-Author's Notes-
Well here's the first chaper in the series, if you haven't read the prequel before this then I highly suggest you do so as it's filled with alot of action and it (sorta) explains how Jack got into the mess he is about to wake up in. As always any reviews and favorites are highly appreciated and feel free to leave any criticism in the review section! I know in the prequel I mentioned that I would add more of the story if the prequel got alot of support but because it's only the prequel I thought I would throw chapter 1 out. Enjoy Chapter 1 of Left Behind!
-End Author's Notes-
Drip...Drip...Drip...Drip
Just as I was starting to dream about something pleasent, something without bloodshed and aliens...I should have known it wouldn't have lasted for long. I tried to force my eyes shut in the hopes of falling back into that peaceful dream but all was in vain. As the crust of my blood splattered eyelids opened I had almost forgotton where I was, everything seemed so peaceful although I knew in my heart that nothing was ever as it seemed. Every part of my body felt shutdown, abandoned, destitute, all words that could describe everything else around me aswell. Although I had just woken up the silence along with the coziness of my uniform made me slowly dip back into the darkness I had just come from...but then the dripping continued giving me second thoughts. The lights of the crew quarters were now completely off probably due to a short circuit during the fire. Speaking of the fire it had been a miracle that I had not been thrown into it, the door sent me into a corner where nothing could be set ablaze. It had also been a miracle that the alien had not killed me while I was out, it would have been an easy task. Above all else one thing still bothered me, I had been thrown into a wall that was close to the doorway... a doorway that I could have easily been dragged out of to safety...why hadn't anyone grabbed me on the way to the ship. If I saw one of the other guys right inside I would have pulled them out. As I sat thinking I noticed my vision was becoming blurry; although mentally I was fully awake my vision was slowly closing in on me, maybe I had suffered a concussion. I sighed and let it happen, maybe this time I would wake up in the right place...
The light eventually returned although there wasn't much left, I found it incredibly difficult to open my eyes this time around. Well...I was a doctor, It was probably just a minor concussion which wasn't anything too serious...yet. One thing was for sure, if I didn't take care of this concussion then I might black out in a place far worse than this. I started to stand but immense pain shot through my body like thunder, I wanted to yell but I couldn't risk it. I glanced at where the pain had originated from, something was sticking out of my leg. Something white...I stared at the object awhile before I banged the back of my head against the wall in anger and frustration.
"Shit, Shit, Shit!" I muttered aloud, that white thing happened to be my tibia bone. During my impact with the wall the door must have pushed hard enough on my leg to completely break the bone casuing it to pierce through the skin. It felt like nothing I had ever felt before, even looking at it made me wince. At this point I didn't know what to do, I couldn't hope to survive by dragging myself to the nearest medibay. The ship I was on, the USMRF Goliath, was gigantic in size...I had no idea where the nearest bathroom was let alone the armory or medibay. Even so I had to focus on the current task at hand, getting this leg fixed up.
If I wasn't a doctor I would be incredibly screwed but because I was a doctor this could be fixed...it would hurt like hell though. I sat thinking for a good amount of time until I realized that everything around me was useable and I didn't require high "tech" tools to fix it. The only thing that could temporarily fix this was a primitive splint, if I could press the bone back into place I could create a makeshift splint which could support my leg long enough to find the medibay. All at once an idea came to mind,
"Thank youuuu Goeliath!" I said happily, that vent that had caused the ceiling to cave in brought with it several assortments of pipes and wires...the perfect material for a makeshift splint! Making sure my leg was straight I flipped myself around and slowly dragged myself backwards with my legs facing the wall. Because my leg was straight the pain was very minimal, that would soon change once I had to press the bone back into place. In a quick second I was able to grab a pipe which had fallen, and luckily for me I also could easily grab and tear the wires down from the ceiling thanks to the power outage in the room. Well that part I took a chance on but it was a helluva lot better then sitting and doing nothing. After a few intense minutes of fumbling and biting I had everything ready to go but now came the part I was dreading...the fracture. All I would have to do is give one big push and the bone would be back inside and hopefully close to where it was originally. At this point I was sweating bullets so to speak..."Ohhhh this is gonna fucking suck..." I chocked out, my heart was racing at a mile a minute..."Fuck me..." I breathed out before putting my hands in position over the bone. There was a chance I would black out again which is why I would have to keep my heart rate up, I said a quick prayer and then pushed. My mind suddenly went into a fury of different feelings and past images, everything around me seemed so trivial...the aliens, this ship, and the marines for leaving me...then the pain kicked in and then all that was trivial aswell. A sickening crunch came from my left leg, I could feel the bone grinding along the fibula. I yelled, I yelled so hard it scared the shit out of myself...I yelled and banged my hands against the floor...I swore...swore so hard it would have deafened my family if they were still alive. Even as the pain left I yelled, if I didn't my heart rate would have dropped and then I would be cast back into the darkness. After I knew I was past the blackout phase I slowly stopped yelling and just laid back against the scorched floor. In the background the yelling still contined through all of the 350 rooms and hallways. After a minute of resting my breathing had slowed to a normal rate and I was able to feel my leg again, I quickly glanced up and with a sigh of relief the bone was out of sight. After that episode it was just a matter of tieing the pipe to the wound, this would keep the bone in place. Now I could walk, I'm sure if anything was left alive on the ship they now knew where to find me. Keeping my leg straight I slowly pulled myself off the floor by grabbing a pipe hanging from the ceiling...again I thanked the ship for being so kind before I was on my feet and ready to go. Next stop the medibay!
