Seeing Red

Upturned wheelchairs and abandoned cars littered the hospital's parking lot. An ambulance was parked right up against the emergency exit, blocking our entry and forcing us to find a different way in. As far as we could tell, there was no one around.

There should have been.

"This place is a ghost town," Devon remarked with a nervous shudder.

I nodded. "The xenos were definitely here. It should be busy as fuck."

"I really hate those damn aliens," Devon harrumphed.

Wolf led the way, following a trail that only he could see. With one entrance blocked, he took us around the side of the building until we came upon a set of stairs. He leaped right over the railing, leaving us two humans to take those few steps.

Devon muttered something salty under his breath, but I ignored it.

At this point, I was used to Wolf being Wolf. Kind of. I'd half expected him to shove the ambulance out of the way and open the doors for us.

As Wolf examined the doors, Devon and I finished climbing and stood behind him, waiting. It should have opened automatically at our arrival, but apparently, with the power out, the sensor wasn't working or something.

Devon, in all of his snarky glory, started to say, "It's a push door. You just gotta—"

Electing to completely ignore my partner, Wolf strode forward and kicked down the entire double glass panel with a single solid blow. Glass showered the entranceway and Wolf hurried in, scanning for danger. As we stepped in after him, the shards of glass crunched beneath our feet.

"'Look at me, I'm so big and I kick doors down for fun,'" Devon mocked, complete with a sassy head wobble and deep voice.

"And what about you?" I shot back. "You drop-kicked an alien."

He shrugged, but I could see his smug grin. "Someone had to do something."

"Yeah okay, Rambo."

The hospital was just as quiet and deserted as its parking lot. I'd been hoping to find everyone huddled up inside for safety, but it was just . . . abandoned.

Lights flickered on and off overhead, droning with an electronic hum rivaled only by the rumble of the generators.

I was already anxious about being in a hospital again, and walking through an abandoned emergency room straight up sent shivers down my spine. I was acutely aware of the fact that if the xenomorphs had been left unchecked, my hometown would have ended up like this—desolate and under threat of a bombing.

Not much longer after we arrived, we started finding the bodies.

They were scattered here and there; Wolf stopped to examine a few but ignored most of them. Their wounds varied, but most had been utterly mauled.

There weren't enough of them, as awful as it was to think that. It was a fucking hospital, so it had to have had patients and staff alike before everything went to shit.

We had already spent several minutes walking through the emergency room, then out into the main halls, and there were less than a handful of bodies. No one in the beds. The nurses' station had been empty.

"There must be a nest somewhere," I muttered under my breath.

Devon said, "That or the Guard had them evacuate."

"Your optimism never ceases to amaze me."

Wolf shut down our idle chatter with an admonishment, not once pausing in his advance. He moved with swift assurance, but it didn't seem to be out of any sort of urgency due to the situation.

Devon and I remained ever vigilant for any flanking xenomorph drones, but there wasn't a single living soul within the hospital grounds, it seemed. At least, not on the floor we were on.

As much as I wanted to join Devon in believing that everyone had evacuated, I knew it didn't matter in the end whether or not they were alive or dead. There would be no evacuation. The government wasn't even a little worried about that.

They were only concerned with eradication and containment.

"Did you get a hold of Eddie?" I asked Devon, whispering.

He shook his head, solemn in his silence.

From that point, we remained quiet as we navigated the cluttered halls before ascending a set of stairs; we had tried an elevator, but it wouldn't even open its doors for us. We searched the different floors for signs of—whatever it was Wolf was looking for: probably xenomorph tracks.

It wasn't until the fourth floor that the hospital showed definite signs of change.

The sudden humidity hit me like a truck and stifled my breathing until I was able to adjust. We followed Wolf into one of the operating rooms; the floor was sticky with half-dried slime and great splatters of blood.

Outside the observation window, I could see that the xenomorphs had indeed started to make a nest in the hallway. Already, the walls were hardened with resin and we could see the end of the construction by the elevators.

As far as I could tell, though, there were no cocoons. I wasn't sure where exactly everyone had gone, then.

Maybe they really did all evacuate.

"I don't like this," Devon muttered, standing at the entrance to the OR.

I looked back at him and pressed my lips together. We shared a silent conversation, commiserating in the bad feeling we both had, then I leaned into the doorway to call to Wolf.

