Katie walked carefully down the tunnel. They were pretty far into the tunnels, but had yet to find Alyssa. She was worried. The journal had said that these things reproduced like parasites, living inside a host until they were mature enough. What if one was living inside Alyssa? Katie shuddered at the thought. Alyssa was like a sister to her, and if one of those monsters was living inside of her, then she was basically already dead.

Nate walked up next to her. This made her feel a little bit safer. But not much. She looked at him and he smiled. She couldn't help but smile back, even in a situation like this. She loved him too much.

"It's gonna be okay," he told her. God, he sounded so sincere, but she knew he wasn't sure. She nodded.

"I know," she said, and even she could hear the doubt in her voice. He gently leaned towards her and kissed her. At that moment, she really felt everything would be okay.

Alyssa opened her eyes. It was dark, and she couldn't remember where she was. She was standing up, but something was wrong. She was being held off the ground, by the same sticky stuff she had seen on the walls of the tunnel. She tried to move, but the sticky substance was holding her against the wall. She pushed against the sticky stuff harder, and it broke. She fell a good four feet before her knees hit the ground. She winced; it had hurt like hell. Her throat hurt too, but she didn't know why. She coughed, which hurt her chest.

She quickly stood up, and looked around. She was in a large room, and she could see more people up on the walls. She immediately recognized one. It was Ryan Kerckhoff, who was the leader of the marines who had been here before.

"Kerckhoff!" she yelled in joy, and ran over to him. It was Kerckhoff alright, but something was definitely wrong. He was dead. He had dried blood on his face and chest, and he had a large hole in his chest. His rib bones were bent outward, as if something had burst out of him. What the hell? She thought. She looked around, and saw more bodies; dozens of them. She recognized several of the people: Aditya Sen, Nicole Valadares, Dante Baldan, Garret Tyler; all with their chests broken out from the inside. She couldn't keep it in anymore, and let out the loudest scream she had ever screamed. She began running out of this room, hoping she was going the right way.

"Holy fucking shit," Nate said quietly. They had come to a large room, filled with eggs. God, there were hundreds of them. They were standing in front of a pair of footprints, which he assumed were Alyssa's. But how the hell did she get across the room? And worse, how were they supposed to get past the eggs. He looked over at Andrew, who had the same confused look on his face that everyone else had.

"Nate, did you bring those grenades?" Andrew asked. Nate nodded, and signaled for everyone to move back. Everyone moved back about fifteen feet, and Nate moved back about ten. He grabbed his pulse rifle machine gun, since it had a grenade-launcher built into it. She grabbed four grenades and loaded them into the gun.

"Everybody ready?" he asked. He leaned back, and saw the four of them; Kevin, Andrew, Rigby and Katie nod. Nate held the gun firm, aimed, and fired. One grenade shot out and landed near a group of grenades. Nate fired again three more times, and watched as each grenade landed near a bunch of eggs.

"Everybody get back!" he shouted, and he turned and ran. Everyone began running too, and suddenly Nate felt and heard the explosion. The impact send him flying, and his winced as his head hit the ground. He did have a helmet, but it didn't really help. He quickly got up, as did everyone else, and began running back to the room. There were a few flames here and there, and lots of acidic goo everywhere. They slowly walked through the room, looking around. Nate suddenly stopped as he saw something coming out of the tunnel.

"Everybody!" he yelled and pointed towards whatever was coming out. They all raised there guns and aimed. Nate was ready to shoot until he saw what it was. Alyssa.

"Alyssa!" Rigby screamed in joy. She saw Alyssa begin to cry. She ran up to Rigby and hugged her. Rigby wasn't much of a touchy-feely kind of girl, but this moment called for it.

