Standard Slay and Pay

Gorgo wasn't even a real planet, just a dead rock floating around some forgotten star. No comms buoys, no trades routes or local traffic, just darkness and silence as they floated through the void. It was the kind of unnatural quiet that sent shivers up your spine. The kind of stillness that Adam could feel in the deepest part of his mind, where the lizard-brain survival instincts kicked in. Run, they begged. But he didn't.

"Send a comm." Ms Fox said, her hands clinging to the flight stick.

"I already did. No answer." Adam replied.

"Then send another one."

The two of them looked down at the only man made structure in the entire solar system. A pre-fab building, all titanium alloy and hard lines, probably dropped from space and done with; a single portable fusion generator tucked beside it. The thinnest stretch of sheet metal for a landing pad. No lights, no atmosphere. No one to hear their screams.

Adam knew that if there was ever a choice to run or to gun, they were both firm believers in the policy of 'live to fight another day', but he also knew what they Cooperative would do to them if they didn't have those credits, and to his twisted bemusement, the moment their landing skids touched down, the credits began to flow. Local transfer on a tight beam.

"Looks like our employer is still alive down there." Adam noted.

"Not the chatty type though, is he?" Ms Fox said, her hands still tightly wrapped around the flight stick.

"His money speaks just fine." Adam said, as he starred out the cockpit, looking for any signs of life.

Miss Fox turned on the exterior lights with a flick. Hot, white strobes cut through the darkness around them to reveal an airlock just a few meters away. She opened her mouth to say something but the words caught in her throat as the exterior door swung open, giving way to inky black nothingness inside.

"You sure you want to do this?" She asked.

"If I say no, does that mean you're going instead?"

"If you say no, we fuck off and fly away right now."

"Then its a good thing I'm not saying no." Adam said, tugging on his gun belt. "Keep your comm on."

"Right. Cause they've been such gracious hosts, so far."

"They paid. They opened the door. Do you need a written invitation?"

"A girl can dream." She finally looked away from the cockpit window and met his eyes. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

"You and your 'bad feelings.'" He tried to shrug it off, but this place creeped him out too. Unfortunately fear was a luxury he could no longer afford. Literally. "It's not the first time we killed someone for money."

"I'm more worried it will be the last."

"You know what I love about you?" Adam leaned over and planted a wet kiss on her forehead. "You worry too much."

"Adam-

"I need those credits, Fox." He stared into those big brown eyes. She knew him inside and out. She knew wouldn't, couldn't give this up. In the end, all she could do was nod and follow him down to the airlock. It was a short walk. The Roundabout was little more than an oversized shuttle with a FTL drive shoved up its ass. Adam reached up to grab the interior hatch. Fox put her hand on his.

"Just....don't die, alright?"

"Awwww, gettin' all fond of me, are ya?" Adam put on his faux accent.

Ms. Fox's reply was a rather fierce backhand. He dodged it, held up his hands to make peace. Fox nodded, and but as soon as Adam's guard drop she cuffed on the side of the head. "Muppet." She said. Then handed him an EVA helmet off the nearby rack. It would seal right into his flightsuit and keep him from exploding during the spacewalk.

Adam snapped it on with a grin. "I promise, it's gonna be fine."

---

Space was Adam's natural habitat. Most people were unnerved by the quiet; felt nauseous in the micro-gravity and blinded by the dichotomy of absolute light and darkness. It should have sent shivers up his spine and chilled his blood, instead he felt the alieness of space wrap around him like a safety blanket. It felt like coming home. But that feeling only lasted for a two minutes, until the inner airlock door swung open, and he could finally see what he was in for.

The base was spartan to the core; Adam could make out the sterile white walls and stainless steel furniture under the flickering industrial lights. Most of them were broken, oddly enough. The only sound was the quiet hum of electronic equipment and his harsh breaths. As he crept down the hallways, that uncomfortable shiver finally found him. Something bad had happened here. Something evil.

