Hey all, Happy Halloween. Lazily copying this from The Unforgotten, I know this chapter is long in coming since I had promised, as mentioned on my profile I was asked to co-author a website, being the one in charge of the world building, history, races, and pretty much all of the creative lore. It has eaten up a lot of time, and I promised my co-author that I would be devoting NaNo to writing solely for the site so that we can get it into beta, at which time he said it would be alright to share the link to it to my readers for those of you who roleplay. That being said, it means that there will be at least another month of silence for me, and I'm very sorry about that, the story isn't updating as quickly as I want and I know it's not going as fast as you all want either. I hope you can forgive me, and thanks for your patience so far. I am glad that I was able to finish this chapter before going dark for NaNo, and I hope you enjoy it.
"I don't know where we are," she said to Jitar. The whole bunker was a foreign place to her, no denying, but this floor, as they navigated it, it's purpose eluded her. There was no one here, not even more security synths. The whole of the place was entirely too clean, painted a ceramic white. The rooms they passed were empty save for furniture. The floor was silent, save for a low hum coming from the air vents.
The further they went, the less she understood about where they were. She was so focused on the mystery, that she jumped, her heart racing as a roar shattered the air. She whipped around, expecting that Jitar was being attacked, but instead he was leaning heavily against a wall, claws digging into his chest. Dropping the badge, gun and knife, Kaylin ran over and took his hand in both of hers, pleading as she pried his fingers away, and consoling as best as she could when he started gasping for air. The attack was over shortly, and she had her hand over his heart again, fingers stained in his glowing blood.
Had she mixed the medicine incorrectly? The nymph was more active than it should have been. It wouldn't be surprising, it had been nine years, and the medicine was still alien, and so was he.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, looking up into his mask, still holding his hand.
He didn't react at first, still as a statue, then moved his hand so that the back of it rested on her chest for a moment, then he pushed her out of his way, and kept walking, straightening up, shoulders back, like it hadn't happened.
She looked at his back, eyes narrowed, brow bent then ran to catch up, gathering the weapons, and walking beside him, silently. She busied herself for a moment, trying to fit the gun and knife somewhere so that her hands were free. The badge she felt safe putting in the pocket of the jumpsuit, the knife she slipped into one of the belt-like straps on her left side, and the gun she slipped onto the same straps on her left.
She was deafened slightly when the weapon discharged and put a hole into the ground. She exclaimed, though it was hard to hear with the ringing noise. She also barely heard Jitar's rattle, and she looked at him. His mask was looking at her, then he snorted and shook his head, tossing his tresses and turning to keep walking.
She frowned and closed her eyes, rubbing her ears to get the ringing to stop, when it didn't she frowned, then realized that it wasn't entirely from the sound of the gun. She turned her head, then called at Jitar to wait, and he stopped and turned, watching as she moved to the door on her right, then across the hall to the one on her left. The ringing or more like a whining noise, was coming from in there.
She reached into her pocket and took out the badge, swiping it and opened the door.
"Welcome Mr. Weyland," said MOTHER's voice.
The room was bathed in the same white light as the rest of the floor, but also in the flickering colors of several large screens. The image quality was the best available, but it was still gritty. Some of the screens were completely black, another appeared to be the image of the floor. Others were writhing masses, one of pitch black reflecting some glimmers of light.
Kaylin's eyes widened.
"That's why there weren't any in the hive," she whispered. A rattle answered her behind her, and she looked over at Jitar. The alien was silent, turning his head slowly to her, then back to the screens. She began searching the buttons, finding which ones operated what cameras on what floors.
"Thirteenth floor," she confirmed looking at a screen of writhing black, "twelfth floor," more black, "eleven floor," the camera was malfunctioning, "tenth floor," more writhing black. She counted under her breath.
"Sixth floor."
She stopped, looking at the flowing black sea of undulating xenomorphs.
"They're above us," she looked back at the grid and pressed the buttons again, "eight floor… they're below us."
Kaylin swallowed and looked over her shoulder. The room was empty and silent.
She stared wide eyed for a moment, then returned to the screens, flipping up the floors, "fifth, fourth, third," the writhing mass of black chitin vanished.
She blinked, "not on floor three yet, but moving up, towards…," two button presses, a different writhing mess, one of softer flesh, the flashes of bullets, the sprays of blood.
The colors of this battle reflected in the amber of her eyes. Frantically she began flipping switches and pressing buttons, "come on come on, Jitar help me!"
The alien snorted at her, then looked at the board, pressing a button, then another. Whether it was her or him, a red light came on that told her she had the audio system on.
"Everyone!" she screamed, "everyone stop! Stop! Listen to me! The xenomorphs are coming up!" nothing changed, they still fought, oblivious to her, too lost in their bloodlust, unable to hear her past the screaming and gunfire, she couldn't tell. She felt her face burn.
"EVERYONE YOU NEED TO GET OUT NOW! THE XENOMORPHS ARE COMING RIGHT FOR YOU!"
Her voice pitched and cracked. She repeated this message as loud as she could, over and over, tears streaming down her face at the futility of it all. They were too far gone.
She slammed her fists onto the board, causing some of the screens to change or flicker.
Jitar was silent beside her.
"Get out! Get out now! The xenomorphs are coming up the floors, you need to get out and shut the mountain! Go! GO!"
She continued to yell, beg, and plead, her voice quickly becoming hoarse.
As if by some miracle, the writing mass of bodies so intent on killing each other, began to break apart, run towards the light, first just a few, then several, until finally the entire mass was moving towards the exit, blocking out the bottom quarter of the rectangular light.
