Alien: Out the Shadows

“Don’t be fucking stupid,” Hoop said. He ducked down and took Baxter’s arm over his shoulders. “Ripley, can you guide Kasyanov?”

“I’m…” Kasyanov said. “I can walk… just not see…” She still shivered, one hand held out in front of her. It barely resembled a hand anymore.

“Your eyes aren’t damaged,” Ripley said.

“Fumes…” she said. “My belt, hip pocket. Red capsules. For… pain.”

“Hurry!” Hoop said. Ripley knew he was right, there’d be more aliens, but they needed Kasyanov on her feet. With Baxter hobbling and Sneddon down, they were rapidly getting to the time when they’d have to leave someone behind. And she sure as hell wasn’t about to decide who it would be.

She rooted through Kasyanov’s belt pockets and found a strip of red injection capsules. She removed three, popping the top from one and ramming the needle through Kasyanov’s suit into her right forearm. Then she popped the other, knelt, and jammed it into Baxter’s leg. Hoop was last, the needle pressed into his shoulder.

“Ouch!” he yelled, and Ripley laughed. She couldn’t help it. Baxter grinned, and Hoop smiled sheepishly.

Then she stood, took Kasyanov’s good hand and placed it on her own shoulder.

“Hold tight,” she said. “Stop when I stop, go when I go. I’ll be your eyes.”

Kasyanov nodded.

“Lachance?” Hoop said.

“I’m okay for now,” the Frenchman said, kneeling and slinging Sneddon over one shoulder. “She’s light. But we won’t get far like this.”

Ripley stared at the thing on Sneddon’s face, and between blinks she saw Kane lying in sick bay on the Nostromo, Ash and Dallas hovering without any idea what to do. Maybe she shouldn’t get far, she thought. Already that thing might be planting its egg inside her. But the idea of leaving her was too sick to contemplate.

With Sneddon’s spray gun lost and Kasyanov’s plasma torch hanging from one shoulder, they were down on their weapons. After the one charge she had left, Ripley would be firing bolts again. She had no idea how long the plasma and acid would last.

Kasyanov clasped her shoulder hard. Like her life depends on it! Ripley thought, smiling grimly. Then the flashlight strapped to Lachance’s charge thumper went out.

“One down,” he said, already gasping beneath Sneddon’s weight.

“Hoop, Lachance is right. We can’t get far like this,” Ripley said.

“We have to,” he replied.

He was right. That was the only answer. This wasn’t one of those situations where a miracle would suddenly present itself. They had to get as far as they could, and there was no use waiting for something else to happen. One foot in front of the other, defending themselves, fighting when they had to, moving quickly when they didn’t.

And if and when we get back to the Marion, there’s Ash, she thought. She wondered just how far that bastard had gone. He’d dragged her with him through the cosmos, searching for alien life, and once he’d found it, he’d tangled her up in all this. Commitment she could understand, but his determination went way beyond that.

Maybe he’d even…

She barked a short, bitter laugh.

“What?” Hoop asked, shooting her a sideways glance.

“Nothing,” she said. And it was nothing. Even if Ash had been responsible for the shuttle’s fuel cell decay, that meant nothing right now. But if they ever made it back to the Marion, they’d have to be careful. That was all.

One foot in front of the other… step by step.

The corridor rose steadily, as wide as any they’d yet followed, and they started passing openings on either side. Hoop slowed before each opening and fired a quick shot from his spray gun every time, but nothing shrieked, nothing came at them from the shadows.

They didn’t even know there was an opening above them until they heard the scream.

It was different from the other alien noises they’d heard, a deeper cry as if from something larger. The shriek was somehow more measured, almost more intelligent. It was haunting.

Ripley stopped and crouched, and Kasyanov did the same behind her. She looked upward. There was a wide, darker shadow in the ceiling above them that swallowed light, and it was only shining a flashlight directly up that revealed the shaft rising above them. High up in that shaft, something moved.

Hoop was ahead with Baxter, both of them already aiming their weapons. But neither of them fired. Acid and fire will drop back down, Ripley thought.

“Back!” Ripley said. She and Kasyanov backed up, and behind them she heard Lachance grunting with the effort of reversing with Sneddon still slung over his shoulder. Hoop and Baxter moved forward, further along the corridor, so that the opening in the ceiling was now between them. Ripley and her group pressed tight against the wall, giving the leaders as wide a field of fire as they could.

But not wide enough.