ALIEN: Isolation

A Brief Friendship

*** VIOLENCE WARNING ***

(stuff's about to get yuck)

Axel said nothing more, except 'this way,' before climbing up the ladder that lead into the ceiling vent. Ripley reluctantly climbed up with him. She'd had enough vent climbing for one day, but she could tell that this certainly wasn't the last of it.

They climbed the ladder, which was about three metres high, and then got off at the first vent. Ripley could see that the ladder led further up into the depths of Sevastopol and imagined all the godforsaken things that could have been lying up there, waiting.

Ripley shivered a little.

She quickly climbed into the outlet with Axel, scaring herself half to death with what she'd just thought up.
So they pushed on, and for a while they didn't talk. The only thing Ripley was focused on was the 'killer' and the torchlight that led the way. She assumed Axel was thinking the same.

'Alright, we're here,' said Axel, climbing out of the vent and at the same time knocking Ripley out of her trance. Ripley followed him closely, coming out a matter of miliseconds after him.

The vent opened up onto a small room, that clearly served a purpose once upon a time, but had been since abandoned and left alone. Dust covered most of the control panels in the room, and the window that looked into another, identical, room had dew creeping towards the centre of the pane.

Axel pointed to a console in front of the window. 'See that?' he said. 'Yeah,' replied Ripley. 'There's an identical one on the other side that opens that door,' he said pointing to a door on the far side of the opposite room, above which, there was a red light.

Locked, Ripley figured.

'Alright,' said Axel. 'Wait here, I'll be there in a sec.' Ripley then watched Axel walk through a doorway on the far right of the room. She saw the door close, and a matter of seconds later, saw an identical door on the other side of the window open.

Axel walked over to the console directly opposite Ripley's, and spoke to her through the glass. 'On three, press the green button on your panel,' he said.

'Got it,' Ripley replied. 'Okay,' said Axel, lowering his hand onto his console.

'One...two...three,' he said, before they both pressed their respective buttons, in unison. There was a whirring sound a mere second later, and the red light above the door in Axel's room instantly flashed green.

The door made a clicking noise, before steam began to fizzle out the bottom, and it rose to reveal an open doorway and-

Ripley froze.

Because there, standing in the open doorway, was the sillhouette of a man. And in his hand, the sillhouette of a gun.

'Axel, look out!' Ripley screamed through the glass; he hadn't seen the man. Axel turned around, and began to reach for his holstered revolver just as the man lunged at him, bowling Axel over, and sending them both crashing into Axel's panel.

Ripley looked around for something -anything- that she could use to help. She turned and looked at the door that Axel had left through, and instantly began to rush towards it. The door opened automatically, sensing Ripley's movement in front of it, to reveal a short corridor, full of pipes and gas valves.

Amanda charged down the hallway, reserving no energy. She turned left, and then left again, before running down another short corridor, with a door leading to Axel's room. Ripley burst into the room, to find the scuffle had developed into the assailants favour.

The man had Axel pinned down onto the floor, and was pressing his palm into Axel's neck. Ripley only needed a moment to think. She looked down at the metal jack in her hand, and then up at the man.

'Aw, screw it,' she said to herself, before taking two steps forward, and swinging the jack around. It connected with the man's mouth, and as soon as it did, a disgusting 'crack' could be heard as several of his teeth were shattered. The man fell backwards, clenching his now bleeding mouth.

Ripley thought it would be left at that, and that she and Axel would continue on their way afterwards, but no, Axel would have his way.

He instantly got up, now free of his assailant, before pulling his revolver out of it's holster. Axel looked at the man that lay before him, looked directly into the man's desperate eyes. He slowly raised the revolver, and before anyone could react, he pulled the trigger.

Ripley screamed as the shot went off, and could do nothing but watch as the man's head snapped backwards, a spray of blood expelling from his nose.

Axel slowly stood back up, as the last breath slowly left the man's body, and it went limp. Ripley started sobbing, as Axel put his revolver back in it's holster.

'C'mon,' he said. 'Time to leave.' Ripley followed Axel through the doorway, her hands shaking violently at the carnage she'd just witnessed.

They came to a room, it was large, and hexagonal in shape. There were chains hanging from the dark, forboding ceiling, along with metal poles and sheets of corrugated iron and timber and other things like that lying scattered on the floor.

Ripley thought that this was probably where all the ship's building and fixing materials were kept. But that was really at the back of her mind, because of what she'd just seen.

'You killed that guy,' she said to Axel, her voice trembling. Axel stopped and turned around. 'Because he was going to kill me,' he retorted before walking right up to Ripley. 'You saved my life,' he said, a little softer.

Ripley was disgusted. Disgusted at Axel that he had basically said that she was the cause of that mans death. But also disgusted at herself that he could well have been right.

Axel wasn't convinced she understood.

'Don't you get it Ripley?' he asked. 'This is about survi-'

He was cut off.

At first, Ripley didn't know what by, but she soon became aware that there was something dripping onto Axel's shoulder.

Axel looked at it, and made a face, pressing two of his fingers into the slobbery liquid that was falling onto his shoulder and attempting to flick it off.

'What the hell?' he said, confused. But then it dawned on him. Ripley didn't know what exactly it was, but she could tell.

Axel's eyes had gone wide, and his head had turned from the slobber and looked towards Ripley. It was silent in the room, all except for the dripping noise. Ripley could see that Axel was trying to speak.

'R-r-run,' was the last thing she heard him say, before his chest convulsed forward, to reveal a large spike that all but tore through his back and out his chest.

Ripley screamed, and fell over as she saw the monstrous shape loom behind Axel's spasming body, before it, along with the body, retreated into one of the air vents, leaving a red trail behind it.

Ripley curled up behind one of the storage crates behind the room, whimpering to herself softly.

She was now well, and truly,

alone.