Chapter Eight.
Stephen now sat motionless listening to the hissing coming from the other side of the cold iron door. Tears of fear rolled over his cheeks, dripping onto the floor creating a small sea. And with each heavy thumping sound of the alien trying to get in, he remained silent, knowing that if they knew that there was someone in there, the monsters would not give up and in only a matter of minutes, they would find away in. So for that moment, he kept himself from even breathing deeply, hiding the slightest sound with yet another tear.
On the other side of the room, listening to the now calming sounds of the aliens outside the cell, was Guy. His ear now up against the door once more, trying to hear if the aliens had moved on or were waiting for the tasty humans on the inside to come on out of their dark cave. Lucky for Guy, the aliens probably did not know that the humans in the room were stuck in there, so waiting for them to come out was useless. Sadly, Guy also knew that an alien would not quit so easily, and sooner or later, it would get in, somehow.
Silence, and peace. There was nothing now, they were both stuck in the cell as if it was hours earlier, with no threat. Guy rested on the icy floor, trying to get comfortable, but the hard lead he lay on was too cold and solid to relax. So he sat up leaning against the door, now taking his attention away from the knowledge of the aliens finding a way to get into the cell. He looked over to the holo-glass, his mind on the Spears that had forced this evil upon them. It was not enough that they had brought the eggs to the tunnels, but the lack of humanity in the so-called humans was sickening.
Monsters ran around the tunnels once more, even more so than months earlier when the outbreak of the alien threat was in the public news. There was nothing that could be done and hiding was the only option, but now, their hiding hole was found, and Guy hoped that maybe the children were safe, sadly, knowing what the aliens could do, and even what the Spears could do, he knew in the bottom of his aching heart, they were all dead. His mind on the poor souls, not even living a real life, they had not even lived long enough to experience anything real to life.
His mind slowly faded away from the sorrowed thought when he saw movement. He shuck his head to see a figure darting past the one-way window. And when he looked closer he could see that it was Francis, oh my god it was Francis, why was he on the other side of the glass Guy thought to himself. Then it hit him, he was captured by the Spears, and he knew what had gone down. They had all been used for impregnation. But this was different, he was running for his life, if he had an alien inside him, he would not have to be running, unless he got away before an embryo was planted.
As Francis ran, he turned his head towards the wall, looking at it his eyes opened wide as he ran towards the wall with his hands out. Delusions creeping over his mind, he saw hope, but it was taken away from him as he was crushed onto the floor, a black monster on his back, dripping a thick slime from its mouth as it lowered its teeth down to the back of Francis' neck. The Last thing the poor man heard was the creatures hissing and then it all went black.
"He was running at the glass, he was running at the fucking glass." Stephen was talking out loud becoming hysterical, and as much as Guy wanted to ignore what was being said, the kid was right. Francis was running right to them, he could see them. He did not really understand, how could Francis of known. He looked over to Stephen who was just staring at what was left of Francis, whose blood had now sprayed over the window. Guy thought about how Francis could of seen them, and when he realized what was going on, it clicked inside of this head.
"Demetri, that fucking piece of shit." Guy knew now that Demetri had to of been a Spear, he had to be. It all made sense now, how else would they of been able to live for so long as close as they were. The Spears' had to of known of their presence, and they were waiting until they had got their little messiahs from the Queen. "Stephen, get away from the window, hide from the goddamn window!" But as Guy looked back he could see that it was too late, the black glistening monster stood with its extended second set of razor sharp teeth pressing up against the two-way window, steam causing slight condensation. Its gooey gelled slime dripping from its mouth, its almost silver teeth shining brightly.
Guy could almost hear it hissing at them, noticing one thing, it was looking directly at him.
. . .
They had not heard anything from any of the other Sectors for over nine hours, which was a problem, especially with the probable chance of the aliens causing maximum destruction in the command bunkers. With Ground Zero being taken the possibility of total xenomorph takeover was more and more likely to happen, and sadly, Clegg knew that it was only time until the monsters came huffing and puffing. He was getting his shit together, his anti-acidic body armor and electro-carbine were charging, and in a matter of minutes he would take a group of soldiers and civilians, and get the hell of Manhattan.