"What the hell is going on?" Alyssa cried. Rigby remained silent. She herself wasn't entirely sure. "I mean, I wake up strapped to a wall, and I found Kerckhoff and a few others, but they were dead! Something had…" she started, but began crying so hard she couldn't continue. Kevin walked up to Alyssa, and Alyssa let go of Rigby immediately, hugging and holding on to Kevin.
"Its gonna be okay, Alyssa. Everything's gonna be fine," he told her. Suddenly, Rigby thought a terrible thought. Alyssa's footprints had stopped near the eggs, and she had woken up farther into the tunnels around a bunch of dead people. What if she had been...

"Alyssa, do you remember how you ended up farther into the tunnels?" Rigby asked her. Alyssa let go of Kevin and stared at Rigby. She shook her head.

"No, I just remember being in this room, looking at those egg things," she said. Rigby felt her heart skip a beat. Alyssa had looked at the eggs; how could they be sure she wasn't carrying one of those things in her? Rigby backed away from her.

"Get the fuck away from me!" Rigby screamed. What if the babies attracted the big ones? What if it burst out near them? How big were the babies; big enough to kill on of them? Rigby began backing away, she didn't want to be anywhere near Alyssa when that thing came out.

"What?" Alyssa asked, her voice teary and confused. Scared.

"Rig, cut it out," Katie said sternly. Rigby was barely listening. She kept backing, she wanted to get away from her. Even if she was backing towards the room where Alyssa had come from, at least she was away.

"No! Get the fuck away from me!" Rigby screamed, her eyes watering. She was terrified of whatever was in Alyssa. Andrew walked a little closer.

"Listen, just calm down Rig. We're not sure if she has one in her," he said calmly. But Rigby was sure, positive, that Alyssa was infected.

"What's in me?" Alyssa asked. Kevin shook his head at her.

"We'll tell you later," he whispered to her.

"Rigby, this isn't helping!" Nate yelled. Rigby didn't care though. Fuck them, fuck all of them.

"Listen, if you wanna be near her when that thing pops out, more power to you! But I plan to be pretty fucking far away when it does!" She screamed at them. Rigby was almost at the huge tunnel opening Alyssa had come from. She turned to run that way, when all of a sudden.

"RUN!" Andrew screamed. The aliens were running out of the tunnel near Rigby, some on all fours, some on two legs, some on the walls and ceiling. They were everywhere. Andrew had enough time to see them swarm over Rigby like ants, and he felt like puking as he heard her screams. They all turned and ran as fast as they could towards where they had come.

Andrew could hear the aliens snarling and hissing behind him, and he kicked up his speed as much as he could. He looked at Nate, who was ahead of him. Andrew needed a way to make sure these fucking things wouldn't make it to the base.

"NATE!" he screamed. Nate didn't look back, but still replied.

"WHAT?" he shouted back.

"WHEN WE MAKE IT TO THE TOP OF THE STAIRS OF THE BASEMENT, FIRE YOUR GRENADE-LAUNCHER AT THE TUNNEL OPENING!" he shouted. He could see Nate nod to himself.

"OKAY!" he shouted back. Andrew turned his head to see how close the aliens were to him. They were about twelve feet behind him, snarling and slobbering. Andrew couldn't help but smile a little at the thought that in just a few seconds, a bunch of these bastards would be blown to bits.

Suddenly, for a third of a second, Andrew lost his balance, and tripped over his own feet. FUCK! He thought as he fell, hitting the ground hard and doing a summersault. He immediately got up, getting his balance again, but it was too late.

One of the aliens pounced in him from behind, and he fell face first onto the hard, rough ground. He screamed as its teeth dug into his right shoulder, and he could feel his own blood squirting from the chunk the alien had taken out of his shoulder... He tried to get up, but the alien easily outweighed him, it had to be at least three-hundred pounds, probably more. Suddenly, he felt himself being dragged backwards, towards where Alyssa had come from, and then he blacked out completely…

Nate was the first one to reach the top of the stairs in the basement. He had a perfect view of the tunnel opening, waiting for everyone to come through. Katie was coming up the stairs now.

