The moment Devon stepped out of the orphanage and into the streets with the beginnings of dawn staining the sky bright red, he started mentally kicking himself. He couldn't believe what he had just done, leaving Ali was probably the worst mistake of his life. Survival on the surface world was difficult and challenging. Sure, he had lived on his own when he had been banished, but even then he had struggled from day to day. The world around him was brown and barren.

"I'm such an idiot!" he murmured to himself.

He knew it was foolish to fight with Ali, especially since her tempter wasn't to be trifled with. However, it seemed that lately she was always finding faults with everything he did and intentionally looking for ways to fight. Unfortunately, the fights were leaving him confused and conflicted; if Ali really did care about him, why was she always treating him this way? He desperately wanted to turn around and reenter the Hive, but he knew Ali would never let him live it down. So, squaring his shoulders and readjusting the girl in his arms, he picked a direction and started walking.

He wandered aimlessly for what seemed like hours with no real destination in mind. The second stage had fallen off and died shortly after he had started walking, but the girl had yet to regain consciousness. Devon had already made the decision to come to a stop whenever the girl finally woke up. A soft groan caused him to look down. The girl's eyes were fluttering as she started regaining consciousness.

"Hey," Devon said softly, so as to not startle her.

The girl opened her eyes and looked around for a few seconds, blinking rapidly before realization hit her. She started screaming and kicking and Devon had to struggle to maintain a grip on her.

"Whoa, calm down," he said, but the girl was in too much a panic to listen.

Devon cursed as the girl landed a punch in his throat, causing him to drop her. She took off the second her feet hit the ground, leaving Devon coughing and trying to catch his breath. She didn't get far before he recovered enough to give chase. She screamed when he easily caught up with her and latched onto her arm. She tried to lash out with her free hand, but Devon quickly restrained that one as well.

"Let me go!" she screamed hysterically.

"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you," Devon said.

The girl started screaming at the top of her lungs, as if hoping someone would hear her and come to her rescue, but there was no one above ground, no one would hear her cries. Her scream became a choked gasp and she started to stagger. Devon released her and she immediately clutched her chest, falling to her knees, as she continued to choke and gasp.

"What did you do to me?" she asked in a hoarse whisper when the chocking subsided.

Devon hesitated. "You were impregnated by a second stage, or facehugger, as I've heard your kind mention them."

"Facehuggers," the girl said, as if she had to hear the word for herself.

"They're part of the reason you exist underground."

"I know the stories, we all do. Our parents tell them as bed time stories, meant to frighten us into staying away from the city limits. But they were just stories, right?"

The girl looked up at Devon and he found himself staring into a wide pair of startling green eyes. Unfortunately, their beauty was marred by the stifling fear and he couldn't help but feel sorry for her. A hand was on her chest, as if she was greatly pained there, and she looked at Devon pleadingly, as if begging him to tell her she was wrong.

"I'm sorry."

The girl lowered her gaze downward and her hands fell limply to her sides. Devon stood over her, watching her for several seconds, unsure exactly what to do. Finally, he sighed and bent down, gently easing the girl to her feet. She didn't protest, all the life seemed to have left her body, and she allowed Devon to escort her to one of the less rundown buildings.

Upon entering the building Devon was able to put together that it had been a convenience store of some kind. There were rows of empty shelving and several freezers along the wall. A thick coating of dust covered the shelves and countertops while a layer of dirt covered the floor.

"What's your name?" Devon asked after he had sat the girl down on a rusty looking chair sitting behind the checkout counter.

"Suzie," the girl answered, not seeming to care about the condition of the chair.

"I'm Devon," Devon replied.

Suzie looked up and Devon once again found himself staring into those green eyes. "I'm scared," she whispered.

Devon didn't want to scare her, but he thought it was better to warn her about her fate. "How much do they tell you in the stories?"

"They say that there are monsters who live on the surface world and that their young grow inside of us. They warn us that if we have a baby monster inside of us that we will eventually die."

"Yeah, that's pretty much it. I don't want to scare you, but I you need to know exactly what's going to happen. In a couple of hours, maybe less, the baby monster is going to start eating its way out of your chest. It's going to be very painful as it breaks through your ribcage. And then you are going to die."

Suzie's eyes got wider, if it was even possible, and tears started falling down her face. "What did I do?"

"What?" Devon asked, surprised by the question.

"Did I do something wrong? Why was I targeted like this?"

"It's not your fault," Devon said, "You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ali takes particular care to pick her victims a certain way. She likes to play with them before killing them so she looks for the ones she thinks will scream and beg for their life. It makes it fun for her."

The tears stopped and Suzie's mouth formed a hard line. "She was the one who started chasing me."

"Yeah," Devon agreed.

"And you were the one who caught me."

"For the record, I never like hunting with her, I know what happens to the people we catch and she takes her time when leading them toward me, she likes to make me wait," Devon said, "In reality, she tortures me as much as she does her victims."

Suzie suddenly sat straight up. "Then I'm not going to give her the satisfaction," she said in a steady voice, "When you go back to her, you can tell her that I didn't scream and that I didn't cry when I died. See how she likes that!"

Devon had to admit, he was impressed by Suzie's courage, but he doubted that she would be feeling that way when the third stage began punching at her ribcage. He had been watching people die for many years now. He had seen what would happen when Ali began verbally torturing them; they would insist that they would never give her the satisfaction and that they would die silently just to spite her. But in all the times Devon had witnessed people dying, only two made it through without screaming. As much as he respected Suzie's strength, he knew what would eventually happen.

But, "I'll tell her," was all he could say.