River of Pain

by Christopher Golden

  Food and drink had been brought to them over the course of the two days, and much of the detritus of those meals remained. Anne would be glad to leave the confined space.

  “What’s going on?” she asked, lifting a sleepy Newt into her arms, where the girl snuggled against her and went back to sleep. Two marines waited in the corridor, standing guard. A fresh wave of dread swept over Anne, and she pushed toward Lydecker with Tim trailing behind her.

  “Brad, what’s happened?” she asked.

  Lydecker glanced at the others, saw they were mostly busy gathering their things, and bent to speak softly into her ear.

  “Two of the groups were attacked,” he said. “Four casualties, but everyone else is safe. Simpson and Brackett both think it’ll be easier to protect everyone if we’re all in one place. Everyone who can be armed will be, and it’ll be easier to seal us off from the rest of the colony, as well.”

  Anne stared at him.

  Safe, he’d said.

  “Oh, my God.”

  Four casualties. She wondered who they were. Each would be someone she knew, perhaps a friend, but at the very least someone with whom she had shared a meal or a laugh over the years. Then Anne realized that she didn’t want to know. Four casualties, she thought again. Better just to think of them that way. Better… because there would be more.

  “Come on, Tim,” she said. “Stay with me.”

  Anne and her kids were among the first people out of the room. She glanced around constantly as they followed Lydecker, but she stuck close to the marines, thinking that would make them safer if the aliens came for them.

  With every step she was planning.

  Help must be coming, she thought. They’ll have to have sent a report by now, a distress call. But how long would it take for anyone to arrive?

  The colony had a spaceworthy excavator ship on hand to mine asteroids, should the need arise. The question was whether or not the Onager had been here on Acheron when the shit hit the fan, or whether it was off-planet. She didn’t know the answer, but she realized that she needed to find out—and quietly, because if everyone else had the same thought, there would be a huge rush to get away.

  She wondered how far it would take them. Just to another moon, or out of the system? No chance for hypersleep on an excavator ship, she figured, but if they could just get to a safe orbit, they could wait in space for help to arrive.

  And if the Onager wasn’t there, there were always the crawlers in the garage. Out on the surface of the planet, she and her kids would have only whatever food and water they could bring with them, and they’d have to watch for storms, but at least they’d be away from the aliens.

  Could they gather supplies and make it to the hangar without being caught? Without the aliens killing them or dragging them off? If the excavator ship wasn’t there, and she ransacked the other crawlers for whatever supplies might be in them, how long could they survive if she drove out to one of the more distant processors? Long enough for help to arrive?

  “I need to talk to Captain Brackett,” she told one of the marines, a Pvt. Stamovich.

  “He’s a little busy right now,” the private sneered.

  Anne clutched Tim’s hand in her left, carrying the sleeping Newt against her hip with her right.

  “As soon as you get us all where we’re going, I need you to contact him,” she said firmly. “Tell him I want to talk to him.”

  Stamovich rolled his eyes and moved away, aiming his weapon around corners and through open doors.

  The other marine was Boris Chenovski, who sidled up next to her.

  “I’ll make the call for you, Missus Jorden,” Chenovski said. “But it may take a while for the captain to get back to you. We’re in the middle of a bug hunt, y’know?”

  “I know,” she said quietly, leaning her head against Newt’s as she walked. “Just please do what you can.”

  But in her mind, a clock had begun to tick.

  22

  SAFETY MEASURES

  DATE: 25 JUNE, 2179

  TIME: 1212

  “Will we really be safe?” Newt asked.

  Anne held her daughter’s hand as they moved down the stairs, surrounded by fifteen or twenty others. Her heart fluttered wildly in her chest, but she forced herself to smile.

  “Newt, I love you very much. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

  “Promise you won’t leave me?”

  Anne could barely breathe. Her smile thinned as she squeezed the little girl’s hand.

  “Promise.”

