Thirteen: Unwanted Company

A strong but brief breeze of rot blew into all of our faces as Pastora removed the body bag off the hosts body.

The three of us looked down at the body in disbelief. The chest wound was about the size of a small watermelon and about twenty inches deep. Bits of bone from the chest cavity have been destroyed and caved in. A few of the hosts vital organs were slightly visible but seemed to blend in with all the blood.

"As the nurse said, the chestburster has ripped through the hosts entire chest cavity." Pastora stated. "It appears that the chestburster grew right here as an embryo." She pointed to a certain spot in the victims bloody chest.

"You can see right past these muscle tissue is the victims esophagus, where the facehugger implanted the embryo, impregnating the host." Pastora continued.

Sunghoon clasped a hand over his hospital mask and gagged loudly.

"Oh man, that is nasty!"

I swallowed hard to fight back my tears, I couldn't take my eyes away from the victims bloody wound. It looked like something that came from a horror movie or a nightmare. My eyes traveled to the victims face, that was scrunched up in pain. His mouth was wide open as if he'd used his last breath screaming out in agony. The poor guy. I couldn't even imagine how painful that must of been.

"I find it more devastating than nasty to be honest..." I mutter beneath my mask. "Imagine the pain this poor man must of felt during the process of the chestburster? Imagine how scared he must of been knowing that something wasn't right and that there was nothing he or anyone could do about it?" I look at Sunghoon who's looking at me like I've just grown an extra head.

"Dude he's dead now. It doesn't matter anymore, let's just get out of here." He says, looking back at the body wearily.

"Doesn't matter!?" I shriek. "Sunghoon, this is a human being you're talking about!"

"Was a human being. Now thanks to him, all of us have to risk our own lives to kill the monster it brought on board with him." Sunghoon sneered, taking a step back from the body.

"It wasn't his fault. It wasn't anyone's fault, Sunghoon. Nobody had any idea of what could possibly happen. They were more concerned for Kennedy's safety and trying to get the facehugger off him." Pastora added in, her eyes roaming the chest wound curiously.

"Yeah, well..they did a great job." Sunghoon snapped. "I want to get out of here, now and kill that thing."

"It's not that simple." I said, looking at him. "You haven't even seen the thing or what it can do. It's terrifying."

"I don't need to see it. I'll craft something and kill it!"

"You really think a smoke bomb is going to kill it?"

"I can craft more than just smoke bombs smarty pants!"

"BOYS! Enough!" Pastora cried, turning from the body to glare up at both of us. "None of us are going to get anywhere with all this fighting! We need to save our energy for surviving!!"

Sunghoon and I glanced at each other and went silent. She was right. I don't even know what's gotten into me. I've always been so passive and gentle, I've never lashed out at someone like that before. Maybe I was starting to become a monster.

Pastora pushed her long hair out of her face before turning to look back at the body. She was silent for a few moments before she spoke again.

"Nurse Abbey wrote that the facehugger shortly died after the implantation was complete. My theory is that the only purpose of the facehugger is to find a living host to impregnate them." She bent down to pick up the body bag and drape it back over the dead corpse and then slowly walked back over to us.

"Alright, we can go now...I just wish we had more information about the monster..."

Shunghoon rolled his eyes and ripped his mask off his face before storming out of the room.

I looked at Pastora who just shook her head.

"Don't mind him. He has a bit of a temper." Pastora explained as she removed her mask from her face.

I took mine off as well. "I've noticed."

"He's a really great guy. We've been together for three years.." Pastora added as we followed Sunghoon out of the room.

"Congratulations." I reply, starting to wonder if I was better of alone. It was nice and extremely courageous of them to help me kill this creature, but what if that creature couldn't be killed?

I haven't know the two for long but it seemed like Sunghoon wasn't the kind of guy I should team up with. He was loud, rude, and cocky. It also wasn't very helpful that the two of us were already butting heads.

"Hey, I never got your name." Pastora says, looking up at me curiously.

"Chaeyoung." I reply.

Sunghoon held his arm out, stopping us both from walking any further. "Get down." He whispered.

Pastora and I didn't even question it and the three of us dropped to our knees behind a few crates. I stayed quiet, straining my ears in attempts to hear what Sunghoon must of heard.

