Chapter Nine.

All was surprisingly quiet and from when the iron door slammed down hard, they had not run into any alien encounters and Jacques thought that something was wrong. Then again it was in the mans nature to think of the negative rather than the positive, that is what made him a good marine, he saw the ways around the worst case scenarios before even coming to the good side of things. So as he held his gun up waiting for the moment an alien would cross their path, he would think the worst, envisioning a multitude of xenomorph coming at them both.

It was dark, the large stone walls dripping a sticky dirty green gel, similar to the aliens body goo. But this was not alien, this was natural earth slime, nothing more, and it stunk as it slowly dripped down onto the knee high vomit that humanity called the sewer system. Sadly it was not the sewers that they were walking through, it was the entrance to what was meant to be humanities last hope for survival against an ongoing threat. That was not important now, neither was dredging through the thick water, cramped in a small tunnel headed towards a underground city of lost hope.

As they got deeper into the tunnels they found themselves almost regretting the choice of going down there, but knew it was the right thing to do in the predicament they were in. The dead weeds curling round the thick rusting pipes, choking them, killing them. From the sights they saw, the rotting tunnels had not been taken care of for some time, which meant that most likely the surveillance of the under city was not bothered with. How stupid could they of been, given the fact the aliens threat found itself growing in dark and dank corners of the most rotten places. Personally it made perfect sense, who would want to search through shit to find something worse than shit.

And to think, they were willing to go to the aliens hive planet and obtain the royal jelly for fire without a care of the terrain and hell that they would come into contact with. And with the pure bred xenomorphs also running around. They were to stupid to look in their own darkened corners, which was a mistake. It would not of been hard to send down a droid or even a xenobot, they had been known to be high successful in situations such as this, but financially, the costs of building and running one was another matter. We lost the world due to the greed of wealth.

The darkness that had engulfed them at that moment only an hour earlier brought some sense of relief, being away from the aliens on the outside, but now, he knew that there was a greater threat being were he was, yet he was not sure why they had not run into any alien activity. He would not drop the sight of his gun though, he would be ready for anything, then his thoughts went away from him, back many years. Sam did not notice him wander of into deep thought, her face only sniffing at the repulsive stench. She could smell the aliens sickening odour, she did not notice Jacques in his own little world, his past.

He sat on a broken of brick wall, listening to the surrounding, the moon was full and almost hidden by the newly thick alien atmosphere, bringing a sense of dread on his own home planet. The buildings around him were desolate, destroyed in one of many battles against the monsters, and a lot of the damage was caused by the aliens themselves, with the senseless acts of domination. In their defence, they were not human and could not appreciate our way of life, they just destroyed it.

Commander Declan Jacques was motionless, silent, taking in every sound that was not his troops. The breathing and heartbeats he could fade out of the sounds of the fallen city. He heard movement, scratching, a faint echo of hisses from the distance. And he was relieved at the fact that the sounds were moving away from them, yet he would still listen, deciding when to make his move towards the hospital, hoping that those inside were still safe. But in all honestly, he knew in his heart that they were dead, but he had to make sure, looking over to his second in command Corporal Andrew Rayne, he signalled his next action.

Movement of his left hand and circling his fore and middle fingers, 'Stay, take command post'. Right hand, forefinger pointing sideways, left hand wave, head nod, 'I am taking a look in the first quadrant on the East side, going alone.'

Closer he moved towards the building, looking at the entrance that seemed to be blocked. He would have to find another way in, so he headed towards the dark alley, in the direction of the ambulance bay, taking in each sound, weary of everything around him. And into the shadows he disappeared, Rayne just watched as his Commander and friend vanished from sight. He looked at the marines that he had fought with for the past four months, they had been through a lot. Being the first into the xenomorph battle, only a few of them survived, but they were a team. Something about Jacques command that brought a sense of hope.