"Go inside," he said quickly. She nodded and ran inside the base. He waited a few seconds, waiting for Kevin, Alyssa and Andrew to come. Kevin and Alyssa came almost right away, running out of the tunnels and up the stairs. They quickly ran into the base without being told to. He waited for Andrew, his pulse-rifle aimed at the tunnel. He waited about ten seconds, but Andrew still hadn't come. Nate knew Andrew wouldn't be coming; you didn't have to be a rocket scientist to know that.

Nate focused on the tunnel. He could hear them coming closer to the tunnel. He saw one coming, slimy and deadly. As he pulled the trigger, he thought of all his friends who had been killed by these fucking things. The alien looked up just as the grenade struck it in the face. Nate watched as the grenade exploded, and the ceiling of the tunnel collapsed, closing the opening. Nate stared at what used to be the opening, making sure the aliens couldn't get in. After a minute or two, he turned, walking into the complex.

Nobody spoke for the longest time. They were in the barracks, sitting around each other in the beds. They had gone to the barracks as soon as they had made it into the complex, but everyone seemed to be in shock. Alyssa had thrown up when they reached the barracks, but nobody was quite sure if that was from her seeing Rigby taken by the aliens, or from what might be growing inside her.

Kevin prayed to God they were wrong. He loved Alyssa, had for a long time, and if one of those things was in her… well, he didn't want to think of it. And worse, she still didn't even know what was going on. She needed to know though, he couldn't just let it be a surprise to her; one minute she could be eating lunch and the next a little alien is crawling out of her stomach.

"Alyssa, you know how Rig freaked out down below?" he asked. She nodded. He started to talk, but Nate cut him off.

"Kevin, I really don't think this is the time to explain to her what's going on," he said. Katie looked over at Nate and scoffed.

"Well when the fuck is a good time? There is no fucking good time, Nate," she said to him. Nate stood up, and Kevin could tell he was getting pissed.

"No, but I know I sure as fuck wouldn't want to know right after two of my friends died!" he shouted at her. Kevin finally spoke up.

"She needs to know, Nate! Would you want it to be a surprise if you were in her position?" Kevin questioned.

"Fine! You want her to know, you fucking tell her!" Nate screamed. Alyssa finally jumped up, and Kevin could nearly feel her frustration.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ALL TALKING ABOUT?" she screamed at them. Everyone got quiet, until Katie spoke up.

"Alyssa, you may want to sit down," she said. Alyssa shook her head.

"No, I'm fine, thank you," she said with a sort of bitchy attitude.

"Okay. Those things down there, they breed by putting a baby inside of a "host", of sorts. And, well, when their grown enough, they sort of burst out," Katie explained. Alyssa stared at her, mouth wide open. Kevin thought she looked like she was about to break down crying, and spoke.

"Don't worry, we can't be positive you have one in you," he said. She began rubbing her stomach, and looked at her own gut.

"No, No. I do. I can feel it," she stated. Kevin felt his heart sink. He began running his fingers through his hair, unaware that he was even doing it. He did that a lot when he was upset or stressed.

"Are you sure?" he heard Nate ask. He looked up at Alyssa and saw her nod.

Yeah. Before I thought it was just a stomach ache or heartburn, but its not. I can feel it moving inside me," she said, tears streaming down her face. Kevin couldn't believe it. He had wanted to believe so badly that they were wrong in the tunnels, that she hadn't been impregnated. But she was.

"What the fuck are we gonna do?" Katie asked. Nobody answered.

BOOM! They all jumped as they heard something slam against the door. All of them raised there guns, except for Alyssa who had lost hers in the tunnels. Kevin grabbed his pistol and threw it to her. She caught it without even having to think, and aimed at the door. BOOM BOOM!

"When that thing comes in, don't waste ammo. Use just enough to kill it," Nate told them. BOOM BOOM! Kevin could feel goose bumps rising on his arms, and suddenly the loud banging stopped, and the door slowly opened…