Karine picked up the samples, and Ledward was spinning around and smoking a cigarette. He would rather go with the rest of the group and discover the source, but he didn't want to discuss with the captain. Looking around a little he came to the conclusion, that the planet looks really beautiful. It would be nice to spend the rest of his life here. Slowly discover and get to know it, become part of local history.

He threw the cigarette to the ground and strangled it with his shoe, but at once, he thought it was at least irresponsible and conceited from him already on the first day, to scatter the garbage on the new planet. He pulled out a foil bag to collect samples, threw a cigarette into it and put it in his pocket.

"Ledward?" he heard a faint voice of Karine.

"I'm coming, I'm coming. What's up?" from a distance, he saw that nothing good. Karine, pale as the wall, was leaning against the tree trunk. - Karine ?! Everything alright?

"Not quite ... I'm a little weak." she slid down on the trunk. Ledward held her up and let her arm on his shoulders.

"We go back to the lander."

"But the equipment ..." Karine as usual was worried about everything, but not about herself.

"Later I'll go back for it. Can you walk? If not so, I can carry you."

"I can handle."

While leaning back at Ledward, Karine slowly moved her legs. The man decided to let the rest of the crew know what was going on.

"Hey Oram, it's Ledward! I take Karine at the lander, she is not feeling well..."

"What do you mean by saying that she is not feeling well?" Oram asked with anxiety in his voice.

"She felt bad. I don't not knowwhat it is exactly, but it looks bad, maybe it's better if you come back too."

"Copy. We will be back soon."

When Ledward reached the lander it began getting dark. Karine grew weaker and weaker. The last few meters he had to carry her, because she lost all strenght in her legs.

"Faris!" Ledward screamed as he was close enough to the lander. He had tried to connect to her earlier but she hadn't answered. "Something happened with Karine! Come here and help me."

Faris emerged from beneath the chassis at the right moment to see Karine vomiting blood on him. It looked really scary, Faris stood up and Ledward had to deal with the captain's wife himself. He took her to the isolation ward and laid on the operating table.

"Faris, come here, now!" he shouted, not knowing what to do next. He was so frightened and completely confused. Karine vomited up again and shuddered from the table to the floor.

"Faris, where the fuck are you ?!"

"Give her a shot." the woman finally appeared. "This yellow to begin with."

Karine got very strong convulsions. Faris pulled her sweatshirt and she had to hold her, then Ledward took the injection. The convulsions stopped for a moment, but they returned with redoubled force, and Karine began to scream as if in agony. Faris noticed that her t-shirt on her back was soaked with blood. She pulled it to see what caused the wound, and her heart was frozen in horror. It seemed as through Karine's back something was trying to get out.

"Wait here with her. I'll come in a moment." she said calmly. Ledward just nodded, he did not notice what Faris saw, because he was trying to find some effective remedy for the suffering Karine.

Faris came out of the isolation wardt and quickly closed the automatic door behind her. Only then did Ledward look up.

"Faris? "but she was gone. Ledward approached the door, the opening button was on the other side. "Faris, what the fuck are you doing ?!"

Karine started screaming again, and Ledward came back to her to help somehow, but he had no idea what he could do. Suddenly he saw a blood stain on the back of her shirt and something that was clearly moving under it. Karine curled up in pain, and something started to break through the material. Terrified, Ledward jumped away from her and reached for his weapon.

"Faris! Open up this fucking door!" he roared. Then in little glass window in door he saw Faris' face.

"I can't open. I can't let it go, you don't understand? The rest will be back right now, maybe together we'll ..."

"Stop talking and let me out! Now!"

"I can not Ledward ..." said the woman, and paused, staring at Karine sprawled on the floor. "Oh, God ..." she moaned wistfully and disappeared again.

The man turned slowly. Karine was silent, probably dead, floor around her body was full of blood, and a nasty, pink and mucusous thing came out of her torn back. Ledward was so paralyzed by fear that he could barely keep on his feet.

"You bitch ..."

♡♡♡

The rest of the crew, those who followed the signal, now hurried back to the lander. Oram ran first, further alarmed by the report of Faris, who in panic begged them to hurry up, because she did not know what to do. Lawrence preferred not to think too much about what they might find in the lander, she concentrated intensely on keeping a steady speed. To make matters worse, in halfway Hallett felt bad. Lope along with Ankor had to support him, because he could not walk alone.

When they reached the spot where the lander was, it was almost dark. Oram paced forward, Daniels was two steps behind him when it happened. Lander exploded, and fire glow illuminated the faces of the crew.

"No!" with a desperate cry, Oram threw himself forward, to the burning ship, but Daniels held him and wasn't letting go, though he was tearing and shouting at her.

Lawrence looked at it all and felt like she was out of her body, completely unable to understand what had just happened. She heard Oram's cry, Hallett's convulsions (he began to vomit with blood), Lope's desperate moan asking for help for his companion. They encountered so many tragedies at once that she no longer knew whether it was all true or maybe only some nightmare.

