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.
