Chapter 17
Karolinska hospital Floor 7
Sven's grandmother Edith is sitting in the hospital bed and the sun is shining through the open window. There are three more patients in the same room but they just sit and stare at a suspended TV showing some reality show. Edith never watches any reality shows because she doesn't understand the point of them.
There is a wheelchair right next to Edith's hospital bed, but if she wants to sit in it and drive around the ward, she needs the help of the hospital staff. Edith presses the alarm button hanging next to the bed and waits for the hospital staff. Edith can hear them walking around out there in the long corridor. There are many admitted patients in the ward so the hospital staff have a lot to do. Quick footsteps are heard outside the room and the door opens and a white-clad hospital staff enters and walks over to Edith's bed.
- You need help?
- Yes, I would like to sit in the wheelchair and drive around the ward for a while.
- It's going well, but food will be served in about 70 minutes.
- Then I have time to drive around the corridor. Do you know if there is anyone in the common area at the beginning of the corridor?
- I haven't been there for quite a while so I don't know, but you can drive there and have a look. Are you ready?
- Yep.
The white-coated hospital staff helps Edith out of bed and puts her in the wheelchair and unlocks the wheels so she can roll off on her own. Edith rolls out of the room and she hears the hospital staff talking to some of the others in the room. The wheelchair has no motor so Edith has to use her arms to roll the wheels but she is very strong in her arms so that is not a problem.
The corridor in which Edith rolls has light blue walls and the floor itself is light yellow. Edith's favorite color is light blue and she has many clothes in that color. The corridor is very wide so that hospital beds can be driven back and forth between the rooms if necessary and two wheelchairs can also fit next to each other without any problems. But there are no other patients out in the corridor right now.
Edith rolls past the small kitchen that serves breakfast in the morning and she can smell toast even though it was toasted earlier in the day. Edith can also smell coffee and she gets a craving for coffee, but she knows that coffee is served after the meal so she can wait until then. Edith rolls past several doors leading to patient rooms and some of them are open while others are closed and she can hear some of the patients.
Edith is 80 years old and it is noticeable that she is getting old. Edith no longer has the same good balance and that is probably why she fell from the tree the previous day. If Edith's husband Lars-Åke had still been alive, he would have cut the branches from the tree, but he has been dead for five years and Edith misses him every single day. Everything has become so difficult and complicated since Lars-Åke died. The grocery store that Edith shops in is going to stop accepting cash and even though Edith has a bank card with a lot of money on it, she is still unsure how it works and prefers to just use cash. Sven helps Edith with various things, but she also wants to fend for herself, so she has said no thanks when he has wanted to help sometimes.
Edith approaches the common area and it is completely silent from there. You can't even hear anything from the big TV that hangs on the wall and it's usually on. Edith rolls into the common space and the daily newspaper is on a coffee table, but she ignores looking at the newspaper and rolls to the two large bookshelves that stand along one wall of the room. The bookcases are large and there are many magazines and books in them. Edith sees something unusual standing between the two bookshelves and she scrolls forward to the strange thing.
The object standing between the two bookshelves is an Alien egg, and Edith rolls closer to the egg, studying its leathery exterior. Edith sees that the object resembles an egg but it has a strange opening that most resembles something dirty, something forbidden. The whole egg is slimy both on the sides and on the top. There is a low bubbling sound from the egg and Edith frowns.
The egg opens like a flower and the four leaf-like growths settle around the sides of the egg and there is some bright thing moving frantically inside the egg. The light thing that moves is darker than egg white and doesn't have the same texture. Edith has never seen the Alien movies so she can't recognize the egg. The facehugger jumps out of the egg as if in a big explosion and the facehugger lands on Edith's face with a light thud. The facehugger has misjudged the distance and a large portion of it lands in Edith's thin hair but it quickly crawls down to her face and more importantly, Edith's mouth. Edith loses consciousness.