"Someone is coming here!" Rosenthal's voice broke her out of apathy. Lawrence looked in the indicated direction and saw Ledward appered out of the darkness. On his blouse there was a stain of something that looked like blood, but otherwise he looked aquite okay. Lawrence ran up to him, feeling a single spark give her energy to work again.

"Are you okay? God, Ledward what happened here, what about Karine and Faris?!"

"I'm allright, but the girls ... they are dead." he barely said it, Hallett began to choke, concentrating everyone's attention on himself.

"Watch out!" Ledward already knew what would happen, he wanted to warn them, but it was too late. Through the mouth of Hallett came the same thing that broke Karine's back. Quickly stood on four paws and rushed into the darkness of the night.

"Jesus Christ! What was that?!" cried Cole.

"I have no idea, but the same thing killed Karine." Ledward said firmly, gripping his weapon. "It had to nested someway in them ..."

"Does it mean that we too ... are we infected?"

"I do not know..."

"What happened, Ledward? What happened on the lander?" Lawrence felt like she was back child and asked David not to turn off the lights at night for fear of monsters from her nightmares. Except that this time the monsters were real, and there was no David who was watching over her.

"Karine felt badly. I took her to lander, and there came out something like that ... "Ledward began to explain in a weak voice. Everyone listened attentively. "I know you can not talk bad about the dead, but that bitch, Faris shut me up with it in isolation ward and she did not want to let me out. If not for the fact that you told me about spare cables, I would probably already be dead." he looked gratefully at Lawrence. She thanked herself in the thought of providence that made her take on the subject in conversation with Ledward. The spare cables were hidden in a metal tin, in the wall, the second lock of every door on the ship, even those in isolation ward. They had separate power supply and were used only in case of main system failure. This was a security in case someone was locked in a ship room. During the breakdown the cans opened up and one could safely break one of the cables to unlock the door. Luckily Ledward had a gun with which he could just crack the can. "Of course, before I got out, that thing attacked me, I shot it several times, but it did not look like I killed it. I immediately closed the door behind so that this shit did not run away. Then Faris appeared again, saying that it was necessary to liquidate it. I asked to wait for me and flew to the armory for gas and loaded grid, I thought it would be better to immobilize it first. I do not know why she did not listen to me, but from a distace I heard her cries and shots, I figured she opened the door of the isolation ward without waiting. I wanted to help her, but she had to shoot into oxygen tanks because I felt and heard an explosion. Thank God I was just next to the exit, it saved me. I managed to jump out in time ... - Although he tried not to show it, he was in a severe shock.

"We must try to connect with the Covenant." suddenly said Walter, looking around. "It is too dangerous here."

They gathered into a tight group, fired flares and tried to connect with the ship. Daniels was impatiently walking around, every moment invoking the Covenant.

"I will not leave you my dear." Lope whispered to Hallett's dead body. "I will never leave you alone, the light of my life."

"Lope, there is nothing you can do." Rosenthal hissed with brutality that no one would suspect.

"Covenant? ... Covenant do you read me? Covenant come in..." Daniels was still walking the path around the little camp set up by the crew, but this time she was too far away.

"Daniels!" Walter first noticed the danger. He rushed to rescue her, hitting all the weight of his body in a slimy creature trying to attack her. The creature fell down and flipped over several times, but then jumped again four feet and bore into Walter's hand, which blocked his way to Daniels. The saliva of the creature melted the robot's hand completely, just a stump left.

There was a terrible turmoil, and it turned out that the creature was not alone. Attacks came from many sides, everyone had weapons and everyone shot them, but they were too fast. They severely wounded Rosenthal and teared Ankor to pieces. One of them was just trying to get to Lawrence when something close exploded again and the night turned into daylight. So at least it might have seemed at first. The bloodthirsty creatures fled terrified, and the crew began to look for the source of this terrible noise and dazzling light that was slowly starting to fade. Lawrence rose to the ground and looked around. A hooded figure with strange light-gun weapon stood nearby, and spoke in a mysterious voice:

"Follow me." and without further explanation turned and walked across the fields, shaking cloak in the wind. The whole crew looked confused at each other, but without asking any questions they moved on behind the stranger. They had no choice.

After a long march, to their surprise, they reached the gates of the city, full of dead bodies covered with strange black matter.

"God ... what happened here ...?" Lawrence was sick of seeing so many brutal and sudden deaths.

The guide led them to a great temple, built at the central point of the city. He came in and stopped, waiting for everyone to join. At last he pulled down his hood, first to notice the bright hair with dark regrowht reaching almost to his shoulders, and then they could all look at his face, a twin similar to Walter's face.

"Welcome my new friends. I'm an artificial person, designed by Weyland Indystries. Years ago, Dr. Elizabeth Shaw and I came to this planet as the only survivors of Prometheus mission. The ship we flew was carrying a gun, a deathly virus. The accident that happened, spreaded it when we landed. Elizabeth died and I stayed here alone ..." he was not supposed to finish, because the tremulous voice of Lawrence echoed in the temple:

"David?"