Noticing that the door was torn of, thrown to the side of the building did not sit well in his stomach, his thoughts on what had happened, thinking over the scenarios of the hospitals saddened demise. He closed his eyes for a moment, taking a few seconds to think what had taken place, he had not seen any blood as of yet, but was sure that he would soon. And as he thought, the images burrowed deeply into his mind, and he began to sweat.

His thoughts began to re-enact what had taken place...

It had been quick, over in a few minutes. They had come in from the sewer entrance, in the furnace room close to the morgue. A few dozen monsters in the air vents that could hold their weight, they moved at great speed, silently and effortlessly. Around the hospital they found the larger groups of civilians, the sick were not really ideal for what they had been sent in for, so they would be killed. The creatures could stand human instinct, but their domed heads ached with each human scream, so they would be quick.

They attacked all at once, with one single thought from a higher source. They would smash down into the large rooms and their claws would rip through human flesh with ease. Sharp teeth stabbed into the sick, blood sprayed over the walls, covering the rooms in a new coating of paint, blood red, warm, sticky. Chunks of flesh flew over the many rooms of the hospital as the aliens moved quickly killing all the patients. A group of the monsters taking the living into the shadows of the hospital, dragging them into the underbelly of the building, awaiting their painful destinies.

From the ambulance bay the Queen entered, ripping the large roll-down door of its track and to the side of the building smashing into the wall, as she entered a torn piece of shining metal from the door stabbed into her crown of a head, causing her yellow blood to spray over the stone floor, melting the hard surface, smoking the stone, causing a hole to be dug into the ground. Her cry of pain was heard by all and a moment of silence and complete stillness was given for her accident.

She made her way to the morgue, through the wafer thin walls to the last staircase down, to the storage chambers, large enough for her to create a hive, she already had the surrogate parents on their way, so all she had to do is rest and wait for the eggs to be born from her growing sac. Only a few screams she could hear and all was silent, not even her own servants would hiss, she wanted peace, and that is what she was given...

Then the last of this thoughts of the events of the hospital sunk in. Horror danced around him as he came to realise what had taken place, they had come across a hive. Which only meant one thing. It struck his thoughts, the aliens were not running away, they were moving around. They were going to attack, it was a trap, they had laid a trap for them. He turned and moved quickly into the alleyway once more, and as he looked back to the ambulance bay, he could see movement, finally movement that he was knowing would come, but not what he was expecting.

They poured out, climbing over each other, at such a great speed. The hissing echoed around Jacques head as he raced through the darkness to the street, his carbine fell to his side as he now broke out into the moonlight, looking over to his troops. He knew that the aliens would be coming from their behind and the hospital, so he had to run up the street into the direction he first heard the monsters.

His feet carried him into the view of the marines waiting for his signal to enter the hospital, instead they witnessed their commander running for his life away from the broken down building away from where they were positioned, wondering why he was running . But as he moved further away, they could see him hesitate his motions, stopping for a moment to turn to his troops, his eyes showed it all, fear, and death.

"Run damn it!" The loud shouting of a man knowing that something was coming their way. "Hundreds of the fucking things, RUN!" And his feet began to lead him towards his troops, who looked upon him with a sudden fear, not knowing what the hell was going on. They looked at him and began to run into his direction, not caring what was coming at them, but they did have a clue of what, and nothing would keep them were they had been headed, who gave a shit about the civilians, they had their own problems.

And when Rayne turned to see what was happening he froze. From the darkness of the tunnel, hundreds of them, black shining bodies, glistening with the moon light on their slimy hard skin. Their claws pointing at the running troops, hissing, shrieking, crying out for their feast of flesh. Rayne just lifted his carbine and began to fire, the shrieks of the creatures grew louder, and the carbine suddenly jammed. His eyes just looked upon the wave of evil darkness coming towards him.

Jacques turned back to see Rayne disappear into the horde of aliens coming towards him, and even though he could no longer see his friend, he could horrifically hear him. His screams, slowly becoming screams of pain, gargling screams. Hearing the blood coming from his friend with each cry he made, and before he knew what he was doing, his carbine was also raised like Raynes had been moments earlier, only this time, it did not jam and a storm of bullets flew like lightening in a storm at the demons.