"Is their generator on?" Adam thumbed the comm channel open.

"Minimal power, why?"

"It's hot.." Which was an understatement worthy of any Brit. Adam had left his EVA helmet in the airlock, the air that greeted him was nearly unbearable, wet and rank; it had assaulted him since his first breath. "It's really hot."

"You know, you don't have to do this."

"And yet, here I am. Doing it. Heroic, right?"

"You've got balls."

"You should see 'em." Adam crept along the hall, eyes peeled for anyone else who might be alive.

"If only they weren't bigger than your brain."

"And here I thought size didn't matter."

"What do you see?"

The answer was not much, because he'd barely made it past the airlock before he'd run straight into a makeshift barricade. Furniture and scrap metal had been piled high from floor to ceiling. It was wedged so tight and deep, he couldn't even see the other side. Adam tugged an errant metal bar. Not even a wiggle. Even with his cutting torch, Adam wasn't getting through. He relayed the problem back to Ms. Fox.

"What were they trying to keep out? A bloody dinosaur?" She asked.

"I don't think they were trying to keep someone out. I think they were trying to keep someone in." Adam said.

"Survivors?"

"Nothing. It's like they up and disappeared."

"Adam. I don't like this." Miss Fox announced. "Come back."

"Sure thing. After I kill Indominus Rex over here and get us paid."

"I'll give you the bloody credits myself. I'll give you whatever you want!"

"...whatever I want?" There was more than a hint of emphasis in Adam's voice.

"This is serious!"

"Tease."

"If you don't come out in five minutes, I'm gonna leave your arse there!"

"What's that? You're- crsssssht....ssssssssst- breaking....up."

"Loony bastard."

Adam studied a nearby wall. "I think I can cut through this with my torch." He pulled a thick black cylinder with a flared head off his belt and thumbed the activator switch. Superheated plasma sprang from his hands and flung blue streaks of light down the halls.

Adam burned through the wall beside the barricade in minutes. When the last of the red hot metal tore free with a screech and tumbled back into a nearby room, he saw just how right loony he was. He found himself in a darkened lab, lit only by the blue flame of his torch. Every light was smashed, every computer ruined and furniture crushed, even the walls were dented walls and the blood....

There was blood everywhere.

It was sprayed across every surface like a coat of fresh paint and pooling in sticky puddles beneath his boots. Adam was no stranger to , but this was a something else; the kind of carnage that made even the most hardened of spacers turn away. It was a massacre.

"I...I'm starting to think we might be in over our heads here." Adam admitted.

"What gave it away?"

"Linking my optic." The implant in Adam's left eye began to stream live video back to Ms Fox on the ship. All he got back was silence in return. Adam swept the room, forcing himself to look under desks and checking even the deepest corners.

"There's no bodies." Ms. Fox finally said. "What did they do with the bodies?"

"Fuck. This." Adam whispered. Whoever had done this, he didn't want to meet them, not for any amount of credits. Adam scurried back to hall, wincing at every sound he made. He could feel something in the darkness of this place, like he was being watched, being toyed with. Every inch of his skin was covered in goosebumps, every hair was standing on end, he was nauseous with fear but he didn't have time to vomit. Instead, Adam slapped his hand on the airlock controls and waited for the door to begin its two minute cycle.

Instead, nothing happened.

Adam hit the controls again. Again and again, while his sense of unease transmuted into full blown panic. Something was very wrong here.

"Fox." Adam commed her. "Can you cycle the airlock from the outside?"

"Maybe, why?"

"Fuck it. Nevermind, I'm cutting my way out, just let me get my...." Adam's heart froze. His helmet was gone. Not hidden, or missing or lost. Gone. "My helmet's gone."

"What?!"

"My helmet is tucking gone!" Adam started to panic. Without that helmet, or a replacement, he was trapped in this station.

A triple burst of sound erupted down the halls, followed by a low pitched hum.

