As Ali walked further, the tunnels got bigger and more doors appeared. The sound of voices floated up from deeper in the tunnels where the city was located. She decided that this was far enough and she went to one of the doors, opening it slowly. The room on the other side of the door was a large room with row after row of wooden benches. A chapel. Devon had told Ali about these, people came to pray to their God, asking for help or guidance. She grinned and stepped inside the room, shutting the door behind her. The room was deserted except for a dark shape moving near the front. It was a man, and by the smell of him, he had been drinking. Ali's grin widened and she made her way towards the man. As she got nearer however, she stopped and covered her nose with her hand; the man reeked. She was almost going to risk going further towards the city, even though that would take her longer. But the thought of Devon winning the bet because she couldn't get over the smell of her victim was enough to get her moving again. She moved slowly until she was right behind the man, then she pounced.

She landed on the man's back and pulled him to the ground. He cursed loudly and fought against Ali. He struck at her with his grimy hands, knocking Ali off him and managing to scrape her cheek, but not enough to draw blood. He scrambled away from her and jumped to his feet, running towards the door. Ali hissed in annoyance at the sting on her cheek. However much she loved her victims fighting back, she hated it when they hurt her. And when they tried to run away. She gave chase and tackled the man again, bringing him back down to the ground. This time, before he could try to attack her again, she grabbed his head with both of her hands and slammed him into the hardwood floor. His eyes went blank and he stopped struggling, a pool of blood forming around his head. Ali quickly checked the man's pulse and smiled when she detected it beating faintly. She got to her feet before bending down to pick up the man. Suddenly, something large slammed into her back and sent her skidding across the floor.

Ali jumped to her feet quickly and turned to see what had attacked her. It was an alien. The scent on it told Ali that it wasn't one from her Hive, not like the fact that it attacked her was clue enough. She wondered how it had managed to get in since the door had been closed, and, more importantly, how come she had been unable to smell it before it attacked. Ali's eyes drifted slowly down to the unconscious man.

Of course! Ali thought, The vile scent of the man must have masked the scent of the alien. That's the only way it could have been able to catch me by surprise.

The alien screeched, forcing Ali to return her gaze to it. Its tail swung back in forth as it studied Ali. For the first time in her life, Ali was at a loss of what to do; she had never encountered an enemy alien before. During fighting training, the aliens would never launch an attack with lethal accuracy at her or Devon, but the enemy wouldn't have a problem with injuring her. Probably the best thing to do was to kill it as fast as possible to prevent it from getting back to the Queen. But before Ali could move, the alien took off towards the door.

"Oh no you don't!" Ali screamed, giving chase.

She was almost upon the alien when it turned around and swung its tail up to smack Ali in the chest. The force was enough to send her all the way to the front of the chapel where she crashed into the wooden altar. She collapsed at the foot of the altar, pain flaring up on her back and stomach. The alien screeched victoriously and charged at Ali. Ali struggled to her feet as the alien neared her. She braced herself as the tail swung at her and she managed to grab it. The alien hissed in annoyance and lifted its tail up in an attempt to shake Ali off. Ali allowed herself to be pulled up into the air, waiting until she was over the alien before letting go and falling on top of it. The alien hissed in surprise and Ali grinned in triumph.

Suddenly, sharp pain stabbed through Ali's shoulder and she glanced down to see the tip of the alien's barb coming out of her shoulder. The pain was excruciating, it burned all the way down her arm, and over into her chest. Her arm became a dead weight at her side and her vision was flooded with twinkling black dots that shifted around in front of her eyes. She slipped off the alien's back and collapsed on the ground, barely hearing the sounds of sizzling as her blood burned through the ground. She knew that she was close to unconsciousness, and it seemed the alien knew as well. It pulled its lips back in a devilish grin as it stalked Ali slowly, savoring the moment. As it raised its tail to deliver the final blow, a surge of adrenaline surged through Ali and she found herself pouncing on the alien. She grabbed its head with her good arm and twisted it sharply to the side. There was a sickening cracking sound as the alien's head twisted against its natural rotation and the exoskeleton on its neck cracked, spraying acidic blood everywhere. Ali moved quickly to get her human victim out of the way of the acidic spray. The alien's body continued to twitch as Ali dragged the human with her good arm to the door and out into the hallway.

The trek back to the Hive was long and tiresome: Ali's arm was still numb, although the bleeding had stopped, her stomach ached from where the alien's tail had hit her, and her back was sore from where she had hit the altar. Not to mention the dead weight coming from her victim, whom she had to drag by the collar of his shirt after she dislocated his shoulder while pulling him along. Finally, as the light from the sun began casting shadows across the land, she reached the orphanage and made her way down to the Hive.

"What took you so long, slowpoke?" Devon taunted the moment Ali entered the Hive.

"Shut up!" Ali shouted and she dropped the man at her feet.

An alien moved up to move the man into position for a second stage. It put it next to Devon's victim, who was in the process of being impregnated by a second stage.

"Ali, what's wrong?" Devon asked.

"Nothing!" Ali said and she turned away from him.

Devon let out a loud gasp and grabbed Ali by her good shoulder. "Ali!"

"Don't touch me!" Ali screamed, swinging her fist at Devon.

"Ali, are you okay?" Devon asked, catching her hand and holding onto her wrist tightly.

"I'm fine!"

Ali.

"What?!" she screamed.

You are hurt. Emery spoke gently.

"I'm fine!" Ali insisted and she tried to pull her hand out of Devon's, "Let me go!"

"No, you're coming with me," Devon said and he dragged Ali back up the stairs and into the main hallway.