The facehugger thrusts its long but elastic proboscis through Edith's mouth and it quickly moves down to her throat. The elastic proboscis continues to penetrate Edith's throat and at the same time it also ensures that she gets air into her lungs. The proboscis has now penetrated far enough down and it becomes stiff and begins to slowly swell. After a short while, the proboscis begins to shoot out huge amounts of small black eggs and they move purposefully towards Edith's chest and one of the eggs soon begins to grow rapidly and it eats the other eggs that land in the chest and the egg quickly grows into a fry but it continues to grow and becomes a small Chestburster. But the Chestburster needs to grow more before it can be born from Edith's chest, and it continues to feed on the eggs that shoot out of the Facehuggers proboscis. After just under two minutes, the eggs stop spraying out from the proboscis and the facehugger retracts its proboscis into its body again and crawls down from Edith's face and lands on the floor with a light thud. The Facehugger then crawls under one of the bookshelves to die.
Edith wakes up a few minutes after the facehugger has come off her face and her throat is sore. Edith looks down into the big egg but it's empty except for a lot of transparent slime and she grimaces when she sees all the slime. Edith sits still in her wheelchair and tries to remember what happened but the memory is fuzzy and nothing in the memory seems logical.
Edith looks up at the clock hanging on the wall and realizes that it is only 15 minutes before she gets food and she suddenly becomes fast and rolls into her room at a great speed. A nurse is helping one of the patients in the room when Edith comes rolling in and she helps Edith up in her bed when she has finished with the other patient. The nurse had intended to start looking for Edith, but now that she come rolling, she doesn´t need to.
The other patients in the room no longer watch TV but sit and talk about different things with each other. Edith greets the other patients and they talk to each other. Edith tells about the slimy egg she saw in the common area but none of the other patients have been there and are only confused when Edith describes what the area and the egg looked like. Edith tells instead how she fell from the apple tree the previous day. The other patients are completely silent while Edith talks
Alien queen's hive
The six new Alien warriors help move the eggs and that's needed because they come more often from the Ovipositor. The Alien Queen chooses to let the six new Alien warriors get used to their new lives and they seem to make the best of their situation. The alien queen can sense fresh air from several fresh air intakes and she can sometimes even hear people nearby. The fresh air intakes are so small that neither the eggs nor the warriors get through them. Some warriors have already tried but failed.
The alien queen can feel the liquid in the egg sac steaming up behind her tail and this is a warning sign that the liquid inside the egg sac is getting too hot. If the liquid reaches 70 degrees, it will start to boil and then all the eggs will be destroyed. The increased heat in the egg sac causes the eggs to pop out of the ovipositor more often than they should and this annoys the Alien queen very much. The alien queen lets out several loud screeching sounds and the sound echoes in the tunnel. Some Alien warriors approach the Alien queen and check that she is not threatened by anyone or anything.
The Alien Queen orders her six new Alien warriors to spread the eggs everywhere they can and preferably anywhere there are people. Each Alien warrior takes an egg in their strong hands and they leave the Alien queen's hive and come out into the tunnel.
The underground tunnel
The six Alien warriors have a developed sense of smell and they can smell their six human hosts but the smell from Michael is significantly stronger because he has been here many times already and they eagerly follow his scent. The six Alien warriors can also see the wheel tracks from the wooden cart and they understand that they should follow the wheel tracks. The alien warriors follow Michael's scent trail as well as the wheel track through the tunnel and soon come out into the long tunnel and they have several tracks to follow.
The alien warriors choose to follow the very latest scent trail and the wheel tracks that Michael left when he cycled to the Kungsträdgården. The alien warriors go through the large tunnel but then turn left just like the wheel tracks from the wooden cart. The alien warriors can soon smell fresh air but also the scent of humans through the tunnel and they increase their steps forward. The eggs are relatively heavy but each Alien warrior is extremely strong so the weight does not affect them at all. When the Alien warriors get closer to the opening to the Kungsträdgården, they can both see and feel electrical impulses from many people and they know they are heading in the right direction. None of the humans have seen the approaching Alien warriors yet.
