The Thing | Windows

Rescue

Little did the survivors of Outpost 31 know, but there was a rescue team looking out for them. The last transmission Windows sent out before Blair destroyed the radio, reached someone. And they had been on their way the whole time. A helicopter flew over Antarctica, the nighttime making it hard for them to see much. But the tractor was lit up. The helicopter was able to see them. They landed near them. One of the pilots walked over and opened the door to the tractor. The six of them looked very uncomfortable considering the small space in the tractor. MacReady laid against the steering wheel, still awake. "Who the hell are you?" He said. "They're alive!" The pilot said. Echo laid asleep in Caspian's lap. Caitlin was asleep next to Frankie. And Frankie held Windows close to her. Windows squinted at the light from the pilot. "I reached somebody. Mac, I actually reached somebody." Windows said. Mac chuckled weakly and said "you did." "Let's start loading them onto the helicopter!" The other pilot said. "Sir, can you walk?" MacReady nodded and then motioned to Windows. "He can't." The pilot nodded and then shined a light towards Caspian. Caspian looked up at the pilots and they motioned for him to step out of the tractor. MacReady got out of the tractor, walking over to the helicopter. Caspian did the same, carrying Echo as he went. "Sir, I'm gonna help you stand up." One of the pilots said. The other pilot went to the other side, carrying Caitlin over to the helicopter. The same one then came back, picking up Frankie. "F-Frank?" Windows said. She laid limp in the pilot's arms. "Frankie! Is she ok? P-please tell me she's ok." "Sir, she'll be fine. Once we get you all to the hospital you'll be fine. You all look like you've suffered from hyperthermia. Just walk with me." Windows stood up, leaning most of his weight on his left leg. He limped his way over to the helicopter. The pilots quickly got in and began to fly them to the nearest hospital.

