Aliens, page 27
Despite the heat and humidity of the interior, matching that of the towns close to what remained of the Gulf of Mexico or the re-established jungles on Earth, she felt her body go cold. The monsters had wasted no time creating a hive. If this happened in a confined space, in such a short amount of time, what would happen elsewhere? What might an entire world look like? Only a fool could think they could be tamed, made into bioweapons.
No one spoke, their breathing heavy in their helmets, shared with one another via earpieces. The farther they ventured, the hotter it became.
“This way.”
His voice startling, Ramón guided them through the facility that could have been the guts of an organism. It was the anatomy of alien life taking hold doing what it did best, surviving. They continued on with slow deliberate steps, through an open thick vaulted door with triangle locks. The archway had been transformed to a trellis of onyx pumice dripping in precipitation and slime. The path spiraled deeper into the facility until it opened up again to what had been a large lab.
Cylinders contained small things, almost spider-like with legs that looked like the fingers of a bruja and a tail that could be the cousin of a rattlesnake. Four other containers held clear water that appeared harmless. The fourth had a powerful microscope attached to an extendable robotic arm, amplifying the contents. It showed what lurked invisible to the human eye.
“Híjole, Ramón,” Leticia said. “What the hell?”
“We’ve linked Xenomorph DNA with the common pork tapeworm,” he said, as if it was a perfectly natural thing. “It’s meant to contaminate water systems.” Writhing coiled parasites swam in unison. Mouths snapped open and shut and were lined with jagged teeth. Barbs edged their bodies.
“I want nothing to do with any of this,” Jacob said, not disguising the disgust in his tone. “We’ve fought so hard and long to bring clean water to humans everywhere, and here you are creating a weapon that will do the opposite.” He growled. “No wonder half of my family isolated me in England. The other half is pure poison. While I’m trying to spur human evolution to move ahead, they’re finding more cunning ways to murder each other.”
Clear chambers hung along a wall, tinged with frost that indicated refrigeration. In them were multiple Xenomorph corpses in various states of decay. Their bodies were deformed, the shiny carapace mottled.
Leticia’s anger has risen above her fear. “I just need to know one thing,” she demanded. “Why are you doing this? Why are you studying something like that? You can’t bring it back to Earth, or take it to any world. These aren’t dogs you can train, and they kill without mercy.”
Ramón remained silent.
“Answer, Ramón,” Jacob said. “I want to know, too.” He gave her brother a look of disgust. Ramón shot him an equally acrimonious glare.
“I’m doing what we do best,” he said. “We manufacture life and death, and sell it to the highest bidder. It’s always been that way. You can’t build better worlds if you are fighting over them. These will stop the fight once and for all, because no one will doubt our superiority.”
Leticia could tell he was still holding back.
“Ramón, if we don’t know what this is we can’t fight it.”
He stopped and pointed to a row of smaller tubes, a size that could be held in the hand. Something black shimmered inside.
“We’ve been engineering our own weapon for use against the Xenomorphs,” he explained. “It’s a type of necrotizing fasciitis—flesh-eating bacteria that passes quickly between the creatures. When activated, it can also be lethal to humans. With a high enough dosage, these samples can be used against the aliens. Their immune systems are tough, but we managed to crack them.
“The true test will be to infect a queen,” he continued, “then for her to pass the bacteria to her eggs. You should see the early footage of their reactions when the bacteria is introduced into their environment. With just the proximity, the Xenomorphs can sense the danger.”
“What does it do to humans?” Desiree asked.
He didn’t answer.
“Burn this fucker down,” she said.
“Are you joking?” he responded, his voice rising. “We’ve worked too hard to lose all this valuable research, all this time, effort, and investment. None of our lives are that valuable.”
“Heads are going to roll.”
“Whatever, Jacob,” Ramón spat. “Yours has been on the chopping block for a long time now, you know.”
“You think I’m just a stupid boy scout? Of course I know. Hell, Julia Yutani is probably the chairman of that board.”