The other marines turned also, ran back to Jacques whose carbine was blowing the aliens apart. A man who did not care anymore, just wanting to see as many of those evil pieces of space shit burn into the once solid street. And the storm became more fierce as now several highly armed marines had their fingers holding down their own triggers, screaming, yelling as they blew the demons back into hell.

"Declan... Is everything okay?" Sam's voice slowly grew louder as the thoughts of aliens being obliterated faded into dead memories. Jacques looked at her smiling face, showing hidden concern for his sudden loss of present thought. "Is everything okay honey?" Her smile grew brighter in the dankness of the tunnel. Even though she was covered in the same dripping slime from the walls, she was still a beautiful sight to behold, and he returned the glowing smile in the darkness.

"I'm fine Samantha." He replied in a soft tone.

"Good, then lets keep going, there is some light ahead." And she was right, about two-hundred yards into the darkness of the tunnels they could see light, an artificial light of-course, but it was still something, and they quickly moved into its direction, still with their carbines raised just in case there was something that was a threat to them. Yet with the lack of alien activity, there must be some calmness in where they were headed, there weren't even any screaming, and the silence was not an eerie one, it was almost peaceful.

"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.

It moved closer to the glass, its silver fangs dripping the warm metallic blood that was once from the living Francis John Woods. Sadly he was dead and his killer was already moving on to kill another. It was not particularly large for an alien, so it must be a new born, you could still make out dried blood on its body, its limps thinner than usual. Only an infant looked like that, but it did not make it any less deadly, as its head pointed at the glass. Hissing, its upper lips quivering as its jaws opened even wider.

It pounced...

... Guy pushed Stephen to the iron door behind him, as the creature pounced at the dirty mud and now blood stained window. But as Stephen hit the floor and rolled into the door, and as Guy looked on ready for the alien to smash through the glass, it was not there, only a yellow bubbling window was before them, steam and smoke coming from the hole in the glass, quickly growing as black chunks of xeno-flesh hit the floor in a stinking heap of dead alien.

He could not take his eyes away from the dead alien below him, he saw his death only moment earlier, his life flashing before him as the alien leapt at him, and now it was dead, he was alive and he was breathing really heavily, as he fell back onto his backside, watching at the hole that was once the window became bigger as now the wall was melting and the quickness was amazing, he could now see the lump of dead burning flesh. Then his eyes looked upwards, his head was coming back down to earth.

"Hi, I am Jacques and this is Samantha. Nice to meet you both." And Guys head just slumped back down as Stephens looked up at the two rough looking, marine equipped figure before him, and he smiled.

"...Err... Yeah... I'm Stephen... Hello..."

Guy stood up again and looked over to Jacques and Sam, not knowing what to really say at that time. "You cut it close didn't you?!" And he smiled. His smile was returned.

"Nah, I think we could of left it an extra few seconds, but we thought that we should just come in, shoot, say hello and that would be it." Sam giggled, softly, deeply under her hand. And Stephen laughed, looking over at them both, he walked over to the hole smelling the rancid stench of the once evil alien that was going to rip them apart if only. And he stepped over towards Jacques who turned his glance over to Guy who stepped over the remains of the alien.

"Guy Sanders. And thank you." Seriously now, he tried to show gratitude, but it really was not a emotion he was used to sharing with others, but right now he thought that the two that had saved him deserved something from him, and that was a big thing for him to give, and he also threw them a smile, which was not his usual-self. Something happened in those few seconds earlier that made him see something, hope for his life. "I think we better get going, they will know that this one is dead."

"Its a hive isn't it?" Jacques asked, knowing that feeling burning in his stomach, he was right in the middle of a hive and he just knew it, from the memories of the hospital coming back to him.

"Yes!" A dirty high pitched voice from behind them all came. "And you're the next batch for the Messiah!"