Ripley walked with Peter through the desert, he held his white Les Paul guitar behind his back as he walked with her as he held his drink in his free hand.
"Why'd you have a guitar anyway?" Ripley inquired about the guitar.
Peter casually told her that he'd brought it along on the trip and thought he could pass the time riffing some songs along the way.
"Rock on!" Ripley's impressed as Peter told her he had some years playing guitar under his belt.
Just something he opted to do and stuck with for most of his life.
It even helped him win the heart of his then-wife!
"Yep, worth the callouses on my fingers," Peter wiggled his free fingers.
It took pain and his fingers callousing to get to where he is and he's able to play most of his favourites without so much a blink.
"Well, I played a bit of drums back in school," Ripley recalled her school days.
It was that or violin and Ripley couldn't stand the violin, so the drums she played.
She only played it for a semester, just enough to pass the exams so she didn't have to take music again.
Peter laughed at this and pointed at her as they walked, "Ah, should pick it up again!"
Ripley knew only how to play the drum solo for a few bands' musics and that's about it for her education. She didn't really pick up a drumstick again after she passed music to really go in heavily like Peter did with his guitar.
"I hadn't looked at a music sheet since then, doubt I can remember it at this point," Ripley shrugged.
Doesn't seem like it'd matter, it's been so long, Ripley probably wouldn't understand a music sheet even if it's been written over to tell her exactly what each note means and so forth.
"Don't mean you can't give it a try," Peter encouraged her to try it anyway, maybe she still has the muscle memories at the most, and that's good enough to go from there, at least according to him.
Ripley's flat isn't that big that she can have a drum set in the corner and she wasn't going to have it taking up precious space if it turned out that she couldn't play the drums with only muscle memory.
It's the thought that mattered, but Ripley wasn't that big into music to begin with, listening's different than actually trying to articulate a music note while jumbling a music sheet in front of her.
"What made you pick guitar, anyway?" Ripley's curious about Peter's choice.
Peter told her that it was either guitar or the clarinet. There's no way in god's name he'll ever touch or use a clarinet!
"Besides, I look cooler with a guitar, don't I?" Peter smiled as Ripley reflected off his sunglasses.
Ripley wasn't fond of clarinets either, so if she was given a choice between clarinets or guitars, she'd probably pick guitars, too.
Like Peter said, at least she'd look cool while strumming a tune compared to looking like a complete dork.
Glimpsing around, Ripley stopped and spotted the tram… they haven't made any progress, they've walked for a good while, but it looked like they didn't do anything.
"We've been walking for forty minutes, how are we still here?" Ripley's confused as she looked at the tram, still there.
Peter frowned as he told her that it's something he noticed. No matter how far he tried to travel, he ended up stuck where he was before, and gave up.
"Alright, so we can't go anywhere further from the tram, that why you were by the line?" Ripley inquired if that's why Peter stayed by the line as it went by.
Nodding, Peter told her it was that and he noticed something peculiar as he sat in his chair, that as the tram passed him, it looked like it looped.
"Right, that's why I kept seeing you," Ripley frowned as she remembered seeing Peter and it looked like he kept appearing in every step of the way.
Apparently, the tram looped and something or another happened that resulted in Ripley trapped in the plain with Peter.
"If we can't travel further from the tram, then that'd mean that something around here's keeping us," Ripley deduced as she looked around, seeing nothing but sand.
Looking down at her feet, Ripley saw the sand reaching to her laces, shifting as she pulled her feet away from the piled sand.
"Well, as I see it, could be one to two things. One, it's a rip in the space continuum. Two, there's some sort of contraption going on a fritz," Peter sighed as he stepped forward, looking around as the sand reflected off his sunglasses.
"If it's none of those?" Ripley raised a brow at him.
Peter frowned as he said, "Then I haven't a clue, been looking since yesterday, never found anything but sand."
Thinking, Ripley recalled something and asked what time he went missing. He told her it was 0800 hours.
"The automated voice said the same thing, before I wound up here," Ripley blinked as she told him that the automated voice said it'll be 0800 when dinner's served.
It made no sense considering 0800 wasn't the time for dinner. It would've been no less than 2000 hours.
"It's funny 'cause it said the same thing," Peter grimaced as he mentioned hearing the same automated voice telling him it'll be 0800 hours before dinner.
Ripley asked if it's possible that's a clue and Peter nodded. He told her that he didn't think of it, really, just wanted some time to himself and play his tunes.
Their first clue, 0800, that's the time they heard before they wound up stuck here.
Looking up at the misty sky, Ripley noted it hardly changed, barely changed a shade, and the sun still bearing down in the distant.
They've been walking for so long, it should've been closer to the evening hours by now, but it's as bright and sunny as morning!
"0800," Ripley echoed.
It's permanently 8 AM in their trapped state, time doesn't seem to move the same way, and they're stuck near the tram, with no food or water.
"Don't suppose you at least found an oasis around these parts, have you?" Ripley asked Peter as he sucked on the straw on his cup.
Peter shook his head and Ripley asked him how he's still drinking, he revealed to her that his drink never empties. It's still full the moment he received it from the convenience store along the way to the tram.
"Look," Peter handed her the large cup.