"What's happening?" Adam cried.

"Generator's cycling higher. I think...." Her words dissolved into the garbled white noise of a signal jammer.

All around him, Adam could see and hear the various electronic devices revive as power flooded back into the station. The broken lights overhead flickered and sparked and it bathed everything in a sort of murky twilight.

"Ms. Fox, if you can hear me....If I'm not out in an hour...." He paused. "Leave. Sell the ship, make it right with the Cooperative. Don't look back." That was rule number three after all. Static buzz was his only reply. His body wanted to shut down, to go into shock and lay down and just let the galaxy do what it wanted to him. But he pushed it down. The fear, the despair, everything. He pushed it down and he took that first hard step forward. He was not going to die on this fucking rock.

As Adam crept deeper into the station; his eyes were strained against the blinding flashes of the broken lights and the the pools of swirling shadows lurking in every corner. He couldn't afford to look away, he to search every crevice, every hidden hole until he found a helmet, a full EVA suit, anything to let him out of this trap. He had just made it past the first, blood soaked lab, and another in equally murderous condition, when his comm burst back to life.

"ADAM! ADAM CAN YOU HEAR ME!!" Ms Fox came in like thunder.

"Shut up. Shut up! Shutthefuckup!" Adam hissed into the comm, head whipping from side to side. But her voice wasn't whispering in his ear. It was bouncing off the walls, pouring out of every nearby speaker.

"GET OUT NOW! THE STATION HAS A JAM-

And then her voice was gone. And he was so terribly alone again. No. Not alone. He looked down at the blood forming a trail leading deeper into the station. He wasn't alone at all.

Heart hammering, Adam pressed forward, broken lights crunching beneath his feet with every step. He was in an observation room, overlooking some kind of huge holding area. The blood trail had grown thicker and darker as he followed it. He stood in front of a panel of shattered windows, an unnatural blackness stretching out in front of him. It was hypnotizing. He was like a moth drawn to the flame. He could close his eyes and just .... let go. No more debts. No more pain. Just... surrender.

Adam shoved back against the alien thoughts polluting his mind. What the fuck was this place? They were in his head! He had just thrown off the last of the mental compulsion when he heard it, a terrible popping, stretching sound, with all the slow, uncaring lethargy of a apex predator rising from its slumber. Adam snapped his torch on and waved it at the ceiling,. He caught a glimpse of something in that blue glow and then it was gone. But he'd seen enough. It was big. It was fast. It wasn't human.

He heard another quiet scuttle to his left and whipped the torch around just in time. A blur. A shriek and it was gone again. Adam spun, gun in his hand, torch held high like shield.

"What's a matter, don't like the lights?" Adam thought out loud. "What if I do-

Adam caught the barest whiff of something metallic. Instinct drove him forward as hard as he could, before that huge shape crashed down on him. He just barely avoided the reaching claws and was smashes flat by its flailing arms instead. Adam rolled clear of a second swipe and tried to get his bearings. His torch was at his feet, the bright blue plasma illuminating Adam's opponent. It was a monster, with huge hulking muscles, wicked fangs, ruddy skin, and eyes that shined with malicious intelligence.

It was on him again in an instant. Adam dove for the torch even as it reached for him. He jammed the bright blue flame forward and was rewarded with the sickly sweet smell of burnt flesh and a pained shriek, before it's backhand blow threw him clear across the room. He landed hard, air gone from his lungs, head spinning. He couldn't even scream as it rose above him, its murderous intentions focused on him. Adam scrambled, his hands reaching, searching for anything that might save him. His fingers touched cold metal, then wrapped around a familiar handle.

Adam raised his revolver full of life takers and started putting holes in it. The tethered optics in his ocular implant would subtly guide the bullets home. BAM BAM BAM BAM. Four bullets in its chest didn't even slow it down. Adam put two in its eye for good measure and tore its face apart, flesh hung in strips, bone splintered and one of its eyes was reduced to ooze, but it didn't fall.

