Mission #3 was going according to script, and I was giving Gwen the rundown on how the Alien worked. We still had a few minutes before reaching the room it dropped in, and I didn't want her to freak out or freeze up when it did. Meza, Michael, or Devon occasionally threw in a comment or a bit of advice, but for the most part we were left to our own devices.

There was a brief ripple in the game as we walked down the hallway towards the med bay. This ripple was worse than the one when Devon updated our game models. Both of us stopped, waiting for the disturbance to settle and the vertigo that went with it to leave. "I swear I didn't pull a cable this time!" I yelled when things settled.

I got no response aside from Gwen shaking her head and saying, "Probably just a glitch. You were saying...?" She trailed off when a distinct snuffling could be heard from the vent above us. Both of us looked up in horror, and my eyes widened.

You're not supposed to be there! "Sh*t!" I yelled, grabbing Gwen's arm and running. I laughed nervously as we rounded a corner just before the Alien dropped down into the hall behind us with a thud I could feel through the floor. I heard it screech, meaning it had heard us. I ducked into the first room I saw—an office—and shoved Gwen towards the only locker. "Hide!" I whisper yelled, looking around for a place to hide myself. Everything else in here was open!

Gwen noticed that too and grabbed my shirt, pulling me into the locker after her. We barely fit, and she got the door shut just in time. Who needs personal space anyways? Not that I'm complaining... The towering Alien trotted down the hall, swinging its elongated head side to side, trying to locate us. The creature's dark exoskeleton was dusty from its climb through the air vents, and the tiny eyes near its mouth flashed in the fluorescent light. It paused and stuck its head inside the office, resting one clawed hand on the door frame. Thankfully, its eyesight and sense of smell sucked. The Alien's acute hearing made hiding difficult enough. Gwen and I held our breath, waiting for the Alien to leave. Finally the predator grumbled and sniffed to itself before snorting dismissively. Through the slats in the locker, I could see it continue down the hall at a slower pace, pausing to scent the air and listen occasionally.

We stayed crammed in that locker, breathing shallowly, until the Alien rounded the next corner. "What's it doing here?!" Gwen whispered right next to my ear. "I thought you said it wouldn't trigger until we went in that one office."

"It shouldn't! It's never dropped early on me before..." I replied, extremely confused. The game played perfectly fine when I did my run earlier. Did they change the coding on us as a prank or make the drop more randomized to keep players on their toes? Oh, I bet Michael and Devon are getting a great laugh out of this right now.

"Ha ha. Very funny, guys!" I said as loudly as I dared, shifting slightly in the cramped space.

"Should we have them reset the level or...?"

I shrugged as best I could. "Okay, Devon. You all had your laugh. Reset the mission."

When I still got no answer, I started to get annoyed. "Fine! Don't restart the mission! We'll beat this!"

Gwen looked a little nervous but stayed silent as I watched the Alien's movements through the locker slats. Its route was all kinds of messed up, but after a few minutes I thought I had a pretty good plan. We still had to pick up the revolver and key card and disable the security lockdown before we could make it out of here.

When the Alien was a good distance from us, we stepped out of the locker and crept into the hall. We made it to the office with the revolver and key card before having to hide again. This time we found separate hiding spots. From my place in a cabinet, I got a good look at the xenomorph's boney, ebony feet as it silently stalked past our room. There was an occasional click of a toe nail on the metal floor panels as it moved on. When I could no longer hear it I counted to ten and climbed out of the cabinet. Gwen stepped out of her locker right after.

I had snatched up the revolver and all the ammo I could find when something occurred to me. This was multiplayer, but there was still only one of each weapon. I caught myself just before swearing loudly and swore under my breath instead. I motioned for Gwen to grab the keycard and follow me. We moved haltingly around the area until we were at the office the Alien should have dropped in. I slowed down as the smell hit me—rotten meat. Gwen could smell it too and nearly gagged. I peeked cautiously through the doorway to see a string of rancid drool drip from the vent right in front of the desk we needed to get to. Oh, so now you're there?! I thought, ducking back out of the doorway. I wracked my brain for a way to draw the Alien's attention this early in the game. We didn't have any pipe bombs or noisemakers yet. We do have the blueprint for a flashbang though... Quickly we retreated a few doors down the hall and pooled our resources, scrounging up the materials to make one. Item crafting proved to be a bit more tedious in VR than it had been playing the original game, but we figured it out.

"Okay, I'm going to throw this down the hall. The second we hear the Alien leave, we move. We get in and out as quickly as possible. If it camps out above the desk again while we're in there, we're screwed."

Gwen nodded and pocketed our remaining supplies. I pulled the pin from the grenade like device and hurled it down the hallway, briefly wishing I'd been into baseball as a kid. I turned the pin in my hand as I ducked down and waited for the explosion. I stared at the small piece of metal as something dawned on me. I could feel the roughness of the pin as I ran a finger over it. I had smelled the Alien's nauseating breath in that office. When the flashbang went off, I could feel the floor under my feet shudder. An uneasy feeling twisted my stomach as the Alien shrieked and thundered past our room.

Gwen bolted for the door, and I ran a few steps behind her, mind still preoccupied. Had the game been this detailed last time? Did I just not notice because of the novelty? And how did a VR set replicate touch and smell? My questions went unanswered as we entered our target room. I slid behind the computer while Gwen kept an eye out for the Alien's return. I quickly deactivated the lockdown, and we were out of there, racing towards the exit.

We climbed the stairs and came into a large room just as the Alien dropped out of a vent on the far side of the room. It moved to attack the group of hostile NPCs on the lower floor of the room just like it was supposed to. I was thankful for that after all the weirdness. Gunshots rang out as the NPCs ineffectually tried to kill the Alien. We set a flare by the entrance to keep the Alien occupied once it finished with the NPCs it was currently butchering and crept along behind the second floor railing to keep out of sight. Gwen flinched as a female NPC who tried to shoot us earlier screamed. I pulled Gwen along as we snuck down a set of stairs to the alcove on the lower level with the elevator door. I went to hack the door with the access tuner we'd picked up earlier when I realized the door was completely unpowered. I started to panic, knowing the Alien wouldn't be busy for long. I also knew there was no other way out of here. I stressfully ran a hand over my hair as I thought. Gwen was staring at me and looked a bit freaked out herself. There was one thing I could try, but it didn't work well with this door in the old version, and I had no idea if they'd patched the glitch for the VR release.