Thirty-Two: Finish What Started

I pulled away from Chelsea as quickly as I started to kiss her.

"I-I'm sorry…I'm just so happy your alive…" I murmured, feeling the tips of my ears go hot again.

Chelsea looked up at me, her hazel eyes were glassy and she was ghostly pale. A small smile stretched upon her lips.

"Me too…" She rasped.

"Chaeyoung, I'm going to need you to carry her." Pastora said, as she picked up the flamethrower. "I know she just had a major surgery but we don't have much time. We were lucky to be safe for this long, but we need to keep moving. It won't be long before the xenomorphs sense the smell of her blood."

"And obviously, she can't walk." Sunghoon added in.

Chelsea looked back at me. "It hurts…" She whimpered, weakly placing a hand over her chest.

"Don't touch those!" Pastora warned. "Your stitches are still fresh and your chest Is going to be sore and tender for quite some time. I had to do an open lung surgery on you. Fortunately, there was no chestburster embryo inside of you, but when I removed the facehugger, it left deadly chemicals inside of you that were startng to spread through your right lung."

Chelsea looked at Pastora with a bit of a dazed expression from the anesthesia.

"Ohh…wow…" She spoke in a soft whisper. "Thank you…thank you…"

Pastora smiled at her and nodded. "I don't mean to toot my own horn but, I've done pretty well for never operating on someone before!" She turned to me. "Chaeyoung, you're going to have to be super careful with how you hold her. She's going to be in a lot of pain and her stitches are new, we can't take the chance of them being torn."

"Don't worry, I'll be careful." I reply, bending over Chelsea. Gently I hook my arm under her legs and wrap my other arm around her back and gently hold her close to my chest.

Chelsea whimpers and gasps softly.

"Are you okay!?" I ask, looking at her. "I didn't hurt you…did I?"

She shakes her head weakly and rests her head on my shoulder.

"Ready to go?" Sunghoon asks, impatiently from his place by the door.

"One more thing." Pastora says, turning to the jar of chemicals and blasting it with fire.

"What did you do that for!?" Sunghoon growled.

"Who knows if these chemicals are airborne!? We can't risk breathing these in and getting the entire station infected!"

Sunghoon snorts. "It's a little late for that, isn't it?" He sneers, kicking a dead facehugger against the wall.

I looked at the dead creature in disgust, If I wasn't holding Chelsea I would stomp on its body and tear it apart with my bare hands.

Pastora ignored his comment and lead us out of the room. "Stay on your guard guys."

"Hold up, where are we heading to? The fourth tower is falling apart and on fire as we speak, there's nothing else here for us in medical…. pretty soon this entire station is going to be in flames! It doesn't take long for fire to spread you know!" Sunghoon cried.

"Good! Then let's hope the fire makes its way to the nest and burns each and every egg that Queen has laid!" Pastora hissed. "We're heading to tower two. We're going to see if we can contact any other stations or ships out there."

"HA! You think we'll get that lucky!?" Sunghoon sneers.

"We can only hope!"

"If that doesn't work… then what?"

"We'll have to take our chances with the escape pods and eject ourselves into space."

"WHOA! Are you serious!?" I cry, looking at Pastora with wide eyes.

"There's no way we can get rid of all these creatures! We all know that eventually we're going to run out of ammo and fuel, bombs, and they're just going to keep multiplying." Pastora replies, leading us towards the transmit station.

Just then three xenomorphs jumped out from the ceiling vents snarling at us.

"Stand back!" Sunghoon warned as he fired his pulse rifle at the Xeno's, firing at their heads, blowing them off causing yellow acid to spray everywhere all over the walls.

Pastora and I stepped back from the acid. I watched the acid as It hissed and burned through the walls.

"Man, I'd hate to see how that would end if that stuff landed on your skin." Sunghoon muttered, raising his hand to hit the call button for a transmit.

"You wouldn't have any skin." Pastora answered, eyeing the now burning holes in the walls. "You know…the more I look at their 'blood' it kind of resembles acetone, cyclohexylamine, and acetic acid…"

"I don't even know what those are." Sunghoon shrugged.

Pastora waved a hand. "Nothing we really have to worry about. Just make sure you keep a safe distance when shooting at the xeno's, which you did."

"I've seen what their blood does. It's not rocket science to know it's dangerous."

A low hiss came from behind us.

Pastora turned around and blasted another xenomorph with a body of fire. The xenomorph screeched loudly and snarled, hissing at Pastora. It edged closer to us.

Sunghoon shot it in the head causing it to blow off and spurt acidic blood everywhere, once again burning through the walls and floor.

Loud whistles whirred around us as the transmit cart came to a stop at the gates.

Loud footsteps thudded down the hallway and high pitched screeches bounced off the walls in the distance.

"Well, you were right about them sensing Chelsea's blood, Pastora." I said, slowly backing into the transmit cart with Chelsea in my arms. She was falling in and out of sleep, I couldn't even imagine how much pain the poor thing was in.

Pastora and Sunghoon hurried in the cart, Pastora closed the doors and started the cart. "Alright, tower two…communications center!"

The transmit cart came to a sharp halt, the doors screeched open for us. The second tower was just as bad as the third. Except for all the adult xenomorphs around, there were tons and tons of eggs.

"This can't be!" Pastora cried. "We're not in the nest!! I thought the Queen needs to lay her eggs in a most and humid environment!"

"I guess not." Sunghoon muttered and cursed under his breath. "Now what do we do?"

"We're going to have to be careful where we stand and how close we are to these eggs, they can sense when a host is nearby, just like the adult xenos…" I said.

"Let's just torch them." Sunghoon suggested.

"We can't…. I'm running low on fuel…" Pastora muttered.

"WHAT!?" Sunghoon shrieked. "Already!?"

"Yes, already! You know how fast the fuel burns out in this thing!?" Pastora cried. "That's what I meant earlier about our ammo! I honestly think that the escape pods are our best bet!"

"Do you know where they are!?" I asked, following the two down the hall and to the open communication room, eyeing the eggs nervously. How could the Queen possibly lay them here?

"I don't." Pastora confessed. "Maybe we can get a hold of someone who can walk us through to the escape pods.��

"I'm pretty sure whoever knows where the escape pods are, has already left in one!" Sunghoon replied.

"You're probably right…" Pastora replied, stepping up on the stage of the communication area.

I looked around the wide open room, where I first met Jane, Caleb, Amber, Chelsea, and that chestburster.

"Just stay away from the eggs." Pastora said, hitting a few buttons to one of the computers. "How's Chelsea?"

"She's asleep." I reply, looking down at Chelsea who was nuzzled up close to my chest. She must still be out of it from the surgery.

"Good. Let's hope these things still work." Pastora muttered, turning up the volume on one of the computers. The speakers buzzed and there was some static.

Pastora turned on the microphone and spoke into it.

"Hello, I'm Pastora. I'm reaching out from the second tower on the Amhul. Please. I need help. We are survivors. Sunghoon, Chaeyoung, and Chelsea….I repeat we in the second tower. There are eggs…everywhere. The entire station is surrounded by the Xenomorphs. We need to stick together if we want to finish the nightmare that has started on this ship!"

My heart leaped in my chest when I felt something cold and hard press into my back.

"Don't move." A low voice snarled in my ear. "Do exactly as we say, or we'll kill you all."