Speed Run (a X33N and Alien: Isolation fanfiction)

Chapter 6

"Quick! It's here!" Gwen called as the door opened.

"Okay, be there in a sec!" I yelled back from the far end of the terminal. One of the two androids I had been kiting tried to grab me while I was distracted. "Eehehe!" I ducked out of reach and dodged around the other before bolting for the tram car. Gwen slammed the button to close it at soon as I was in, leaving Mr. Grabby Hands and his friend all by their lonesome in Mission #11.

I leaned against the wall as the tram jerked into motion. "Hehe. Bet you thought they had me there," I said, looking up at Gwen.

She rolled her eyes and grinned. Gesturing towards my left arm, she asked, "How's the arm? I doubt it's coded that getting your blood pressure up starts wounds bleeding again, but if it is, we could use a medkit now while it's safe."

I checked the bandage wrapped tightly around my left forearm. I had gotten complacent at the end of Mission #10 and acted like the Alien was going to move like it always did. And I'd paid for it. The Alien had raked its claws across my arm before the air lock closed and cut off the clawed appendage. The wound cut into muscle and exposed ulna in one place, and I had to keep reminding myself the injury wasn't real. It sure felt like it was at the time. The pain was muted somewhat by multiple medkits and the pressure of the bandage but was still enough to make using the shotgun we'd just acquired near impossible, and I needed Gwen's help reloading it and the flamethrower. The bandage was firmly in place, if maybe a little tight, and it didn't look like there was any fresh bleeding.

I gave Gwen a thumbs up and kicked Meza's chicken away from where it paced next to my foot. "Dumb chicken," I mumbled. The boxy bird scampered to hide behind Gwen. For some reason that irked me more.

The tram whined to a stop and the door opened at the SciMed terminal. We were only a short elevator ride away from the department that handled android maintenance and the artificial intelligence that ran them and half the ship's systems—APOLLO. "So, you remember the android who came here with us?" I asked as we headed out.

"Samuels, right?"

"That's the one. We get to see him again this mission, but don't get too attached to him."

Gwen gave me a confused look. "Does everyone in this game die?"

"I...Eeee...well," I waffled, not making eye contact. "Pretty much?"

"Yeah, really no way to sugarcoat that one," Meza commented in my head.

"Oh, hey, Meza!" I said quickly to forestall further questions from Gwen. "How are things going out there?"

"The police still haven't found the hacker, but they've cleared the southern half of the convention center and the exhibit hall. It's only a matter of time before they find him."

That puts us on a time crunch too, I thought. "How about the virus; any luck there?"

"Not as much as I'd like," Meza said, irritation creeping into his voice. His tone lightened as he continued, "I think we figured out why the hacker nuked all the save terminals though."

"Oh?" I asked, eyebrows raised.

I gave Gwen a quick summary as Meza explained. "Devon thinks that resetting to a save before the virus was introduced would buy us enough time to get you out before it re-infects your code."

"What?! Then why haven't we done that?" I asked angrily.

"A 'hunch' isn't something I'm willing to bet your lives on, not unless we run out of options. It could just as easily trigger the kill code."