Alien: Isolation

Chapter Seventeen: Return to the Bureau

Every once in a while a gunshot or a quickly cut-off scream would ring out as Ripley made her way across the galleria, and although she now had the shotgun to protect herself, there was no way that she was going to take any more unnecessary risks than she already had. This decision became increasingly difficult each time that someone would scream or call for help, but then again these were the same people who had put her on her knees and held a gun to her head, a memory that helped her keep going without looking back.

Before coming to Sevastopol, Ripley would never have hesitated to try and help someone who was in trouble, no matter what she thought of them, but that was before Burke had beaten and choked her with a maintenance jack, and Waits had left her in that module to die with the creature. Now, if Samuels, or Ricardo, or even Taylor were in trouble, that would be a different story, but not these lunatics who inhabited what was left of this God damn station.

"Running causes accidents." A Working Joe said from the upper level. "Please, do not run."

There was still nothing but silence on the radio, and now even more Working Joes could be seen entering the galleria, or maybe just passing through, making her wonder just how many of those things there were on Sevastopol. It was getting to the point where it was hard to keep hiding whenever one would pass by, so she decided to duck into the door of the first open shop that she came to, which happened to be an old-style bunkhouse.

There was a small reception desk at the front, which Ripley quickly ducked down behind in order to make sure that she hadn't been spotted. Waiting there for a few seconds, and then peeking out to make sure that she wasn't being followed, she stayed down until getting behind the next wall, into the back where all of the sleeping pods were double stacked along the walls. She had wanted to close the bunk house's front door, but feared that it would have attracted attention, and now she needed to keep moving.

Seeing all of these empty beds there, it made her realize just how tired she was, being that aside from a short bout of unconsciousness, she had not slept since arriving on Sevastopol, but this was certainly not the time or the place for that. The plan when she came in was to find the service door that all shops like this had, and use it to get into the maintenance area, where hopefully she was less likely to be spotted. As she had hoped, the service door was in plain sight, but it was locked, so it was a good thing that she had somehow managed not to break or lose the access tuner yet.

This wasn't a security door or an executive elevator, so the signal only took a couple seconds to lock onto before the door's indicator light turned green. So she put the device back onto her belt, and pulled the lever to open the door, sliding it open just in time for a Working Joe to pass by on the other side.

"You really shouldn't be here." It said, turning toward her. "This could require my attention."

Ripley froze the moment she had seen the Android, but by the time she could move again, its hands were wrapping around her throat. Its grip was incredibly strong, enough so that her breathing was stopped before she could even cry out, but not quite enough to make her drop the shotgun. Cocking the weapon, and aiming it as best she could given the circumstances, Ripley pulled the trigger, causing a loud bang as the grip was released from her throat.

She gasped for breath as the Android stumbled backwards; white blood spraying out from the hole in its stomach as if fell against a nearby guardrail, but it didn't fall down. It appeared to be stunned and maybe disoriented for a moment, but then the Working Joe seemed to forget all about its stomach wound as it stood back up.

"You are starting to test my patience." It said as she cocked the weapon again. "I'm going to catch…

There was another bang as Ripley pulled the trigger, causing more white blood to spray out as it was struck in the neck and chest, but this time the Android gurgled as fell onto its back. It flailed around as if having a seizure for a few seconds as the light faded from its eyes, and then it was still, allowing Ripley to sigh with relief… until she heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind as two more Working Joes entered the bunk house.

"Oh, shit." She whispered before starting to run down the maintenance corridor.

"This is futile." One of them called after her. "I'm going to catch you."

The Working Joes were strong, but they didn't appear to be able to move any faster than a quick walk, which was good because the exit was probably locked as well. So she ran as quickly as she could, putting as much distance between herself and them as possible until Ripley reached the end of the corridor… only to find that there was no exit. She had passed a whole bunch of side doors on the way, but of each of them led into one of the galleria's locked shops, which would only have cornered her further. Of course, now she was trapped, and back down the corridor she could see the Androids' glowing eyes slowly getting closer.

"Shit." She whispered while looking around. "Shit, shit, shit, shit."

Starting to panic as the Working Joes continued to close in, Ripley was trying to figure out how to do the most damage to them with her remaining six shells, when she spotted a faint green light coming from under a tarp on the floor. Taking a second to kick it to the side, she gasped as she found that it was actually the green indicator light of an unlocked floor access panel. It slid open the moment that she touched it, and Ripley wasted no time in crawling down into the vents.

