Alien: Out the Shadows

“Argue and we all die!” she said, and soon they were out of sight above her. For a while she was on her own, descending the ramp, illuminated by an already fading glow from the structure around her. Then she heard something running toward her and she crouched down close to the central spine.

Hoop appeared, lit up by her flashlight’s beam. Sweating, eyes wide, he tensed, but didn’t relax again.

“We really need to go,” he said.

“How many?”

“Too many.”

Ripley wasn’t sure she could run again. Her stomach ached, she could barely move her right arm, and she felt sick. But the booster Kasyanov had given her coursed through her veins, and every negative thought was dragged down and hidden away. There was a sensory distance around her. Though unpleasant, it was also protecting her, so she embraced it, losing track of her various agonies. She knew that they would be waiting for her on the other side.

From above, Lachance started shouting, but she couldn’t tell what he was saying.

“Oh, no,” Ripley said. Yet Hoop grinned and grabbed her hand, and before she knew it they were running up the ramp once more. She saw lights ahead of them, and the ramp ended in another wide space. This was more like a cave than a building—slopes of rocks, an uneven ceiling, walls that had only ever been touched by human tools.

At the far end, Kasyanov and Baxter held Sneddon up between them. The first thing Ripley noticed was the opening in the rock behind them.

Then Sneddon lifted her head and looked around, and Ripley saw that the face-hugger was gone.

18 ELEVATOR

When Hoop had broken away from the others, he’d seen at least ten of the aliens stalking through the massive room, searching between giant pillars, crouching by the statues and their plinths. There was enough fading light still emanating from the stonework, and as he’d watched their shadows had slowly merged into the surroundings.

He’d backed away slowly, light extinguished, and then run, finding his way by feel. Ripley’s flashlight had brought light to his world again.

Being back in the mine should have made him feel better. But Hoop knew that those things were still pursuing them, scenting blood, and that every second’s delay would bring them closer. The elevator was their salvation. Reach that, go up, and they’d be way ahead of the game. It was now a simple race. And for once, things seemed to be going well.

The thing had dropped from Sneddon’s face and died, and they’d left it back there in the tunnels. She seemed fine. Quiet, confused, a little scared, but able to walk on her own, and even keen to carry the spray gun that Lachance had been hefting for her.

With Sneddon on her feet again and Ripley patched up, it meant that they could move faster than before. Even Baxter seemed to have found his stride, using his plasma torch as a crutch. Hoop dared to hope.

If we get out of this I’m going home, he thought. The idea had stuck with him for some time, and he’d been thinking of his kids. He hadn’t seen them for seven years, didn’t know if they’d remember him, had no idea how much his ex-wife might have turned them against him. They were adults now, plenty old enough to ask why he hadn’t stayed in touch. No contact at all. Nothing on their birthdays, no messages at Christmas. How difficult would it be for him to explain, when he wasn’t even sure of the reasons himself?

But when this was over and they launched themselves back toward Earth, it would be his last time. To arrive back home would be so wonderful it was now all he could wish for.

And there was something else. Maybe he didn’t actually deserve hope, but Ripley did. She had been through far too much to just die out here.

The mine was familiar territory. The lights still worked, and as they moved through the tunnels of the lowest parts of level 9 toward the second elevator shaft, Hoop waited for their way to be blocked once again. Those things had been in here, building their strange constructions—nests, traps, homes. But maybe between here and the elevator it would be clear. Maybe fate had cut them a break.

But he knew the pursuing aliens would find their way. They had Ripley’s scent, and their blood was up, their hatred and fury, their ferocity, richer than ever before. He saw no need to tell the others, but he made sure they moved quickly, quietly. They all understood the urgency. They’d all been through too much to slow down now.

“It’s close!” Baxter said. “I recognize this place. Just around this next corner, I think.” He’d been down in the mines more than any of them, and Hoop hoped he was right. And when they turned the next corner, there it was.

The elevator shaft stood in the center of a wide-open area, ceiling propped by metal columns. It seemed whole, undamaged, untouched. The shaft was set in a heavy network of metal stanchions. The elevator car was parked on this floor, too, which meant the miners had all used the other one to flee to the surface.