“Boys, callete!” Leticia said. “Holster your balls.” She turned to her brother. “Where are we going, Ramón?”
“Here.” He pointed to his tablet, then moved on.
Though she didn’t want to show it, her skin was crawling. There was nothing secure about this place, and according to Ramón some bubonic plague-level bacteria just waiting to be let loose. Nothing about this was right. Leticia moved closer to Desiree.
“I want you to cover Jacob.” Then she addressed Jacob. “You can expose all of this, but only if we manage to survive. If those things hate the bacteria, our only way may be to take it with us. So grab a vial. In fact, everyone grab one.”
“Say what?” Frida said. She stared, but didn’t move.
“There really is no other way,” Leticia said. “We already have one foot in the grave. Better to take our chances where we find ’em. Once we get away from here, we can drop that bacteria shit into one of those steaming mud holes. Ramón, you said it had to be activated—how does that work, anyway?”
“Um, aerosol, water supply, even a puncture wound, like the source fasciitis.” He moved with the others to take a sample, stopping briefly at a desk. “Now can we get out of here, and find Julia?”
“Lead the way, Ramón. I want to get out of here as quickly as you do.”
“This way,” he said, but he looked perplexed. “We are… getting close… but it doesn’t seem to be the panic room.”
The path that had led them to the lab carried on spiraling down, with the heat intensifying. They turned on the lights that were attached to their rifles. The walls became thicker with the Xenomorph-made onyx insulation, and the floor a sodden mire of something she didn’t want to know. Leticia looked behind them. It was as dark as the hand of the Xenomorph and the souls of the men who created them.
They moved into a larger space that could have been any place in the facility, with no discerning markers. Their lights strobed to illuminate bone and viscera. The open chests of the inhabitants resembled the remnants of a chorizo con huevos taco regurgitated by a drunk. It was an alien cathedral of gore, pain, and reproduction.
Some of the bodies were trapped in icicles of sludge and hardened mucus. Human waste covered the floors from the suspended bodies. The ammonia stung Leticia’s eyes. Shards jutted in every direction, preventing any possible escape. The room breathed humidity, giving the facility its own atmosphere to help the Xenomorphs thrive in an inferno paradise.
To their horror, some of the poor souls attached to the walls were clinging to life. They wheezed and gasped for air, not realizing they no longer needed it—every life-form sought survival above all else. While it was as natural as breathing, now it only fed what grew inside of them. The sound was a hymn of desperate torture.
If Santa Muerte walked anywhere, it would be here. Her robes would bless this unholy ground and eat this torment.
“We need to take their pain away,” Mohammed said.
“I agree.” Leticia turned toward Desiree, and her gaze was met with rows of gooey eggs pulsating with their own tempo of weeping slime. “Oh, shit,” she breathed, “this is one cascarone fight I do not want to be in.”
“I can’t believe…” Ramón began. “I knew they were dangerous, but this.” His face showed nothing but terror now, as he continued to walk while trying to hold his vomit at the sight of the bodies. In the corner was the decomposing corpse of one of the queens. The hood on the roof of her had exploded from the inside.
“Ramón, what is that?” Leticia asked. “It doesn’t look anything like the ones we encountered before.” She shone her light directly on the dead creature.
“That may be La Reina,” he said, and she gave him a weird look. “We raised more than one queen. See that metal halo above the fanned crown on her head? It shocked her with electricity that fried her from the inside out. It could have released the bacteria, if we chose, but we relied on her for eggs. It’s good news that she’s been killed—whoever did that must have got them all. We can’t be sure, though, unless—”
He stopped abruptly and turned his light toward the wall.
“No,” he said in a hoarse whisper.
Leticia froze.
28
Ramón couldn’t help but feel his own ribcage throb and give way to the sharp-toothed bite of grief as he saw Julia’s pale face. She moaned as her eyelids fluttered, and winced with the light on her face. Next to her was Brenda Moon, and the other people involved in the initial stages of the experiments. Some appeared to have been dead for some time, with decay setting in. Flesh flaked away in the natural cycle of things.