Kungsträdgården
Michael has made it halfway through the park when he hears several police sirens and ambulance sirens and they are fast approaching. Kajsa seems to be curious about the police and the ambulance and Michael looks at her.
- Shall we watch the police kill the monsters?
Kajsa happily nods and Michael cycles back to the beginning of the park where the police and ambulance have just parked. Michael and Kajsa look at the many police cars and ambulances. The officers quickly jump out of their cars and run into the park. The police are not heavily armed. Some paramedics come running with some stretchers and they run up to MIchael and Kajsa
- Are there any injured and where are they?
- I don't know if anyone is injured, but I know that several are dead. There are Alien monsters running amok in the park. Just like at Gröna Lund yesterday, but this time there are significantly more of them. There are probably at least 30 Alien monsters in the park right now.
- Oh my God. How did it happen?
- It seems that several Alien eggs have been placed in the park. The first two Alien monsters seem to have been born from a horse and a gray seal that were in a circus show at the stage. Since then, scores of Chestbursters were born from people's chests. It occurred to me that at the green area there may be people who have not been attacked but need help.
The paramedics start to run towards the green area but stand and talk to the police for a short while. A guard comes up and also talks to the police and two of the officers go back to their car. Kajsa looks at Michael.
- Shouldn't the police kill the monsters?
- Yes, but they must have heavier weapons then.
- But should we stay here until they have got heavier weapons?
- It's probably better that I make sure that you get home safely to your waiting mother. She is worried about you.
Kajsa nods quietly. Michael sees two Alien monsters approaching the cops and the cops shoot at the monsters but the shots don't seem to hurt them. The cops start to back off and go back to the cop cars but they keep shooting at the monsters. One of the shots hits one of the monsters head and it splatters some yellow blood on the ground but the monster is not mortally wounded and it advances very quickly and manages to grab the policeman who shot at it. Kajsa turns her face away but Michael watches as the Alien monster shoots out its inner mouth and crushes the policeman's head with a nasty cracking sound.
An Alien monster attacks one of the policemen's cars and the two policemen sitting in the car scream loudly in terror, but they soon fall silent and the policemen's red blood washes over the window panes. Some other Alien monsters are running around on the highway and are close to being hit by the motorists. Michael turns the bike around and starts cycling towards the tunnel again. Michael passes even more Alien monsters as he rides his bike. Some of the Alien monsters are so close to Kajsa and Michael that their drool ends up on their bodies and clothes. Michael rides on and there are soon fewer and fewer Alien monsters around his bike.
When Michael finally arrives at the entrance of the tunnel, he sees lots of people nearby. Michael hesitates because he doesn't want the people to see that the tunnel is open. The people talk to each other and someone shouts what they think, while others are more low-key and mostly just stand and stare away at the Alien monsters. Kajsa looks at Michael.
- What are you waiting for?
- That there should be less people at the entrance. I don't want them to know about this secret path.
Some of the people suddenly turn away from the tunnel opening and start screaming and running away.
- There are coming even more monsters. Beware!
Several of the gathered people seem to panic and run around in different directions and a few run straight into the tunnel. Short screams are heard from the tunnel and it looks like blood is spraying on the ground. Six Alien warrios come out of the tunnel, each carrying an Alien egg. The six Alien warriors move quickly and soon leave the park and continue up towards Sveavägen. Michael begins to cycle after the six Alien warriors. Kajsa calls out to Michael.
- Is it really appropriate for us to follow the monsters?
- I want to see where they go and what they do. You can feel safe with me.
- Dad would not have liked this.
- You have to take risks in between. It is part of living. Don´t worry, you,ll be fine.
The six Alien warriors pass the place where Olof Palme was shot and continue up the street. A rather large crowd has formed at an ATM and the Alien warriors go there and place the six eggs very close to the humans and then turn around and start walking back the way they came. Two of the eggs open immediately because two people are standing very close to them. Both Michael and Kajsa watch as two facehuggers jump out of the two eggs and land on the two people's faces. Michael points to the two facehuggers.