"What is it?" Pastora asked in a soft whisper. "Did you hear something!?"

"No...." Sunghoon paused to look at me. "Let me see your bag."

"Why?" I whisper back, slowly taking my bag off my shoulder.

"Just give it to me!" He whispered in a hiss.

This time I rolled my eyes before handing my bag to Sunghoon. He took it from me and started digging around it, moving things aside loudly.

"Sunghoon...not so loud." Pastora whispered, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Sunghoon ignored her and took out the medicine, holding it up for us to see.

"We still don't know what it is." I say.

"But I do....now that I'm looking at it. It's a type of antidote used in ER's for a patient that's lost large amounts of blood or has some infected wound. This tube is a SCJ injector, inside the antidote is an ingredient called 'Compound B' a strong chemical that's used to stop severe bleeding. I suggest we stick around here in the medical ward for awhile. I'm sure we can find more of these around here. We're going to need them."

"Wow, Sunghoon...since when did you go all doctor on me?" Pastora gushed, kissing his cheek.

Sunghoon smirked and dropped the meds back into my bag.

"I'm a curious guy. I love to learn."

I wouldn't use the word 'curious.'

"What about my father?" I ask softly. "I appreciate you two wanting to help dispose of this monster but I need to get to my father. He's one of the few people in charge of this station, he probably knows more about this monster or these androids."

"We'll help you find your father." Pastora said, placing her hand gently on mine. "Safety in numbers. I promise you that you don't need to worry about handling this monster or these synthetics alone anymore."

Sunghoon looked down at her hand that was on mine and swiftly pushed it off.

"Let's get moving." He said, slowly rising to his feet.

"Do you think those brats are here!?" A familiar deep voice came from down the corridor.

Sunghoon raised his eyebrows and quickly dropped back to his knees.

"Or not." He whispered, pulling his gun out from his back pocket.

"You're not going to shoot them are you!?" I whisper to him frantically.

"Depends on what they intend on doing to us." He replied, swinging the gun slowly around between his fingers.

"Lets just wait until they leave..." Pastora says, eyeing his gun nervously.

"Quiet!" I hiss as I hear their footsteps getting closer. I look behind me, seeing a large black crate behind me. I pull it closer to me so that it's covering Pastora and I.

A series of loud footsteps stomped in our direction along with rapid breathing, as if the person was injured. I peeked between the acute gaps between the crates seeing David coming our way carrying Jane in his arms. She was still injured, her entire waist was soaked with blood from where Chelsea shot her.

"It's Professor Jane." Sunghoon said, scooting close by the edge of the crate and aiming his gun right at them. "I'll shoot those traitors."

"Don't!" I whisper, pulling on the back of his shirt. "The sound of gunshots attract the monster! Trust me, you do not want that thing on your tail!"

"Isn't that the main reason why we're all teaming up?" Sunghoon asks, looking at me. "To kill that thing."

I hushed him and pulled him closer to me and away from the opening of the crates as David got closer to us.

"HELLO! HELLO!???" David shouted, looking around the corridor curiously. "I NEED A DOCTOR! IS ANYONE THERE!?"

"This guy is asking for his own funeral." Sunghoon muttered.

Pastora rolled her eyes and put a hand over his mouth quietly.

"David..." Jane muttered weakly.

"Hold on baby, we'll find someone...." David paused, and shifted her so that she was laying over his shoulder, his arm holding her legs as he pulled out his gun with his other free hand.

What was he doing!?

"Please keep your voice down!" The frantic voice of the nurse came from down the hallway. "I'll help you! But please....keep your voice down! I can treat her! I have another patient resting...she had a bullet wound to the leg! I can help you too...just please don't shoot me!"

"I'll do whatever I want lady!" David barked, turning to face the nurse. He smirked down at her.

"Take care of my wife and show me where that girl is. My wife is her teacher and I want to make sure that she's alright..."

No...

"Absolutely!" The nurse responded. "Follow me!!"

The three of us remained silent until their footsteps disappeared down the corridor.

I turned to face Chelsea and Sunghoon.

"We have to stop them! David's going to kill Chelsea!"