Actually, to hold people over I will give a preview. Hopefully it'll let you understand why this is taking me so long.
Just a heads up, I retconed both the fire and Gary waking up, as I did both just to try and get people to move, and both had no basis.
So, here's the first "Chapter", if you'd describe it as such.
Day 2, 10:30 AM.
COPPER
His eyes stayed put on the wreckage of the gurney. It wasn’t the skeletal remains of it that froze him in his spot, but what had laid on it just a few minutes ago.
Childs…
It wasn’t easy to believe that the next time he saw his friend, he would have to run. That it wasn’t his friend, but simply his friend’s corpse being used by an organism none of them knew about, by a god**** alien.
Everyone else was getting ready to leave. Gary was lying on the stretcher, the left side of his head red and bruised by the beating Windows had given him. The large Russian, Dmitri, was currently holding his Kalashnikov, looking over the rest of the group.
MacReady handed out the last of his makeshift JD Whiskey Molotovs to Windows. Blair cocked his pistol, staring at the unconscious Gary.
Is that fear on the biologists face? Copper wondered. Blair soon moved his eyes off of the station manager to stare at everyone else. Copper didn’t like the look Blair gave at all.
“Lar ozs drar” said Clint, no weapons in his hands.
“Let’s go” translated Windows, with the same commanding tone as the Russian.
He’s one of them Copper thought. He didn’t know what exactly ‘Them’ was, but Dmitri beating Gary’s head proved to him that there was a division in the group, and Windows was the same as the Russians. Copper didn’t know what side he was in. They had traded the Blair-Gary dictatorship to the Russian one.
“Ingen, doktor, gal flekk!”
“Copper, you’re in the wrong spot. You’re behind the Gurney, Dmitri is suppose to be were you are.” said Windows
“Oh.” Copper said, regretfully moving to his spot behind Gary, as if it was someone else moving his legs. Dmitri and Windows moved behind him, while Clint, Blair, and Nauls went in front. MacReady was last, slowly walking to his space in the back right.
Clint opens the door, and they all walked their way out.
The gurney croaked as Copper pushed it, moving out of the room to the hallway. Frozen air flew down from the stairs. The only other person who seemed to notice it was Windows, the rest continuing on unabated.
Is this really happening to us?
Everything just implausible to Copper. Aliens, everyone dieing, and yet two days ago they where all eating breakfast together, Windows making fun of Palmer like always, and Fuchs making fun of Nauls cooking. It didn’t seem real, but how could he say it’s not real when his coworkers, his friends where being slaughtered? Fuchs was dead, Bennings was dead, Norris was dead, and Childs was dead, and Clark and Palmer where probably dead as well.
Were they ripped to pieces when one of those things came for him? Was Norris? The thought of the people he has spent months living with being torn apart was unbearable. Copper shivered. He had to think of something else.
“Why is there a breeze?” asked Windows.
“It’s not a breeze, just cold air. No movement to it” answered Macready. No one else responded for a while. Windows translated it for the Russians. One of them spoke back, but Windows didn’t bother to translate.
If we could just hear what they where saying…, Copper thought. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the Russians, he had spent the night with them and he was perfectly fine. But Gary was beaten for disobeying, and they can speak freely to each other without anyone but Windows being able to understand. There was a cloak around them, which wouldn’t have been nearly so worrying if they weren’t the self appointed leaders.
They where nearing the corner. There was a pause, while Clint went to the side of the wall, his shotgun now lying in his hands. He pivoted out to the hallway, crouching low while his weapon stuck out, his finger slightly pressuring the trigger. There was no shot. Clint stood up and nodded to them, and they continued on.
Copper didn’t turn the gurney sharp enough, causing him to redo it while everyone waited. He noticed disgustingly that he had run over a burnt piece of pinkish flesh from Norris.
Copper closed his eyes as he pushed.