The flesh began to knit together before Adam's very eyes, reforming into that hateful gaze. What the fuck was this THING?

Adam ran.

---

He threw hatches shut behind him to slow it down. Not that he had any illusions about stopping it, if Tungsten through the eye didn't kill you, steel doors wouldn't do much. Adam was huddled quietly in a pool of sweat. He was in the station's Comm/Conn, wishing desperately he never set foot on this station. He felt some strange tickle on his arm. He flicked his hand and brushed away some spare cobweb, but a moment later it was back. Adam flicked his nearly empty torch back on. Resting across his arm was a strand of white filament no thicker than a hair, moving in some unseen breeze. Adam went cold. There was no breeze.

"iT dOeSn'T lIkE tHe lIgHt." Whispered out of the dark.

"What the fuck is going on?" Adam whipped around. The torch was sputtering in his hands, so he switched it off and peered into the darkness. There was some kind of outline, but it was alike an optical illusion, impossible to see until you relax and-

The poor bastard was glued into the wall, like a fly trapped in spiderweb. Millions of those strands were wrapped around his body, writhing around him like maggots.

"wHy hAvE YOu cOMe hErE?" He whimpered.

"I'm here for the contract. It was you, right? You called me?" Adam said.

"wE dId nOT cAlL. YoU. We. NOt wE. wE dID nOT cAlL. wE DId."

There were hundreds of strands weaving into the man, trickled into his nose, his ears, out his mouth and across the floor where they streamed across the room, to form thick braids of white webbing that spread over the station controls like an infection. Life support. Security. Communication. "It's using you like a puppet." Adam whispered.

Tears trickled down the man's face. "wE ArE nOt fReE. We aRe In cOnTrOl."

"What the fuck. Is going on?" Adam crept closer, he could make out the man's face now. There was a strange ooze coating what little exposed flesh he had. It was in his hair, even his milky white eyes.

"gIvE lIfE to . gIvEs WAy tO lIfE. a cYcLe eTeRnAl. WE BrOuGhT iT BaCK. wHaT iS, wAs. wHaT wIlL bE... wHaT wIlL bE..." White strands began to fill the man's mouth, as if they wanted to physically silence him.

Adam tore them out. He was nearly nose to nose with the man now. "What is that thing? What does it want?"

The man's blind eyes snapped to Adam's.

"It iS tHE dArKnEsS of lIFe. iT iS tHe fReEdOm of . iT iS tHe eNd oF eVeRyThInG. wE mUsT dEe. We MuST bE fREe. wE MUsT DIe. wE MUst Be fReE! WeMUsTdIe! wEMUstBeFReE! WEMuSTdiEWEmUSTBefREe!" He screamed, then stopped dead, only to whisper. "wE sEE tHe dOoR. We SEe thE DOoR. wE SEe tHE DOOr."

A terrible screech of metal tearing and a pair of glittering black eyes appeared. Adam cranked his torch to full and unleashed a flash so bright he could see it behind his eyelids. The scientist let out a scream, and thrashed within his bondage. Adam cracked open his eyes, the man was insane; snarling and spitting. Adam looked back to the hatch, but the thing was gone. He dropped the empty torch.

"wHY? nO lIgHt. nO lIGhT. iT bURnS!" The man screamed, before he slumped, head lolling forward. Adam reached down to feel for breathe and the lunatic tried to bite him, laughing and crying in equal measure.

"wHy dO We lIVE? wHY dO We MaKE uS LIVe?" He sobbed.

"You want to die? I'll make it quick. Just tell me how to kill it first." Adam grabbed his hair and pulled him face to face. He tried to ignore the hot ooze coating his hand.

The mad froze in Adams grip.

" cannot be made to die." It's voice became deeper, harsher. "WE ARE ETERNAL!"

