Running through the locker room, Matt slid across the tiled floor before getting the idea to hide Alysia in a locker.
At least until he can figure out how to lure the Drekker away from her.
He opened a locker and told Alysia to hop in and not make a noise. Alysia protested, but Matt warned her that she'll be safer in the locker, and that he needed to get the Drekker away from her.
"What if you don't come back?" Alysia tugged on his arm.
Matt comforted her as he said, "Trust me, I'm the Doctor. Now, get in!"
Alysia pushed herself inside the locker, pulling in her medical robe as Matt closed the locker door. He told her to wait for him. When the coast is clear, he'll retrieve her and flee to Hallway A where the nurses should still be there. For now, she wait for him and not make a sound.
Nodding, Alysia watched as Matt closed the door and hurried away from it.
Muttering under his breath, Matt tried thinking.
He couldn't use the poppers Ripley gave him on the account that it'll scare Alysia and he didn't want her to react to the sound of the poppers going off.
"Think, think, think," Matt muttered under his breath as he approached the doors to the pool and peeked through one of the oval windows.
There's something kneeling near the pool and Matt saw the black wide hands scooping water as the Drekker washed itself with the pool water. The illuminated pool started turning a blackish colour as the Drekker washed it's hands and arms. It didn't seem to pay any attention to what's going on around it.
Judging it's size, which was hard on the account it's sitting down, Matt guessed that this one's a little one, and it seemed lax about sitting near the poolside, washing itself.
Matt saw the blackened feet, heavily calloused, elongated clawed toes, like a bird's as they shimmered in the murky light, as the Drekker washed it's feet.
The Drekker stuck it's beak into the water, Matt could see the eyes.
They looked… human… if there was a term to describe the sight.
Out of everything that happened to cause the Drekker to morph into a tarry fiend, it's eyes remained the last human bit it'll ever have.
Dripping down it's long black beak, a mix of grim, black, and blood.
The mixture in the water produced a foul odor, enough to make Matt gag as he held a hand over his mouth.
He watched the Drekker casually wash itself in the pool, pouring water down it's unusually sculpted wide-brimmed hat attached to it's head, made from the excess hair.
Drekker did it to shield their eyes when they're forced out in the open with lights. Ripley never knew how or why they did it.
The Drekker turned it's head slightly and Matt ducked enough to still see and saw it's eyes proper.
If one didn't think of it, it'd look like the Drekker's a person wearing a heavy costume.
Its unnerved Matt as he saw the face of the Drekker in the murky light, the black skin, calloused around the boney beak that used to be the upper and lower jaw of a human.
Neither Matt nor Ripley didn't know why Drekker evolved (or mutated) this way, considering the Sabbek didn't.
The Drekker opened it's mouth and Matt saw several tiny pointed black teeth along the inner beak. A black slithering tongue came out of the beak and slithered around the beak, wiping off the excess water.
"Dre… Dre…. Keee… keeee… eeeeeeerrrrr," the Drekker chirped.
Matt watched as the chirp summoned another small Drekker as it entered the pool area, dragging something from behind.
"Dre-Dre… ke… ke… eeeeer?" the Drekker chirped as it approached with a body.
Knelt by the water, the Drekker chirped, "Dre… Dre… ker…. Keeeeeeer!"
They were talking.
They were talking!
Matt held his breath as he saw the two Drekker chirping at each other, even despite whatever happened to them, they had their form of communications.
Dark green eyes narrowed on something slumped on the ground and Matt became nauseated at the sight of Dr. Walsh.
It appeared he didn't get far and the Drekker that killed him dragged him back to the hospital where it proceeded to tear into his back.
The beak shimmered in the murky light as it effortlessly cut incisions into Dr. Wash's back and the Drekker used one of it's feet to hold his body in place as a pool of red pushed through the incisions.
The grisly sight's enough to make Matt nearly regurgitate his lunch and felt the vomit pooling in the back of his throat as he tried to force it down his esophagus.
"Hrng," Matt tried to stifle his body's attempt at expelling the vomit against his wishes. He ducked away and found a rubbish bin where he allowed the contents of his stomach to release into the refuse collected at the bottom of the bin.
"Mmm… ugh," Matt's disgusted by the tase as he tried to hold back any more from coming up.
Wiping down his mouth with the sleeve of his tweed jacket, he hobbled around and froze in place as he spotted a black arm as the doors into the locker room opened.
Panicking, Matt tried to think on his feet.
Rosemary kept them away, but he didn't have anymore, and he couldn't use the poppers without scaring Alysia, so he decided to try his luck with pool cleaners.
Rushing towards the closet, Matt rattled the lock, but it wouldn't open, and quickly used his Sonic Screwdriver to unlock it and hurried in.
The chlorine smell's enough to knock Matt out as he covered his mouth with his hands as he proceeded to hid near the boxes of chlorine tablets for the pool.
Thud… thud… thud…
Thud… thud… thud…
Matt felt the vibrations coming from the two Drekker as they came into the locker room. He knew they weren't going towards Alysia because they sounded closer to him.
He hopped Alysia kept quiet and didn't move a muscle and nearly leapt when he heard the thudding nosies coming towards the closet.
Hunkering low to the ground, Matt covered his mouth as he tried to push himself behind the boxes.
Chlorine, under no circumstances, was the same as rosemary, but Matt's desperate as it is, and he had to think of something without risking Alysia.
