Jodi, Jodi...

Thomas sat up in bed.

“What is it?” Jodi rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “What the hell are those things?” Jodi turned to look at the other ten dreamers in the bunker. Their faces covered by hand shaped nightmares, tails wrapped around their necks.

“Oh my god,” Jodi stood to run, realised she couldn’t move. Then stuttered “how.”

Thomas, guessing: ”Maybe they came through the air intake, somehow got around the filters. I don’t know but we have to get out of here. Do you remember the code?”

“333426” Jodi quoted. “Let’s go.” Thomas grabbed his younger sister’s hand and punched in the code.

“Quickly Thomas,” Jodi noticed some of the hands were starting to move then fall off. They were about to leave the bunker they’d called home for over a year. “What about the radiation?”

“We’ll take our chances.”

Thomas heard the internal locks click open; he pushed and rancid air rushed in. “Gotta go.”

As they began up the ladder to the outer hatch they heard murmuring from below. Thomas unlocked the lid and lifted it. More acrid air assaulted the senses. Explosions, laser fire, what the hell? There was more life outside than they had expected.

“Wait Jodi.” Thomas observed two warring groups. One humanoid, the other humanoid in stature but the head, that elongated head. “Go, go, go,” Thomas took Jodi’s hand as they ran though the ash laden atmosphere.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” One of the soldiers barked at them. “Get to the back, now.”

As they ran though the attacking platoon they could hear the soldiers shouting words like “gun,” “knife,” and “bomb.” The kids had no time to wonder what was happening here in a world that should be silent. Just ahead of them stood one of the strange creatures. They stopped in their tracks.

One of the soldiers cried “move,” then “gun.” He shot and the thing was torn in half, blood sizzling on the ground.

Jodi looked up at Thomas and said, “this one’s got two heads.” Thomas took Jodi up in his arms and sprinted.

“Bomb,” then an explosion, and they were flying though the air. Then they were falling.“

Jodi I’m...” Thomas lost consciousness.

They woke from the black to find themselves some kind of medlab. A man injecting Jodi. Thomas reached out to stop him.

“That’s my sister you’re putting a hole in.”

“It’s alright, you’re safe here, you fell into the silo. My name is Dissik. What happened?”

“We were in a bunker and...” Thomas cut himself off. ”What did you inject us with?” Thomas sat up to look the older man in the eye.

“It’s my own blend of nanotech. You should lie down, let them take effect.”

Thomas took Dissik’s advice. Strange, he could feel them mending him, nerves reconnecting, bones knitting.

“These are state of the art. You should be up and about in no time.”

“Jodi, where are we?”

“Good question,” Dissik cut in. “It’s an old missile silo. I thought it would be a good place to hide from the creatures above.”

Jodi sat up, ”What are those things?”

“A parasite. They attach to the face, impregnate, then a while later a xenomorph breaks through the chest and grows, quickly.” Dissik turned to Thomas, ”have you seen something like this?”

Thomas raised a hand to his face. “Yeah, the bunker was full of them.”

Dissik’s face went white. ”You have to leave now.”

“Nice hospitality—” Thomas clutched at his chest and grunted. Soon Jodi did the same. They fell back down and started convulsing. Dissik backed up against the nearest wall. Simultaneously their chests exploded and two small creatures sprang out then disappeared into the closest vent.

As Dissik peeled himself from the wall he could see the gaping wounds in Thomas and Jodi’s chests being healed over by the nanos. Would they survive this? He didn’t know. They should be dead.

Just as he had that thought, Jodi started to twitch. Then Thomas. My god they were alive and he was going to need them.

“Thomas, Jodi can you hear me?”

Jodi opened her eyes, “What just happened to us?”

Thomas broke in. “l think i know. We’ve got two of those creatures on our hands, haven’t we Dissik?”

“You’re right, Thomas, and I’m going to need your assistance. Come to the silo with me.”

Thomas and Jodi rose gingerly but amazingly felt fine.

“Ok Dissik. While we walk, it’s question time” said the naturally inquisitive Thomas. “You seem to know a lot about those things. How did they get here?”

“Alright, you deserve some answers. I was on a research ship. A Weyland-Yutani-funded expedition searching for a species of xenomorph which the human race had come across several times before. Things hadn’t gone well for them, but this time we were prepared. The Soteria, the ship I was on, was well equipped. It had a half mile-long stasis containment field that was able to hold even the toughest of silicon-based life forms.

We knew where to find the samples, it was just a matter gathering the eggs to study. That’s when I invented the nanos that just saved your life. The adaptability in their DNA allows the mind to command the formation, the shapes. Step through this door and I’ll show you.”

They walked into the empty silo.

“Now Thomas, I want you to raise your right arm, point it straight up. Now say gun.”

Thomas looked strangely at Dissik but would indulge him.

“Gun.” Thomas looked at his arm in amazement. It began to change into a spinning 3D metal jigsaw puzzle. Then formed a gun. A laser canon.

“Say gun again.”

Thomas obliged and his arm shot in to the sky. “Unbelievable, what powers it?”

Dissik, happy to answer: “Every one of the nanobots is a dark matter reactor. You’re going to last a long time. Say knife.”

Thomas said knife and one appeared. “What else can i do?”

“There are two more commands you can give them, but don’t repeat after me. There’s bomb and merge. Bomb, for obvious reasons, is only for extreme circumstances, when there’s no way out. Merge is for melding with another person who also has nanos. This will make you bigger.”

Thomas said knife and his hand returned to normal. “Well I’ve got to give it to you Dissik, you’re the definition of ‘mad scientist.’ So what happened, how did you and those things end up back on earth?”

Dissik remembered, ”We were in stasis on our way back when this insane war happened. When we got back the Soteria had no guidance satellites to navigate us in. We crashed and the stasis field lost power. Most of the crew were infected. In the end, I was the only survivor. I was able to find a working transport and salvaged as much tech and nano formula as I could carry. I found this place. There were soldiers in here dying of radiation poisoning, l helped them. Some other people must have found the Soteria and the eggs.”

Processing this, Thomas realized, “The soldiers up top are the people you helped. It seems you’ve started a whole new insane war. We better find those aliens now Dissik, before things get any messier.

Corridor after corridor held no discovery. Thomas decided to continue questioning Dissik. After all, Dissik had given them the ultimate advantage. Thomas had no fear. “I’m going to ask the obvious question. Why haven’t you shot yourself with the nanos? You could have taken care of these two on your own.”

Dissik spun around thinking he heard something behind them. Maybe nothing. “You have to have some sort of injury or illness for them to connect. They will eject themselves and go looking for a person or animal in need. Once they’ve connected they will stay with you. Don’t worry though: I keep a syringe on me at all times.”

Jodi, hanging back, heard a clawing sound. “Shh, I think there’s something behind us.”

One crawling along the ceiling, the other crouching.

“Our babies, Jodi.” Thomas said. As they met nose to nose: “Jodi, we are not us anymore. Let’s become something new.”

They turned to their respective offspring. They said “merge,” and the jigsaw puzzle was complete.

The pair turned towards a petrified Dissik. Behind the black dome of the aliens’ heads he could see the faces of Jodi and Thomas. The flood gates that kept the insanity out broke open in Dissik’s mind.

He screamed and screamed.