- Those little beasts are really not nice. It is they who cause the little monsters to be born from the chests of the people. Kajsa, if you should see such a beast approaching you, run away from it as fast as you can.
Kajsa understands what Michael means and she wants to go home now.
- Can't you make sure I get home now?
- Of course.
Michael thinks about which cycling route is best and cycles back to Kungsträdgården and he follows the six Alien warriors as they head to the tunnel again. Michael thinks that he might be able to ride his bike through the tunnel now that there are no people outside it and he stops his bike just before the entrance to the tunnel.
- I can cycle the secret direction now, but remember that you must not tell your mother which direction I cycled. Be quite so the monsters doesnt hear us. Have you understood?
- But but. Isn't it dangerous to ride the same road that the monsters are walking?
- No, it's perfectly fine. I have full control.
Michael cycles into the tunnel and Kajsa thinks this is very interesting. She has never been in this tunnel and she didn't even know it existed. Kajsa is happy to come home after all the terrible things that have happened in the park, but she still wonders where her father went and it worries her. Kajsa moves a little so that she sits more comfortably in the wooden cart.
The journey through the tunnel goes very quickly and Kajsa is surprised when Michael comes out of the tunnel and they are already at Mariatorget. This direction was significantly faster to cycle than the direction that Kajsa knows. When Michael approaches Gamla stan, he stops the bike and turns to Kajsa.
- Now you have to explain where we're going because I don't know where you and your mother live.
Kajsa explains to Michael which way he will cycle and soon the bike is outside the apartment building where Kajsa lives. Kajsa gets up from the wooden cart and says goodbye to MIchael and goes through the front gate and up to her waiting mother. Michael remains outside the apartment building for a while but then cycles on. He wants to visit the Alien queen one last time today and cycles down the tunnel again.
Rosenbad
The Prime Minister and two other aides are sitting at the large table in the meeting room discussing what to do about the criminal gangs that are forming at a record pace even as the police conduct daily raids.
It has become a big problem and the prime ministers want everyone to feel safe in the city but that is not possible when the rival criminal gangs are shooting at each other openly in the city streets and public spaces. A week ago, seven innocent people were killed because they came between two criminal gangs who were arguing with each other, and the police have not yet found the culprits.
The Prime Minister and the two assistants have large maps of Stockholm in front of them and they mark with a red pen where there has been the most trouble. Right now, it seems that the gangs are mostly in the Zinkensdamm area and the owners of the hotel/hostel have been threatened by two gangs so far. There are also many gangs moving away at Sergels Torg and Kungsträdgården, but they quickly disperse when the police come driving. The prime minister believes that the biggest problem is at Zinkensdamm because the gangs have several places to hide when the police come driving.
Several hard knocks are heard on the door to the meeting room and the Prime Minister goes and opens the door and sees another aide who he spoke to yesterday after the events at Gröna Lund. The aide carries a laptop and several papers and the prime minister lets him into the room. The assistant places his laptop on a chair and takes out several papers.
- There is an ongoing situation at Kungsträdgården and several Alien monsters are involved. There is a video on Youtube that you should probably watch.
The other two assistants in the room start talking into each other's mouths.
- What alien monster? Like the monster from the movie Alien?
- Well, he must mean aliens.
- But he just said Alien monster.
- But it was not certain that he meant such specifically.
The prime minister silences the two aides with a gesture and focuses on the aide with the laptop and the papers. The helper starts a video on Youtube and it looks like some kind of circus because a clown comes on stage. The helper fast forwards the clip and a horse and a gray seal come onto the stage and the helper continues to fast forward until it looks like the horse is collapsing on the stage. The other two assistants walk over to the laptop and look at the images displayed.
The Prime Minister watches as an Alien monster explodes from the horse's stomach as well as another monster from the gray seal. The video clip continues and the two Alien monsters attack the horse's trainer but choose to run away backstage instead of attacking the audience. The circus ends abruptly, but soon some workers start setting up musical equipment on the stage while it is being cleaned, and a lot of new audiences arrive, and many of the new audiences are young.