Adam put a round in the poor bastards head. "We'll just see about that." Adam poured over a nearby console, he brought the jam field down in seconds. Flicked the comm on. "Miss Fox, you there?"

"Adam! You nearly gave me heart failure!". It seemed like forever since he heard her voice.

"Alive and in the shit."

"Just like usual."

"I want a hot exit, how long would it take to rig the exterior generstor to blow?"

"I could have it done in five from the control room. Whats happening in there? Your occular isn't coming through."

"What about from the outside?"

"Longer. And I'll be out of contact."

"Don't come inside. Not for any reason." Adam paused and looked down at the 'man'. "Not even if I tell you to. Rig the genny as fast as you can from outside and... you were right."

"Just like usual."

Adam flicked the Heartbeaker cylinder into his trusty gun. Lets see how this pricklick likes high tech.

Adam knew it was waiting in that dark hall, so he worked his way through the crew quarters instead. Same story there, blood, no bodies, weird shit everywhere. Signs he hadn't had time to read, 'No women allowed past this point', was this place run by eight year olds? He picked up a loose flimsy, the screen was cracked and it barely lit up. It wouldn't turn pages, so he was stuck with whatever its dead owner was reading.

Side effects of Pheromonal bombardment, increased arousal, vivid hallucinations, increased aggression, insomnia, higher doses may cause stroke, heart failure, blindness, pulmonary edema-

What the fuck were they studying here?

It didn't matter, Adam caught the slightest hint of metal, and dropped flat. IT was here. He could feel IT drawing closer. There was no way past, unless he got clever. His eyes caught sight of a nearby lamp, all the overhead lights were crushed, but the personal lamps were still whole. He flicked open his pad and linked with the station, amazingly there was no security. On the other hand, who would ever come out here? The metal musk became nearly overpowering. Adam crossed his toes and turned on every lamp to max. The whole roomed glowed and Adam got his first good look at IT. He wished he hadn't.

IT towered over him, nearly two meters of hairy reptilian monster. Black scales traced its thick corpuscular body, giving way to a crest of long dark fur near its all too human head. Dark, evil eyes and a mouth full of fangs, flat slits for a nose; IT's long clawed hands were just inches from Adam's face when the lights came on. IT screamed in agony and Adam rolled away as IT began to smash light after light.

Adam tore out into the hall again, but the door he'd come through was blocked, that THING was clever. The sound of smashing lights ended, and in its place a heavy crash and menacing scuttle. Adam ducked into the next room. He found himself in the holding pen he passed before, Glass walls, some intact, some shattered would have made a cage for IT. But inside he saw something else, a webbing not too different from what had trapped the scientist earlier. He crept towards it. A thousand filament strands swayed gently, as if in a breeze, one landed on his arm, but then floated away, uninterested. There were no trapped scientists here. No one to beg for answers. Just a lifetime supply of nightmares. And the metallic smell was rising again.

Adam edged along a wall, trying to find a way out, and accidentally triggered a console. There was no sound, but display showed a steady progression of the experiment. The creature had torn its way out of the chrysalis already the size of a man, it features were softer then, less reptilian. He saw the tests, bullets, electricity, flamethrowers, they even burned it with UV, which was the only thing it seemed to REALLY hate. Watching it lay on the edge of its cage, tortured and burnt, Adam felt no pity, only anger that they hadn't finished the job. All the UV lamps in here were dead, which meant once this thing figured out it didn't have to fear the lights, so was Adam. And the metal smell was getting stronger.

The scene changed to a later date, the monster was healthy, taller, closer to the present, it paced the wall of its cell quietly, then stopped, every muscle quivering, every inch of its focus on the doorway, in which a pair of guards were escorting in one of the scientists, a woman in her mid 30's if Adam had to guess. She stood boldly in front of the thing, as if not even slightly concerned about how little glass stood between them.

