"Another way to be prepared is to think negatively. Yes, I'm a great optimist. But, when trying to make a decision, I often think of the worst case scenario. I call it 'the eaten by wolves factor.' If I do something, what's the most terrible thing that could happen? Would I be eaten by wolves? One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist, is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose. There are a lot of things I don't worry about, because I have a plan in place if they do."
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
December 11th, 2137, Project KG-348 Lobby, Lorenz SysTech spire.
Amanda Ripley left the elevator and came in the Lobby area of Project KG-348. A well-lit area with a series of windows. She came here by Wait's instruction after the trap in the Server farm has failed.
"It wasn't my fault" Thought Ripley "I wasn't supposed to get trapped inside with the alien."
She had escaped thanks to Ricardo and now Waits had directed there for another of his insane plans. Ripley was angry indeed, but she can understand the Marshal's desperation, she wanted the creature dead for sure, just she didn't wanted getting killed in the intent.
The light of the star filtered through the windows, and in one of the sofas facing the exterior, a woman was seated, face downwards and hands finger crossed in a prayer position.
-"Hey, the creature is nearby. You need to get out of here." Amanda said.
The woman didn't responded. Ripley lowered the flamethrower and approached the woman.
-"C'mon. Go to the Marshals Bureau." Ripley begged. She had the white uniform of a medical office: a nurse, she noticed the name tag in the Woman's overalls "You'll be safe there, Winters."
But Winters seemed almost catatonic, with her gaze fixed on the windows and the star beyond. Ripley hadn't much time, she had to guide the creature to the labs and dispose it for good. Once the creature was dead, she'll return for Winters.
- o -
December 7th, 2137. Earth Central Time, Tech Support offices in Lorenz SysTech spire.
-"Hurry up! I want this place locked ASAP. Bring those provisions!" A man shouted to the group of men and woman working on the security shutters. "
-"We're doing as fast as we can, Thompson." Emily Winters replied. "Rosco and Emma are at the Bacchus apartments' kitchen. Gathering whatever Sinclair left there"
-"Don't mention that bastard again. He and his goons left us here." Thompson shouted.
Since the spaceflight terminal altercation, Seegson security personnel deserted, they took all the weapons in the Marshal office at the Lorenz Systech spire, rallied up his people –families included- and took the transit cars to the Solomons habitation tower. Threatening anyone who tried to stop them or joining them. Those left in the spire, mostly the personnel at the labs and the private wards who doesn't belong to Sinclair's group have bunkered in Tech support, an area with a narrow security system. Thompson hoped the lockdown procedures were enough to stop the creature that lurked on the vents.
After five days, the group's determination started to fail, every day the scouts had to get farther and farther from the refuge in order to find food, water or meds. Inside the Server farm, the most secure room in the area, there were no bathrooms and although the room had to stay cool because of the computers, the food start to decompose. The odor inside the shelter was becoming unbearable because they have sealed even the vents.
A shutter opened and Rosco and Emma entered carrying some food packages, another man, Doug, closed them again once they were inside. Emily helped them.
-"This is not enough, maybe for a couple days." Emily said, after seeing the packages.
-"It's all we could gather. Next time, you'll go out there." Emma protested.
-"I don't know if sealing us here is the best idea. We're trapping ourselves, even if the creature does not manage to enter, the rotten food or disease caused by the waste will kill us." Emily explained. She was a nurse in the private wards.
-"Well, we're running out of options." Rosco intervened.
-"We could go to the mall. There are people there; also Marshal Waits and his men have weapons." Emily explained.
-"Marshal Waits, Ha! He's the only culprit the situation in which we are." Emma said.
-"What about APOLLO? The androids are killing people in certain areas; we can't lift the comms lockdown." Winters continued.
-"Hughes have disappeared, he's the one who have access to Communications, I think he is on Sinclair's group." Bertram, a computer technician told her.
-"All right, the place is sealed. Get some rest guys, and good job. First shift is mine." Thompson announced. "Oh, and please, any idea on what we do with the stench?"
-"We could dump the shit and waste on the room downstairs, and seal the door." Winters opined.
-"Good, take a couple of volunteers. The rest of you, take care of your families." Thompson agreed. He headed for the nearest terminal and wrote a report, informing the rest of the group.
-"To the camp group: We can't keep up a full guard 24/7, but with the volunteer look-outs and the Spire's existing security systems we can keep it watertight. From this point onward, we don't raise the security shutters for anyone and all supply runs have to go through me. We can get through this, guys. Thompson."
