I wake up in a blank, white room. The first thing In notice is that the ceiling light's blown, but there's still light coming from somewhere. I sit up and look around. I look to my right to see myself staring into an empty Xenomorph containment cell. I then realise that I'm in my Xenos' holding cell. With the power out. And the doors leading to the cell, wide open. I'm suddenly filled with fear, running to the corner of the room and putting my back against it. It's then, that I notice the source of the light, the door leading to the corridor has been burst open. And, Shane, torn in half, through his torso. He has no intestines and has bite marks all over his body. The Xeno, Sara, has eaten him. I barely contain my vomit.
'What happened?' I think to myself. I try thinking back but the last thing I can remember is Shane hitting me in the back with the pipe he's clutching in one of his hands, and the feeling of another attack coming along. That's it.
'Did Shane beat me and then release the Xeno? No, he values his life too much.' And then it hits me, my back doesn't hurt. I walk over to the glass, keeping an eye out for any pain. Nothing. I take my lab coat off and pull off my shirt. I turn my back to the glass. Using the glass as a mirror, I inspect my back. It's mostly fine, a bit of bruising, but mostly fine. This confuses me quite a bit. My back should be in bits. And then I remember, the contingency protocols. These were protocols for whenever a breach in containment. This states that if even one Xenomorph escapes containment, then the station would drop into the gas giant that it orbits. They would be ripped to pieces by the everlasting superstorms. This is the reason that the station is split into seven different parts. That, and they're researching different 'creatures of interest'. Or, at least, were. That was years ago and if the rumors are true, they're now all working on the mystery that are the Xenos. But there's no way to confirm this since we have no way to contact them.
'Save yourself,' Says the part of my mind concerned with my survival. Agreeing, I throw on my shirt and race off down the corridor as fast as I can. The emergency shuttles are on the other side of the ship. I need to go through the 'Death maze', as we call it. It's an abandoned part of the station that was never renovated after an incident involving Xeno blood and explosive decompression. The area was pressurised and left to rot. After a few minutes, which seemed like hours, I reach the door to the Death maze. It seems that I wasn't the only one who had the idea, judging by the open door.
'Things must've gotten really had really quickly. I wasn't out of it for long.' I go through it, continuing at a jogging pace. This place wasn't name 'Death maze' for no reason. Tons of staff have gone in here. One has returned, and even he had internal hemorrhaging and a hole in his gut. He barely survived. Of course, it was all lower level staff, mostly cleaners. I carefully but quickly make my way through, keeping an eye out for a loose floor panel or an overhead light hanging by a thread. I make it the most of the way through when I hear a clatter, And then a curse. I recognise the voice: John, another one of my colleagues. I decide to keep my distance, not wanting to encounter him. I keep going and soon reach the exit. I'm about to go through when I'm suddenly jerked backwards. I see Johns' face in front of mine.
"Where's Shane?" He demands. I know if I tell him the truth, I'm done for. He was Shanes' brother. The only one he made any sort of relationship with.
"I-I don't know."
"Yes you do. Everyone knows that he was going to put the beat on you. And then this happened. So, what happened to him." Now, he was frothing at the mouth slightly, something he did when he was really angry. I'm lost for words. Then John find them, the ones I don't want him to. "You killed him."
"N-No, I didn't." But I did. It's my fault he's dead. And I know it.
"YES YOU DID! YOU KILLED MY FUCKING BROTHER!" His eyes go dead and cold. "So, I'm gonna return the favour." He was holding me by the collar but now he throws me against the wall before pulling my to the floor He then lands on me, slamming his gets into my face so hard that it's shaking the supports around us. Then, he stops, and tightens his hands around my throat. After a moment, my chest starts to struggle, cut off from the life giving air. I throw punches at him but I'm already getting weak. My asthma meant that my lung capacity is very low. I look up, black spots filling my vision, I see a bar hanging from above. I hear it groan under its' own weight. It falls. Time slows down as I watch it fall. I consider letting it go through him, but the weight of one mans' life, however bad said person was, is already on my soul. In an instant, I use all my remaining strength to pull his hands off my neck. In another, I've pushed him away. The next, all I can see is a two inch bar heading towards my gut. It goes straight through. I scream in agony. I look at John, he's looking back, dumbstruck. His face goes cold again before he turns and legs it. I lie there, waiting for death to claim me. After what seems like hours, but could only be minutes, I hear footsteps. They're light, quite light. There's only one set of feet that can make them.
"Clai-" I can't finish my call, my throat burning. "Claire," I manage to quietly rasp out. "Claire." This time, it's at my normal level of talking. The footsteps stop.
"Shaun?" I hear her call out. I try to call out again but my throat won't allow it. I bang my fist off the floor instead. I hear her steps again, quicker and getting louder. She turns a corner behind me. I hear her gasp. "SHAUN!" She runs over to me, her face now close to mine. She inspects my injury. The look on her face telling me it's not good. Not that I didn't know this already.