"There should be more stairs this way. We have to get to the roof before it's too late."

Wolf rattled his understanding but took another couple of seconds to examine the body on the operating table. The high-grade lights were still on but were smeared with blood, casting us in an eerie red glow.

In the half-light, I could barely make out that the body had a gaping hole in the stomach, but I wasn't sure if it was from the half-finished operation or because of the hybrid.

Though I didn't enter the room properly, I stood at the threshold with Devon shuffling behind me impatiently.

Again, I addressed Wolf. "Was it the hybrid? It's been . . . using people to mass-produce soldiers like some sort of pseudo-queen. I don't understand how she could—"

An alien emerged from its hiding place and slammed into Wolf, sending him through the window and out into the hallway. Devon immediately joined my side as I started rushing to Wolf's aid, only to stop when the xeno turned to face us, standing on its hind legs and spreading its arms out.

With a hiss, it opened its slimy mandibles and roared.

The Hybrid.

She regarded me and my partner for a moment and then stepped back so drones could move in on Wolf. Then, the hybrid marching toward us with intense determination.

"Devon, help Wolf!" I requested, wielding my sword.

"He's not the one who needs help," Devon argued, shoving me aside and opening fire on the Hybrid with his semi-automatic rifle.

She squealed and fell back with a few new wounds, saved from death when a nearby drone leaped in as a meat-shield. The heavy-duty bullets pierced its hard exoskeleton and it fell dead, but the hybrid successfully retreated.

I rounded on Devon, but before I could say anything he spoke first. "We don't have time for you to slash shit up. Grab your boyfriend and let's go."

As if on cue, a xenomorph flew into the OR through that open window in a spray of acid, blown apart by Wolf's now-handheld firearm.

My irritation at Devon forgotten, we shared a glance and then stepped over the dead alien. We had to avoid puddles of acid blood and headed for the shattered window.

Treading carefully around glass and blood, we peered out into the hall.

Wolf was standing over a drone, punching it in the face with his bare fists. Devon and I weren't able to join in, so we could only watch as he removed another blue vial from his supplies and shoved it down the thing's throat.

The body bucked and bubbled like boiling water for a moment before it became motionless. The liquid went to work dissolving it from the head down into straight nothingness.

"Not immune to that acid, are you?" Devon spat.

Down the hall, more screeches echoed toward us. Two more alien bugs appeared through the adjacent corridors, crawling on the resin-coated walls.

The section we were in was completely metamorphosed into the perfect xenomorph nest, leaving the elevators down the opposite end the only things still untouched. I wondered how long they'd been in the hospital already to have made such progress.

Wolf reacted in kind to their appearance, drawing out two of the bladed disks that he had demonstrated for me all the way back in that crashed airplane. With a few flicks, he extended the sharp blades and hurled the weapons down the hall.

At about that time, we heard a set of human shouts from down another hallway.

Devon unfastened his bullet-proof vest to remove his jacket. He draped it over the edge of the window, covering the jagged remains of glass in the frame. In afterthought, he added his vest on top as well.

He looked up as he heard the shouting and said, "There are people still here in the hospital?"

I started to crawl over the window, peering as far as I could while Devon helped me up. Wolf's blade was ricocheting down the hallway, slicing through the two drones, and I saw movement at the very end.

Then came the sound of metal into flesh, the wail of a small child screaming.

"Fuck," I hissed.

"What?" Devon asked.

I almost fell over when I made it on the other side of the window. "I think someone got hurt."

"Who?" Devon demanded, leaning over the window sill.

"I have no idea!" I spat back, motioning for him to hurry up and climb out.

Another drone showed up behind Wolf and he turned to deal with it. Devon was halfway over the window and I grabbed his arms to help him over as well. Once he was safely on his feet, I drew my sword and intended to join Wolf in the fray. Devon remained behind to put his vest back on.

A hail of gunfire interrupted us and I froze for just a second. Devon grabbed and yanked me off to the side, throwing himself on top of me. I let out a surprised cry as bullets battered the wall above our heads, ricocheting off Wolf's armor and creating brief instances of bright sparks.

Wolf let out irritated and pained snarls. If he wasn't blowing his aggressor to pieces yet, did that mean he had been disarmed?

I shoved at Devon's shoulders and writhed underneath him, trying to free myself.