Bertram, along with Carter and Lincoln carried bags and trash buckets downstairs. Lincoln opened the door and the stench penetrated the men's nostrils. There was the last of the trash accumulated to the day, rotten food, stained clothes, dirty diapers.
-"Jesus, I'm gonna puke" Bertram said, covering his mouth and nose.
-"Almost finished." Lincoln said, then he closed the door and they piled up some boxes and a lift outside. "Just one more thing"
Carter pulled a large black bag, a body bag. Someone had died the day before and they didn't the body being thrown into the garbage. They brought the body here but put him outside the improvised dumpster.
-"That's it; let's get back to the camp and rest, our shift starts in two hours" Bertram said, after that, he wrote a log's entry.
-"Don't know how much longer I can take this. It's cramped and dirty and the trash is starting to rot. I don't even know if we're really safe here. Carter and Thompson came back from their recons last week with a couple of guns, and I'm starting to see a different side to some of the people here. Maybe that woman, Winters, was right."
- o -
Later that day, Emily Winters crossed the door and Thompson closed behind her. It was her turn to scout for food in the lobby's cafeteria; she really doubted there was anything left there. Maybe if she ventured beyond the lobby into the other areas, but it was a risk due to the increasing hysteria and hostility of the other inhabitants.
She turned on the motion tracker and checked for any contact. None, they have found four of these trackers and now two were used for scouts out, while the other two were at the camp for patrol purposes. Thompson had hoped two trackers plus the surveillance system were enough to detect the creature or any hostile Joe sneaking on the camp.
-"It has to be something useful here." Emily said quietly for herself as she checked some of the plastic wrapped crates at the cafeteria, one was labeled with the main supplier –"Bingo"
The crate contained some canned food and some cans of the Aspen beer, a brand manufactured by Weyland-Yutani, popular among crews. It was warm but she bet none of the campers will bitch about it. A beep sound in the tracker, Emily checked the green screen.
Beep, beep, beep
Something approached; Emily watched the little screen and saw some points. "More looters?" she though, then he grabbed the provisions and hide inside a locker. She expected to see four or five of Sinclair's men walking around with shotguns, but after a few seconds she heard pounding sounds coming through the vents.
-"It's here" she exclaimed. The white points in the tracker were heading straight to the camp, Emily saw five of these points and thought the tracker was malfunction or the station's walls interfered with the signal. She hit the device with her hand, the signal stabilized for a moment and then it showed five points again.
-"Battery must be low" She sighted "I have to warn them, but how?" She opened the locker, slipped out and then, she tracked the signal until it disappeared and hoping the creature moved away from the camp.
Speaking of batteries, she realized they'll gonna need them too, not only for the trackers, but for flashlights and access tuners. She remembered there was a storage room somewhere down the lobby and she headed there.
The place was dark, almost pitch black, something Winters didn't like it, the creature could be there, two meters away and she couldn't see it until it was over her. She gripped the motion tracker firmly and also, turned off the volume, making sure the noise beeping didn't give her away. Inside the storage room she found what she was looking for, and more: Batteries, a spare access tuner, a cell, some cables and sensors.
All useful but she needed food and meds, the tracker showed two more contacts, she hid below a table. Soon, two figures appeared at the door. Winters saw a woman and a man carrying a pistol and a motion tracker.
-"Are you sure the tuners are here, Cameron?" the woman asked.
-"Yes, there has to be one down here, if it wasn't looted yet Julia." Cameron responded "Lindgard need it to access the hospital."
-"Then we need to hurry." Julia said, as she searched inside plastic boxes.
Winters didn't know if they were hostiles, they didn't seem like one of Sinclair's group. But she wasn't sure if they will shoot at her, but as they were searching, there was only a matter of time before they found her and with no weapon and cornered, she had no options. She risked and made a noise.
-"Who's there?" Cameron turned towards the noise, pointing the gun.
-"Don't shoot. It's just me, Emily Winters." Winters said, raising a hand behind the desk.
-"Come out, slowly Winters." Cameron said. "We don't want to hurt you."
-"I'm unarmed, but please, lower your voice, the creature are near." Emily told them as she rose, palms opened to show them she was unarmed.
-"What are you doing down here?"
-"Looking for food, and some batteries. Maybe we can trade" Emily offered. "I have one access tuner, It's what you are looking for, isn't?"
-"Yes, We need meds, but the hospital is locked and we need the access tuner for it." Cameron said. "We have some supplies at a stash, and I'm looking for pieces for something I've been working on"
-"What is it?" Emily asked.
-"I call it a noise maker. It's basically a speaker with a power source designed to make a pitching noise enough to attract and distract the Joe's blocking paths." Cameron explained, and shown Winters the blueprint.
