Alien 3 (25 page)

or D?’ he shouted. ‘For fuck’s sake—’

Gregor turned without stopping. ‘Shut the fuck up! Move!’

Unsure of his position, Kevin discovered that he’d doubled back on himself. ‘Shit. I’m in R. That’s safe. That’s safe. Isn’t it?’

Jude overheard, raised his voice so his companion could hear. ‘You forgot, man. R leads back into F. I’m moving through F right now. Gonna shut it down.’

Disoriented, Troy halted at an intersection. He’d moved too fast, ignoring the map and trusting to memory. Now he found himself appraising the multiple tunnels uncertainly.

‘Channel F? Where the fuck—There ain’t no fuckin’

Channel F.’

He moved forward, hesitated, and chose the corridor to his immediate right, instead.

That corridor, however, was already occupied by another frustrated inhabitant.

Dillon and Ripley heard the distant screams. As usual, the screams didn’t last for very long.

‘Morse?’ Dillon called out. ‘Kevin, Gregor?’

Ripley strained to see past him. ‘What’s going on back there?’

The big man glanced tensely back at her. ‘All they have to do is run down the damn corridors.’ He hefted his axe and started forward. ‘Stay here.’

The side corridor from which they expected their visitor remained deserted. No alien. No people. Only distant, echoing voices, some distinctly panicky.

Behind him, Eric voiced his thoughts aloud. ‘Where in hell is it?’ Dillon just glanced at him.

Sucking up his courage, David moved back to the door and peered through the small window. The corridor beyond was empty. He raised his voice.

‘I’ve lost him. Don’t know where the fucking thing is. Not gonna open the door. I think it went up in the fucking air vent.’

He turned slowly to inspect the single air vent in the tunnel above him.

He was right.

Ripley waited until the last of the echoes faded to silence.

Eric had been moving forward, his eyes harbingers of imminent collapse. If someone didn’t do something he was going to break and take off running. There was nowhere to run to. She moved toward him, caught his gaze, trying to stare him down, to transfer some of her own confidence into him.

Dillon had disappeared down the side corridor. It didn’t take him long to find Troy’s remains. After a quick look around he retreated back the way he’d come.

Morse and Jude had finally linked up. They ran along side by side . . . until Jude slipped and went down hard. His fingers fumbled at the warm, sticky mess which had tripped him up.

‘For fuck’s sake . . . yuck.’

When Jude lifted it toward the flare for a better look, Morse recoiled in horror. Then he got a good look at what he’d picked up, and they screamed in unison.

Ripley listened intently, momentarily forgetting Eric. The screams were close now—immediate, not echoes. Suddenly the prisoner whirled and rushed back toward the piston control.

She ran after him . . .

As the alien appeared, racing across the corridor.

Eric’s fingers started to convulse on the control and she barely had time to grab his hand.

‘Wait! It’s not in position yet!’ With an effort of will she managed to block him from releasing the piston.

That was all it took. Defeated mentally as well as physically, he slumped back, exhausted and trembling.

Kevin moved slowly through the corridor. He was getting close to the piston alcove now, as safe a place as any. He’d done everything that had been asked of him. They couldn’t ask for more, not now.

Something made him look up. The alien positioned in the vent above didn’t bother to drop. Instead it reached down and snatched him up as easily as if it had been fishing for a frog.

Blood splattered.

At the far end of the passageway Dillon appeared. Spotting Kevin’s jerking legs he rushed forward and threw both arms around the twitching knees. It was something the alien wasn’t prepared for and the two men dropped.

Ripley saw Dillon drag the wounded prisoner into the main corridor. With a glance at the useless Eric she started forward to help.

Blood spurted from the injured man’s neck. Whipping off her jacket, she wrapped it around the wound as tightly as she could. The blood slowed, but not enough. Dillon held the man close, murmuring.

‘No death, only—’

There was no time to finish the prayer. The alien emerged from the side access. Ripley rose and started backing away.

‘Leave the body. Draw it in.’

Dillon nodded and joined her, the two of them retreating toward the control alcove.

The alien watched. They were moving slowly, with nowhere to retreat to. There was still life in the damaged figure on the floor. The alien jumped forward to finish the job.

Spinning, Ripley made a slashing gesture in Eric’s direction.

Eric erupted from his hiding place and slammed his hand down on the control.

The piston shot forward, sweeping up both Kevin’s body and that of the alien, shunting them toward the gap which led to the furnace. Heat and howling air filled the corridor.

But the alien had vanished.

Sweating, Ripley took a step forward. ‘Where the hell’s it gone?’

‘Shit!’ Dillon tried to peer around the machinery. ‘It must be behind the fucking piston.’

‘Behind it?’ She gaped at him.

‘Seal the doors,’ he bellowed. ‘We gotta get it back!’ They exchanged a glance, then took off in opposite directions.

‘Jude, Morse!’ Dillon pounded down the corridor he’d chosen, searching for survivors. Meanwhile Ripley went in search of Eric and William. Found them, too, all mixed up together and no longer worrying. About anything. She continued on.

Morse was creeping now, no longer running. Hearing a noise, he paused to check the side access way from which it had come, exhaled at the sight of nothing. He began retracing his steps, keeping his eyes forward.

Until he dumped into something soft and animate.

‘What the-!’

It was Jude. Equally startled, the other man whirled, displaying the scissors he carried like a weapon. Simultaneously relieved and furious, Morse grabbed the twin blades and angled them upward.

‘Not like this. Like this, moron.’ He whacked the other man on the side of the head. Jude blinked, nodded, and started off in the other direction.

Dillon was back in the main corridor, yelling. ‘Jude, Jude!’

The other man heard him, hesitated.

The alien was right behind him.

