She had dozed off several times, but never actually fell asleep. Each time though she jolted up, feeling a chill down her spine, dark eyes shooting straight to the alien, expecting him to be gone. When the digital clock read five, she moved up from her spot, stretching out the cramps and moved over to the alien. While he was still unconscious, he had moved slightly, and one of his arms was hanging outside the blankets. She very gently moved the blanket over the outstretched limb that was missing two fingers. She wiped her arm across her brow, soaking in sweat. It was so hot in here it was hard to breathe.
She turned to move away, but some primal curiosity nudged at her very soul, and she looked back at the thing. It was obvious that he was supposed to have four of those mandibles, but scar tissue was all that remained of the bottom left one. His face alone was rather scarred up, possibly from the same incident. His eyes were still closed, set in deep black sockets. His head was oblong, though the black fleshy dreadlock-like growths gave it the initial illusion of being round in shape. He was primarily green it seemed, with lighter tones radiating to darker, where it was then mottled with a deep purple color.
In a less panicked mind, she could almost admire the monster's looks, striking in a horrifying sort of way, but impressive in his own right. She didn't explore further, and turned her back to the alien. She moved through her house, put on her coat and stepped outside. She went to the shack and moved to a pile of orange cans. She lifted each one easily, frowning until she lifted one. She shook it, hearing liquid inside and moved back out to the generator. She turned it off long enough to pour more gasoline into it and started it up again.
She shook the now empty container and sighed, looking over at the shiny black truck under his blanket of snow. The only thing not covered was the cabin itself. She thinned her lips as she thought about siphoning the gas out of it, but ultimately turned away from the truck and went back inside. She peeked into the room ad saw that the alien hadn't moved. She gathered more clothes and put them on, dressing in several layers and boots.
She took the stained collapsible sled and made her way up the mountain. The blanket of snow here was thick, but she could find the bodies under the mounds of snow there. Taking them down the mountain and then going back up was nearly an all-day chore, especially since she went back into the house after every decent to check up on the alien, and it was getting dark as she was coming down the mountain with Dyson.
Another black truck was there when she arrived and she hesitated in her step before moving Dyson off the sled and kicking it away, the stain side flipping down into the snow. She moved the stiff body over to the others that were already being moved to the truck. She dropped Dyson down in the snow, glowering up at Smith.
"Here they are," she said coldly and stepped back, "take them and leave."
She turned away and a voice hit her back, "it's gone, correct?"
Hannah glowered over her shoulder, "yes," she hissed, "it's gone. Now leave me alone."
Smith frowned and looked down at Dyson's body, shaking his head, "tragic."
"I want you off my property in two minutes, you can mourn later," Smith gave her an incredulous look and she simply glowered.
"You don't care—?"
"They tried to kill me," she growled, "so no."
The Weyland group hurried with their grim task, one of the bodies being moved by two people, one with each half. Within the minute they were packed up. Smith moved to hop into the truck, gripping the handle above it, but hesitated and gave the woman one last sorry glance, before sliding in and shutting his door. The truck and the other truck were removed from her property. She sat on her porch for an hour afterwards, to make sure that they didn't return.
After darkness fell she moved back into the sweltering house, shedding the layers immediately and checked up on the alien again. He hadn't moved much since she last saw him. His mandibles still hung loosely. His pink mouth, reminiscent of something that would be out of a very disturbing porno, was still wide open.
She frowned and stepped back outside. She tended to the fire in the living room, adding more wood to it and looking at the low pile, mirroring the one upstairs. She made herself a simple meal of ramen from the left over water from two days ago, and ate in silent contemplation. Over and over she asked herself what she was doing, but in the end, she moved back upstairs to the room and sat down, watching over the alien.
The digital clock read three forty-three in the morning, and she had dozed. The heat of the room made her tired quickly, and she was going on two days without sleep. Her chin rested against her chest, breathing evenly. She jolted awake and looked wildly around, then over to the alien. He was gone. Her eyes widened and her hand gripped her gun. She slowly stood to her feet, aiming around the room, looking for him, remembering that it could turn invisible.
Her breath quickened, her body felt far too heavy. She tried to steady her breathing when the door opened by itself. She moved her gun and looked at it, but there was nothing to shoot. She slowly went outside, moving the gun barrel to the other door then the stairs. She took two deep breaths and moved down them, looking around. It was dark downstairs, the fire was missing. She kept her back to the wall, aiming into the kitchen, but it was pitch black inside. She wouldn't see it in there even if it wasn't invisible.
She felt herself panic, shivering as her breath came out in visible puffs of vapor. She felt like she was freezing, her skin turning blue even. Then she was lifted and thrown. She hit the cold fireplace with a cry drowned out by the animalistic roar. Her body wouldn't respond to her mind's orders to stand. She was lifted again and thrown against the opposite wall, crashing into several pictures and falling down among the shards of glass, cutting her to ribbons.
She felt a swift kick to her ribs, which sent her through the door, rolling down the stairs and into the snow. All she could do was cry out, her body refusing to move. Every limb felt like lead, she tried to crawl but couldn't so much as move a finger. Then she was pressed down, her face forced into the snow. She couldn't breathe, her lungs screaming for air, and just as it was getting to be unbearable her head was lifted by her hair. She was flipped onto her back, looking up at the gleaming red eyes of the alien as he roared at her.
She sobbed. He started choking her. She felt her body sink into the snow, further and further, into blackness, choking on slimy clawed hands.
Hannah jumped with a gasp, red light flooding her vision as she looked around. She was still in the room, the alien still in front of her, still unconscious. She gasped for air, a hand going to her neck as she curled her knees up to her chest. She made an uncomfortable noise, grimacing, then laid out on the floor. She focused on controlling her breathing, though in this heat it was impossible to truly get it back to normal.
