I HOLD NO CLAIMS TO ANY MEMBER OF THIS STORY. Only Riley and Jack are mine!
Chapter Seven
Safety Crashes
There hadn't been a fire in the Med lab. Ripley had held up a lighter to the sensor; and for good reason. The Facehuggers had been released inside the room with her and Newt. They had got there just in time to save Ripley as one had attached itself to her neck. She claimed that Burke was the bastard that had tried to put them through that and now everyone had currently cornered the said man in the back of the supplies room.
"I say we grease this rat-fuck son of a bitch right now!" Hudson growled, shoving his gun in Burke's face.
"The only one killing this fucker is me!" Jack shoved Hudson off. "It was my wife he tried to kill!"
"It just doesn't make any goddamn sense," Hicks sighed.
"Yeah it does," Riley continued to glare at the man sitting in front of her. "He's a scumbag."
"He figured that he could get an Alien back through quarantine if one of us was impregnated-or whatever you call it. And then frozen for the trip home. Nobody would know about the Embryos we were carrying-me and Newt."
"Wait now, we'd all know." Hicks commented.
"Not if the bastard decided to screw with a couple of the freezers. Then, with the rest of us gone, he could come up with whatever story he liked." Riley growled.
"Fuck!" Hudson turned to glare at the man again. "He's dead. You're dog meat, pal."
"This is so nuts." Burke began. The others could see the fear in his face but he stuck to defending himself. "Listen…listen to what you're saying. It's paranoid delusion. It's really sad. It's pathetic."
"Burke," Ripley began. "I don't know which species is worse. You don't see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage."
"All right." Hicks sighed and moved forward, grabbing the other man. "We waste him. No offense."
"Bullshit," Jack growled, trying to rip him from Hick's grip. "Total offense and I wanna be the guy to do it!"
"No, he's gotta go back!" Ripley's words were cut off as the lights shut down, soon to be replaced by red emergency lights. "They cut the power."
"These bastards are smart," Riley hissed, standing from her chair.
"What do you mean 'they' cut the power?" Hudson asked. "How could they? They're animals."
"Apparently not," Jack turned from Burke and grabbed his gun again. "This means that shit's about to get bad."
"You two," Hick turned to the remaining members. "Check the corridors. Move!"
"Norman, watch Burke." Ripley told him, moving to the screens. "Newt, stay close."
"Here we go." Riley sighed quietly to herself.
"The two of you stick with me." Jack told the sisters. "The three of us are going to get out of here; just like last time." Newt moved forward and grabbed his pants leg. He gave a small smile. "The four of us."
All they could do was wait as Vasquez and Hudson talked about the signal being weird and that the Aliens were moving in closer and closer. The group all met back up in Operations, Hicks claiming that it was 'Game time' before they sealed the door shut.
"They're right on us," Vasquez told them.
"How the hell are they getting inside?" Jack growled, staring at the meter.
"Could they be under the floor?" Riley asked.
"Would you go under the floor?"
"No, I'd use the…ceiling." Riley's voice faded at the last word and everyone lifted their heads to look at the roof.
"You gotta be fuckin' kidding me!" Hudson cried.
"Give me the light," Hicks ordered, using a chair to get closer to the ceiling. Everyone held their breaths as he slowly peered into the ceiling before he gave a cry and fell back, his gun going off.
"I guess that means they're here," Jack tightened his grip on his own gun. At that moment, the Aliens dropped down into the room; a bunch of them. None of them wasted any time in counting before beginning to fire themselves; even Gorman pulled out a small pistol and began to fire.
"Medical," Ripley cried as more and more fell into the room. "Get to Medical!"
They moved, trying to get through the door, but Burke had locked them out. While trying to bust the said door down, Hudson was going crazy in holding back the Aliens; until one of them busted up underneath him and began to drag him down into the floor.
"Hudson!" Hicks and Vasquez tried to grab him and save him, but it didn't work.
~We're gonna die this time,~ Riley found herself thinking as she stopped pounding on the Medical door. ~We're not gonna make it home this time, no matter what we do.~ She blinked and glanced at her sister as Newt clung to her and Jack stood beside her, ready to keep the Aliens back if they made it back to them; when they made it back to them.
"Watch out, Anora," Hicks moved forward and began to weld through the door handle, giving them passage into the Medical room.
Stepping back as Vasquez held back the Aliens, she watched as the door was opened and move through with the others, just to find that the next door was locked, too. She didn't know what to do. What could she do? There was no doubt in her mind that she and the rest of them here were going to die. But, as Newt led them into the vents to try and escape the Aliens, she swore one thing to herself.
There was no way in hell that she was going down without a fight.
There wasn't much room to do anything in the vents and as Ripley and Newt led the way, Anora followed them as Hicks and Jack followed her. Gorman and Vasquez weren't far behind. The sound of the guns echoed around the vents, telling her that the aliens had followed them here as well.
"Bishop, do you read me?" Hick's voice called out behind her. "Over."
"The ship is on its way," Jack heard the synthetic's answer. "E.T.A., 16 minutes."
"Stand by there. We're on our way."
Glancing over her shoulder as the gunshot got further and further away, the woman realized that they were leaving Vasquez behind.
"Don't stop," Jack told Riley, pushing her forward. "Keep going."
"But, the others-"
"Just go!" Hicks told her as Gorman turned back.
