Ryan sat on top of the gate watching the sun rise over the horizon. It had just reached dawn and the dark sky was gaining its orange colour. He wasn't wearing his armour as he figured he didn't need it at the moment, it lay over with his weapons to his left. He sat there thinking about the events of the previous day. Puma's death was the worst of them. He had been thinking about it for most of the night, he really felt sorry for her, and especially Eagle. He couldn't imagine how hard this must be for her.
I guess we all just have to move on, he thought but we can't let something like this destroy our hope for survival even if it seems-
"Hey."
Ryan turned to the voices origin. It was Fox.
"Hey." Ryan said.
Fox wasn't wearing her armour either, she wore loose fitting, plain pyjamas.
"Mind if I join you?" she asked.
"Nah sure." Ryan said quickly.
She sat down close to him on his right. So close that their shoulders touched.
"How has your night been?" she asked.
"Alright, it's been pretty quiet."
Ryan thought for a moment.
"There's something I want to ask you." He said.
"What?"
"What's your name?"
Fox looked him dead in the eyes.
"Laura." She said.
"Laura. I like it."
"Thanks."
Ryan stared down at the ground.
"What's wrong?" Fox asked.
"Sorry, it's just…after seeing Puma get killed yesterday, I'm amazed I've held on this long. I don't get why I'm still here. Why do I stay?"
Fox looked down at the ground too.
"Maybe it's the people your with." She said.
"What do you mean?" Ryan asked.
"Well is there anyone you like?" she said looking at his face.
That made Ryan uncomfortable. He twitched a bit in nerves.
"I like the people I've met here." Ryan said. "I mean I like Cheetah, he's a great guy and he saved my life. Hawk and Eagle are a great pair, they seem inseparable and they're nice to me. HQ is nice guy, we get on well and I like his way of always looking on the bright side. Snake is possibly the guy I least like. He doesn't seem to like me either; he doesn't seem to like anyone."
"And how do you feel about me?" Fox asked.
Ryan looked into the horizon.
"You are a wonderful woman, you smart, beautiful and fight amazingly. I'd have to say you're my favourite out of-"
That's when she kissed him. She leant over and lightly pressed her lips against his. Ryan was a little surprised but he kissed back. She likes me; he thought she actually likes me!
When she withdrew herself, she looked embarrassed.
"I'm sorry," she said "I shouldn't have done that. I-"
This time it was Ryan who kissed her. She was also surprised for a second but then passionately kissed back. They kissed more intensely.
It was a strange sight, that in the middle of this dead city, there were two lovers kissing as the sun dawned in front of them.
At breakfast two hours later Ryan, Fox, Snake, Hawk, Eagle and HQ sat around the table eating and chatting. Ryan and Fox sat next to each other, holding hands under the table.
"So how was duty last night Wolf?" Hawk asked.
"Pretty quiet really." Ryan replied "I think they've given up on breaking in for the moment."
"That's good news." HQ said.
"Too right." Hawk agreed.
Fox looked at Eagle, who was sitting next to her.
"Are you ok?" she asked.
Eagle looked at her.
"Yeah, I guess I can't let Puma haunt me if I want to stay alive so I guess the time for grieving isn't for a while."
Fox put a hand on her shoulder.
"Good decision." She said.
HQ looked around the table.
"Hey where are our guests?" he asked.
Ryan looked around.
"Still in their rooms I guess." he said.
"Someone should go get them so they don't miss breakfast." Hawk said.
"I'll go." Ryan said, getting up.
"No, I'll go." Fox said. She kissed Ryan on the cheek and left the room.
After she's left, Hawk looked down the table at Ryan.
"So…you and Fox eh?" he said, grinning.
Ryan smiled at Hawk's teasing. He was glad he could still smile after the things he's seen recently. But then in perfect timing, Fox's voice came over the PA system.
"Everyone get down to the lab quick."
Everyone from the breakfast room stood in the lab in front of the specimen containment slots. Fox had pointed out that one was open.
"Someone took something out of here." she said.
"But why?" HQ asked.
"I dunno." she said.
Hawk looked up from his deep thinking.
"What were in these?" he asked.
HQ walked over to the computers and started typing. After a few minutes he had a list on the screen.
"It says here that they had Weyland-Yutani's alien specimens. But you can't fit a drone in there."
"Facehugger." Snake said.
The others looked at him.
"But where is it?" Eagle asked.
"Someone must have released it during the night to catch us unawares." HQ said "But no one has been impregnated."
There was silence as people wondered where the escaped facehugger could be. Ryan looked up suddenly.
"Oh my god!" he said "Cheetah!"
He ran out of the room and down the corridor. The rest of the group charged after him. Ryan turned a corner and stopped in front of Cheetah's door. He tried to turn the handle but it wouldn't budge. He pounded his fist on the door.
