T-Plus 16

Oliver peered out from cover, regretting his actions as he whipped his head back in time to dodge a cluster of pebbles aimed at them. It cannonballed into the several layers of ceiling tile and ripped insulation he and Toast were using, giving a muffled thud against their backs, while some stray pieces skirted the edges and crashed into the wall in front of them. The flimsy wall they were hiding behind wouldn’t be able to take another hit from that. With a nod, the two split up to circle around the alien again.

The scientist kept his head down as he ducked and wove through the available cover, drawing close to the wandering alien again. Oliver approached from the opposite direction, waiting for the signal from the other side again. In the distance, Oliver heard the familiar rumble of pebbles being gargled, and he dove behind the sturdiest piece of rock he could find in two seconds. Just to his right, he spotted an alcove created by a dented beam holding up parts of the ceiling that had fallen on it. There was room beneath, just enough for him to tuck into for a moment. He rolled into the crevice, tucking his feet in as the projectile slammed into his toes.

He hissed in pain, hugging his knees as he put pressure on his foot. Only the periphery of the alien’s spit had landed on his toes, but the pain was comparable to either stubbing it on his dresser or slamming one of the Station’s automated airlocks on it. Neither was ideal, and the pain brought physiological tears to his eyes as he attempted to huff the pain out as if it worked. If this was how being skimmed by it felt like, Oliver didn’t want to experience taking the brunt of the force.

Off in the distance, he heard a clatter of rocks and Toast’s voice pelting curses, both about the alien and about tripping over his own shoelaces. Wincing from his own pain, Oliver crawled out of his crevice and limped behind better cover as the scientist’s voice kept raining complaints in the otherwise silent corridor. Situating himself behind thicker protection, Oliver kept his weight off his injured right foot as he leaned out to check where Toast had gotten himself.

Toast had climbed onto higher ground, pointing and throwing rocks at the alien. The two of them watched from a distance as the small pieces of rubble the scientist was using to pelt the alien like an old-school bully bounced off the alien, although some of them seemed to sink into its skin and integrate itself onto its outer layer. After several rounds of Toast exchanging rocky projectiles with the alien, each with Toast body slamming the ground he was standing on to dodge the rocks aimed at his head, the alien had several protruding rocky warts and blisters where the scientist’s aim held true. As he watched the scientist’s antics, several of the warts shrunk into the alien’s body.

The pain in his foot had yet to subside, but Oliver gritted his teeth and stood on it precariously. His toes throbbed through his boot, and he could feel the heat with each painful pulsation as he took a step forward. Toast had thoroughly distracted the alien, giving Oliver ample time to get used to limping around quickly through the uneven terrain. He could already hear the nagging lecture Emerson would be giving them when they returned.

There were several long steps left before he would reach the alien. Toast threw one last pebble at it before jumping off his current pedestal, diving off as the alien returned his final attack with its own. Oliver rushed up to the alien, lifting it like he had done previously. As he was prepared to slam it into the ground, Toast’s voice directed him instead.

“Wait, throw it over there!”

Trusting in the scientist’s decision, a first for Oliver, the technician threw the alien in his arms in the direction of Toast’s light. Bracing himself as he could feel his toes screaming at him, he put as much power as he could into throwing the alien away. With the alien out of his hand, Oliver crouched down in pain, clutching his aggravated foot injury, not bothering to confirm if his throw had even landed where Toast pointed.

“Don’t sit around, run!” Toast shouted, his voice hovering over Oliver’s head as he beads of sweat dripped down his neck.

As he was hugging his foot, Toast grabbed his arm and pulled him away from where he was. The two of them stumbled away from the open space, crouching beside a set of beams that Oliver recognized as supporting pillars. Considering how he didn’t remember that there didn’t need to be replacements in this section, he figured they must’ve slid here from somewhere else and impaled themselves in this buildup of debris and materials.

With the weight off his foot, the intense pain eased into a pulsating ache. One twitch or move and riveting pain climbed up his leg, making him wince with each minor movement. Given a few more moments and he could make some minimal movements without searing pain. He took the chance to twist his body to see what had happened after he’d tossed the alien, and he couldn’t help but regret his decision to trust Toast in the spur of the moment.

The location Toast’s light had pointed at was the core of this array of alien veins. In his desperate attempt to rid himself of the alien in his hands, Oliver hadn’t really been paying attention to where he was throwing it, but it had still landed in the general vicinity and even knocked the pedestal they all surrounded over. The remaining aliens had awoken from their slumber and were drilling out from under the floor.

In the center was the alien he had chucked, sitting beside the knocked over pedestal. The two of them watched as the newly awoken aliens converged on the one in the center, waving their tendrils and turning into a part rock-part alien dogpile. Their bodies became a mass of grey blobs, building up to become similar to the surrounding piles of rubble in the dim lighting.

“Why did you tell me to toss it there?” Oliver hissed as he punched the scientist’s shoulder in horror.

The number of aliens occupying the corridor was now more than the two of them could handle, and even with Emerson’s help, Oliver didn’t think they’d be able to handle the situation well either.

“Why not? It’s not like we can stay here all day to take care of them, right? Might as well see what happens when we knock it over.”