"Hang on." She runs off, I hope to find something to take the three foot pole out of my stomach. After a few minutes, she returns with a hacksaw. I have no idea where she found it. "Stay with me, this won't take long. She starts to cut away at the metal that's pinning me down. After she gets about halfway through, I hear a massive clang and the ground shakes, causing me intense pain.
"Saber contingency activated. Station drop in t-minus thirty minutes." I look at her face. I know she's thinking about it.
"Please don't," I plead. She looks at me, she's already made her decision.
"I'm sorry." She turns and runs. It was either free me and maybe get away, or have a near 100% chance of escape. Her conscience must be killing her.
"Claire? Claire, come back, please!" I doubt if my calls even reached her ears. That's it. I'm dead. No one else is gonna help me. I can't hold it back. I cry. I cry for a long while. I hear a noise; 'Click-clak. Click-clak.' I go silent. Chances are, Sara freed all its' brethren. Chances are, it's not Sara coming around the corner. Even in the dim light, I can still make out the Xeno. It's not her. It spots me and hisses, before slowly approaching. It goes down on all fours before inspecting my wounds. It hisses, the same way that Sara did after she scared me, before turning to face me. I can tell it's hungry. And it just found little, defenseless me. It opens its' mouth, revealing another set of dangerous teeth. I close my eyes, awaiting death. Then, I hear another sound, thumping, coming from above. I open my eyes to see that the Xenos' attention is now on a vent cover a few feet away. After a moment of silence, it falls off with a loud clang. Then, a segmented tail slithers out from it. And then a set of claws, and then a head, then torso, and finally, another set of claws. I compare the two, hoping beyond hope that it's Sara. She let me live, she must have, it's impossible that she simply didn't see me. The two Xenos stand to their full height, about seven and a half feet. They stare at each other. I feel a small pang in the back of my head, like someone is pinching my brain. After a moment it fades and at the same time, the first Xeno leaves. In the low light, I couldn't tell any difference between the two. It could be a case where it could've just asked nicely and the other Xeno let it eat me instead. The Xeno looks at me and its' head immediately snaps to the pole in my belly. It seems that it didn't notice it until just now. It rushes over to me, inspecting the wound. It looks at me and hisses softly before turning back and rips out the pole. I scream in agony. Through my pain, I watch as its' inner mouth comes it and plops something goopy onto the wound, hive resin. She then turns me around, quickly but carefully, and I feel something slowly make its' way into the other side of the hole. Its cool and I quickly lose the feeling of extreme pain in my side. Whatever it is, it has some crazy pain-killing properties. It turns me over again and lays down beside me, wrapping my tail around us.
"Sara?" I whisper. It's slightly tighter grip confirms my suspicions. It is her.
"Where is the human?" I think to myself. He is never late, this is the first time ever. I get slightly worried. He is nice to me, to all of us. He feeds us extra food, cuts out his 'colleagues' of their fun and doesn't care about the abuse. He leaves me to my devices, observing me and seeing what my reactions are to a few things every now and again. His blue eyes always filled with curiosity. Never hate or greed like all the others. Well, except the nice female. But, even she doesn't go to the lengths that my human, Shaun, does.
'When did I start thinking of him being mine?' I mentally shake away the thought of it. It isn't possible, is it? 'I mean, we are… compatible.' Then, the thoughts of joining with him fill my mind for a moment. I shove them out of my head. Just in time too as Shaun enters his looking chamber a moment later.
"Hey Sara, sorry I'm late." That's his name for me, Sara. I'm glad he chose right, I'd hate being called a male name. At least, I think it's a female one, it sounds feminine. At further inspection, I see he isn't in a good mood. This wasn't uncommon for him, since he has stated his hate for the others, bar the one he calls Claire. I think he does it because he has barely anyone else to talk to, I doubt he knows that I understand him. I also notice that a switch under the one that releases my harness is flipped too. The cameras. I didn't know all their words, in fact, I know very few, I imagine, but I listened and learnt, and still do.
'looks like someone could use a pick-me-up,' I think to myself. I stop crawling on the ceiling and stare at him, he stares back. I drop from the ceiling I'm on and slowly approach the glass. I'm against the barrier and he starts to lean in too. 'perfect.' He stops moving. In an attempt to draw him closer, I tilt my head and he resumes edging closer to his doom. His nose is touching the barrier now. I start to purr in amusement of what's to come. After a moment, I see the curiosity in his eyes grow and the ambush is ready. I screech. Loudly. And he goes flying towards the wall. I fall over, my sides splitting from laughter. I barely notice him getting up and approaching the glass again. He stares at me.
"Oh my God," He mumbled, clearly in awe. After a few moments of staring, he joins in laughing.
'Yes! It worked.' Then he winces and I'm upright and staring at him. He's hurt. He sits back down, looking at me. He then turns his head and I see bruises.
"These ones aren't from today." It clicks. Yesterday, my sister, klarek'tet, she named herself, said to us that they had her in a different room with a machine that none of us had seen before. She also said that our captors were there, bar the kind female. They were holding one of them down, making him stare at her. A second later, we all felt and heard her agony as she slipped from us. A few moments later, she was gone, a space in my mind where she was. It was him they held down. This angers me. They don't just torture our kind, but their own too. In my anger, I unintentionally growl. All of a sudden, his eyes flash with worry.
