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- Streaks of tracer fire whiz past Kamran’s face, and he instinctively drops to the grating. A volley smashes across Marsalis’s ribcage, bullets chopping into chitin with a hollow thunk. The alien’s screech is gurgling and truncated, and she topples from the catwalk, taking the light with her.
- ***
- “Marsalis?”
- During the exchange, Marsalis burst out of the lake, onto Lee. Kamran didn’t see what happened—just heard gunfire. The alien isn’t moving. Whatever remains of the soldier has been thoroughly doused in tar and acid. His rifle lies nearby, flashlight shining back on the grim tableau.
- Regardless of what he wants to do, Kamran can’t help Marsalis move. She dripped with acid before, but she’s a biohazard now. Pathogen pours from her in long slugs, congealed chunks flopping to the ground before dissolving into puddles.
- “Are you alive?” Kamran’s creaking voice echoes in the gloom. There’s no point in going on ahead without Marsalis. He doesn’t know the way out, and even if he did, how is he supposed to access the Blackstar?
- A little flash of blue pierces the shadow. Then another. Three barking sounds come from the speaker.
- “Y… E… S…” Sludge muffles the grate, and the distortion has grown worse, but the letters are clear enough.
- “Are you okay?”
- The alien attempts to rise, and it’s as if Lee’s corpse is stuck to her. The soldier’s remains peel away in slimy chunks, half-dissolved, bits wriggling and animated that really shouldn’t be.
- ***
- Alien: Into Charybdis, Chapter 33-34
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