Alien: Isolation

Chapter Thirty: Facehugger

"Warning: Gravity coupling failure eminent." An automated voice announced. "Orbital stabilizers at thirty percent and falling. Evacuate Sevastopol station, this is not a drill. Repeat, evacuate Sevastopol station, this is not a drill."

It was a struggle at first just to open her eyes, but once she did, Ripley realized that she was in a different place. There was smoke in the air, while fire was spreading out from exposed wires and gas pipes, and there was something strange about parts of the walls and ceiling. They were partially covered by a pattern of rib-like structures, but it was only when she noticed the large brownish pods on the floor that she realized what it was. This place was starting to look just like the nest that she had destroyed at the bottom of the reactor, but most importantly… she couldn't move.

Still trying to shake off the dizziness from having her head smacked around while that creature carried her through the vent, she managed to turn her head to see that her arm was pinned down by thinner tendrils of the same substance that coated the wall behind her. It took a second to turn her head the other way to see that her left arm was restrained as well, but then the dizziness was replaced by a surge of adrenaline, when she realized that she was… cocooned in a standing position the same way that the people had been inside the nest.

Panic was starting to set in, causing Ripley to pull at the tendrils with all her strength, but they just wouldn't budge. All around her were more people who had been restrained, although most of them were dead with that same strange wound on their chest that she had seen before… and in front of each one was one of those opened pods. Looking down, she gasped when it was discovered that there was one in front of her as well… but this one was still closed, meaning that the spider-creature was still inside.

"No." She gasped between rapid breaths while pulling again. "No… no, gotta get out… gotta get out."

She was still able to move one of her legs, and it took some effort, but she was able to move it up so that her foot was braced against the wall behind her. So she pulled against the tendrils one more time, now with her leg adding to the force as it pushed her away from the wall, causing a faint cracking sound to reach her ears. The tendrils were giving way, and with a little more force, they finally broke completely; shattering into pieces as Ripley tumbled toward the floor.

She landed right on top of a dead body, her face about an inch from his before she was able to jump back and scoot away. Backing up from both the body as well as the sealed pod that was meant for her, Ripley kept moving until her back was against the wall, but then jumped again when something grabbed onto her shoulder. Twisting around to free herself, the first thing she saw was one of those spider-things, but it was dead; lying on its fingers curled inward. The thing that grabbed her, however, was not dead, and thankfully turned out to be another cocooned person. She was in a standing position just like Ripley had been, but she did not look well.

"Hold on." Ripley said as she got to her feet. "I'm gonna get you out of here."

"No." The woman groaned before an effort to free her could start. "Kill… me."

There was no way that she was going to kill this woman, nor was she going to just leave her there, so Ripley ignored the woman's continued cries while starting to pull on the tendrils. She was happy to have another chance to save someone from this nightmare, and the tendrils were just starting to crack, when the woman cried out in agony. This outcry quickly turned into a scream, but then the scream was replaced by gurgling and convulsions as the woman started to foam at the mouth.

Was she an epileptic? Ripley wondered. Had the stress and strain of the situation caused her to have an attack? She was about to start looking for something to put into her mouth so she couldn't bite off her tongue, when something moved underneath the woman's shirt. She continued to thrash around while her shirt slowly became stained with what looked like blood, and then there was a shrieking sound as something literally tore its way out of her through her chest cavity. It was a small creature… not a spider-thing, but like… a really small version of the big creatures. The woman went limp as the creature finished freeing itself, and then it jumped down to the floor, scurrying away before Ripley could even fully register what happened.

She had suspected that this was how the creatures reproduced, based on what she saw inside the first nest, but to see it actually happen right in front of her was a whole different matter entirely. These things were like something out of a nightmare, and this made her think about how her mother used to tell her that there were no such thing as real monsters… but there were. They were right here on Sevastopol… and on that planet that Marlow described… and apparently onboard the Nostromo as well.

"Warning: Evacuate the station immediately." The automated voice announced. "Orbital stabilizers at twenty-eight percent and falling."

The Torrens was still waiting for her to extend the towing platform so that she and any other survivors would be able to escape on it, but first Ripley had to figure out where she was. So she was starting to look for a directory sign or something, when a soft kind of squishing sound came from behind. Turning around to see what it was, she gasped and was just barely able to move out of the way as the spider-thing from her now open pod, leapt at her. The spider-thing flew right past her head, landing on the floor a short distance away, and she knocked a stack of empty cargo boxes on top of it before it could turn back around.

She didn't expect this to kill the thing, but it gave her a few seconds to find a way out of the room, and this exit came in the form of a vent-size hole that had bene torn through the wall nearby. The spider-thing could be heard shrieking as it worked to free itself from the boxes, and Ripley wasted no time in crawling through the hole. There were more pods, mostly already open, sitting in the corridor when she came out the other side, but no creatures in sight, so she got to her feet and started moving.

"Verlaine." She coughed into her headset. "Verlaine, are you close enough for radio contact? I'm here."

"Ripley, where the hell have you been?!" The Torrens' Captain replied. "The Torrens is in position, but I need you to extend the docking cradle clamps, like right now! Hurry!"

This place was on fire, too, the smoke making it hard to breathe as she moved down the corridor. There was a directory sign on the wall, though, and it said TRANSIT/TERMINAL MAINTENANCE. This was good news, since underneath the spaceflight terminal was exactly where she was supposed to be, but then something moved behind her. It was purely out of reflex that Ripley turned around, and that reflex also caused her to put her arms up when the spider-thing came flying through the air.

This time she was unable to avoid it, but the defensive position of her arms kept it from immediately latching onto her face. This thing was a lot stronger than it looked; trying to fight through her arms with its fingers while wrapping its long tail around her throat. Somehow Ripley managed to keep her balance, which was good, since it would probably be all over if it got her on the ground, but now the tail was constricting on her neck.

Continuing to stumble backwards while gasping for breath, Ripley could feel herself weakening as the spider-thing slowly crawled its way toward her face, and now a long tube of some kind was protruding from its underbelly. The tube extended until it hit against her lips, and now it was trying to force its way into her mouth while the tail constricted until she couldn't even gasp anymore. Closer and closer its body came, and the tube was just pushing past her lips, when her strength gave out.

Falling backwards onto the floor, Ripley thought it was all over, and it might have been if the deck plating hadn't collapsed underneath her weight. She crashed hard to the service area about a floor below where she had been, and as for the spider-thing, it shrieked while enjoying a landing that was not quite as easy. It had fallen onto a sharp piece of metal, where the acid from its impaled body quickly began to dissolve everything around it. That metal also happened to be on fire, causing the spider-thing's body to blacken and curl up before it was able to free itself.

"Fuck you!" She coughed, struggling to get to her feet. "Fuck you… stupid little… fuck you!"

There wasn't as much smoke in this area, since it was all floating up to where she had previously been, and the weakened feeling was starting to fade. There was a door up ahead, and the indicator light was green, meaning that it wasn't unaccusable just yet. She was still a little shaky when she tried to walk, and this was expected, since she had only just managed to avoid the same fate as Ricardo, but now Ripley had an advantage. Those creatures probably thought she was dead by now, or at least implanted like their other victims, and this meant that they wouldn't be looking for her.

As long as Ripley could stay out of sight, it should be easy to get to the towing platform and extend it, so she waited for the door to slide open, and stepped out onto a set of train-tracks just as a runaway transit car came barreling toward her.