Good morning Mother. How did you sleep? The Queen asked as Ali walked up to her. Ali smiled and sat down in front of her daughter and said, "Not too well. I had another nightmare about Timothy."
Yes, I heard your screams. But TJ took care of the situation so I did not worry about it too much. Speaking of which, he is out scouting with a few other of my children right now and should be back in a few minutes.
Ali nodded and looked down at the ground. She could feel her daughter's gaze but she tried hard not to look. Finally the Queen spoke,Something else is troubling you.
Ali sighed and ran her fingers through her hair before looking up at her daughter, "I've been thinking about Jordan lately."
You think that you could have saved her? The Queen asked.
"Yeah," Ali replied, "I think I could have saved her if I just pulled the facehugger off."
It is not that simple, Mother, the Queen said softly and Ali hung her head, Even if you pulled the facehugger off, Jordan would still have died. The facehugger attaches itself to a victim with no intention of releasing it until the chestburster is implanted. If the facehugger were removed before then, the victim would die. But it would be painful, much more painful than the chestburster forcing its way out.
Ali's head shot up and the Queen continued, A facehugger is not just attached to the face of the victim; there is a tube that goes down into the victim's mouth and into their lungs. This is to give the victim oxygen to keep it alive. During that time the facehugger releases an embryo that ends up somewhere in between the lungs. That is when the facehugger falls off. Then the embryo begins to grow into a chestburster. Now, if there was an attempt to remove the facehugger before the embryo is planted, the facehugger will inject an incomplete embryo into the victim. The embryo does not form into a chestburster. Rather, it will stay inside the victim and eat the internal organs; a very slow and painful way to die.
Ali couldn't help but gasp as the Queen finished, "How do you know all that? If you got my memories?"
Because, The Queen and she let out a gurgled laugh, I am a Queen. Not only did I get your memories and thoughts, but I also have memories of former Queens. It gives me the knowledge to keep my Hive safe.
"So everything that past Queens learned and experienced, you have memories of that? Plus my own?" Ali asked. The Queen nodded her giant head. A screech suddenly sounded from the top of the stairs and TJ, along with four other aliens, came running down the stairs. TJ hurried over as the Queen turned toward him. They talked for a few minutes and then the Queen turned back to Ali.
Trae and his group of soldiers have arrived, The Queen said, They are already in the orphanage but, according to TJ, are moving slowly to avoid an alien ambush. They also do not really know the layout of the orphanage so they do not know where we are.
"I'm going to tear them apart!" Ali said as her eyes filled with malice and hate.
I think that is the best thing we can do right now. We need to get rid of these intruders as soon as possible.
Ali grinned darkly and said, "Good, because I have been dying to get my hands around Trae's throat!" TJ hissed as well, eager to sink his teeth into the one responsible for Ali's suffering.
Ali walked over to the bed and sat down. She reached up and found the knot that kept the bandage around her neck. She carefully untied it and took the strip of cloth off. Then, slowly, she reached up to touch her throat. She could feel a thick scar under her fingers and she sat there, rubbing it gently.
"Let's go!" Ali said in a deathly quiet voice.
Ali stood up and followed TJ as he led the way to an air duct entrance. Ali stopped when they reached it and looked curiously at TJ he hissed and crouched down low. Ali then understood what he meant. Going through the air ducts would allow them to sneak up, unseen, and surprise the soldiers. But as TJ walked into the air duct Ali hung back as she thought back to the last time she had crawled into the air ducts. The Queen had just burst out and was still small enough to fit inside the air ducts. That was when Timothy and the Queen had killed all the children in the orphanage except for a select few that were used as hosts later on. Just then TJ stuck his head back out of the duct and hissed to Ali. She took a deep breath and followed him inside.
She found that she was able to move around the air ducts without light a lot easier than last time and she was almost as silent as TJ. After five minutes of walking through the air ducts hunched over, Ali and TJ reached a section that was a lot larger. Standing up Ali found herself staring at twelve other aliens hiding out. One of them walked up to TJ and hissed to him. They sat there for a few minutes exchanging hisses to one another until TJ finally came back to where Ali was. He nudged her and walked over to a vent. Ali peered out of the vent and saw four men standing in the room below. They had their backs to the vent and were more concerned on what might come out of the door. Ali smiled and slowly stuck her fingers in the holes of the vent cover. Moving as quietly as she could Ali pushed on the cover. For a while nothing happened but then the cover suddenly jerked forward. Ali managed to get a good hold of it and slowly placed it back in the duct behind her.
Placing her hands on either side of the vent opening, Ali moved quietly and hung her feet over the side. Keeping an eye on the soldiers, she dropped down to the ground. Moving in the shadows, Ali made her way to the door. When she reached the point where the soldiers would have noticed her, TJ let out an ear-splitting hiss. The soldiers turned around in shock. The moment their backs were turned Ali rushed forward and slammed the door shut. One of the soldiers turned back and gave a gurgled gasp as he saw Ali standing there. Then, aliens began pouring out of the opening in the vent. The soldiers fired at the aliens but where in such a panic that they didn't aim and it was easy for the aliens to dodge the bullets and close in on their targets.
Ali turned away to look out the window in the door as the screams began rising into the air. The hallway was deserted but one soldier suddenly came running as the screaming continued. Ali hurried away from the window as the soldier drew closer and gestured back to the vent. The aliens hurried back to the wall and, scaling up it, climbed into the vent. But before Ali could move, the soldier burst the door open and stepped inside.
The soldier didn't notice Ali as she ducked behind the door. He also didn't seem to notice the open vent. He just hurried over to the fallen soldiers. As he crouched down, he started shaking. The bodies were mangled and torn. One of them had a hole through his head; the other had a gaping hole in his chest. Ali giggled softly and slowly shut the door again. As the door handle clicked into place, the soldier quickly stood up and spun around to see what had caused the noise. He froze when he saw Ali standing in front of the closed door and Ali was able to recognize who he was. He was one of the soldiers that had refused to kill her when ordered by Trae. Ali smiled and walked slowly toward the soldier as his gun hung limp at his side. Before Ali could do anything, TJ leapt out of the vent and, with a screech, leapt at the soldier. The soldier turned and started to lift the gun as the alien fell on top of him.
Suddenly, the walls were splattered with acidic blood. The soldier screamed as some of the blood splattered on him. Ali ran toward TJ screaming for him not to be dead. TJ had been impaled through the chest by the gun and had lost a lot of blood, but he was still alive. Ali looked back at the soldier; TJ's blood had completely eaten through his vest and had burned away all the skin, revealing bright white bone.
Ali didn't care what happened to him, all that mattered now was getting TJ back to the Hive. She looked up to the hole and saw two aliens poking their heads out. She gestured to them and they climbed out of the hole and came over to her.
"Take TJ back to the Hive. Make sure he is well looked after," Ali told the aliens.
They nodded in reply and one of them crouched down by TJ. TJ looked up as the two aliens supported him. He hissed to Ali before allowing himself to be taken away by the aliens. Ali understood what TJ was trying to tell her but she wasn't going to listen. TJ wanted her not to go after Trae and the rest of the soldiers until more reinforcements showed up to help.