“Ramón…” she said, her voice a croak. “You came for me.” To see her like this made him want to climb into the cocoon with her. It was a greater love than he even felt for his own children.
“Yes,” he said. “I’m here. I love you. I left everything behind to be with you. We are going to get you down, right now.” He frantically looked to Leticia. “Help me get her out of here. Please!”
Julia spoke again in a voice barely audible.
“Ramón, look at me. It’s too late. Don’t bullshit.” She coughed, a dry, hacking sound. “I love you. It was always you… My files… Nothing. Don’t let them get out. We only managed to destroy one. Destroy them all. Yutani has a plan… we talked about, already in motion. You’ll have everything you need.”
He darted his head toward Leticia, but Julia moaned in pain and he turned back as her head lolled. She looked toward Jacob.
“I’m sorry, Jacob, but this involves you. You’ll be blamed for all of it, and Vickers will be forced out. Those who supported you… also discredited. Run. No other choice for you.”
Her head slumped forward.
“Julia!” Tears flooded from Ramón’s eyes. He had known death intimately all his life, but now it stared back at him for the first time. Coming here had been his way of course-correcting. This was his way of leaving Mary Anne and his children for Julia. This was supposed to be their own garden of Eden, a world they could build together with more money than could be spent in several lifetimes.
It was also his way to make it right with Leticia and give her a big payday. He didn’t want her to fall into any of the traps of his aunt Roseanna, his mother, or Cutter’s family. Leticia was his only true family, after all.
Julia’s body began to convulse—the chestburster was trying to emerge. Pink foamy saliva oozed from her mouth. The unbuttoned portion of her blouse revealed the flesh between her breasts, and it was bubbling.
“Ramón, look at me now!” Leticia screamed.
He reared his head toward her. His eyes went wide as Leticia raised her gun, and she shot Julia in the chest four times. The chestburster shrieked a shrill cry before falling dead from the gaping hole. Ramón’s entire body jerked at the sound of every bullet that echoed in the chamber of life and death, a birthing suite and cemetery at the same time.
“I’m sorry, Ramón, but it had to be done, and you weren’t going to do it,” his sister said. “I wouldn’t want you to. If you want to make it right, then do as she requested. Get all of her information about these things—and we better move fast, because if they didn’t know we were here before, then they know now.”
Wordlessly Ramón nodded. “For Julia,” he said, finding his voice. “We need to go to her office, adjacent to the lab. It isn’t far.”
Jacob squared off with Ramón again, holding his pulse rifle high to his chest. “What the hell was she talking about when she said I had to run? What did you two do to get rid of me, and apparently any Vickers?”
Without any emotion on his face or in his voice Ramón answered. “We were going to discredit you with these projects, and take over the entire planet but still keep the experiments going while you were the one being indicted. Or an accident would happen. Your death would uncover all the Vickers misdeeds, and anyone who supported a Vickers.”
Jacob shook his head with a disgusted snarl.
“Lead the way. I’ll deal with you later.”
Ramón couldn’t look at him. He refocused on his tablet.
“In here. Leticia, I don’t know if you heard Julia, but we had a plan. A chain reaction of sorts in the event of any emergency. All her files would be transferred to me, then to you. You need to do the same. There’s no time, in case we don’t make it out.” He said this while typing. “Right, who is your backup?”
She looked around. “Jacob and Desiree of course. You think I’m going to let you and that bitch frame an innocent man? And make me part of it. Were you going to bribe me, or bump me and my team off eventually? We are done, brother. I fucking swear.”
“No,” he said. “You would have believed it, too. And no offense, but Desiree? She has no power in the scheme of things. Jacob I can understand, but the files might not help him. It’s all designed to point to his guilt.”
“No offense taken,” Desiree said sarcastically.
