Surrender

Despite the noises emitting from the hallway, Becky and April did not leave the kitchen. They continued to squat down behind counters in the center of the room. April stayed put out of fear, Becky remained in place because she had orders. When they heard the 'thud', they thought it was the creature falling to the floor after the lethal injection. But the other two women did not return. Becky and April strained their ears, trying to figure out what was happening.

The sound of breaking glass caused the two hiding women to jump, startled by the noise. A series of crashes and bangs followed until finally all went quiet. A few minutes later they felt a noticeable drop in the air temperature, meaning the exit in the garage was being open. Unlike the main entrance, the garage did not have an air-lock.

"Come on," Becky said to April, shooting to her feet and running towards the hall.

"Oh, no!" Becky gasped when she saw her two fallen colleagues. She was on the verge of tears from frustration.

"What happened?" April asked when she stopped short, looking from the Doctor to the Station Commander and back to the Doctor.

"We failed," Sarah answered as she slowly came around. She sat up, leaning back against the wall, rubbing her head. Staring down at her feet stretched out in front of her, she slowly shook her head. She was not wearing boots, just her thick white cotton socks. "He couldn't have heard me. " She was genuinely puzzled. "Unless . . ." She collected her thoughts some more as Becky knelt down beside Barbie, helping her rise up to a sitting position.

"Unless he has extremely acute hearing," Sarah continued. "Like a cat can hear sounds an octave higher than a human can. Or a dog's sense of smell is over ten thousand times greater than ours."

"Or maybe it can read our minds," April offered.

Barbie tried to say something, but Becky shushed her. She knew from experience how sore her throat would be right now.

"Alright," Sarah said, unconsciously mimicking the way Barbie always said that word when she had reached a decision. "We'll try again. But this time I will make up four needles. We'll each carry one tucked in our boots, and when he attacks again . . . We jab the bastard!"

By now April had calmed down and she told the Doctor. "Good luck with that! Look at Sick Bay."

When Sarah saw the open door, she jumped up and ran inside.

"The bastard!" Sarah yelled. "The damn, motherless, soulless, heartless, evil, loathsome, vicious bastard!"

Sick Bay had been totally wrecked. All the glass doors to the medical supplies had been shattered, chairs over-turned, even her desk had been flipped over. But worse, the **** cabinet was empty. The creature must have thrown everything into a large garbage bag and carted it off. The only pharmaceuticals the station had left were whatever was in the two first aid kits in the disabled land rovers. And that wasn't much. Some aspirins, anti-itch ointments, and iodine.

A couple of hours later, Barbie had recovered enough to speak in a somewhat normal, although soft, voice. "Alright, I want somebody looking out that window," she pointed to the slit opening in the exterior wall of the subterranean day room, "twenty-fours a day. We'll stand three-hour watches. In this blackness, their headlights will be easily seen."Looking towards April, she asked, "Any way the radar can be re-calibrated or adjusted to pick up surface traffic?"

When April sadly shook her head, Barbie pressed her palms against the table-top and pushed herself up to a standing position. "Alright, Ladies. We still have a station to run. I'll take the first watch, Becky will relieve me, April, and then Sarah. Now, everyone try to get some rest."

"Wait," April said, looking desperately from one person to the next. "That's it? We are just going to sit around and be part of a harem of blow-job queens for an alien being? We can set a trap. Dig a pit in front of the garage entrance. Becky . . . Becky, you can make a flame-thrower out of your welding equipment. We have ropes . . . We can make snares . . . Or we can . . ."

"April, April," Becky gripped the radio/radar technician's shoulders. "The ground is frozen solid. Permafrost. . . And an acetylene torch does not work like that. I'll wind up burning this place down."

"Get some rest, April," Barbie said. As Becky escorted April towards their rooms, Barbie added, "Oh, one more thing." She looked from one face to the next to the next. "When someone gets attacked, do nothing. Nothing. Understand? Stay away. Let the **** run its course. So far we have been lucky . . ."

"Lucky!" April exclaimed in frustrated befuddlement.

"Lucky," Barbie repeated. "No one has been killed. No permanent injuries. No broken bones. So stay. Away. During. An. ****."

As Becky and April departed, Sarah said, "She's at the breaking point."

"I know," Barbie replied. Softly she repeated, "I know."

Six hours later April was staring out the slit window in the dayroom. There was nothing but blackness and the occasional swirl of snowflakes. Every sound, every expansion of a heating pipe, every structural creek in response to a strong gust of wind, every time the refrigerator kicked in, was amplified in her mind. The question had long since gone from 'if' to 'when'.

Like now.

The cold air and the muffled sounds of a door opening and closing announced the arrival of the creature in the garage. "No, no, no," she sobbed, shaking her head and holding the back of her hand to her mouth. She wanted to scream. Wanted to call out.

But wait, maybe if she hid. Just because she was on watch didn't mean she had to be the 'duty mouth'. Darting into the kitchen, she headed to her previous hiding spot behind the counters in the center of the room. Unfortunately, the lid to a pot had not been put away and in her haste she accidentally knocked it to the floor.

The loud, clanking noise of the metal lid hitting the linoleum sounded like a **** toll. April just stood there, knowing that she had alerted the creature to her location. Awaiting her fate.

She only had a few seconds to wait. The tall, hulking creature appeared, his massive form filling the doorway to the cooking/eating area.

"No . . . no . . . no . . .," April slowly shook her head while stepping backwards. "Please. No."

When the creature's large hand clasped the nape of her neck, she screamed.

Barbie sat up in her bed with a jolt and dashed to the door of her room. Sarah and Becky were also standing in their doorways, peering towards struggling noises coming from the kitchen. The three women heard the repeated gurgling, gagging sounds of their colleague being throat-fucked. And what made it so bad was the fact that they could do nothing about it.

There was another crash from the kitchen. Maybe a chair being knocked over or a cutting board falling to the floor. Sarah dashed out to investigate, but Barbie moved first, clasping Sarah's upper arm to hold her back. The Station Commander shook her head with a sad expression on her face, then tilted her head towards Sarah's room. Reluctantly, the Doctor obeyed and for the next twenty minutes or so, the three women lay in their beds, their doors opened, and listened in the darkness to the sounds of the encounter they had all experienced.

Sarah wound up shoving her pillow over her face and pressing the ends against her ears, trying to blot out the racket. Silent tears flowed from Becky and Barbie's eyes. Becky was crying out of sadness for April. Barbie was crying in thwarted anger.