"Ricky! Ricky stop!" people were shouting.

It was the group from the hunting store!

"Devon, get off me!" I hissed. Louder, I said, "Cease fire, cease fire!"

My words went unheeded and the automatic fire continued, underlined by constant and angry screaming. I finally shoved Devon off of me and scrambled up, cutting off the group of people trailing after the shooter. They called out to me, but I ignored them.

Wolf had only been driven back a little bit, his armor protecting him, but he didn't see the drone that blind-sided him. It hit him like a truck and they both slammed through the elevator door Wolf was standing in front of, but there was no car to catch them.

The empty shaft swallowed them up and my stomach plummeted with them.

"No!" I screamed.

Someone caught my hand when I tried to sprint over and yanked me back. I rounded on who turned out to be Dallas, my blade flat against his chest. "Get off me or so help me I'll—"

"Your partner!" he sputtered out, his hands up and off his firearm.

Confused, I glanced over in Devon's direction and then did a double-take.

He hadn't gotten up off the floor.

He was lying there, slumped on his side in the same position I'd left him after pushing him from atop me.

My veins turned to ice and I started to shake.

I left Dallas and ran to Devon, hitting the ground next to him hard enough to jar my knee, but I hardly felt it. Carefully, I rolled him onto his back and set his head on my lap.

All the protocols and training for this situation went completely abandoned as I desperately tried to ascertain whether or not he was still alive.

"Devon? Devon c'mon," I said, patting him roughly on the cheek at first.

He remained unmoving, limp and pale. My heart hammered in my chest as my hands roamed over his torso, looking for the gunshot wound and blood. There were no new injuries on his head so I was sure that he hadn't hit it when he'd fallen.

/Move! Move, just a little. Just a little!/ I silently pleaded.

When I pulled my hand away from his side, it came back soaked with blood. My hand started to shake and my chest tightened around. All I could hear was the steady, rapid thundering of my pulse and the thready breaths I drew in.

Dallas' voice reached me through the fog of panic, but it sounded far away. "Ricky, what the fuck were you thinking?"

Ricky . . .

. . . killed Devon . . .

. . . tried to murder Wolf . . .

Kelly showed up, kneeling on Devon's other side, and I didn't protest when she pulled him off of me and yanked up his shirt. I was staring at the blood on my hands, thick as if I'd dipped them in a bowl full of it.

I looked around in a haze, spotting his vest still draped over the window. It would have only provided a little bit of help against the rounds we had armed everyone with, but it might have helped.

For just a brief second, Devon was gone, replaced by the mutilated corpse of my friend Jessica. It lasted only a second, but tears filled my eyes all the same.

My attention returned to Kelly and her attempts to stem Devon's bleeding with a wadded up piece of cloth—he'd been hit through his side, just a few inches under his left pectoral. Another person joined, but I didn't pay attention to who they were or what they were doing.

None of them said anything. Or maybe they did. Their mouths were moving, but I was deafened by an intense ringing in my ears. The second person left—Dallas—and walked out of view to deal with his brother.

That thin piece of thread holding me together snapped.

Red tinted my slowly-blurring vision and heat radiated across my entire body. A rage boiled inside me and I was on my feet, searching almost blindly for Ricky, for the one who had taken everything from me.

He was standing near the elevator Wolf had fallen down, his likely-empty rifle lying on the ground. His brother was chastising him and I started to march in their direction, my hand white-knuckled on my blade.

I wasn't sure what my intentions were. I had no real plan of action and not a single coherent thought.

Just a latent, unbridled fury.

And there I was, holding a really. Big. Knife.

"Hey, I'm sorry . . . I didn't mean to . . . ." Ricky stammered, taking a step back as I approached. His brother moved to intercept, pushing his little brother aside.

A tiny, meek voice in the back my head told me to stop. That I was going to regret what I was about to do. My overpowering wrath drowned it out with an unintelligible roar—the roar of the hot blood in my veins—

Before I could reach the kid and seek the revenge my soul was foaming at the mouth for, a thick, segmented tail struck from the ceiling and pierced Ricky through and through, skewering him upon it. The barb didn't quite make it out of the front of his bullet-proof vest and it stretched almost comically in front of his body, held on by the straps.