He had tried to be strong with all that was taking place, but his nerves were slowly breaking, and it did not matter that he had finally fought his Fire addiction, his blood was burning. He was stronger than this, he took a second to try and calm himself down, but that was met with him throwing the box of his cigars across the room, smashing hard onto the wall. He felt the splinters of wood hitting his face. His now humorous thoughts went out to the price he had paid for the luxury of those cigars, then realized that he would give up everything and anything to live, and with the addiction hitting him hard, he reached for a plastic bottle and squeezed now warm water over his warmer face.
One thing that he knew for sure, he would not give up, he would not lose to the aliens. He had fought for too long to just fall to the monsters that had taken everything on his home planet, and he would keep fighting, for himself and for the group of young men and women that would be coming with him to get off the planet, or maybe just to a safer Sector, but right now, he was not sure if any of the other areas were compromised, he had not heard any signals from any of the other city sensors. And that was unusual, even with the total satellite shutdown, they should still be hearing from on-world signals, but nothing had been received.
A thought crossed his mind, maybe this stretched out further than just Manhattan. Maybe the planet had been taken over again, but that could not be possible. The aliens could not be that smart, but with all the sudden activity, it could be possible, and what was with that ship, at least no one was taken, sensors only picked up non-humanoid or non-organic material. Most likely it was a failed rescue attempt on lost survivors in the city. And that is when it made more sense, the under city had not been monitored as much in the recent months, yet the sensors down there would show us something, but nothing had reach his office. Something went on down there, and someone up here knew about it.
"General sir, motion in the far-east quadrant." Sebs voice was almost fearful, knowing what was beginning. Clegg looked at the soldier and threw him a smile, trying to let him know that everything would be okay, but he was not sure that he even believed himself. As the alarms began to sound, echoing around the whole station. "What do you want to do?" Looking at Clegg hoping for an answer that would be brilliant and would save them, but Clegg was not sure, he was not expecting the aliens for hours. Amazed at how fast they moved across the city, then again, they probably knew the city better than any human that once lived there years earlier.
"The security room, get everyone in the security room. Its got a drop hatch to the tunnel out of the complex, we can elude the threat that way, and with the security cams we can watch their movement, we have the advantage because we know the base." He moved over to the voice panel by the door, pressing the small triangular green button, holding it down. "Activate the Sentinel marines." Now looking over to Seb, again smiling. "With the new advanced xeno-biochemical armour. The Z-110x Acid-Neautralizing Combat Wardrobe." Now smirking, Seb could only return the Generals optimism.
They all hurried to the safety of the base security room. The room itself was a safety bunker, and well hidden from the naked eye, only those whose job it was to be in there knew where it was, and now they had company. Luckily it was a large room that could hold up to twenty fully equipped marines and have enough space to tango. Dancing was not on their minds right now, it was the loud thudding of the aliens at the base entrance. Yet they felt safe with the blast doors sealed shut, nothing could get past them, and the aliens became louder, hissing turned to shrieking.
One of the security cameras looking upon the blast doors was showing the heavy impact marks on the large iron door. Clegg kept his eyes on the door, watching at the shear strength of the monsters will to get into the base. They showed only hatred at each head smashing into the door, and the sound, thumping metal, sounding louder than the bases' alarms, it was amazing really, a will for death and destruction. The creatures way of living was frightful, they would get to someone without any hesitation of their own deaths, as long as the Queen told them to do something, they would not go against her.
"Just look at them, its scary. There must be hundreds of them." Corporal Baxter spoke out loud, almost trembling at the sight before him, the monsters pouring into the base, on all sides of the corridor, floor, walls and ceilings. It was astonishing just as much as it was frightening, watching the aliens coming in, as they moved like a wave of darkness taking over the light, and then the camera went into a fuzzy broken static. Camera-one was down, as if the aliens knew what they were, damn, they probably did. "Shit they move fast." Everyone in the room just looked at him.
