Alien: Isolation

Chapter Ten: Patient Zero

"San Cristobal Medical Facility recommends Seegson Medical Insurance." The automated voice said over the intercom as the elevator came to a stop. "Relief for when you're far from home."

Still on the floor in a sort of fetal position when the doors opened, Ripley's hands were shaking when she tried crawling into the doorway in order to see if that creature had somehow managed to beat her there. This would make no sense, since the elevator had taken her down about ten levels, but after what she had seen it do to Axel, and now Kuhlman, she wasn't about to take any chances.

However, nothing jumped out at her, and the elevator seemed to have taken her to the right place, being that this room was filled with boxes and supply crates of various shapes and sizes. This meant that there was likely to be a trauma kit or something, and she had to be close to the exit, since the elevator had brought her all the way down to the lowest floor of the facility. This made her remember that no matter how scared she was of that creature, Taylor was still injured, so Ripley forced herself to crawl out of the elevator.

The doors closed behind her as she used the wall to help her stand up, and after several seconds of nothing happening, she finally started to relax a little. Maybe the creature hadn't counted on the vents giving it a direct route to where she had escaped to, and even if it did find the way down, the thing would likely have to spend hours finding its way, and by then Ripley would be long gone. The long gone part was the most appealing thought at the moment, and in order to expedite that process, she moved over to the supply crates and started opening them.

There were IV bags, a defibrillator, a bunch of tools that she couldn't identify... and then there it was; inside one of the larger crates was an emergency trauma kit that looked brand new, meaning that it would have everything that was needed to save Taylor. However, she was just putting the carry strap over her shoulder, when she froze as she heard something from behind her. It was not the sound of something creeping up from behind as she turned around... but the sound of the elevator starting to move.

As she stared at the indicator that showed it going upward, Ripley was kind of confused as to where it was going. Then a good thought came to her, since maybe it meant that there were other people on the other floors, but this hope was dashed when it kept going until it stopped on the top floor. But that made no sense, being that Kuhlman was the only other person alive on that floor, and he wasn't about to use the elevator any time soon, and surely the creature didn't know how to operate...

"Oh, fuck!" Ripley exclaimed as it started down again. "Oh, fuck, oh, fuck, oh, fuck!"

Her mind was unable to comprehend how a beast like that could possibly be able to operate machinery such as elevators, but that didn't stop her from scrambling toward the nearest exit. Of course, it didn't slide open when she approached, due to the fact that the red light meant that it had been locked down, so with shaky hands, she took the access tuner off her belt and tried to lock onto the door's frequency as they elevator continued on its way back down. A door like this one would have only had the most basic security, but with the tension and fear that she was feeling, one would have thought she was trying to break into a bank vault.

The elevator was slow, so it was only about half way back down when the door unlocked, but in order to keep evading the creature, she needed every second that she could get. Putting the access tuner back on her belt and stepping through into the next corridor, Ripley hit the emergency override button on the wall next to it that would seal the door again once it was closed. It worked; the door's indicator light turning red once it was closed, and she sighed with relief as she turned around... only to get a really close look at the grip of a pistol just before it collided with her head.

For a moment her vision went white, taking a moment for her to realize that she had fallen onto her back when it cleared again. The trauma kit and maintenance jack had fallen onto the floor as well, and she was about to reach for the kit, when a set of powerful hands grabbed her by the front of the jacket. These hands belonged to an angry looking man who started yelling at her the moment he pulled her to her feet, but she had been so disoriented by the blow that she could understand little beyond him calling her a thief, as well as demanding to know how many others were with her.