  They reached the next level. The door had been propped open and people were flowing through, joining others who were already in the hallway, streaming in the same direction. She caught a glimpse of Al Simpson walking by, pale and disheveled but still in charge, barking orders.

  “Come on, sweetie,” she said, picking Newt up again as she hurried to push past the crowd. Anne glanced over her shoulder and spotted Tim. “Let’s go, little man.”

  Tim frowned. “I’m not little.”

  “No,” Anne agreed, thinking that with his father gone, Tim would have to grow up very quickly indeed. “I guess you’re not.”

  There was a pair of marines in the corridor, helping to guide people and make sure everyone got where they were going in an orderly fashion, but Anne saw the way they watched the vents and the doors and the way they held their guns, ready for trouble.

  “See, Newt,” she said, “these guys aren’t going to let anything happen to us.”

  A group of mechanics, surveyors, and engineers had been busy welding doors and barricading them, closing off an entire section of D-Block not far from the med lab. Two doors had been left unwelded, but they were guarded by marines, and now most of the surviving colonists were moving to the huge storage area in D-Block, where they would hole up together until the marines and volunteers destroyed the aliens, or help arrived.

  Anne tried not to think about the third option.

  Tim hurried to catch up and moved in front of his mother and sister as if to shield them.

  “Don’t worry, Mom,” he said grimly. “You and Newt can count on me to look out for you.” Anne bit her lip and tried not to sob. She had no fear for herself, but the thought of her children trapped with these monsters made her want to scream. Monsters we found, she thought. Monsters we brought back.

  “I feel better already,” she said. “How about you, Newt?”

  “Uh, sure,” the girl said noncommittally. Her gaze darted around, on guard, just like the marines, and not for the first time Anne realized just how sharp her daughter was. Newt clutched her Casey doll to her chest, and clung a little tighter to her mother.

  She caught up with Simpson a moment later. Flustered and sweating, he saw her coming and tried to ignore her.

  “Mr. Lydecker,” he said into his handheld comm, “do you have anything on the scans? Anything to help pinpoint their location?” This close to Simpson, Anne could hear the crackle of Lydecker’s response.

  “Not yet, sir. If there’s a hive or something… well, we’re working on it.”

  “Keep the doors sealed, Brad,” Simpson said. “Stay safe.”

  Anne switched Newt to her other hip and stared at him as they walked. She wasn’t about to let him avoid her.

  “Do you really think we’ll be safe in the storage area?” she asked.

  “If we stay separated, those things will pick us off one by one,” Simpson said. “Our best chance is to use all of our resources to secure this area, and hold out until help can arrive.”

  Anne felt a shiver go through her.

  “Seriously, Al. Who could help us?”

  “I’ve sent a message to Gateway,” Simpson explained, puffed up and proud, as if he himself had just delivered them all to salvation. “They’ll send more marines.”

  “But that will take weeks!” Anne said.

  People turned to look at her. At her side, Tim glared at them until they looked away. Newt hugged her a bit tighter, up
set by her distress.

  Anne slowed down, letting Simpson get ahead. With her children, she dropped back to walk beside a marine.

  “Can you tell me where Captain Brackett is?” she asked. “I really need to speak with him.”

  “I’ll let him know, Mrs. Jorden. But as you can imagine—”

  “Just tell him, please,” she said. “Tell him it’s important.”

  “Is Demian going to help us, Mom?” Newt whispered in her ear.

  “Maybe we’ll help him,” Anne replied, wondering again how long she could afford to wait for Demian before making a break for it… and how long they could survive out on the surface, in the grit-storms, in a crawler.

  “We can’t stay here,” she said to the marine. “There’s got to be a way off this planet.”

  “The only way out of this is to fight,” the marine said.

  Anne glanced at Tim, so brave and handsome… so like his father. Yeah, fight and die, she thought, kissing Newt on the temple.

