The Facehugger

I watched as Pastora's eyes locked onto the corpse of the strange organism.

The creature was propped on its back with its inners cut open, reviling some of its organs and scar tissue. It has eight finger-like legs and a long spiny tail similar to the monsters. The facehugger resembled a cross between a horseshoe crab and arachnids.

"How do you know this is what a facehugger looks like!?" Sunghoon asked, as the three of us gingerly crawled out from the vent and into the small laboratory.

"I just assumed. From what Pastora read from the report back in the operating theater room." I reply, stepping toward the examination table to where the facehugger's body was. A strong and vile stench lingered around its body, considering that it was starting to rot.

I imagined the facehugger propelling itself with its long spiny tail before it latched itself to Kennedy's face, impregnating him. The entire thought of it made me feel sick.

Sunghoon gagged. "That is disgusting it looks like...a women's genitals." He stated, pointing at the center of the facehugger's agglomeration. "I'm guessing it was female."

My ears felt hot as I stared to where Sunghoon was pointing. It was true, that the facehugger had tissue or...some sort of muscle..located on its underside that resembled a female's genitals.

"It's hard to say." Pastora replies, reaching over to pick up one of the scalpels on the dissection tray. "If this is some sort of parasite, it would be considered as agender." Pastora replies. She points at one of it's spider-like legs.

"These legs are used for when the facehugger is able to get a hold of the hosts face. These legs keep a firm grip on the victims head as it embeds a chestburster inside of them."

"That's absolutely disgusting. I don't even know why we're wasting our time looking at this thing." Sunghoon sneers.

"What if there's more on the station!?" Pastora suggests.

"It's dead, Pastora. There are no more of those ugly facekiller things on this station. We have bigger fish to fry."

I watch as Sunghoon saunters around the room collecting scrap and dropping it into his bag.

"I don't mean to be a pest, but your thin hospital bag isn't going to support the weight of all the items you've just put in it." I say, eyeing his bag carefully. It was bulky and you can see that most of the items he put inside it were crammed and shoved in, the bottom part of his bag looked like it was going to collapse at any moment.

"You are a pest." Sunghoon sneered. "It's fine. I won't be hoarding these items for long. I just need them for crafting bigger items."

I put my hands up, deciding it was best not to argue with him.

"I suggest you start crafting some items now." Pastora says, looking away from the facehugger and around the room. It looks like we've found a temporary hiding spot from that monster.

Sunghoon nods and sits down on the floor in front of a storage cabinet.

I take Pastora's arm and gently crouch down besides Sunghoon.

"I suggest we stay low, just in case."

Pastora doesn't argue with me and keeps her eyes locked on the vent that we just came from. She was probably expecting the monster to crawl out of it like I was. The possible thought of it made my stomach turn.

I looked over at Sunghoon wanting to keep my mind off the creature, even if it was only for a couple of seconds.

Sunghoon had the SCJ Injector, bonding agent, and that packet full of that compound B element he told me about earlier.

"You're making more med kits?" I asked, watching him curiously.

Sunghoon ignored me and continued with his work mixing and diverging the items together. The three of us sat in silence as Sunghoon crafted a few more medkits. Pastora and I would keep ourselves aware at our surroundings while Sunghoon crafted, It was about fifteen minutes until I noticed Sunghoon taking out other items from his bag.

"What are you crafting now!?" I asked him curiously. "Do you know what those things are?"

"Of course I do." Sunghoon replies pointing to a thin brown tube. "This here's a blasting cap, which I'll need in order to make a flashbang with. It's the same tool needed for making smokebombs." Sunghoon replies as he loops the blasting cap expertly through the circular cylinder of the bonding agent. "Consider the blasting cap like dynamite. You have to handle it carefully."

"I'll keep that in mind." I mutter, looking back over at Pastora who's been quiet this entire time.

"Pastora? What are you thinking? If you don't mind me asking." I say.

"The facehuggers...they seem super strong in defending themselves...with their acidic blood and all, I really wish I had a sample..."

"PASTORA!" Sunghoon suddenly roared, causing Pastora and I to jump.

"Would you stop talking about these stupid facehuggers like they're some sort of test subject!? They're MONSTERS! We don't have time for you to be playing around with their dead bodies and making theories! We're in a serious situation and with one wrong move all of our lives will be over! Do you understand me!?"

Pastora looked at him warily, I watched as her eyes slowly filled with tears. She bit her lower lip and nodded silently.

I understood where Sunghoon was coming from, but I wanted to punch him for the way he said it.

"Alright..." Sunghoon replies more softly, gripping onto the newly crafted Flashbang. "I think we're good for now. Most of the weapons require being held or else they'll be fruitless to us or go off in our bags from all the moving around. I'll have to make one at a time. I'll make more when we find dark and quiet places similar to this one. Are we ready to go?"

"Do you mean...we're still looking for Chelsea?" I asked hopefully.

"Yeah, Chelsea. Safety in numbers right? Then we find your father." Sunghoon replies.

I sigh feeling relieved and also a bit surprised with Sunghoon's answer.

"Right."

I look over at Pastora who just nods in agreement. I could tell she was still hurt from what Sunghoon said to her.

"Alright, I say we take this door to our right, I've been looking through the observation window. We may be led to a dead end if we take a left. I can tell from the wall's silhouette." Sunghoon says.

"Then lets take a right." I say, feeling my hands starting to clam up just at the thought of us traveling back out where the monster might be. I could only imagine how frightened Chelsea must be.

I never should have left her. What if David and Jane have killed her? No. I couldn't think of that, she had to be alive. She had a gun on her and she knows how to use one. She'll be fine. She has to be.

Pastora and I follow Sunghoon out of the room.

I was starting to worry for Sunghoon's safety from how heavy his footing was. I really didn't want to tell him to walk quieter, with his temper he'll probably throw that flashbang at me.

The room let us out into a bright white corridor that reeked of rot and blood, Pastora gasped behind me at the sight of a few mangled bodies that have been gutted or punctured to the head.

Sunghoon stopped to observe the bodies. "Well, we know who's been here."

"You think this is funny!?" I cried. "These are people you're talking about!"

"I've realized that, Sherlock. Quit being so sensitive. Be thankful it was them and not you."

I could feel my entire body starting to tremble with anger. My hands were shaking and so were my legs. I've never wanted to hurt someone so badly until now. How could Sunghoon be so selfish? I was starting to think from all this trauma, he was loosing his humanity.

"There bodies are still warm..." Pastora spoke, resting a hand on a man forehead, his stomach's been torn open. Blood pooled around him and his intestines were a twisted mess in his lap. The sight of it made me gag.

"That means the creature isn't far..." Pastora added, looking at the mans mangled body in disbelief.

"You sure one of those androids didn't do this?" Sunghoon asked, looking around the hallway frantically, his grip on the flashbang tightened.

"Unless the androids have very sharp claws, teeth, and an insanely amount of strength." Pastora replies, slowly getting back up to her feet.

"They're incredibly strong." I rasp, feeling my heart pounding and my stomach twisting with fear. "But they don't have claws....or teeth...they're robots..."

"This may require my attention." A robotic voice came from behind us.

I felt my blood go cold. A pair of thunderous footsteps echoed off the walls of the room we've just came from.

"We have to get out of here." Sunghoon said, grabbing onto Pastora's arm and hauling her down the corridor.

I scurried after them, tripping over a few dead bodies. I managed to keep my balance and my lunch down. Everything whizzed by us as a blur as we ran through the corridor, twisting in beelines and all sorts of different sharp turns.

Then I remembered the monster.

As if on que, a loud high-pitched screeched hissed through the air above us.