Alien: Isolation

Chapter Eleven: Escape from San Cristobal

It's gone to hell in here, was her first thought as she left Patient Zero's observation room, and Ripley couldn't help but get choked up a little as she heard the now familiar sound of screams and gunfire. Thankfully, these sounds, along with the creature's shrieking, were coming from the other direction, so she crouched down and tried to stay quiet as she made her way back toward where the trauma kit had fallen.

There were streaks and splatters of blood along the previously sterile-white walls, and there were bodies as well. A lot of them had been impaled and discarded, like both Axel and Kuhlman had been, but she also noticed that there were smaller blood trails that led up into the vents, as if the creature had been taking the ones that were only wounded instead of killed, back up there for some reason. Probably to use for food later, but this was a thought that she didn't like the idea of dwelling on, so she tried to force it from her mind.

As she reached the area where the trauma kit and maintenance jack had fallen, Ripley also noticed that there were small burn marks along the floor. Actually, it was more like tiny holes had been burned right through the floor, since she could see the lights from the next deck below coming through it, and around the hole was a strange greenish-yellow substance. At first this confused her, since it looked like someone had been walking around with an overfilled container of acid, but then she saw the bullet holes in the wall nearby... which had also been burned a little.

She probably shouldn't have wasted the time that it took to dwell on such a small thing, but Ripley couldn't help it as she put the trauma kit's strap over her shoulder and tucked the maintenance jack into the back of her belt. Burns like this meant that either someone on Sevastopol had invented some kind of acid-filled bullet, which was a pretty neat idea, or that the smaller burns on the wall were from the bullets passing through the creature... which was not a very neat idea. But it would explain how the acid was dripping on the floor.

"Acid for blood?" She whispered, looking at the hole again. "What the fuck is this thing?"

Another scream and some gunfire interrupted her thoughts, which was good because those lunatics were still distracting the creature, but now she had to move quickly since it was bound to run out of them soon. A plan was forming in her mind of how to sneak through, since the EXIT sign pointed right toward where the noise was coming from, but then she saw that one of the bodies had a revolver next to it. The cylinder was open, and there was also a small number of bullets scattered across the floor nearby, as if the owner had been attacked while reloading, so Ripley grabbed all of it up, before crawling underneath the nearest gurney.

Her hands were shaking as she fumbled to load all six into the cylinder, but soon her new weapon was loaded and closed, making her feel just a little bit safer. Of course, firearms didn't seem to be doing the others very much good, as another scream was quickly silenced, but Ripley tried not to think about that as she got out from under the gurney, and started back down the corridor. There were more bodies as she followed the signs toward the exit, and both screams and gunfire were getting louder, but she tried to keep her mind on nothing but escape... until she passed by an observation window.

There was a man inside the room, running toward the far end, with the creature following in through another door a couple seconds later. Ripley should have been escaping, but she couldn't help but watch as the man tried to shoulder his way through the locked door in front of him, while the creature slowly closed in. Its movements were so graceful for something that size, but its worst feature was its human-like teeth that gave it a constant sinister grin. There was no door on this side, and the glass was shatter-proof, meaning that she couldn't help, but then the man turned to face the creature.

His own pistol in hand, he screamed while firing wildly, making the creature twitch a little as some of its green acidic blood spilled onto the floor. Only one of the bullets actually hit the creature; the others hitting things around the room, and even making Ripley jump when one impacted the glass she was looking through, but the last bullet must've hit an exposed gas line or something, because suddenly the area he was standing in was engulfed by a stream of fire. The man screamed as he was quickly killed... but the creature screamed as well; jumping back from the flames, and falling over a desk, almost as if it were panicking until the fire on its body went out a couple seconds later.