He ran like hell, toward Dillon, who urged him on.

‘Don’t look back. As fast you fucking can!’

Jude came on, trying, trying for his life. But he wasn’t Kevin, or Gregor. The alien caught him. Blood exploded against the door that Dillon desperately sent slamming shut.

In the next corridor Ripley heard, growled to herself. Time was ticking away as the piston continued its inexorable and currently useless slide forward.

Gregor screamed for help, but there was no one around to hear him. He raced blindly down the passageway, ricocheting off the corners like a pinball until he slammed into Morse, running hard the other way. Nervous, then half laughing, they picked themselves up, staring in relief at one another.

Until the alien flashed past and smashed into Gregor in midlaugh, tearing him apart.

Blood and pulp showering his face and torso, Morse fought to scramble away, screaming for mercy to something that neither understood nor cared about his desperation. He could only stare as the creature methodically eviscerated Gregor’s corpse. Then he crawled frantically.

He bumped into something unyielding and his head whipped around. Feet. His head tilted back. Ripley’s feet.

She threw the flare she was holding at the alien as it tried to duck into an air vent. The burning magnesium alloy forced it to drop Gregor’s ravaged body.

‘Come on, you bastard!’

As Morse looked on in fascination, the alien, instead of rushing forward to decapitate the lieutenant, coiled up against the far wall. She advanced, ignoring its cringing and spitting.

‘Come on. I got what you want. Follow me. I want to show you something. Come on, damn you!’

The alien’s tail flicked out and lashed at her. Not hard enough to kill; just enough to fend her off.

At that moment Dillon arrived in the doorway, staring. She whirled on him. ‘Get back! Don’t get in the way!’

The alien resumed its attack posture, turning to face the newcomer. Desperately Ripley inserted herself between it and Dillon, who suddenly realized not only what was happening but what she was trying to do.

Moving up behind, he grabbed her and held her tight.

The alien went berserk, but kept its distance as the two humans retreated, Ripley tight in Dillon’s grasp.

It followed them into the main corridor, keeping the distance between them constant, waiting. Dillon glanced toward the waiting mould, called out.

‘In here, stupid!’

The alien hesitated, then leapt to the ceiling and scuttled over the doorjamb.

‘Shut it!’ Ripley said frantically. ‘Now!’

Dillon didn’t need to be told. He activated the door in front of her. It slammed tight, imprisoned them both in the main corridor with the creature.

Morse appeared behind it, saw what was happening. ‘Get out! Get the fuck out now!’

Ripley yelled back at him. ‘Close the door!’ The other man hesitated. As he did so, the alien turned toward him. ‘Now!’

Morse jerked forward and hit the switch. The door rammed down, sealing them off from his position. A moment later the piston appeared, continuing on its cleansing passage and obscuring them from view.

He turned and ran back the way he’d come.

Within the main corridor the piston crunched into the alien, knocking it backward. Forgetting now about the two humans, it turned and sought to squeeze a leg past the heavy barrier.

There was no room, no space at all. The piston continued to force it toward the mould.

Dillon and Ripley were already there. End of the line.

Nowhere else to go.

Morse scrambled up the ladder which lead to the crane cab, wondering if he remembered enough to activate it. He’d have to. There was no time to consult manuals, and no one left to ask.

The massive landing craft disdained the use of the mine’s ill-maintained landing port. Instead it set down on the gravel outside, the backwash of its maneuvering engines sending dirt and rocks flying. Moments later heavily armed men and women were rushing toward the facility’s main entrance.

From within the lock Aaron watched them disembark, a broad smile on his face. They had smart guns and armour piercers, thermoseeking rails and rapid-fire handguns. They knew what they’d be up against and they’d come prepared. He straightened his uniform as best as he could and prepared to pop the lock.

‘I knew they’d make it.’ He raised his voice. ‘Hey,!; over here!

This way!’ He started to activate the lock mechanism.

He never got the chance. The door exploded inward, six commandos and two medical officers rushing through even before the dust had settled. All business, the commandos spread out to cover the lock area. Aaron moved forward, thinking as he did so the captain in their midst was a dead ringer for the dead android that had been on the lieutenant’s lifeboat.

‘Right, sir,’ he announced as he stopped in front of the officer and snapped off a crisp salute. ‘Warder Aaron, 137512.’

The captain ignored him. ‘Where is Lieutenant Ripley? Is she still alive?’

A little miffed at the indifference but still eager to be of help, Aaron replied quickly. ‘Right, sir. If she’s alive, she’s in the mould. They’re all in the leadworks with the beast, sir. Absolute madness. Wouldn’t wait. I tried to tell ‘em—’

The officer cut him off abruptly. ‘You’ve seen this beast?’

‘Right, sir. Horrible. Unbelievable. She’s got one inside her.’

‘We know that.’ He nodded tersely in the direction of the commandos. ‘We’ll take over now. Show us where you last saw her.’

Aaron nodded, eagerly led them into the depths of the complex.

* * *

Ripley and Dillon continued retreating into the mould until there was ceramic alloy at their backs and nowhere else to stand. A grinding of gears caught her attention and her head jerked back. Overhead she could see machinery moving as the refinery responded inexorably to its programmed sequence.

‘Climb,’ she told her companion. ‘It’s our only chance!’

‘What about you?’ Dillon spoke as the alien entered the back part of the mould, forced along by the massive piston.

‘It won’t kill me.’

‘Bullshit! There’s gonna be ten tons of hot metal in here!’

‘Good! I keep telling you I want to die.’

‘Yeah, but I don’t—’

Soon the alien would be on top of them. ‘Now’s your chance,’

Ripley shouted. ‘Get going!’

He hesitated, then grabbed her. ‘I’m taking you with me!’ He shoved her bodily upward.