment before changing magazines. The sudden shift in momentum almost cost her as one of those dog-models leapt towards her and swiped for her head. She stumbled back, kicking it in the chest before she found her handgun and emptied it into the monster's chest.

Sue was left sitting there, in a pool of alien blood, halfway down a staircase, panting, empty gun in hand and empty rifle on the floor.

The surge of manic energy left her like a balloon popping, and she suddenly found herself crying again. Silently, but persistent. The violence hadn't plugged the hole, just smoothed it over for a moment. Now it was back, and just as raw.

System Initialized!

Sue felt her breath catch again.

I'm... sorry. My name is Bybyt. Congratulations. Through your actions you have proven yourself worthy of becoming one of the Vanguard, a defender of humanity. Let's work together to make sure that what happened today doesn't happen again.

Rise, Suezette--

"Grasshopper," she interrupted. "Sorry, I mean. Call me Grasshopper."

She smiled.

***