Not wanting to risk the chance of the Androids following her in, she started crawling through the shaft, no longer sure that she was going the right way. At least this time she didn't have to deal with the possibility of the creature already being in there waiting for her, so Ripley just continued crawling for what felt like forever, going around several twists and turns until finally arriving at another access panel. This one was locked, however, so she used the access tuner on the lock, and was a little worried about where she would end up as she crawled out.

She hadn't gone up or down, so at least she could be certain that she was on the same deck, although where on that deck was another matter, since she had long abandoned her sense of direction during all of the turns in the vents. However, Ripley was pleasantly surprised when she crawled out into a room that looked kind of familiar. There were two hospital beds, as well as a life support unit between them, but it was not until she saw the poster on the wall that she realized that this was the room where she had woken up after the explosion at San Christobal.

That meant that she was back inside the Marshal's Bureau, which gave her a feeling of immense relief… but where was Taylor? The bed that she had been occupying they started the plan to trap the creature was now empty, maybe meaning that she had recovered, but Ripley didn't imagine a pencil-pusher like her being able to last long once the Androids started going crazy. Taking a quick look through the door's window, she couldn't see anyone in the main room… but she could see an open cell door across the way.

Waiting a couple more seconds to see if there were any Androids wandering around, she opened the door, and headed past the desks to the now empty cell that had been recently been occupied by Captain Marlow. Well, that was just great, since he was the only one who could have told her anything else about what happened to her mother, but maybe he was still there. The Marshals were well armed, and a hell of a lot better organized than those lunatics in the galleria, so there had to be some survivors.

There were certainly bodies, though. Only a couple in the room she was in, but a lot more scattered about when she entered the reception office. Humans and Androids alike were lying in pools of red and white blood on the floor, including Marshal Waits, whose head had been twisted completely around. The smell was nearly enough to make her vomit, although this urge was resisted, but she didn't see Taylor or Marlow among the bodies.

"Hello?" She risked calling out, since no one was in sight. "Hello, is anyone still alive in here?"

Something moved behind her, so Ripley spun around while cocking the shotgun, but it was not a Working Joe that she saw. Instead, it was a human head peeking out from behind the reception desk; a head that belonged to Ricardo. Sighing with relief as she lowered the weapon, Ripley was happy that at least someone that she knew had survived, although the Deputy seemed really shaken up as he crawled out of hiding.

"Ripley… Ripley, they're all dead. He said sadly while getting up. "The Working Joes came in, and they just… they just slaughtered them. But why… why the fuck would they do this? Androids aren't allowed to hurt Humans, Ripley, that's like, the first thing that gets put into their brains when they're built."

"Ricardo, I need you to calm down." She replied, on the verge of panicking herself as she put her hand on his shoulder. "What happened to Taylor and Marlow?"

She was hoping for a clear explanation, but all the Deputy could tell her was that he wasn't sure, although he might have seen the two of them running away during all the chaos. That would mean that Taylor let Marlow out of his cell, but again Ricardo wasn't sure. He had been too busy trying to fight off the Androids to worry about anything else except for hiding once he ran out of bullets. Well, at least this meant that there was a chance that they might have gotten clear, but right now something had to be done about the Working Joes.

"I have to find Samuels." She said, looking at the ammo that had been dropped on the floor. "Waits sent him to access Apollo in Android Processing… if I go after him, can you run this place? I need eyes and ears if I'm going to make it, Ricardo… Ricardo!"

"I'm not fucking staying here." He argued while she picked up shells. "I just hid, Ripley… I just hid while everyone else got torn apart."

Ripley tried to comfort him and be supportive during and after she had filled her pockets with shotgun shells, but that wasn't working, so she took a more direct approach by slapping him.

"Ricardo, I need you!" She yelled, grabbing him by the jacket. "Now, I am going to find Samuels, and if you do not cover me, I am going to die! So you're gonna man the fucking station, lock the fucking door, and don't let anyone in who isn't me, got it?!"

"Yes, Ma'am." The Deputy quickly replied. "You can count on me, Ripley."

Now that this had been settled, the last thing she needed was for him to tell her how to get to Android Processing. The elevator that would take her there was the same one that she had used to get to the Server Farm, so it was just outside the Bureau's front door, but she was also feeling bad about yelling at Ricardo, so she turned back and gave him a hug.

"I need you to stay strong, okay?" She asked. "We're almost out of this, and once me and Samuels figure out how to fix… whatever the hell Apollo's problem is, this will all be over."

With that, she turned and walked out the front door, wasting no time in heading toward the nearby elevator that would take her up to Android Processing, and hopefully Samuels was still all right.