After a short while, a concert with a Hip-Hop artist begins and what happened at the circus show seems forgotten. The person who filmed it no longer seems to be sitting still and the picture is shaky and not always very well focused, but it is noticeable that the audience likes the music and probably the person who filmed it too. The person filming starts walking around the crowd and filming them too.
The Prime Minister watches as an Alien monster explodes from a dog's stomach and directly attacks a visitor and shortly afterwards a Chestbursters explodes from the chest of the dog's owner. The owner still has the dog's leash in her hand so it is easy to understand that it is the dog's owner. The chestburster immediately attacks a person in the audience and blood can be seen spurting from the victim's body. The person filming moves and zooms in on a person who doesn't seem to care about the music and is standing looking at the two monsters looking happy. The person who looks happy seems to be moving on through the sea of people and it almost looks like he is looking for someone or something.
The clip continues for several minutes before cutting off and showing more Chestbursters exploding from several people in the audience and attacking many people. Whoever filmed also manages to film when several Chestbursters grow into adult Alien monsters and they continue to attack the poor humans. It is very quiet in the meeting room when the clip ends. The aide with the laptop clears his throat and looks at the prime minister.
- I have already been in contact with two police officers and three guards and they say that there are almost 30 adult Alien monsters in the park and they have completely lost control and cannot stop the monsters. The alien monsters that have left the park seem to have made their way up Sveavägen and others have run out onto the driveway and caused mayhem. A few Chestbursters have come out of some guards' chests so they've lost several colleagues. More than 40 eggs have been found in the park so far and most have been open and empty. A few facehuggers have been found and they have all been dead.
- Over 40 eggs? Oh my God. This is a disaster.
One of the two other helpers wants to watch the clip again and the helper with the laptop starts the clip again. When the film clip is finished, the other helper looks at the people in the room.
- I think this is some kind of sabotage. Someone has deliberately placed all the eggs. It wouldn't surprise me if it's the person who smiled when the monsters attacked the humans. He didn't seem to be there for the music but something else entirely. Does anyone recognize the person who smiled?
No one in the meeting room recognizes the person who is seen smiling and the Prime Minister hopes that his assistant is wrong in his theory, but at the same time he cannot shake the feeling that it is a case of sabotage and that the person who smiled is involved in one way or another . But there is one thing that the Prime Minister finds very strange and he would like to know the answer to a question he has.
- Why was the concert allowed to start after what happened on stage at the circus? When things like this happen, everything is canceled but obviously the concert was allowed to start. Who was responsible for security in the park? They should be questioned whoever they are.
No one in the meeting room has a sensible answer to this question and they all think it is very strange that the concert was allowed to start. The aide with the laptop looks at the prime minister.
- Now it's not me who decides here, but because of what has happened and the amount of Alien monsters running around in the Kungsträdgården, in any case I would have triggered a state of emergency in the park and warned the city about what is happening. But you decide.
The Prime Minister looks at his aide and the two other aides standing a little further away and he feels that this should be discussed in detail. The Prime Minister looks at his aide.
- Can you make sure that I get in touch with the police and the guards who are at Kungsträdgården? I feel I need to discuss this with them as well. I really hope the visitors have left the park.
The aide gives the prime minister the phone number and the prime minister looks at the three aides.
- Can you leave the room please?. I want to sit and talk in peace and quiet with the people in charge. I'll call you in when the call is over.
The three aides leave the room and the prime minister calls the person in charge who spoke to the aide with the laptop. It becomes a long conversation and the Prime Minister becomes more and more certain that this is an advanced sabotage due to several different details. The Prime Minister learns that the old underground tunnel under most of the city is completely open and that several Alien monsters have been seen coming out of it. The very worst is the information that the Alien monsters that have come out of the tunnel have carried Alien eggs. This means that even more people will be attacked by the monsters and that new Chestbursters will be born from the chests of people and animals.