“What do you mean?” Oliver screeched, shaking the scientist who was still keen on his alien observations. “We can’t get through here like this!”

“Nah, it’ll be fine. I have a backup plan.”

“You have a backup plan?” Oliver snorted. “Can’t wait to hear this crazy idea.”

“Come now, you should believe in that old Earthen military motto: Adapt. Survive. Overcome!”

Oliver blanched, his confusion numbing the pain in his foot momentarily. “Isn’t it improvise, adapt, and overcome?”

“What, isn’t improvising just adapting with a few more steps?”

The technician gave the scientist an incredulous look as he shook his head in disbelief. He should’ve known. As they were bantering, there’d been a change with the alien convergence hill. The pile had become more compact, shrinking visibly as Oliver ignored Toast to pay more attention to the unideal situation. He didn’t know what happened to the original alien to the center or what happened to the egg-like pedestal, but the constant sound of crunching and rock gargling emitted from the pile grated against his ears.

“Wow, they’re eating each other even when they’re not dead,” Toast observed.

“That’s not a good thing,” Oliver murmured as he tested his foot injury again.

The dull, pulsating pain had become a dull pain he could mostly ignore. He had no doubt that the next stunt he tried would worsen the wound into a fracture or worse. At most, he would be able to climb over the rubble and make it back to where the emergency lights lit the corridor. Whether that was forward or backward to Emerson, they’d have to decide now.

“Alright, hold on to this,” Toast said, fishing out a wrapped object from his backpack. “Don’t drop it. Heh, it’s a good thing I didn’t listen to one and grabbed one of the intact ones off the floor.”

Oliver unwrapped the loose towel covering it to reveal one of the corked wine bottles from the Chief’s stash. He was honestly tempted to smash it on the ground and ruin Toast’s enthusiasm, but the sight of the bottle in this situation was a blessing.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to ask our neighbors to have a drink with this...”

“Yeah! And invite them to the barbeque while I’m at it,” Toast affirmed. “I’m just not sure if it’ll work right if they’re more rock than jelly. Well, if they end up eating each other until there’s only one, I think we should be able to dodge it.”

“You’re telling me this was your backup plan?” Oliver asked, eyeing the wine bottle.

He recognized the emblem as one of the Chief’s cheaper bottles, much to his relief. He would’ve had to make Toast swear that he would take the secret to the grave if they were going to break one of the Chief’s rarer bottles.

“Eh, it became by backup plan when we found out we could still burn them,” Toast explained. “We just need to hit them before they become all rock.”

“You sure you’re able to handle burning them?” Oliver reaffirmed.

There were very few tasks Oliver truly trusted the scientist with and wielding a blowtorch to burn a pile of alcohol soaked, half-evolved aliens was not one of them.

“What’s so hard about lighting up an alcohol trail?” the scientist asked.

Oliver stared at the scientist, considered his current injury and circumstances, and decided to take the chance. He only added one sentence.

“Please tell me this was the only bottle you swiped.”

“Well....”

“Toast, I swear.”

“Hey, they’re coming in handy, right? I’m sure the Chief wouldn’t mind us using a few bottles to solve some of our neighbors.”

The technician could only shake his head as he shooed the scientist into position. It would be the same plan as before, except they’d switched roles. Once Toast was in position, a precarious one where he was close enough to charge into the still shrinking alien pile, Oliver propped himself up against the two beams they’d been hiding behind with the bottle in hand.

The two exchanged nods, and the technician tossed the wine bottle at the grey pile that was still emitting crunching sounds of rocks being crushed. The bottle smashed against the closest end, splattering the gray with a dark liquid. Numerous tendrils extended out to catch the falling glass fragments, bringing them into the fold. Moments later, Toast rushed up to the soaked area and blasted it with the two blowtorches in his hand.

The soaked area lit up with a blaze, being the third source of light in this darkened section of the corridor. Toast kept the flames up, pressing forward until even the parts that hadn’t been dampened by the wine started carbonizing. The scent of burning flesh wafted over, and Oliver scrunched his nose at the smell. Toast retreated back to his side, and the two watched as the crunching stopped to be replaced by intermittent squeaks and flailing alien limbs.

It was like the mass had fused into one blob, and they couldn’t separate themselves after joining together. In the end, they all burned into a carbonized state. In place of the original rubble mountain was now a blackened mass with tendrils sticking out of it like spikes on the back of a porcupine. After watching and hearing and seeing no further movements, Toast approached it while skirting the remaining bits of flames.

He reached the black mountain and kicked it with a foot. The section his foot touched caved in slightly, and with another kick, the rest of it started falling into itself, tumbling into a pile of ashes instead. Cemented in the center was a half sphere of rock. It wasn’t hollow inside and almost looked like a completely evolved alien. Beside it were what seemed like parts of the egg pedestal they had been treading lightly around. Toast kicked the remnants of it, watching it roll several spaces before coming to a stop.

“See? Didn’t it turn out well?” Toast asked, turning back to the technician.

Oliver rubbed the sides of his head, sighing as he massaged the massive headache he was now harboring. And what was he supposed to say to that?