Black domed heads covered the corridor in darkness, the light from outside could no longer be seen as the aliens piled in, like ants almost. The aliens were similar to insects and the way they moved was creepy, if only they had six legs they would look like large mutant ants. Yet the soldiers could not visualise hundreds of ants taking over their base and killing a city full of civilians. These monsters came in with their claws sharpening themselves on the walls, and their teeth gleaming of the metal plating of the bases walls. The hissing grew louder as more aliens came in, now the corridor was full and they still kept moving, and the base alarms no longer sounded.
Daniel Baxter was young, short, yet one psychotic individual. He was in the battle from the beginning, had fought with the aliens on many occasion. Despite his young age, the nineteen year old could handle himself, amazing really, standing up he was the smallest of all the marines, almost by an entire foot. He looked up to them all, but personally felt that he was looking down, and with a carbine in his hands, he was an unstoppable alien killing machine, and that is why the others were afraid of him, he was irresponsible, reckless and more importantly a crazy mother-fucker. They were all happy to have him on their team.
Seb took his eyes of Baxter who had made the most obvious observation he has had ever heard, silly really. He looked over to Clegg whose eyes did not leave the monitor for a second, his glare was on the creatures that were taking over the base, and they had just broken down a door that a nuclear blast could not do, you could see the fear in the mans eyes, yet he smiled, looked up and tapped his ear piece.
"Seb, activate Sentinel marines." Then he looked back down to the screen as the camera view changed to the bottom of the long corridor, watching the oncoming aliens. "I want complete Xenomorph wipe out!" And again he grinned, Seb noticed the look on Cleggs' face, almost full of hatred, yet who would feel anything but hate for these creatures. Moving his hand to a small red button on the computer control, his finger pressed down and the button glowed, and the computer screen lit up. 'Sentinel Marines Activated.'
The sound of the monsters claws ripping into the shining metal walls brought a shiver to all that watched, and just as the aliens were about to enter the main corridor, two large black and yellow striped robots stepped out into the hallway, arms raised holding the largest turrets the marines could imagine, and they all knew then that a lot of aliens were about to get obliterated, and a rainstorm of acid would be spraying, happy that the Sentinels had anti-acid armour, but not unlimited rounds. And then the turrets began to bring down waves of aliens, the empty shells smashing all over the corridor, themselves flying into the luckless aliens that had made it past the deadly explosive rounds.
Shrieking as bullets blew them apart, and they still kept coming, pouring into the base, hundred of them, and they became faster, trying to get past the Sentinel marines. And they were succeeding, one of the marines was down, talons slashing at the body of the mechanical marine, the sound of its armour tearing, and the sounding alarm echoing into the aliens songs of pain. One last attack from the Sentinel as its defence system activated electrical shock shutdown, and at least a dozen hissing aliens burst into flames as the thousands of volts shot through them. Their domes cracking, their blood spraying from now splitting hard black skin.
And the mechanical marine was dead, taking out many of its programmed enemies. Its body now torn apart by monsters that had got past, making sure it was down, and they were behind the other Sentinel that had its guns still firing, still killing many of their kind, but right now, they knew that they had to move, and carried on into the main hall, looking for the humans they had been sent in to kill and retrieve for their hive, and the continuation of their demonic species.
"They are in, we don't have much longer." The General hesitated, angered by his words, stood up straight and looked around the room at the marines. "Get suited up, we go in ten minutes." Then he looked back at the second falling sentinel. Only one last line of defence against the aliens, and then they would face their nightmares, knowing that soon they would be fighting to live.
He knew that many of the marines, soldiers and the few civilians would soon die, but he was not going to give up, he may of lost the base, he would not lose his life, and would fight, to the death if he had to. And he looked at the final compound camera became a show of fuzz, the last thing he saw was a gleaming black monster, and he was sure it was grinning.
. . .