The monster just stared at her. Its muscles tensed. It put a hand to the glass, the scientist gasped, she moved slowly as if in a dream, her hand came down on the control and cell door popped open. The guards didn't have time to even look shocked before they died, the thing basically tore them apart. And then it grabbed her. She wasn't smiling any more. It tore the clothes from her body. And shoved her to her knees. Her shaking head and pleas were ignored, but what rose between them could not be. The creature's mighty phallus, dark, thick as an arm and crowned with a vicious, flared head butted up against her chin, thick dark cum, oozing from the tip. She tried to pull away but the creature roared. Outside the room, alarms whirled and lights flashed. But in here, he was the master, and she was his breeding bitch.

He took her head in one hand and pushed the blunt tip against her mouth. She shook her head, but he roared and cut a deep furrow in his glass cage and she relented. Her mouth opened slowly, trying to let the enormous tip past her lips, her mouth stretched to the limit, she finally got it in, but no sooner had she, then the monster pressed forward again, pushing inch after in, deeper inside. Her cheeks bulged and her eyes went wide, then squeezed tight as she struggled not to . She put up her hands when it reached the back of her throat, but it was like putting a bale of hay in front of a train, down her throat the monster cock went, the scientists arms punching and frenzied pushing, did nothing to deter it. Still, it had hardly been in her for a moment before it slowly reversed course and pulled its considerable length free, coated in saliva and mucus. The poor scientist on her back, coughing and dry heaving, struggling to breathe. The monster, took advantage, diving between her thighs with its tongue, the poor scientist, was torn, the dilemma clear on her face, not wanting to enjoy this monster's tongue, but not entirely able to herself free, she shuddered, arched her back and lay still.

The monster rose above her, full of dark intent, his cock nearly vibrating with desire and rage. They both knew what it intended now, and the scientist scrambled to her hands and knees to crawl free, she was stopped with only one hand. The monster pressed her chest down and lined her hips up, to take her as an animal, its huge phallus, laying across or backside and up her low back. It pulled back, back, back, until the blunt head was in line with her weeping center. It pushed lightly, and the woman's sex gave no ground, refusing to push wide enough to let it in. The monster seemed to laugh, its body shaking ever so slightly. Pushed again and her pussy lips wide and gaping until they seemed about to snap... and then pulled back. The scientist screamed for help, for mercy, for god above, and then the creature slammed forward and she just screamed.

It must have at least four inches, including that massive head into her, her pussy snapped O-ring tight around the monster, lips red and raw already, despite the froth flowing from them both. The woman cried and clenched her fists, tried to crawl away, and the monster seemed to allow it, its cock inching slowly out of her sore vagina, only for its hands to grasp her hips and slowly, deliberately reverse course. Inch after inch swallowed by the screaming scientist, its cock so deep she could barely breath, she wailed her fear, her pain, and even her pleasure, but the creature had no care. It pummeled her sex. Taking the woman for its own. Each thrust forcing its cock against her womb, grinding against her cervix, before pulling back and thrusting deep once more. The scientist had stopped her struggles by now, head dropped, and letting out a girlish yelp with each deep thrust, she let her mate have its way with her, like a good bitch should. Satisfied, the creature turned them over on its back, thrusting never stopping.

The scientist's thorax bulged with cock from each thrust. Her arms limp and useless, as it used one of its own to her, while the other played with a dark nipple. They were on a course together now, the scientist had accepted her fate, her reward was coming, and so was she. She clenched, arching once more, her tight hole grasping firmly around the monster cock that still defiled her, while the creature pressed deep, balls tightening, cock growing even more thick, until its thick, dark seed began to spurt, with her so full of cock, there was no where for it to go but oozing around their crotches.

Just when it seemed the sexual had stopped, the monster struck forward like a viper and bite the scientist at the juncture of shoulder and neck, teeth sinking deep into the flesh. Blood flowed and some silver liquid as well, the woman felt nothing, having lost consciousness in her climax minutes before. Finished, the monster, dropped her to the side, like an unwanted toy. Her hole, gushing dark cum still. It tore into the far door in the room and the feed went dead.