"Dre… Dre…. Dreeeeeeeeeeeeeeee," he heard the muffled low voice of one of the Drekker and the doorknob to the closet jiggling. "Keeeeeeeeeeee… eeeeeeeeeeeerrrrr…"
The closet door opening, Matt lowered his head as he smelled the heavy blood on the Drekker, their musk, and tried to control his heartbeat as it beat against his chest.
"Dre… dre… dre?" Matt heard one of the Drekker call to the other.
The inflection… almost like it's asking a question to it's brother.
"Dreeeeeeee…?" Matt heard the other Drekker respond.
He wasn't sure what they're saying, but it sounded like one's confused where he went.
The Drekker chirped to one another before they disappeared from the closet doorway and Matt heard the locker room doors swinging as the Drekker returned to the pool area.
Exhaling sharply, Matt held his held as he nervously exited his hiding spot.
His legs wobbled as he left the closet and wobbled towards the closed locker room doors.
Nervously, he checked for the Drekker, and saw the doors leading to the hallway swinging.
Looking around with the little perspective he has with the window, Matt didn't see any Drekker.
Believing they've left, Matt wobbled towards Alysia's hiding place and called to her.
She opened the locker door and he helped her climb out of it.
"Are… are they gone?" Alysia asked Matt.
Matt replied, "I don't see them…"
With his arm around her shoulder, Matt walked with her out of the locker room, Matt expected to shield Alysia from Dr. Walsh's body, but it's nowhere in the pool area and the only thing that remained, a bloody spot pooling near the black water.
Matt thought that the Drekker took it elsewhere and led Alysia away from there.
"Hallway A, remember?" Matt told her.
Alysia responded, "What if they're not there?"
Matt grimaced as he tried to think.
He replied, "Go to the main area of the hospital and go out through the entrance. There should still be people there. They didn't forget you, sweetie, I promise you."
Alysia nodded and went with him towards the door when she let out a squeak.
Matt froze in his spot when he looked through the window of the wide doors to see a Drekker peering in.
He turned around with Alysia to see the other Drekker behind them.
A trap.
They lured them into a trap!
The other Drekker hid near the rafters and waited to creep out when the two had their backs turned.
"Oh my god," Matt's eyes widened as he held Alysia close.
He hobbled away from the two with Alysia close to him as the Drekker outside the door pushed itself through and rejoined the other as they stood side to side.
"Doctor… what do we do?" Alysia tugged on his trousers as she asked him.
Matt's too scared to talk as he felt the Drekkers' eyes on him.
One's hazel and the other's the same shade of green as his and they looked… so wrong!
So… human… but everything else… If there's any humanity left in them… it's only those eyes… everything else… it's a monstrous creature!
Matt felt air catching in his throat as the Drekker stared at him.
He noticed they kept a distance from them, because of Alysia, and Matt told her that she needed to be brave because they're going to attempt to walk past them.
"What if they get us?" Alysia panicked.
Matt told her not to worry, as, he'll be the one worrying.
He motioned with his hand and Alysia uncomfortably walked forward.
Matt's plan started working.
Alysia moved forward and the Drekker moved backwards. They smelled the rosemary on her and with the sweat building up on her face from the stress, it's intensifying it enough to affect them.
The Drekker moved backwards as Matt and Alysia moved forward, their eyes never broke contact with the two.
"When we get out, we'll go right, okay?" Matt whispered to Alysia.
Alysia nodded.
Pushing through the doors, Matt nearly ran down the hallway at warp speed, and never turned back, but of course, he couldn't, but he couldn't help looking back periodically to see two shadows blotting out the windows as he fled with Alysia.
Fleeing with Alysia, Matt worked with her to find Hallway A in the darkness.
Thankfully for Matt, Alysia showed him how to find it as she spent enough time in the hospital to know the general layout, and how she found her way to the vending machine.
"Okay, Hallway A, Hallway A," Matt muttered under his breath.
He and Johnnie made sure to spray it since it led out into the main area, so they shouldn't have problems with the Drekker.
As he ran, he and Alysia came to an abrupt stop as they saw an even smaller Drekker, around Ripley's height, walking up the hallway, like a bird it's hunched over slightly as it walked, the thudding lighter than the others, and it stopped when it spotted Matt and Alysia.
There wasn't any predatory malice with this one, in fact, quite opposite, like a child, it went towards them, out of curiosity.
It tilted it's head as it curiously looked at Matt.
Matt had to move away because he almost encountered the beak.
"Dre?" Matt heard the small Drekker say.
Matt's confused as it seemed to wait for him to say something.
"D… dreee?" Matt coughed.
He didn't know what else to say and or what he even said, but it sounded positive as the Drekker looked at him quizzically.
The Drekker moved it's head like a bird as it looked down to Alysia and she echoed Matt.
Matt saw it's eyes blink.
Even though they're human, they blinked like a bird's.
The small Drekker looked up to Matt and he's confused as Alysia as to why, until it clicked in his head.
This one's younger, smaller, and didn't have a footing in the way of the Drekker and gotten confused. It mistook Matt as one of it's taller brothers.
Matt didn't know how to feel about this, but he's just glad it wasn't attacking them, rather, curious like a child.
"Dre… Dre… Dreeeeeeee?" the younger Drekker chirped at Matt.