“Oh, she has power,” Leticia said, “and she’s not part of the Weyland-Yutani gang. How can I trust you after all that has been said, all your lies from day one?”
“You don’t have a choice, and I’m trying to help you,” he insisted, focusing on the moment. “I need both of you to press your thumb here. You will have a code for an electronic lock box.”
Jacob and Desiree exchanged glances, but didn’t move.
“Do it! I have nothing to lose or gain anymore. She’s gone, and I don’t want this anymore. There is a chance you might find a way to clear yourself. It’s everything here. You see, humans aren’t perfect, and our little scheme a failure. It’s all you got.”
Jacob pressed his thumb to the tablet, while maintaining eye contact with Ramón.
“We will see.”
Desiree followed.
“Is this episode of Family Feud over?” Mohammed craned his neck as he scanned the space for movement. “Fuck. Where the hell did they come from? We got company, wolves. There are a few of them. Everyone keep quiet, get your weapons ready.”
Then the sounds began. A cacophony of monsters in the form of hissing like a valve of steam being released. It was the same as when the dropship opened with the dying man.
“Eyes in all directions, people.”
The small band put their backs to each other.
Ramón took a bag slung across his chest and handed it to Jacob without looking at him. “Consider this an apology. I snagged it from the lab with the bacteria. You can run, space is big, but maybe you need to clear your name, because this is only a small portion of what is going on.”
“What’s this?”
“Your lucky day and lottery ticket. Activated bacteria, and a chip with the formulas for activation and neutralization.” He turned. “Leticia, go with Jacob and get him out of here.”
“Why aren’t they attacking?” Frida said.
* * *
It was exactly as she said. The Xenomorphs hissed and snapped at the group without attacking. Leticia maintained eye contact with a beast that had no visible eyes, but she damn well knew they saw everything.
“It’s the bacteria,” she said. “What Ramón was carrying. Fucking go! This is your chance. I’m not leaving—this is my mission. Backup should be here soon. Desiree, turn on your sensors and get Jacob out of here.”
“Leticia, we can all get out of here. Let’s stay like this.”
“No we can’t. Look at them.” Three Xenomorphs were gathering just beyond Jacob, who was holding the activated bacteria. “They will attack, even if we pass the bacteria around like a blunt at a party. No, they’ll pick us off one-by-one and use the confusion to strike the rest. Desiree, go now with Jacob.”
Desiree frowned, but then she braced herself.
“Will do, jefa,” she said. “As soon as we are clear I will try to find out where the fucking backup is.” She squeezed Jacob’s bicep to draw him away.
“Leticia!” he shouted.
Then they were gone. Laying down fire to cover them, Leticia ignored his desire to stay and fight these things head on. Now she had to get Ramón out. He knew weapons, had brokered arms deals, but didn’t have any combat experience. Without her backing him up, he was as good as dead.
“It’s time to use your good arm, Frida.”
Frida grabbed a timed grenade from her waist band and aimed for pockets in the wall of human cocoons and open bodies. The more of the facility they could take down, the better. She made three perfect pitches. She had the fourth in hand when a black claw came from her right and grabbed her ankle.
“Leticia!”
Her scream made them turn. She hit the ground, and one of the monsters hovered over her. With the grenade still in her hand she grabbed the Xenomorph back. As it lifted her into the air, Mohammed took another one from his pocket. Frida looked back and gave them a thumbs-up.
The inner mandible pushed out between the hideous jaws.
Frida’s body and the Xenomorph shattered together.
“Move!” Leticia bellowed. “Which way, Ramón!”
“Back! We go back!”
They ran up the spiral corridor. Leticia fired behind them, at times eliciting a shriek, until they were back into the lab.
“It’s a risk, but there’s a ventilation system here,” he said. “Only one way out.” Ramón typed fast. A square vent opened at the base of a wall at the far end of the lab. Behind them, Mohammed tossed a grenade toward the entrance. Leticia’s watch vibrated.
Desiree and Jacob had made it out.