  But perhaps the marine was right—maybe they could still get out of this. With everyone gathered together, there would be a limit to how many new hosts the aliens could abduct. The wildcatters were tough and most of them were armed. Between us and the marines, she thought, maybe we can kill them all. Get back in control of the colony.

  Hour by hour. She decided that was the only way to evaluate their situation. Hour by hour and day by day. If Simpson and the rest of the staff could get them all settled in the storage area, Anne would give it a little time.

  Is that hope, Annie? she asked herself. In her mind, it was Russ’s voice she heard. The answer came to her immediately. It wasn’t hope that drove her decision, not now. Her kids were exhausted—and not only the kids. Grief and fear had sapped all of the vitality from her. So for now, they would rest and put their trust in others.

  Tomorrow morning she would reevaluate the situation.

  Come on, Demian, she thought. We need to talk, you and I.

  We need to run.

  One thing Anne knew for certain, though. If she decided it was time to go and Demian disagreed, or she hadn’t been able to find him by then, she and the kids would go it alone.

  * * *

  DATE: 26 JUNE, 2179

  TIME: 0717

  Newt’s eyes flickered open. She rubbed the grit of sleep from them, and blinked as she stretched into a yawn that rolled her Casey doll out of her grasp.

  The floor beneath the blanket was cold and hard, but somehow she’d been sleeping with her mom’s jacket balled under her head for a pillow. Grimacing with disgust, she wiped drool from her mouth and realized some of it had gotten on the jacket. As she sat up, she tried to rub it off. Then it struck her where she was, and why she was there.

  A terrible weight settled over her heart as she glanced around at the dozens of people who had gathered in the storage area. Only a handful were still sleeping, there at the back of the room with her. The rest were sitting together in frightened conversation or standing in worried clusters. A few marines and wildcatters were scattered around the chamber, carrying weapons. One of them—Chenovski—stood a few feet away from Newt, talking quietly with Tim and his friend Aaron.

  “…think they’re too big now to come through the air ducts?” Aaron asked.

  Chenovski nodded. “Depends how long since they were hatched or whatever, but yeah. That’s what we’re thinking.”

  “Some of those ducts are pretty big inside,” Tim said, glancing anxiously at a grate high up on the wall. “We’ve been in them.”

  “This is a storage area,” Chenovski said. “It doesn’t usually have anyone living in it. The vents will give us air, but they’re really just there for ventilation. The ductwork leading here is narrower than most other parts of the colony. But don’t worry, guys…” He slapped his rifle. “We’re still on guard. You’re protected, okay?”

  Tim and Aaron glanced at each other, looking unconvinced. Newt didn’t blame them. She had seen the thing that had punched its way out of her father’s chest. She glanced nervously at the grating up on the wall, picked up her Casey doll, and hugged her.

  She crossed her legs and just sat there, feeling so small with all of those people milling about. Her eyes roved over the many familiar faces and some not quite so familiar, and her heart began to quicken as she scanned in search of her mother. Her eyes darted from side to side and a terrible fear ignited inside her, burning higher and brighter with every passing second.

  Newt closed her eyes for a second, but in the darkness inside her head she saw her father bucking as the alien creature burst out of his body, and she heard his scream of pain… the last time she had heard—or would ever hear—his voice.

  How many familiar faces were missing now? Dead, like her daddy?

  “No,” Newt whispered, lip trembling as tears sprang to her eyes. She rose to her feet, holding Casey against her. “Mommy?”

  She spun toward Tim and Aaron and Pvt. Chenovski.

  “Where’s Mommy?” she asked, but her voice came out too soft. She felt as if she were invisible to them.

  Her breath hitched in her chest as she set off in a panic, pushing past people. Tim called her name and started after her but Newt didn’t want her brother anymore, she wanted her mom. She bumped into legs and hips and backs, calling for her mother, but even as she did she caught sight of faces and tried to figure out who wasn’t there in the storage area, and if they were dead. Where was Daddy’s friend, Bill? Where was the cook, Bronagh, who always saved her a freeze-pop or a piece of cake?