Ripley wasn't going to touch it, but Peter insisted and she handled it gingerly. It's still full and the man's been sucking it bone dry for hours!
"Two clues, then, never-ending coke and 0800," Ripley handed back the cup to Peter.
He asked if she wanted some, but she declined, stating that she didn't know him that well.
"Not to mention, I'm told drinking nothing but soda pops aren't good for you," Ripley jabbed at his drink choice.
Peter then countered, saying that his thirst isn't quenched when his drink refills itself, rather, it reverted to when he first got the big cup.
"Wait, so, you're perpetually thirsty?" Ripley realized.
Nodding as he frowned, Peter told her that as much as he drank the coke, it'll never satiate his thirst, it'll get full again and he'll be back sucking it dry and repeating.
Sounding like a Greek myth, Ripley wondered what is going on and asked Peter if he knew anything about the planet.
"Helios, Helios, yeah, some about it, just your standard desert planet that you'll need a straw bigger than Uranus to find a droplet to suck on, yeah. Heard the idiot who bought land here got it cheap, personally I think he should've gotten land on Pandora. At least I could've entertained myself with water sports," Peter rattled off what he knew about the planet.
He called the man who made the resort an idiot for buying land here on the account there's no water and it hardly rained. At least on nearly water, Pandora, there'd be something to do, especially if the tram broke down.
"Anything in depth about Helios?" Ripley continued.
Peter shook his head.
"Nah, luv, you gotta understand, I visited a lot of planets, too many to count, too many to keep up. The only planets I keep up nowadays are the ones that annoy me or want to kill me!" Peter revealed to her that he's selective on knowledge.
There's too many systems, too many planets, too many everything, that he rather just remember the ones that bothered him the most, so he can avoid them at a later time.
Suppose, he'll add Helios to the lineup.
Rubbing her nose, Ripley glimpsed around, trying to find the answers to their question and how to get out of their situation.
It's permanently 0800, so they have plenty of sunlight to work with, and if Ripley deduced it correctly, she won't die from malnourishment and dehydration because she ate a while ago. If time repeated, then it'd mean that she'll still be full.
"Time's repeating itself," Ripley looked back at Peter. "Time loop?"
It's her first-time loop and Ripley's already not pleased with the situation.
"Don't know how that's possible 'round here," Peter looked around. "Don't see anything that says that and I've been looking everywhere even before you showed up."
If they're in a time loop, then certain events would've repeated until they eventually break the pattern… or die… because there's no chance they'll live forever in a time loop, repeating or not.
Looking around, Ripley wondered what could've caused the time loop, which Peter theorized could've easily been anything, as time's fickle as it is.
"Well, what's so important about 0800?" Ripley asked him.
Peter pondered before shrugging his shoulders and Ripley rubbed her chin.
Time looping, 0800, Peter's unquenchable thirst, and a sun that'll never set.
"What're we doing running our mouths, then, let's get on with it," Peter waved his free hand and walked with Ripley to search the area surrounding the tram.
They couldn't search much, so they stayed near the parameter they discovered as far as they can get away from the tram.
There's nothing but sand and rocks, nothing that suggested what could've caused the time loop, and there's no indication that there's any machinery causing the disturbance.
"I'm not finding anything," Ripley called out to Peter.
Peter called out, "Nada, luv."
Sighing, Ripley kept searching, but it's difficult to dig through the coarse sand.
Counting in her head, only thirty minutes passed, and it's still 0800.
"Okay, what would you do?" Ripley muttered under her breath.
Trying to think like a Doctor, Ripley went through a checklist of possible causes for the time loop.
There's an event that didn't happen that needed to happen.
Something's tampering with time itself.
There's a fortress buried underneath the sand that's housing ancient evils controlling time itself.
There's a hidden machinery that's artificially creating the time loop.
Aliens.
"Right, well, I've got no TARDIS, no Sonic Screwdriver, so no matter what, I'm stranded," Ripley exhaled as she tried digging through the sand around the tram.
It's hard to keep track of where she dug, but Ripley kept at it, determined.
She kept digging until she felt something hard in her hand, wasn't a clump of sand or stone, and felt heavy in her hands.
Slowly, Ripley pulled it up from the depths of the sand pit she dug, to discover an hourglass.
With purple sand.
It… it looked like the one… the one in her nightmares… but… how…?
"What?" Ripley's breathless as she stared in awe at the hourglass that felt real, looked real, pulled straight from her own nightmares, and as she stared, sand's slowly pouring down the bottom half.
No matter how much Ripley turned the hourglass upside down, the sand never shifted, it continued to pour to the bottom half.
"How…?" Ripley failed to find words.
It's there, in her hands, blown glass, enshrined in metal, and as Ripley felt it in her hands, she felt impending doom!
"…Ellie…" a whispery voice suddenly appeared near Ripley's ear and she dropped the hourglass on the ground.
Sharply, Ripley turned around, her heart beating against her chest. Her dark eyes wildly looked around as she stood in the stand, but there's nobody there.
Holding her chest, Ripley exhaled sharply as she uncharacteristically whimpered at the whispery voice… saying her real name.
It's not Matt, she knows his voice.
It wasn't Peter, that much's clear.
This… this sounded different… and its frightened Ripley.
Its frightened Ripley!
