She prayed he'd be safe until she could get to him.
But where was he?
She pressed the door release on the side of the door and it slid open suddenly with a sharp hiss. Julia took one last glance around and stepped inside.
The door slid shut behind her.
Silence dropped.
Julia stood not moving for a minute, taking in everything around her and letting the ambient noises settle in her ears. If anything changed, subconsciously, she'd notice it.
She could see blast marks on the walls still, evidence of the lasers shot at her and Mick during their escape attempt. She could see smaller scars from the bullets they'd fired as well.
Here and there on the floor, dark stains showed up.
Blood?
But whose?
Julia pushed the idea that it might be Mick's out of her mind. She had to concentrate on finding him. If there was bad news waiting, she'd handle it when she got to it.
She turned left and headed down the long winding corridor back toward where she and Mick had come from before they got to this point.
The ship seemed deserted.
It worried Julia just a bit. Where was everyone? Where was Mick? Had they gone some place else? Did they have the capability to transport people to places outside the ship? Could they be there now and Julia not even know it?
Anything seemed possible now, after all she'd been through.
But in truth, she suspected they were simply deeper in the bowels of the ship, rather than out here on its periphery. And that was fine with Julia. She'd find them in her own time. And she'd kill every last one of them.
She reached another door and slid into the next closest layer of the ship. There were more doors here. Some lead to examination rooms. Others seemed to lead to storage rooms. Julia hoped she could find a laser rifle to help even the odds, but she had no luck doing so.
More corridors seemed to stretch on and on forever. She avoided them and worked her way deeper into the ship by jumping rooms. She would try to follow the rooms deeper into the ship rather than get caught up winding her way around and around in an endless circle.
By the third room, she could sense something.
They were still here.
She didn't know how she knew it. She just did. Some part of her instinctive self sensed that they were still in the ship. Were they waiting for her? Were they poised to kill her once she reached a certain point? Or were they eagerly waiting to get in between her legs again?
She frowned. Fat chance she'd allow that to happen. She looked at her M16 and smiled. She'd take her own life before she carried one of their disgusting little creatures to full term.
No way.
She crossed through another room into a corridor she hadn't seen before. A flash of panic leapt across her mind — she hoped she'd be able to remember her way out of this place. Mick might not be in any condition to lead her out. It would be up to her to remember how the hell she'd gotten this far in.
She glanced back at the doors. Just follow them out as much as possible in a straight line, she told herself.
I hope it's that easy.
She turned back to the corridor and continued on. Now she could pick out stray noises filtering into her ears. She was too far away to determine what they were, but she knew she was getting closer to another run-in with her bigheaded gray-skinned hosts.
And Julia couldn't wait.
She kept moving.
The M16s had grown heavy. Their weight seemed to pull at her small shoulders. The grenades in her pockets tugged at her to sit down and rest a while. The extra magazines of ammunition weighed a ton. Julia shook her head. How the hell did professional soldiers carry all this junk?
She was sleepy.
Tired.
What a day.
She smirked. It'd be nice to take a load off. To sit down for just a few minutes somewhere and grab some shut-eye. Maybe one of the rooms she kept passing would be a good place to lay low for a while.
It'd be so nice to close her eyes.
And dream.
Yes, dream.
Her eyes snapped open.
What the hell was going on?
She clamped her mind down and focused instead on the thought of killing as many little aliens as she could. She imagined what their diminutive bodies would look like splayed apart in bright red across the expanse of their ship.
Or maybe she'd do some experimenting of her own on them. Make them into the twisted disgusting creatures they seemed to delight in turning humans into.
Yeah, that'd be nice.
Another wave of fatigue swept over her. This one stronger than the last. Julia almost staggered from the sudden weariness that fell on her.
She leaned against the wall.
Breathe.
Breathe.
She shut her eyes for just a second and saw an image in her mind of an alien with its big eyes peering deep into her soul.
No!
The image vanished.
The fatigue vanished.
Julia could feel a sudden flush of adrenaline course through her bloodstream.
They were trying to get to her through her mind. Just as they'd done when she was lying on the table and they were anesthetizing her using her mind.
She wouldn't let them this time.
Not a chance.
Julia sucked in more oxygen and tried to flush her system with enough of it. Then she righted herself, slid a grenade out of her pocket and kept it out just in case.
Further up the corridor, she could see a door that looked a little different from the others. It drew her to it.
Julia brought her M16 up.
Reached for the door release button.
Pushed it.
The door jumped up.
And Julia found herself facing an alien ten feet from her. As soon as she saw it, another wave of fatigue dropped on to her. Was this the one who was trying to subdue her mentally?
She could feel the weight on her limbs. The rifle seemed too heavy. The grenade too bulky. She couldn't stand anymore.
She just had to sit down.
And sleep…
Just for a little while.
'NO!'