-"Okey, we have parts for that here but what we really need is food and some meds. We had a deal or not?" Winters said.
-"Deal, but you have to come with us" Julia intervened "Let's get back to the transit station."
The three took the necessary supplies and headed for the station, past the lobby. It took a few minutes for them to call a tram and then to reach the other end of the line, just outside the Galleria. Winters was not sure if trust them fully, but the woman, the reported had told her they were part of Lindgard's camp, but had a hidden stash in the galleria as a backup.
-"Here, take this" Cameron said, as he thrown it some protein bars to Winters, "There's a lot of these bars here, we can spare some"
-"Thanks" She put the bars in her pocket.
-"Got it, I finished the noise maker."
He held the device composed of two speakers connected to a battery pack and a sensor, with an old interrupter and two led lights. Cameron explained how that worked, by turning on the interrupter, the speakers will would produce a static noise that expected to attract the attention of the androids, enough to sneak out without being seen.
-"Did you think it's gonna work?" Winters asked.
-"There's only one way to find out. We need to test it." Cameron said.
They opened a vent and crawled right to the maintenance corridor. The opening was closed and Cameron pulled the handle, the heavy metal panel creaked by the lack of lubrication. A Working Joe was checking the gas valves, it turned towards the vent by the noise.
-"What was that sound?" It said and after it saw the opened panel "Hello? Who's there?"
Cameron activated the noisemaker and threw it to the other side of the corridor, a sharp sound surged from the device, which immediately attracted the Joe's attention.
-"Strange" The Joe said.
-"See, I told you this-" Cameron didn't finish the sentence as a noise came from the ventilation above, the grate fell and between dust and water vapor, a huge black monstrous creature descended, it rose from the floor and walked towards the device, growling.
-"What are you?" the Joe continued, asking the creature.
Cameron paralyzed, inside the vent, Julia and Emily asked what was happening but Cameron put a finger on his mouth, telling them to shut up. He slowly pulled the metal panel, in order to close the vent, but the squeaking attracted the monster's attention.
-"Go, go, go!" Cameron said as he closed the vent just in time.
The vent and the panel trembled due to the creature's blows. They left the vent and ran after they closed the other end's access. Before getting into their hiding place, Cameron threw a flare into another ventilation duct at the other side of the gallery, with the intention of misleading the beast. This worked as the creature descended in the Galleria and past the hideout running, got into the ventilation shaft and disappeared. The trio was frightened, Julia specially was trembling; so, this was the monster that was responsible for the disappearances?
-"How much longer do you think it takes for someone to come to rescue us?" Julia asked.
-"Dunno, The shuttles had to get back after they deliver the psychiatric patients, right? That was almost a month ago." Winters told the woman "It'll take another fucking month to them to get back!"
-"Another month! We won't last another week!" the reporter suddenly burst "The androids are chasing us and nothing to say about that creature picking us one by one"
-"Calm down, Julia" Cameron tried to calm Julia "We'll come out of this, you'll see."
-"Calm? How can I be calm! I don't want to die, I came here only because my editor thought this fucking place was boring and I needed a vacation-" She cried.
-"Hey, hey, we're not dead yet, ok? You need to be calm. What are you writing about here?" As a nurse, Winters had worked on the psychiatric ward of San Cristobal, dealing with these kind of situations. Men and women suddenly falling into hysteria due to isolation, she pulled an Aspen beer from the bag and offered it to Julia.
-"I was writing about the decommissioning and its effects. But I always wanted to write novels, Tom Bradford, my editor, had told me I can´t because I'm too detached from people, not good for character development. That detachment is only useful in news reporter, because it give you an impartial point of view." Julia explained, while drinking the warm beer.
-"Maybe you should write." Emily suggested, "Not an article but what's happening here, so when we get out of here, people will know what happened."
-"Actually, that- that's a good idea." Julia agreed, she pulled out her tape recorder and started.
-"I don't know when anyone will get this, but someone needs to keep a record and I don't know... I came here a few months ago to write about the collapse of a dream, a future gone sour. For me, the people here were little more than footnotes for my article: Something to tug at the heartstrings. And when the disappearances started, oh, I was thrilled. This was something big. But now people are afraid and a communications fault means we're alone. I'm trapped here, just like everybody else. Another footnote. Another victim."
-"You're ok now, Julia?" Cameron said "We have to get back to the camp."
-"I'm ok, let's go." She agreed, but she was still trembling.
-"I'll get back to the Lorenz Systech spire. People need the food, good luck you two." Winters grabbed her bag and headed for the exit.
Emily headed back to the transit station while Julia and Cameron took an elevator up to the Apartments.
- o -