"Shut the mountain!" became her new mantra, shouting at the people she could not even hear, praying that someone had the sense to listen to her.
She stared with wet wide eyes at the screen, holding her breath. The rectangle stood tall, open.
Slowly, it shrunk, the final thin line plunging the entrance into darkness. The night vision turned on for the camera.
If there were any living souls left in that room, they were lying motionless and silent on the floor along with the dead bodies.
She took a shaky breath, sniffing and rubbing her eye, looking over and then up at the alien, who was looking down at her, still silent.
"Come on," she said softly, "let's go find your ship.
Wandering around the floor, the only sound that could be heard was Kaylin's footsteps and occasionally a door opening.
She didn't know why she was continuing the search for the ship. Something to take her mind off of the inevitable. She wasn't even sure if it was on this floor, it could be on one of the ones below, or above, infested already with the xenomorphs. A suicide mission either way.
There was no way of keeping track of time, any room she entered, whether it be a domestic room or a work station, there were no apparent time-keeping devices. Likely there would be some on the monitors of the computers they discovered, but she didn't investigate. The moment any room revealed itself to be vacant of the craft they were looking for, she moved on.
A large promising doorway down a hallway labeled B208 opened with Weyland's badge. MOTHER's voice welcomed him, and the room lit in unnatural white light, seemingly entirely absorbed by the dull grey dented metal of Jitar's ship.
She was excited, despite herself, running past tables where alien devices were laid out, some broken into pieces. Jitar glanced at these and went to investigate them.
Kaylin put her hands on the ship, reassuring that it was real. It was very warm to the touch.
Kaylin's heart slammed against her chest when she heard crashing behind her. She whipped around. Jitar was flipping the tables over, smashing the technology that had been taken from his ship. She moved towards him. He needed to get into his ship, the tools she needed to remove the parasite were in there.
She stopped before she even got to him. Her blood froze. The breath left her body. The barrel of a gun was pointed at her. There was no way, it wasn't possible, unless….
Jitar rattled and roared, charging Weyland. Gunfire sent spurts of green blood out of Jitar's legs, but he barreled on, barely faltering.
"You're starting to become less worth this aggravation!" snarled the man, firing into Jitar's arm as his claws came down towards him. Jagged blades unsheathed and tore into Weyland's torso, unleashing a massive spray of milky-white fluid.
Jitar evaded, putting several feet between him and the android with the grace of a dancer. The android looked down at his severed arm, scoffing and reaching to grab the gun still held in its hand. Jitar roared, throwing the spinning blade from his hip, the blades neatly cutting the gun into pieces, sticking into the floor.
The android reacted not even a split second later, rushing towards Jitar, fist raised. It hit Jitar square in the shoulder, the impact easily heard from where Kaylin was standing. She flinched, running forward to aid Jitar, how she didn't know, the only thing in her mind was the alien, buckling down to one knee, wheezing heavily. She didn't even stop when the Weyland android turned towards her with one of Jitar's broken blades in his hand. She didn't even blink when he lifted his hand to throw it at her.
She came to a screeching halt when bullets tore through the air.
The android buckled, jerking as each bullet hit its mark, and he turned to face the Sergeant. She was bleeding from her hairline and a three-clawed gash that tore from her face to her torso.
She ejected and reloaded the clip of her handgun, in which time the android threw the broken blade, piecing the sergeant's chest with the accuracy only an android would have. She faltered, cried out, blood spitting from her mouth. Despite this the woman recovered and kept shooting.
The android made a move towards her, only to find himself in a crossfire as Kaylin also opened fire. The voice in the machine faltered, dropping in tone from human to metallic. Roaring like a beast, the android chose a target, charging towards Kaylin, who stumbled back almost dropping the gun. Weyland entire abdomen exploded. Parts and fluid flew everywhere as the android dropped to the ground.
The two women looked over to Jitar, still kneeling, as his canon, barrel still glowing red, rotated on his shoulder back into a resting position.
The sergeant gave a half-laugh and dropped to the floor. Kaylin dropped the gun and rushed over to her. Bloody hand fought against her as she tried to reach the woman's wounds, Kaylin pleaded to let her help the marine.
"Go" said the sergeant, "get out of here," she growled. Finally, her hand snatched Kaylin by the throat and dragged her near.
"I swear to god," the woman choked, "if you heal my wounds, and keep me away from her, I will tear out your guts and feed them to you."
Kaylin stared, tears streaming down her face as the hand slipped away, leaving blood on the doctor's skin. The hand roughly shoved her away.
"Get out of here, you and your ugly boyfriend."
The amber-eyed woman shakily stood to her feet, looking at the marine as she lay dying. She turned, dazed, and moved to Jitar who struggled to his feet, bleeding from his crippling injuries. She could tell they were not life threatening by looking at him, and turned to go to the ship, a hand on his back. She looked over her shoulder often, looking back at the sergeant as she sank to the floor, her chest rising and falling.
Kaylin could hear the garbled breaths from where she was. The doctor bent, then straightened and turned walking back to the sergeant.
The marine choked on an insult when the woman came back into view, then smiled and chuckled when the barrel of Adolfo's gun was put to her head.
"Thank go-."
Kaylin closed her eyes as the gun jerked in her hand, remaining open. The weapon fell out of Kaylin's hand, sliding out of her lap and to the floor. She felt so small kneeling next to the marine. She took the sergeant's hand, squeezed it, then rested it on the woman's chest.
Her dogtags said 'Rafaella Vargas.'
Her pain was over.