This isn’t happening, I’m not here. In a little while I’ll be gone, I’m not here, I’m not here, This isn’t me, I’m not here, he thought, desperately trying to believe it. If he hadn’t seen body parts before, he would have vomited.
There was the sound of a bottle breaking.
Someone shouted, and Copper opened his eyes right as the flames roared up.
He was pulled backwards as the fire swam towards his feet, causing him to collapse. Copper hurriedly pushed himself back up.
Fire was in the middle of the hallway, liquid flowing everywhere. People were shouting, someone jumped, but Copper couldn’t process what was going on, his was mind in shock.
Gary…
The fire licked at the wheels of the Gurney. Copper reached out to grab him, but the flames where too close and too high. Instead, Copper reached out to the edge of the gurney, and pushed with all his strength, sending it rolling away from him and out of the flames. He couldn’t see anyone on the other side.
A gunshot ringed by, hitting a wall close to Copper and exploding.
More shots were fired. Someone screamed, and the fire rushed spread as the liquid ran down the hallway. The crack of an AK shrieked nearby as someone answered.
Defenseless, Copper ran.
I’m not here, this isn’t happening, I’m not here
He ran back, pass the corner, pass the entrance to the medical room, turning the corner, and then pass the food storage. His heart tried to push its way past his ribcage as he ran, his breath short. And it was still cold.
I’m not here, soon I’ll be gone,, this isn’t happening..
He heard screams from across the floor.
Copper thought of hiding, looking at the multiple rooms nearby. Then he saw dark, red blood splashed across the hallway floor, leading to the open Mechanical Storage room, then leading back out.
This was the path Childs took
He couldn’t hide by himself, not with a Thing around. But he couldn’t go back, not with a fight going on. He was overwhelmed, and collapsed to his knees.
Gary.
He remembered the unconscious station leader almost immediately after he touched the frozen floor.
That’s what he had to do. He was a doctor, and his friend was injured. He had to go to him. He had pushed the gurney, maybe with luck it’d be past the bend of the hallway. Copper stood up.
I’m not here
He walked, still out of breath from the run. As he reached the corner he heard footsteps and panting, though the noise soon stopped.
This isn’t happening
He turned the corner.
To his relief, he saw the gurney at the far end of the hall. It had bounced against the door to Benning’s cabin, but due to the angle it had rolled closer to the stairs.
Copper ran, passively noticing the blood on the Kennel door, and that Fuchs cabin was open.
I’ll be gone soon, this isn’t happening.
Gary was halfway off the Gurney, lying limp, but there was no blood to suggest that he was hurt further then the original head trauma.
The stairs, Copper thought. He could reach the stairs and hide in the generator room. Footsteps started toward him from where the fight was. They where heavy, the person was running.
I’m not here
Copper grabbed the Gurney and shoved it behind him, letting it role while he turned around to grab the back of it and push. He was already out of breath, and the running just added to it. He was gasping as he ran, the footsteps still pounding behind him. Copper couldn’t tell if the person, or Thing, had rounded the corner, and he refused to look behind. Seeing it would prove it was real.
He reached the stairs, and stopped.
They where covered with blood.
Did everybody ****ing die? He shouted to himself. Blood outside, blood on the kennel, blood to the mechanical storage room, and blood here.
No, he told himself. There isn’t any blood here. This isn’t happening.
Copper turned around. There was no one behind him. The person must have stopped before he turned the corner.
Copper took one last look at the stairs, and then pushed Gary past them. He wasn’t going to lead them into a bigger problem then they where already in.
The showers, he thought. It’d be an unlikely place to think of to hide, which would means it’d be harder to find him if someone was looking.
He pushed the gurney to the Shower Room’s door, opened it, turned the lights on, and walked them both inside.
It was covered in blue tile, but to Copper’s relief there was no blood or bodies anywhere. Soap, shampoo and razors where stacked across the sinks and racks. There where several different showers, each blocked by a curtain and a stall, but as Copper pushed them open he found nothing.