I stumbled to a halt and in a moment of bitter pettiness, I lowered my weapon, doing nothing as the Hybrid lifted Ricky off his feet.

Dallas shouted and jumped to his brother's aid.

The Hybrid turned her head to look in my direction, one of her slime-coated mandibles clicking against another as she hissed. I took a few steps back as Dallas proceeded to pepper her with gunfire. She squealed and dropped Ricky, retreating back down the hallway and into obscurity.

With her gone and my vendetta sated for now, I left a twitching Ricky on the ground and returned to Devon's side. I kneeled down next to him, my hands in my lap and sword on the floor by my legs.

I just stared at him for a few seconds before I realized Kelly was trying to get my attention. I stared at her for a moment, still dazed, until the world finally came back and I could focus on what she was trying to tell me.

Her eyes locked with mine and she said, "Agent, he's alive!" She was still pushing against his abdomen, the bleeding managed for the moment.

My eyes widened and I looked down at him again, barely able to make out the rise and fall of his chest. I leaned forward and put my fingers to his throat, searching for movement. Sure enough, his pulse was there. Thready and weak, but there.

"He's alive," Kelly repeated.

Without a word, I stood and took his vest off the window and grabbed his jacket. Though the acid had lost its efficacy by then, his jacket was still in sorry shape. It would be fine for what I needed it to do.

Using the jagged remains of glass from the floor, I tore and cut strips out of the material and quickly tied them around his torso with Kelly's help, utilizing larger and softer chunks as gauze.

We were in a hospital full of supplies but didn't have any time to go around looking for what we needed. It would suffice, though.

When I was sure Kelly could handle it from there, I got up and ran to the elevator, ignoring Dallas' scathing look as he tended to his wounded sibling. With one hand on the wall, I leaned as far into the empty elevator shaft as I could, peering into the darkness.

It probably went all the way down to the first floor, but I couldn't see that far.

"Wolf!" I shouted.

No answer came. I curled my fingers into fists and had to fight the urge to stomp the life out of Ricky right then and there. That wasn't going to fix anything and it was just the anger and grief talking.

A small fall down an elevator shaft wouldn't kill my Wolf.

Dallas spoke. "Do . . . do you know that alien?" he asked, giving me an accusing look.

I wasn't going to answer, but Kelly saved me the trouble and called, "Agent, he's awake!"

In an instant, I was by his side. Devon finally came around, his face twisted in pain, and I grabbed his hand when he lifted it.

"Thank god you're awake," I said, my voice strangely flat as I helped him stand.

He was able to hold himself up, but he was doubled over and holding his side.

"Never been shot before," he grunted, his voice thick and strained.

"I thought you were dead."

"Haven't I told you a million times that I'm immortal?" He spoke in fits and starts, his words stilted and slurred.

Though he was still making jokes, I could tell that he was in sorry shape. Barely able to stand, his arm pressed uselessly against his side in a make-shift sling. I had to resist the urge to throw my arms around him, afraid that I would only hurt him more.

Kelly said, "He's probably got a few shattered ribs but I can't tell if his lung was pierced. He's going to need immediate medical attention."

I shook my head. "We have to get to the helipad and escape. Do you think he'll last long enough to get out of the blast radius?" I asked, hoping that they were all there for the same reason we were.

Her utter lack of surprise was telling. "So long as he doesn't strain himself, maybe."

"I'll be fine . . . I'm immortal," he repeated, already slumping over and close to collapse.

"Do you have him?" Kelly asked me.

Nodding, I took the burden of holding Devon up while Kelly left us to use what remained of Devon's coat to tend to his wound, as well. We hobbled after her.

"That was my favorite coat," Devon gasped, pausing halfway to groan in pain.

"Please don't talk right now," I sighed.

Kelly and Dallas managed to pick up a barely conscious Ricky and get him upright when we reached them. Molly, who had been hiding somewhere, had finally come out and was clinging to her mother's legs.

"I've got him, help them," Dallas said, holding his brother up.

As per his request, Kelly came over and helped me with Devon, which I was glad for. He was a little heavier than I would have thought and I didn't think I could carry him the rest of the way on my own.

Wolf's blaster was next to Dallas. I had Kelly take Devon for a moment so I could pick it up, and that was when I heard the most beautiful sound in the world—Wolf's angry roar echoing up the elevator shaft.

My boys were still alive.