Adam could scarcely look away even after it finished. This place was off the fucking charts crazy. He had to get out now and maybe he could drink enough to forget. He kept edging around until he was nearly at a hatch to the observation room, the metal scent so strong in his nose, he knew it was nearly on top of him, he couldn't see it, but when he listened closely, he could hear its breath.

Adam's hand reached out and found the latch, he wanted to weep, he wanted to run, instead, as slowly and quietly as he could, he pulled the release and dragged it open. Not even daring to breathe, Adam swung through and landed right in front of IT. IT had been waiting for him.

He didn't even feel the claws, they were so sharp and fast. He heard them, the awful wet tearing sound of his body being ruined. They dizzying sensation of flying end over end back into the chrysalis chamber. And then he was on the ground, blood gushing where it didn't need to be, strength leaving his limbs. He ought to be dead, so uncivilized of him. The CREATURE was on him in a flash, ITS fangs piercing his shooting arm and tearing a chunk of flesh free. And he was just about to beat this THING in a fist fight, too.

He laughed, or at least, his mouth opened, nothing came out. The CREATURE roared in his face like a bull elephant, ITS warm spittle showering him, probably got some in his mouth too, gross. Shock. He was going in to shock. He probably had less than a minute to do something, if he didn't want to be food. His gun are was half gone, but his other arm was still kind of working, just a little pinned under this asshole. His revolver was within reach, but he couldn't lift it high enough to matter, this thing didn't die when you shot it in the heart anyway. Heart. Heart. Something about heart. Heartfelt? Nah, he missed his family, but nah. Heartburn? Adam couldn't afford food anyway. Heart attack sounded about right, but that was the least of his worries. Heartfelt? Nah, he missed his family, but nah. Weird places his brain went. Had he gotten enough pussy? It had always been, family first, and Adam last, maybe he should have gotten off a few more times? Got his heart broken at least once. Heart-broken. Heartbreak. Heartbreaker. Was that a thing? Bullets, nanobots, wall, vacuum, killthisfuckingthing!

Adam squeezed the trigger as many times as he could. At first, nothing happened, then suddenly everything happened, the tiny holes became big holes and then everything was flying, he was flying, the CREATURE was flying, they were flying together!

Adam came down hard, still in a pile, blood spilling everywhere. Air suddenly all around him, he got lucid enough to flush a combat cocktail from his pad into his veins. He was halfway inside the chrysalis, oddly enough the strands were sticking to him now, they felt good, like soothing silk on his terrible wounds. The CREATURE was still alive, somehow. A blast door had cut IT in half, sealing off the station, but IT still glared at him, full of hate. Something buzzed in his ear, the comm.

"-you hear me? Half the station just vented. I'm coming to get you."

"Don't come. Don't come inside!" Adam cried to no one in particular. He couldn't raise his breath enough to whisper.

The THING didn't seem particularly upset that IT had been torn in half, in truth, IT seemed to be patiently waiting for something. Miss Fox, he got it in a flash. It wants Miss Fox. That won't do. But how to draw IT out of hiding? Then he remembered ITS favorite toy. His flashlight caught IT full in the face. The MONSTER snarled and arm crawled deeper into the shadows. But Adam kept the light on IT and soon its eyes turned mad with rage. IT threw chairs and glass and sharp objects, didn't matter, Adam couldn't feel beneath his armpits anyway. He kept the light on, until finally IT hurled straight at him.

Adam was wrong, the thing was hurt, ITS blood and guts were oozing on to him, not healing now, you son of a bitch. Still though, better to have company in hell. As the MONSTER pulled back to bite his head off, Adam shoved his revolver in its mouth, nighty-night, BLAM!

Black ooze and silver covered them both. Now he could relax and think.

There was blood everywhere. That was all Adam could think about.....