  “Momma?” Newt called.

  A hand clutched her arm. Face flushed with heat and wet with tears, Newt tried to pull free but could not. She heard her name, words gently spoken, but she shook her head and turned angrily… desperately. All she wanted was her mother. Instead, she found herself looking into the brown eyes of Dr. Hidalgo. She had lines around her eyes and they seemed to have deepened, as if she had grown much older just in the past few days.

  “Newt,” Dr. Hidalgo said again. “It’s all right. Listen to me. Your mother is helping to bring food and supplies to us. Just a few minutes ago she asked me to look after you when you woke, but I got caught up in conversation. I’m so sorry that you woke up alone.”

  The words seemed to come from far away.

  “She’s… she’s alive?”

  “Yes, dear. She’s fine. I promise you.” But something dark flickered across Dr. Hidalgo’s face and Newt understood it, heard the hesitation in the scientist’s voice.

  “Someone else died, though,” Newt said.

  Dr. Hidalgo nodded. “Several were taken while we were getting settled here last night. Quietly.”

  Quietly, Newt thought. She knew she was young, but she would have been the first to declare that being little didn’t make her stupid. Quietly meant the aliens weren’t stupid either. They were sneaky and smart.

  Tim and Aaron caught up to her.

  “Rebecca,” her brother said, “what are you doing? You can’t just run—”

  “I wanted Mom,” she replied, wiping her eyes. That same heavy weight settled on her heart, and she felt suddenly as cold and hard as the floor she’d slept on. “I want Dad.”

  As Aaron glanced away, Tim nodded.

  “Me too.”

  Newt felt herself going a little numb.

  “Who else is gone?” she asked Dr. Hidalgo. “Who else is dead? Is Aldo okay? What about Lizzie Russo? Is Mrs. Flaherty here?”

  Dr. Hidalgo blinked, taken off guard by the last name, and Newt knew there would be no more pieces of cake set aside for her in the kitchen. No more freeze-pops. Bronagh Flaherty was gone. She squeezed her eyes shut for a second, and again she could hear her father scream.

  Newt turned to her brother and slid into his embrace. Tim hugged her tightly.

  “I want Mom,” she said.

  “I know,” her brother replied quietly. “She’s coming.”

  23

  ESCAPE ROUTES

  DATE: 2
6 JUNE, 2179

  TIME: 1111

  Dr. Reese hesitated on the steps while Pvt. Stamovich opened the door and stepped into the corridor, gun at the ready. Stamovich looked pale and exhausted, but the man practically vibrated with potential violence.

  Most of the morning had come and gone and there hadn’t been an attack from the aliens since the middle of the night. Stam wanted to shoot something. Dr. Reese wanted a man who was ready to kill to protect him, but he did worry a bit that the private’s itchy trigger finger might end up finding the wrong target.

  Stam glanced back into the stairwell. “You’re clear, Doc.”

  Reese followed him into the corridor and Stam led the way toward the storage area where most of the colonists were holed up.

  “You sure they’re not going to attack during the day?” Stam asked.

  Dr. Reese frowned. “Not certain, of course. There isn’t enough data. But aside from the ‘births’ of the newborn aliens, their appearances have mostly come at night.”

  “Mostly,” Stam echoed.

  “I don’t think we can be sure of anything with the Xenomorphs, Private. In time, we’ll know more about them.”

  “I don’t know that we’ve got much time, Doc. And I gotta tell ya, I don’t need to know much except how to kill ’em.”

  Dr. Reese tensed, but he nodded.

  “We’re working on it.”

  “I know, man,” the gruff marine said as he swept his gun barrel in an arc that took in the corridor ahead of them, as well as behind. “Meantime, I still think we ought to be moving in larger groups. Just the two of us together…”

  “I have work to do,” Dr. Reese said. “And Captain Brackett has most of your squad searching for the creatures. If I had an entire army to protect me, believe me, they would be here now.”