Sighing, she moved up to her hands and knees and crawled quietly over to the cages. As she thought, the others had started coming out of hibernation, tricked into thinking the season had ended. A large fuzzy tarantula was scuttling across the ground looking for food. A thick serpent lay coiled in the corner of her cage, rattle still and silent. The tall cage's inhabitant blended in with his environment, and she only located the chameleon by noticing the one leaf in the tank that was breathing.
She would need to feed them. And she needed more gas for the generator. And she needed more firewood that she couldn't cut herself because she was babysitting. She sighed, taking Smaug out and resting him on her chest, petting him more as a comfort for her than for him, "I need to go to Troy," she whispered to the lizard, who tilted his head and looked at her. It cocked his head and turned his body, then it scuttled off and wandered around the bed. Hannah, perplexed, followed after him and saw him inspecting the alien.
The bearded dragon then showed why it was called such, the large spiky neck expanded like a balloon, red in color, and opened his triangular mouth wide. She looked between Smaug and the alien, then reached forward and scooped up the lizard. It didn't end his threat, continuing to bear his tiny teeth at the unconscious creature until he was out of sight. Only then did the dragon close his mouth, giving a small smack of his teeth and cocked his head at Hannah, as if asking her what she was doing with something like that in her room.
She set the lizard back in his cage and shut it quietly. She stepped quietly around the alien, carrying another pair of clothes, looking at him and whispered, "please be here when I get back."
She stepped out and got dressed in her workroom. She went downstairs, threw the last of the logs onto the fire and put the guard back up. She pocketed her gun and took a set of keys out of the table by the window. The sky was grey as she stepped outside into the snow, shoving her hands into her pockets. She moved over to her rust bucket, threw all five gas cans into the back and slipped inside. It took a few tries to get it to start, but the truck roared to life, she made sure it was in four-wheel drive, and made her way down the mountain.
The road was covered in snow, itself hardly used. She didn't travel into the city if she could help it. It was steep in some areas, washed out by inclement weather, but she trusted her truck, it had never let her down so far. After much bumping and swaying, the tires suddenly found nice and even asphalt and she turned south. There wasn't much to see for several miles, but a small town soon came into view.
Troy, Montana, was the kind of town where nearly everyone knew everyone, except for the tourists. It was a great spot for hikers and outdoorsmen to have a place to return to after expeditions into the mountains. It was not a place she called home.
The town was still asleep by the time she rolled in, locating the only gas station that had a store open at this ungodly hour. Her door squeaked as she opened it and slammed it shut, and she moved into the store, glancing at the sky turning a lighter shade of grey. She had this unshakeable sense of urgency to get back home.
Bundles of wood were set out in a large pile just beside the door, and she counted and made a note of how many she would be taking: all of them. She stepped in and felt a wave of warm hit her face. She sniffed slightly and looked around, seeing the man behind the counter and stomping her feet against the rug.
"Hey Mike," she said with about as much enthusiasm as the snow outside.
"Hello Hannah," the older man said with a wave, "you sure are out here early, you in trouble?"
"No," her voice came out bland and dull as she walked around the small store. There was a small TV in a corner of it, displaying the early morning news, warning of yet another snowstorm predicted to go through the area. Seemed her trip was well timed. Another storm like the last one will isolate her on the mountain for a while.
She found the small fridge of bait and opened it up, gathering several cups of mealworms and waxworms and loading them into her arms, "some of my critters came out of hibernation early," she said as customary small-talk.
"That's what happens when you keep animals like that as pets, their natural cycles get all messed up," Hannah nodded without looking at the man. She knew him well, light grey hair, dark grey eyes, face wrinkled by a perpetual, though honest, smile. She fidgeted slightly as she looked around for anything else that she might want or need. She didn't like making trips into town, so tried to get everything that she could every time that she had to. She grabbed a half gallon of milk and moved to the counter.
"Is this everything for you Hannah?" Mike asked as he began scanning.
"I'm also gonna buy all your wood and fill up five cans of gas," Mike nodded, this wasn't a strange order coming from Hannah. The only reason he really knew her was because she had lived in the area for the last twenty-one years, and eventually those once-in-a-while trips add up.
"Alright Hannah, that'll be one-hundred and thirty-eight dollars and twenty-five cents."
Hannah didn't flinch at the number and pulled out of her pocket a thin wallet, pulling a credit card out of it with pictures of mountains. She swiped the card and began inputting her pin number. Something caught her ear though and she looked over at the TV. She put in the last two numbers and returned her focus to the monitor.
"Could you turn that up Mike?"
"After several years of dispute, Weyland Corp has won the long-standing lawsuit over the patent to his David project. Rival technology tycoon Yutani Corporation, claimed that they were the originators of the world's first every production of functioning androids and that Sir Peter Weyland had stolen the technology and blueprints from them. The lawsuit win comes after the tragedy Yutani Corporation suffered in Japan, with the loss of their main branch in Tokyo.
"Weyland Corporation had purchased the European Organization for Nuclear Research earlier in the year after they lost government funding. There are rumors that Weyland may seize the opportunity to acquire Yutani Corporation during their hard times."
"When did it become Weyland Corporation?" Hannah's brow furrowed, ignoring the rest of what the woman was saying.
"Almost seventeen years ago Hannah, you need to come off your mountain more often," Mike chuckled, but Hannah just made a small neutral noise and took her receipt from the man.
"Ellen's been asking about you, you know," Mike said as the woman walked towards the door, "she's worried about you living alone with those lizards."
"They're not monitors Mike, tell her I'll be fine," with a small ring of a bell, the door shut behind her, and she took to the task of filling up her gas cans and piling the wood into her truck.