Sarah set to work on cooking some of the Alfredo while Jacob and Tyler pulled out beds from the two sofa's in the back room and the little boy grabbed the bean bags from the front room and moved them into the back by the counters. I unpacked the sleeping pad and my blanket from my backpack Tyler gave me a few of the blankets off the back of the couch and I set them up on my pad, which was in the corner opposite to the little boy.
Call me crazy, but that little kid seemed to think of me as his Father, or at least a father figure. I don't know why I did, but it seemed like that he didn't care that I was Xenomorph, he felt safe around me.
Dinner didn't take that long to prepare. Sarah made three of the bags of Alfredo that I'd found and mixed it in with just a bit of curry powder, garlic and black pepper, the resulting dish was actually quite hunger satisfying. Once everyone had eaten I helped Sarah clean up and then I went to the bathroom to check on my shoulder. I pulled off my, vest, multi cam and undershirt and looked at myself in the mirror. There was a cracked crater in my shoulder that was about a centimeter deep. It wasn't as bad as it felt, but it was still an infection waiting to happen. Sighing, I stepped into the shower. I assumed since the power was out in most of the facility, all I had was the cold, so that's what I used. Surprisingly though, the cold water wasn't at that cold of a temperature, in fact, it was pretty pleasant. I didn't have a lot of dirt on me, and since I didn't sweat, there wasn't any real need to shower, but I did anyway because it gave me a refreshed feeling and Chitin really glows if you wet it down. Once I was done, I stepped out and dried off. I pulled my medical bag out of my backpack, taking a gauze pad, cotton roll and a bottle of ointment that was specially made for Xenos. I soaked the roll with the ointment, took a deep breath and placed it in the hole in my shoulder. It stung like a bitch! Wincing, I tapped the gauze pad to it and pulled on a fresh shirt. I slipped out of my boots and pants and put on a pair of boxer shorts and flannel pants.
Once I was done in the bathroom I stuffed my medical kit back into my backpack and walked into the security room where Allen was fooling around with some dials.
“Well looks like you cleaned up”, he told me.
“Hey after what that Skin thing did to me I deserve a little R&R”, I answered with a laugh.
“So did you like the High-Power?”, Allen asked messing with more dials.
“I like it”, I said, “has a ton of punch to it. I mean, it's not at all practical, it's loud, heavy and...punches holes in my shoulder a lot.”
“It cracked your exoskeleton?”, Allen asked laughing a little.
I tugged on my shirt, showing him the bandage, “it stings.”
“I bet”, Allen said turning back to the console.
“Do you have any kind of a plan?”, I asked.
“To get out of here we'll have to kick start the main generator and get the quarantine protocols to disengage.”
“How do we do that?”, I asked.
“For starters we need the Master Password”, Allen said, “which is kept on the other side of the compound in the Biome Labs. Then we have to see what's wrong with the generator, which by the way is in the basement, where the feeders have taken up residence. We need to get everyone armed and we still have the matter of water.”
“Back up a minute”, I said, “feeders?”
“A group of people whose genes got blended with a parasite at the beginning of the outbreak. They use a set of tentacles that release a powerful muscle relaxant to snare their prey and another specialized set to suck the blood out of it.”
I sighed, “that translates to a ton of fighting for me.”
“You don't have to do it all at once”, Allen said, “with the spot were in stress equals death, pace it, we can get comfortable and dig in for the long haul because right now your the only one we have that stands a chance against the muties in this damn lab.”
I nodded and turned to leave.
“Hey Skyline?”, Allen asked.
I turned around, “Yeah?”
“Can I ask you something personal?”
“Sure. Shoot.”
“Where did you get all those scars?”, Allen asked.
I had forgotten to cover my arms. Looking down, I could see all the marks in the flesh on my arms. The burn scars, the whip lashes and the lines on the Chitin where it had been cracked and repaired so many times. The flashes came. The silver, the whips, the hammers, chains, cages, everything came back. Images I wished so badly night and day to disappear, along with my...marks.
My tail swished behind me.
“In all honesty Allen”, I replied, “for now, I'd rather not say....at least nothing other than I went to hell and came back with proof.”
Allen nodded and tugged on his collar, “this came from one of the creatures here, damn near bled to death before a friend of mine found me.”
“At least you had a friend to help you”, I said looking down, “I didn't.”
Allen didn't reply me. He just said, “go get some sleep, take the FA:L with you just in case.”
I grabbed my rifle out of the locker, stuck a mag in it and walked back into the lounge room. Most of the others had changed out of their lab coats and into clothes a little more comfortable. Wonder where they got them? Tyler and Jacob were playing cards at the table, Sarah was sitting on the couch doing stuff on her PDA and the little kid was lying on the ban bags, looking like he wanted to sleep but couldn't. I walked over to the couch and sat down next to Sarah. She looked up at me from her PDA.
“What?”, I asked.
“Nothing”, she said.
She continued to look at me. Awkward.
“What?”, I asked. My voice came out a little high pitched and annoyed sounding.
“Nothing”, she said with a light laugh.
“So why are you staring at me then?”, I asked.
“Well”, she said, “I guess I never realized that I've never been able to get so close to one of the acid blooded Xenos. It just hit me I guess. What's that like by the way?”
I wasn't sure how to reply, “I don't know. What's it like to have an internal skeleton?”
She gave me a funny look, “to Che.”
“So fill me in”, I said, “when did this outbreak start?”
“I don't know”, she replied me, “Allen says two weeks, but it feels like it's been months, years even.”
“Do you know what caused it?”
“No. Jacob said a man from his side of the lab slipped and dropped a beaker of experimental gene splicing agent known as Chemical 240. We knew it could spread if left unchecked, but we didn't think it would do what it did.”
“What happened?”
“It blended DNA like confetti”, Sarah said, “it mixed the DNA of several synthetic humans with at least 15 other creatures.”
I sighed, “you said it spreads, does that mean were all gonna be infected?”
“No”, Jacob said chiming in, “it has no effect on true humans, that was the one thing we made sure of, but it will keep spreading. Any organism discards old dead cells, the floors of the lab are no doubt littered with them. The DNA in the cells will mix with whatever eats it, and that organisms DNA will mix with the next thing that eats it. And so on.”
I put my head in my hand, “in other words Chemical 240 is running free?”
“Essentially”, Tyler said.
“What happens if it gets out?”, I asked.
The scientists looked at each other.
“Theoretically”, Jacob said, “it would be this planet's apocalypse. There would be countless, un imaginable mutations. Trees that mixed with feeders, Trams with bat wings.”
“And I'm assuming that most of these wouldn't survive?”, I asked.
“Correct”, Jacob said, “99 percent of them would simply die at birth. But that other 1 percent?”
I sighed, “We need to get out of here. Soon.”
“Really?”, Jacob asked, “that thought hadn't occurred to me.”
“Why don't you just shut up huh?”, Tyler said, “your stressed, we get it. We all are. Just lay off the guy whose currently saving our lives.”
“What ever you say Ty”, Jacob said going back to their card game.
I looked at Sarah, “I'm gonna try and get some sleep, it's gonna be a busy day for me tomorrow.”
She nodded as I got up from the couch and walked to my sleeping pad. I set my rifle down beside it and lay down, pulling my heavy poncho liner over me. Somehow, I didn't think I'd get much sleep tonight.