Francesca's POV:
I woke up in my room. I looked around and grabbed my sweater. I pulled it on my body and stepped out of the room. "Hi, Francesca." Copper said as he walked past. My eyes widened and I said "h-hi." I walked into the rec room and everyone was doing their normal duties. Palmer stood up and said "Frankie, wanna hit this?" He held out his joint and I walked over to him. I hugged him and he was taken aback. "Why are you hugging me?" I pulled away and said "I missed you. That's all." He furrowed his eyebrows and I said "I had a dream you died." "Me? Die? I could never. Cause who else would smoke all the weed I have?" I laughed and looked at everyone around the room. Nauls skated past, Caitlin hot on his tail. Garry read the newspaper and Clarke played pool with Bennings. Norris and Fuchs were playing cards. Childs sat on the couch and Windows played his guitar. Bess was at the same table as Garry, reading a book. Caspian and Echo sat on the counter. Blair walked past and MacReady must've been in his shack. "Gosh, Palmer I thought I lost you." I said. Palmer smiled and said "you could never lose me." Now it was my turn to smile. A yowling sound was heard and I saw the dog-thing. It grabbed ahold of my arm and I screamed. Then I woke up with a gasp. I looked around and I was in a hospital room. "Hey, you're ok. We're safe." Windows said from next to me. "W-What?" I said as I looked around. "They found us. You had hyperthermia. You were in bad shape, Frankie." "Where's Palmer?" Windows furrowed his eyebrows and said "Frankie, Palmer died. Remember? He was a thing. He tried to kill me. Then it clicked. I was dreaming. Tears filled my eyes and I said "I was asleep. I dreamt that we were all back at outpost 31. And everything was fine. P-Palmer was alive. It was like nothing ever happened." Windows looked down and then looked back up. He put his hands in his pockets and sighed. "I'm sorry." He said. I reached for him and he hugged me. "I thought for sure we were goners. We were out in the cold for so long." I said to him. "But we made it. We actually made it." Echo and Caspian walked into the room. "You're awake." I pulled away from Windows and said "yeah." "You looked pretty bad when they brought you in here." Caspian said. "I did?" Windows nodded and said "you didn't look like yourself." Running footsteps were heard. "Mommy! Mommy!" A child's voice said. "Fox?" Echo said. Fox ran into the room and jumped into Echo's arms as she knelt down to hug him. "Oh my gosh." She said. Caspian knelt down as well, hugging his son. Windows' eyes widened as the two of them hugged Fox. "You're back! You're back!" Fox said as he jumped up and down. Echo smiled really big and said "yes. We are." "Where's aunt Frankie?" Caspian pointed to me and Fox turned around. He climbed up on the hospital bed and I sat up to hug him. "Hi." I said. "Did you, mommy and daddy have fun?" He asked. I looked at Windows, Echo and Caspian. "Yes. We did." Echo said. Fox pulled away from me and I said "it snowed every day." "Every day?" "Every day. We even had dogs with us." "Dogs? Mommy why couldn't I have come with you? There was dogs and I couldn't even see them." Fox said as he frowned. Echo half smiled at her son and said "trust me. It was boring." "So boring." Caspian added. Fox then looked at Windows. "Who are you?" He said. "Uhm I'm your aunts boyfriend." Windows replied. "Boyfriend?" "Yes. That's my boyfriend, Windows." "Windows? Your name is Windows?" Windows nodded while chuckling. "It's a nickname." "Why?" Windows held up his sunglasses and put them on. "It's cause I always wore these. So then I got the nickname Windows." "Can I try them?" Fox asked. Windows took the sunglasses off his face and handed them to Fox. Fox put them on his face and said "wait, if that's your nickname, what's your real name?" "Yeah. What is your real name?" I said. Fox gasped and said "aunt Frankie doesn't know? You didn't tell your girlfriend you're own name?!" Echo giggled at Fox and Windows scratched the back of his head. "Yeah I might've forgotten to mention it." He said. I shook my head and said "please enlighten me." "Mike. It's Mike." "Kiss me, Mike." I said. Windows smirked and leaned down, pressing a kiss to my lips. "Ew! Gross!" Fox said as he tried to push the two of us away from one another. Windows continued to kiss my lips and Fox eventually got between us. "That's gross." He said. Windows smirked at him while shaking his head. "Your mom and dad kiss." I said. "Yeah but that's cause they're my mom and dad. I'm not ready to see you kissing boys yet, aunt Frankie." Fox said as he took the sunglasses off his face. I laughed and Windows did the same. "Here's your glasses back." Windows took them from him. "You know, I really like your aunt. So what if I ask your permission if I want to kiss her." Windows said to him. Fox nodded and said "I like that idea." Caspian busted out laughing and Windows sat on the hospital bed. "What happened to your head?" Fox said. Windows sighed and said "it's a long story, kid." "Tell me. I wanna hear." Windows looked at Echo who said "Fox, let's go get a snack." "No. I want Windows to tell me a story." "Another time." Echo said. I knew she didn't want him to know about the thing. "Echo, it's ok. I'll just tell him about Blair." Caspian looked at Echo and said "it's fine." Echo nodded and Windows said "there was this guy named Blair. He was a really smart guy. He helped us with whatever we needed. He was pretty cool. But one night he went crazy. Like totally crazy." "Like Ash from Alien!" Fox said. Echo looked at Caspian who knew he was caught for showing his son Alien. "Yeah. Kinda like Ash. I worked in the radio room. Blair didn't like that I was working in there. So he came in and smashed everything up. And he hit me in the head." Windows said. "What'd he hit you with?" "A fire axe." Fox's eyes lit up and said "did you fight back?" Windows shook his head and said "no way! I was scared out of my wits. I was hiding under the desk so he couldn't get me." Fox giggled and he said "so you were scared like Lambert. You weren't brave like Ripley." Echo eyed her husband who said "he wanted to watch it." "That's great. Now he's going to be obsessed with Xenomorphs." She replied. "Well, if you didn't fight back, who did?" Windows frowned a little and said "well MacReady did. He's in a few rooms down from here though. Garry did, and Fuchs, and Childs." I looked down and Fox said "did Blair hurt them too?" "No. He didn't. But you know what?" "What?" Fox said. "You should always be brave like Ripley. Don't be scared like Lambert." Windows said. Fox nodded and said "Ripley's the coolest." "Fox, do you wanna go get something to eat?" Echo said to her son. He nodded and said "thanks for the story." "You're welcome." Fox hopped off the hospital bed and walked to the doorway with his parents. "You're not leaving are you?" He asked Windows. Windows shook his head and said "no. I'm staying here until your aunt is ok to leave." "I expect to hear more stories." Fox said. Echo and Caspian smiled at Fox. The three of them walked out of the room and I said "it seems like he got bigger while we were gone." "He's cute." Windows said. I nodded and said "he seems to really like you." "Which is weird. I haven't been around kids much so I'm pretty confused as to why he thinks I'm so cool." "You're the coolest." I said to him. Windows smirked and leaned in to press a kiss to my lips. I kissed him passionately, our lips moving in sync. "Frankie, you don't look dead." MacReady's voice said. Windows pulled away from me and I looked at Mac. "Neither do you." I said to him. MacReady nodded and said "touché." "So how do we explain what happened?" Windows asked. MacReady looked at him and said "a fire. We'll just say a fire broke out." I nodded and Fox ran into the room. MacReady's eyes widened and Fox said "aunt Frankie, aunt Frankie! Look what mommy got me!" A golden retriever puppy ran into the room. "Windows, look!" Fox said. Windows looked at the puppy that ran around the room. "I'm assuming your parents got him for you?" Fox nodded and said "yeah! It was my Christmas gift! But mommy gave it to me early!" "What's his name?" I asked. Fox looked at the puppy and said "I'm not sure yet." He picked him up and set him on the hospital bed. "We almost got him a husky." Caspian said. Windows looked at Caspian and said "really?" "Yeah. It's probably a good thing we didn't though." I shrugged and looked at Fox who was offering the puppy to Windows. Windows took the dog from him and MacReady said "you know what would be a cool name for him?" "What?" Fox said. "Clark." Echo half smiled and Windows petted the puppy's head. Fox looked at Windows and said "what do you think?" "You choose his name. It's your dog, Fox." He said. Fox nodded and then said "I like it." I smiled and said "good." "You're apart of my family now, Clark." Fox said to the dog. Windows handed Clark to Fox and Fox looked at me. "When do you get out of here? I want you, Windows and him to come over." He pointed at MacReady who said "my name's RJ." "Promise me you'll come over and stay for Christmas?" Fox asked hopefully. Mac nodded and said "we'll be there."

Here's the update!! I'm going to write one last chapter and then this book will be finished😭 I'm hella sad omg
~skylar🛸🪐🛸🪐