I had not expected it to be so difficult to walk with a wound like this, through my military career I had treated many patients with fractures like mine but I had never really felt their pain. Now by some sort of sick twisted fate I was now on the other end, it was extremely time consuming to take a single step. If I bent my leg at all I would be met with more pain, if I wasn't a soldier I would be in some corner probably crying my ass off like a baby about the situation but that's just it..I was a soldier and I had to get through it especially when people were depending on me.
I finally made it to the doorway and peaked out into the intersecting hallway, to my left was a long white hallway, to my right another long white hallway, and in front..hmm I wonder...a hallway which was white. I laughed at myself for a moment, it was just like me to joke about a bad situation. From what I could see all three turrets had run out of ammo and were now in several peices, our barricade had been penetrated and destroyed leaving crimson rusty looking crates and boxes scattered about, several dead men lay scattered..some whole...some in peices. One of the men who wasn't torn to shreds was Mikeson...the man who helped to save the sarge, his chest had been completely punched out...like someone had taken a gigantic human sized paper hole cutter and just punched one through the old man. He was a good man, he was the oldest in our squad, a God fearing man who often gave us sermons on our way to a mission. Now he lay dead, I hope the God he prayed to opened his gates to him...even though I was limited in mobility I still felt the need to shut his eyes, it was the right thing to do. As I began to reach down his God wanted to have some fun with me, the power grid suddenly shut off. My hand had vanished behind the frame of darkness, this entire situation was FUBAR, but I still had a mission or what was left of one. Standing Order 118 stated that in an emergency I was to report to my suporiors for an update on the situation which in my case was basically calling for rescue.
I fumbled around the floor until I felt the cold metal of one of the marine's rifles. I knew it was dry, no bullets, but what was hopefully attatched would seriously give me the upper hand.
"Maybe your real afterall" I laughingly said toward the ceiling and above, the gun I had picked up had the exact thing I was looking for...a flashlight, a flashlight that would cut through the darkness and would hopefully get me to a medibay! With the gun firmly in my grip I slowly hobbled down the hallway which had been littered with alien bodies from the turrets, but then I realized and not a moment too soon...from all the reports I had read from the past cases having to do with aliens, their blood is acidic. I pressed my foot down causing a huge metalic creak to shake the ship and the entire hallway collapsed within a matter of seconds, another step and my leg would be the least of my concerns. Carefully inching my way forward I looked out over the hole, it seemed to be an endless drop through multiple floors...maybe through the entire goddamn ship for all I knew. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and turned around, "Maybe I'll take the left hallway." I thought before laughing and moving on.
After an hour of hobbling down the left hallway I reached what seem to be a terminal junction, if the emergency power was on I could access it and find where the medibay was located. Slinging the rifle over my shoulder making sure the light was facing the terminal I began to examine it closely, someone else was still logged in..someone with a high security clearence. Excitedly I typed in a single word and the emergency lighting kicked in, like a kid with his new toy I began to type out several lines of code. Appearently life support had been shut off, now it was on and another disaster was averted thanks too..a man by the name of Jeffrey Collins..."Thanks Jeffrey, if you were still alive I'd buy you a beer." In an instant the computer had the location of the room on a small virtual map of the ship. Suddenly a red light flashed above my face catching my attention almost giving me a heart-attack, running along the ceilings of the hallways were small black panels almost like seamless mini-tv's. A bright red arrow was moving along the panels which seemed to be pointing me toward the medibay, this ship had everything! I laughed and with a huge smile on my face followed the arrows through every twist and turn.
On the way there I noticed that many other hallways and open rooms held signs of a fierce fight, Blood from both species was splattered on just about everything and I mean everything. It was sickening, why did this species have to be aggresive...We never did anything to them and yet they feel the need to kill us. Well this was the last time this would happen again, with all the information they got over the years starting from the voyage to Acheron to the most recent discovery spoken from the mouth of Ripley and the remnents of the Betty crew this outbreak of xenomorph's was litterally the last. A new prototype was developed a little over a year ago which had scanned the immediate galaxys around the milky way, No trace of any Xenomorphs or their eggs appeared. Even if more existed outside of the scanning range we weren't far enough into the future to make a trip to those outside galaxies meaning it's impossible to become contaminated. This facility appearently had the last known species. Yesterday the universe was in danger...today everyone is safe thanks to the colonial marines! Suddenly things didn't seem so bad afterall, the marines completed their mission by eliminating all of the alien presence making this ship and the entire universe an instant safe haven and now all I had to do was follow the arrows and all would turn out ok. Which were the exact words I was thinking as I turned into a doorway which was presumebly the medibay. As I stepped inside the door closed from behind me. A slight twinge of fear arose from within me but I ignored it and proceeded through the room, up ahead was a large viewing screen. It had been completely covered in dust from a recent fire, I reached to wipe the screen before a small green light shone from just out of my view, a small sentence appeared on the screen,
"Ship Desolation Mode in place, a possible contamination has been detected. The ship will now commit the self destruct mechanism unless the proper clearence has been entered or the contamination has been cleared." Slowly I raised my arm and wiped away a small part of the dirt, what lay inside turned my insides upside down. I suddenly lost my balence and fell against a nearby chair, things were just starting to look up...
-Author's Notes-
As promised this chapter was alot longer then my first one, if it was too long then feel free to let me know as feedback is always welcomed openly! If you liked the newest addition then feel free to fav/follow/review my story. The second chapter is already a WIP, with that said what could be inside that glass room? Find out in Chapter 2 of Left Behind. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and stay tuned for the next one!
-End Author's Notes-