"Cheetah! Can you hear me!" he shouted.
No answer. Ryan shoulder barged the door, he felt it giving way. He barged it again and again. The door finally fell open and Ryan ran inside. That's where he saw Cheetah lying on the floor with a facehugger clinging to his face.
"Damn it!" Ryan said. He ran over to Cheetah and knelt down next to him. Everyone else came in and saw the horror inside.
"No." HQ gasped.
"Help me." Ryan said, picking up Cheetah by the shoulders. Hawk grabbed his feet. They carried him out of the room and into medical. They placed him on the examination table, and then Ryan looked at the others.
"What can we do?" he asked everyone.
"Nothing," HQ said "once it's on his face we can't remove it, nor do any of us have the skill in surgery. It will come off itself but then we can't get the embryo out either."
"Damn!" Ryan said.
Ryan tried to pull his hair out, the frustration was massive. He paced around the room. What to do? What to do? he thought. He stared at Cheetah on the table. The facehugger was pulsing in unison with his breathing; its tail was tight around his neck. Suddenly something came to Ryan.
"Harrison…" he whispered.
"What?" Eagle asked.
Ryan didn't answer.
"HQ, look up the employee records of this place, search for Harrison."HQ sat at a computer terminal and started searching. Everyone else stared at Cheetah lying on the examination table, Fox was close to tears. Ryan put an arm around her shoulder to comfort her; she turned and buried her face in his chest. Ryan patted her on the back lightly.
"Got it!" HQ called.
Ryan ran over to the computer and looked at the screen, and his suspicion was confirmed. On the screen was a picture of Harrison's face along with a description. He was a level 6 classified employee and had access to the highest specimens.
"I knew it…Bring them here, now!" Ryan said.
Hawk and Snake left the room. After ten minutes or so they returned with Harrison, Hank and George; the three of them were bound at the hands.
"We found them about to escape through the back entrance." said Snake "Seems like they didn't wish to be discovered by us."
"With how I'm going to treat them I'm not surprised." said Ryan through gritted teeth.
They lined the three of them up in front of the group. Ryan stepped in front to confront them.
"So, you lot aren't the ordinary citizens you claim." he said "You are Weyland-Yutani scientists. That's how you released this thing into the complex."
The three of them remained silent. They simply stared at Ryan, taking in his every word.
"But I think you did more, you were the ones who let these things loose into the city weren't you?"
Harrison looked at him.
"What makes you think that?" he asked.
"Well I doubt that you would have tired to run if you had the chance to make us believe the facehugger must have snuck in."
Harrison looked at Hank and George, then back at Ryan.
"It was a test to see how well the aliens could take over a populated area. We wish to use these creatures as a bio weapon in war. And from the current results it seems that they prove quite dangerous to the opposition." he said.
"These people weren't an opposition!" Hawk shouted "They were innocent civilians!"
"They were killed for an important cause; we've got the proof we need that these things are effective." Harrison replied.
HQ looked up.
"What were you going to say? 'We released these things into New York and we believe you should honour us for mass murder and use our evidence to make an unstoppable force of these creatures'?" he said in disbelief.
"No, we were going to act as though this was amazing to us and then suggest the use of them in war."
Hawk stepped forward but Eagle grabbed his arm.
"You son of a-" he began.
"Hawk! Don't!" Eagle said.
Hawk relaxed and backed down, glaring at Harrison. Ryan then asked a question.
"Now what can we do to help him?" he said gesturing at Cheetah.
"Nothing, he will die no matter what you do." Harrison said.
Fox finally interjected.
"We could remove it." she said.
"No one here is a surgeon." Harrison said.
"Then what?" Ryan asked "You worked here; you must have developed something that would kill it or prevent the alien's birth."
Harrison didn't answer. Ryan took this as a sign that he was fighting himself on whether to tell them about something. He stepped forward with his sword level with Harrison's neck.
"Tell me or you die!" he said, glaring at him.
Harrison looked at him.
"Well we have a serum that slows down the growth process of the alien inside the victim. This would prolong the time before it burrows its way out and may give someone enough time to get them to help."
"Where is it?" Ryan continued still with the sword at Harrison's neck.
"In the containers over there."
HQ opened the containers and pulled out a hyper dermic needle filled with a florescent, glowing, purple liquid. He walked over to Cheetah and was about to inject him when Ryan stopped him.
"We shouldn't do that until the facehugger is off him, because if we inject it now it will prolong the time before it comes off and we need him awake so we can get him to help." he said.
HQ backs off and collects all the needles.
"What are we going to do with them?" he asked, gesturing at the three Weyland-Yutani employees.
"Let's see if they last longer than the citizens did." Ryan said.