Biting her lip, Riley continued to move forward, hurrying after Ripley and Newt as they finally exited the vents and came to a fan and a ladder.
"All right, ladies first," Jack shoved Ripley towards the ladder first before handing Newt up to her next. They began to climb but merely seconds later and explosion went off, knocking them all off balance; and Newt off of the ladder to slip in between the fan and wall. Jack and Ripley tried to grab her but Riley's attention was on the explosion.
"That doesn't mean what I think it does, does it?"
Hicks have glanced back at the vent himself, a frown on his face. It had. Gorman and Vasquez were gone now, too.
"Fuck," Glancing back at Jack, Riley gave a curse of her own. Newt had fallen down another shaft. "I wouldn't suppose that either of you know where this shaft goes, do you?" He asked them.
Riley shook her head but Hicks gave a growl. "I don't, but I know how we can find her!" He jumped on the ladder.
"How?" Riley called to him.
"I did what you said," He glanced back at her. "And put the tracker on the kid, remember?"
Riley didn't know what to say until she hopped on the ladder beneath him. "When this is over, I'm gonna kiss you, Dwayne."
He gave a chuckle. "I'll be waiting on it."
"You can talk about this later," Jack growled at them. "Let's just hurry and save the girl!"
There was nothing that the group could do but pray that they got there in time to save the girl from whatever could happen and get to Bishop and the ship. Hicks led them down several stairs before he had to use the welder to cut through the floor to reach the child. Vasquez had the other one so it was all up to Hicks. The beeping began to go off again, telling them all that more aliens were nearby and moving in faster. Ripley began to panic; and she got even worse when the little girl began to scream. They bashed through the floor but the girl was already gone.
"No! NO!" Ripley tried to climb down but Hicks and Jack grabbed her.
"We have to go!" Hicks growled.
"No," She struggled every inch of the way. "They don't kill you! They don't kill you! She's alive! She's alive!"
"Eleanor," Jack grabbed his wife's face and held it firmly, his other arm pinning her arms to her side. "I know she isn't. But we have to go. I am not going to stand here and let my wife die because of some kid we met six hours ago. Now let's go!"
Hicks grabbed Riley and the two of them led the way to the Level B Elevator. Riley felt horrible. Could they really just leave the girl there? Was there something that they could really do or were they screwed completely? Maybe they could think of something on the way to Bishop and the ship.
"Jack," Riley began. "Is there-"
Her words were cut off by both she and her sister giving a cry as one of the Aliens popped before them, trying to get into the elevator. Jack jumped in front of his wife to protect her as Hick's gun went off. It killed the Alien, but it blasted Acid on Jack's back and Hick's chest. Ripley moved and pulled her husband's jacket off and Riley moved to helped Hicks get his armor off.
"Jesus Christ," Riley cried as the smoke filled up the room. The acid had caught the left side of his face as well and had sunk into his body through the armor. Both men were moaning. "Just hang on; we're almost there!"
The elevator opened up on the North Lock, giving them passage to the ship and Bishop. Riley let out a cry of relief as the ship came into view landing before them and the robotic man joined it.
"Bishop, how much time?" Riley demanded as Riley moved on to put Hicks on the ship.
"Plenty. 26 minutes." The man replied.
"We're not leaving."
"We're not?"
"Ellen," Jack gave a hiss as his back continued to sting. "I know what you're thinking and there's no way in hell that I'm going to let you go back in there."
"They don't kill them, Jack! She's alive! She's still alive! I have to go. I have to save her!"
Riley gave a sigh as she set Hicks down in a seat and strapped him in. "Are you going to be okay?"
"I'm a Marine," Was his answer. "I'll be fine."
"Don't kick the bucket on me, you got it?" She told him.
He gave a grin. "Of course not. You still owe me that kiss, remember?"
"Screw that," She told him before crashing her lips to his.
The last man that she had kissed had been Dallas before the group had been sent into Cryo-sleep again before they had been woken up at the beginning of all the crap to do with these Xenomorphs. It had been almost 60 years and damn, did it feel good.
"I'll be here to get a second one when you come back," Hicks told her softly when she had pulled away.
Riley flushed. "You…uh, you know, huh?"
Hicks gave a low chuckle. "She's your sister, Anora. I know there's no way in hell that you're going to let her go back in for that child without you."
"You know me better than I thought," She grinned, straightening up. "Make sure that Jack doesn't try to come after us."
"If you're not back in fifteen minutes we'll both be coming in after you," Jack growled from the seat beside her.
"You know me, Jack," Riley grinned. "I'm always on time."
"Here," Ripley's voice joined them as the woman handed her sister her own seat of guns. She had taped a rifle and a flamethrower together for both of them and had grabbed more rounds to take with them.
"Ripley," Bishop began.
"I don't want to hear is, Bishop," The woman growled. "She's alive. There's still time."
"In nineteen minutes, this area is gonna be a cloud of vapor the size of Nebraska."
"Well look, we'll have four minutes to do something extra," Riley joked. "Don't worry, Bishop. We'll be back soon."
She didn't know if that was true or not but there was no way that she was going to let her sister go back in there without her. If they died here then they died together.
"Jack, Hicks, don't let him leave."
"We ain't going anywhere."
"I love you," Jack told his wife as he grabbed a kiss from her.
"And I love you."
"See you, Dwayne," Riley told the Marine.
"Don't be gone long, Anora."
She gave him a firm nod before turning to follow her sister off of the ship.
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