He was safe.
Copper grabbed several towels and arrayed a sort of bed for Gary to lie in. He placed his unconscious station leader on them, and then moved the gurney to the door as a feeble attempt at a barricade. He knew it’d do no real good, but it added a sense of security to the room.
“Hello? Hello?” shouted his waist.
For a moment Copper was frozen in horror, thinking someone else was in the room, but then he remembered the radio attached to his belt.
How could he have forgotten?
Tentatively, Copper picked it up.
I’m not here
“Hello? Hello? Can anybody hear this? Hello?” said Window’s voice.
He didn’t want to answer it. Answering it would acknowledge it; it’d prove all of this had happened.
He clicked the send button.
“This is Copper. I can hear you.” He said, slowly.
“Copper? Thank God, are you with the others? Are you hurt?” asked Windows
“I’m with Gary. He’s still unconscious, but otherwise we’re fine.” Copper replied. He heard the Russians talking in the background of Window’s reception. So they where still together.
“Good, good. I’m with Dmitri and Clint, we have no idea what happened. Did you see it? Who threw the Molotov?” asked Windows, his voice energetic, fearful.
“No. I didn’t see anything”. Copper said. He didn’t add that his eyes where closed at the time.
Windows cursed, and then quickly started translating to the Russians before his transmission stopped.
“Windows?” said the rough voice of MacReady through the radio.
“MacReady? Are you hurt? Do you know what happened?” said Windows in the same tone, stopping his translation. Copper heard one of the Russians shout at him. There was a long pause.
“I’m fine.” MacReady finally said. Something about his tone sent shivers down Copper’s spine. “All I saw was a Molotov break. It exploded before I could see who dropped it, and by then we were shooting.”
“Do you think it was an accident? Or did someone do it on purpose? Was it from our group, or someone behind or in a room?” asked Windows, not bothering to translate.
“Who’s there?” said an old voice, speaking before anyone could respond.
“Blair.” growled MacReady. It wasn’t a question, it was a statement, and Copper didn’t like he sounded.
Windows asked the questions he asked everyone.
“I was grazed, I think.” Blair responded. “My hand is bleeding, but I don’t remember it happening. I’m by myself, otherwise I’m fine. My radio was off.”
“Where’s Nauls?” asked Copper.
There was a long moment of pause.
“Did anybody see him?” asked Windows tentatively
No one answered. MacReady cursed.
“It doesn’t matter.” MacReady said, though from the sound of his voice it did matter. “We have to focus on ourselves.”
“Should we meet up?” asked Copper. His gurney barricade’s illusion was already fading.
“Yes. The Medical Room, or the Phar-”
“No.” said Windows, cutting MacReady off.
“Why?” responded MacReady, audibly irritated.
“Because Childs still has a radio.” said Windows. “He could be listening to us right now. He knows we’re separated, but he doesn’t know where. If we give a location to meet up on, he can ambush us.”
No one fought the logic.
“Then what do we do?” asked Copper.
He could hear the Russians talking through the radio.
“Stay where you are. The Russians and I will come and find you. All of you. Just stay where you are.” Windows said, not telling them if he was translating or not.
“And Nauls?” asked MacReady.
“We’ll find him too.” assured Windows.
“We should probably turn our radios off, then.” said Blair. “If we don’t, we might accidentally give Childs more information then he needs.”
Copper hated the idea, and was devastated when he heard Window’s answer.
“Good point. Everyone turn your radio off, one of my group will keep his on. If you think we’re close to your position, turn on your radio and send us something. We’ll find you.”
MacReady gave an acknowledged grunt, and then said no more.
Copper regretfully turned his radio off. After having a brief moment of contact with the others, the idea of being left alone again was more terrorizing then it was when he first entered the showers.
There was nothing to do now but wait. He rested his back against a tile wall and closed his eyes.
This isn’t happening. I’m not here, I’m not here.