It is decided that Kungsträdgården and the immediate area surrounding the park should be immediately cordoned off and that the entrance to the underground tunnel should be blocked off with a temporary heavy steel grating to prevent the Alien monsters from coming out of it. Actually, the underground tunnel should be investigated carefully, but right now there are no resources for that, so it will have to wait until later. The Prime Minister calls in his aides after the call has ended. The Prime Minister takes out the maps and marks certain places with the red pen.
- Here and here and here must be blocked off. No one is allowed to move in these places. Furthermore, the entrance to this tunnel will also be blocked off and..
- Wait a minute, that tunnel is already closed, isn't it?
- It should be, but it's completely open again.
- Who has opened it again?
- No one knows yet, but witnesses have seen several Alien monsters come out of the tunnel and they each carried an egg. The alien monsters have been seen on Sveavägen and it is difficult to close off that whole road, but here and up to here it can be blocked off.
- Does this mean there are Alien monsters in the underground tunnel.
- I dont know, maybe. But no one has time to investigate that matter right now. I intend to declare a state of emergency around Kungsträdgården and parts of Sveavägen. The best thing is if I have a short press conference from here in... about half an hour. We must warn the residents about what is in the city.
- I will contact the press and tell them that you will have a press conference in half an hour. I'm guessing you intended to show the press conference on TV?
- It will be broadcast both on radio and TV. It is important that the public find out about this.
- What did the police and the guard say that it could be sabotage?
- They also believe that it is so and they will check several surveillance cameras and take DNA samples from the eggs. My God, this is going to be a very difficult day for many.
- Will clips from the film shown on the laptop be shown?
- No, it feels very unnecessary. Relatives may be upset if we show when their relative dies. It is possible to blur faces in the film clip, but the police can show those images in that case.
- What if the monsters continue to spread in the city?
- Then I have to implement an even greater state of emergency with even more restrictions. I want you to keep an eye on the situation.
- I thought of a detail. The eggs come from someone. I wonder if it could be that there is an Alien queen in the tunnel.
- We can't hope so, but I've also had those thoughts.
The Prime Minister and the aides stand quietly and still for a while but then they start to prepare for the press conference and the Prime Minister starts to write what he is going to say to the people and how he is going to say it. The Prime Minister looks out of the large window in the meeting room and sees lots of people who are constantly on the move and he hopes they don't have to meet the Alien monsters.
Karolinska Hospital The Garage
Sven parks his old Fiat in a free space in the large garage and he pays away at the parking machine. There are many thoughts spinning in Sven's head. During the trip to the hospital, he has talked to Michael's staff, but he has also thought about whether it shouldn't be good if Edith moves to a nursing home instead.
Sven has seen that Edith has found it increasingly difficult to look after the villa after her husband Lars-Åke died almost five years ago. Sven has tried to help Edith as much as he can, but she has often been dismissive of him and thought she could handle it herself, but she really doesn't. When Sven visited last time, he found old milk in the fridge that had gone sour and Edith hadn't even reacted to the fact that the milk was sour and now she fell from the apple tree the previous day and somewhere Sven feels that Edith actually needs help in daily life. The problem is that she might get angry when he points out to her that it is better if she lives in a nursing home.
Sven has also thought that he and Edith should make a trip to Paris again before she is too old and unable to travel. Sven knows that Edith's favorite country, apart from Sweden, is precisely France and especially Paris. Edith has long talked about taking a trip to Paris with Sven, but it hasn't happened, so Sven wants to make her happy by arranging for them to travel together.
Sven continues in the garage and comes to a walkway that leads to the culvert that Michael cycled through and Sven approaches the elevators that go to the different floors. Sven chooses the nearest elevator and it is the exact same elevator that Michael used earlier in the day and there is some transparent slime flowing in the elevator but Sven does not notice the slime because he is so deep in thought. Sven watches as the numbers on the floor plan rush by and soon he is at floor 7 and opens the elevator door and approaches the department where Edith is.
Disclaimer: Facehugger, Chestbuster, Alien, Alien Warriors, Alien Queen belong to Disney/Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