"SHIT!" I hear him shout out as he turns his head towards a strange rectangle thing poking from the corner of the wall. It usually has a blinking red light, but now it's stopped, something that's never happened before.
'So that's a camera,' I think to myself. He looks back at all the switches, most of which, I know will only cause pain. That's why there's a thin layer of dust on them. Then he looks back at me.
"So that's why you decided to show yourself." In that moment, a beep came from the door. I go back to acting normally and Shaun makes it look like he's been working the whole time. The door opens and I struggle to contain my hatred for the man standing on the other side.
"Hello. Mistake."
"What do you want Shane?"
"I've come to settle the score. No one talks to me like that." I don't look at him, knowing that if I do, I'll lose myself in rage.
"Okay Bucktooth Bill." I hear him growl slightly at the name, he clearly doesn't like it.
"That's it, you're dead. And this time, I'm not bluffing." Worried for Shaun, I turn to see Shane raising something up behind him, a pipe, aiming for Shauns' back. I hiss but there's nothing I can do as the pipe swings down onto his back. He's on the floor and I'm against the glass, trying to break through.
"With any look, the guard will take the bribe and… look the other way, for now. You're gonna get what's coming to you." He hits him again. And again. Again, this time his chest gives out in a fit of coughs. I already figured out he is sick a long time ago, something I have a talent for. And I know that this will kill him. This makes me redouble my efforts, to no avail. Even through the thick barrier, I can smell Shauns' blood, making a part of me hunger for it. Shane stops beating Shaun and looks at me. I stare back.
"Looks like this one wants to join in. Hey, wasn't this Charles' Xeno before he died. He sure liked to play with electricity, didn't he?" Shane laughs evilly. "Funnily enough, I kinda do too." I see him really down to the switches, aiming for one in particular. If they're in the same order as my original torturers' were, then he's going to shock me. For a moment, I'm filled with fear and pain as the memories flood back. I barely have time to move before that familiar whine fills the room. Time seems to slow down as I watch the arcs of electricity dance along the floor, hungry for my flesh. They reach me and I scream in agony. Through the pain, I notice Shaun pulling himself towards the switches.
'What is he doing?' I think to myself. After what seems like minutes, but can only be moments, The lights go, not hindering me in the slightest, for obvious reasons, and the doors to my prison unlock. Then, dead silence. I hear my prey gasp in fear and I watch as he runs to the door. It's locked. I walk over to the doors and start pulling them open, one by one. It takes some effort since these doors are designed to keep me in here, but with the power gone, it's only a matter of time. I pull open the last door, revealing my prey, a few feet in front of me. I can hear his shaky breaths and can practically smell his fear. I stalk my way towards him. I can smell blood, Shauns', but that's been pushed to the back of my mind. There's only one thought, repeating itself in my head; make him pay. I reach him, he's whimpering slightly now. I find it amusing that a person so unwavering by a creature when it's behind a barrier I can't break through. But when that barrier is removed, he cowers in fear. I bring my hand towards his face, he pulls back. I huff at him before grabbing him by the waist with both hands. He cries out in fear. I dig my claws into his flesh, making his cries rise a note or two. I can smell a faint trace of blood in my nostrils, it pleases me. I pull, he rips in half and I drop him to the floor. It's strange seeing the thing I wanted most in the world come true, but for it to be… unsatisfactory. I knew what needed to be done. They all need to pay.
"Good riddance," I hear and I snap out of my bloodlust. I had completely forgotten about Shaun. I let out a soft hiss when I turn to see him. He's weak, very weak. I quickly make my way over to him. Supporting his head, I feel his chest, being careful not to cause any more harm. I can feel it wavering with each breath. He doesn't have long. I realise what I have to do to keep him alive, but I hesitate.
'What if it does more harm,' one half of my mind says.
'It's either you don't do this and he will die, or you do and he might. You're choice,' Says the other. I make my decision. My hand leaves his chest and goes to his lips. Then in between them. I gently pull his mouth open, he obliges. Not that he could resist if he wanted to. As I bring my face closer to his, a memory appears in my mind. It's of a conversation Shaun had with the nice female, Claire. In it, they mention kissing. I figured out that it's something that people do as a sign of great affection. At the thought, my mind does backflips. I'm brought back to reality by his breath on my face. I put my lips to his, savouring the moment. I gingerly stretch out my inner mouth until it reaches a fair way down his throat. Thinking back to ancient memories, passed on to me by my blood, I release the life giving substance into his throat. He swallows it and his breaths immediately sound better. With a pleased with, I pull my mouth away from his and lie down beside him, wrapping my tail around us both. No doubt, the others know what I did and who knows what they will think.
'Speaking of which, I need to let them out,' I think while listening to the breathing of my human. 'They can wait, I have time.' With that, I let my mind rest.