“What do you mean... I haven’t changed a bit?”

“Nothing,” she stood up from the other bed.

“Wait... are you saying that... You know, I’ve meant to ask... where are the rest of us, like... from this time... from the future?”

Ripley just blinked.

“You knew me... from the future I mean. You just referred to me in the past tense.”

“Sarah—”

“Where am I? You told us the John Connor story about Sam. But what about me?”

Ripley rolled her eyes. “What is it with you people and your movie references? Do you not read books?”

“I can’t help notice that you’re side-stepping my question. Where am I?”

“You’re here—”

“Dammit Ripley, I’m serious.”

“I don’t know, okay. I don’t know what to tell you. I have no idea where you are. So if you want me to answer your question, then all I can say is: somewhere else. Alright? You’re somewhere else.”

“What do you mean, somewhere else? What, am I missing too? I don’t understand? Ripley, where am I?’

“Look, Sarah, contrary to what you may believe, I’m not all knowing. So could you please stop asking me where you are?”

Sarah noticed that Ripley was getting uncomfortable in her own skin. Her questions were bothering Ripley. What could Ripley not be telling her that’s got her so uneasy?

“Ripley—”

Ripley sighed. “Sarah, what do you need me to tell you... I don’t know where you are, and that’s the truth—”

“No, I believe you, Ripley. I just wanted to say... I just wanted to say that I’m glad that you came with me for, you know... girl talk. I appreciate it.”

“Huh, you heard all that?”

“I was paralyzed... not deaf.”

“Funny, I thought the two were mutually exclusive.”

“Then that would make me an anomaly. I heard everything you guys were saying, not that I wanted to. I don’t want to believe everything you guys are saying. I mean, I can go along with it for now but I can’t... I’m still expecting to wake up from all this. I feel like this is a dream and nothing more.”

Ripley looked away as if she didn’t know what to say.

“Look, I know you want more than anything for me to believe that you and Professor O’Quinley back there are real, but... I just can’t. It’s just not what I believe in. I don’t believe in all this bandwidth stuff.”

“Sarah—”

“I know you want me to believe—”

“How do you think you got here?” She gestured to their surroundings. “Even you have to believe that there’s some reality to what’s going on. It’s not just some dream, Sarah.”

“How do you know that? I mean, if this is a dream, then isn’t that exactly what you would say to keep me from waking up?”

Ripley smiled. “Now what movie is that from?”

“Well, I wasn’t quoting a movie, but there is one I remember that was heavily relying on dreams. Look, my is that: it doesn’t matter what you say... I’m not going to believe in this.”

“Don’t worry. One day you will believe.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Because once upon a time, I didn’t believe in pscybotics... look at me now? Full blown soldier, dead set on killing every single one of them.”

“Well like I said before... I’m not like you.”

Ripley smiled again. “Sarah, you and I are more alike than you think.”

Before Sarah could respond to what Ripley had said, a powerful alarm rang out that could easily, over a short time, deafen someone. Red lights accompanied the alarm, spinning round and round to the rhythm of the sound.

“What the hell is that?” asked Sarah.

“The alarm.”

“Yeah, I can hear that!” shouted Sarah above the sound of the alarm. “Why is it going off? What happened?”

“I don’t know?” Ripley walked to the door, followed closely by Sarah.

“Oh yeah, I forgot. You’re not all knowing.’

“Wow, that’s nice. Take jabs at me now.”

“Do you know of any better time that I can take jabs at you? Come on, how long have you been working here? You should have some idea of what that alarm means.”

“I didn’t say that I didn’t have an idea. I just said that I didn’t know what happened.”

“I didn’t know that those two things were mutually exclusive.”

They made their way down the narrow corridor, side by side. There were soldiers running at the end.

“I know that this specific alarm means that the problem is inside the base.”

“As oppose to outside?”

“Yes. If the problem were outside, it usually means that someone – a pscybotic – is trying to break in. But if the problem is inside then—”

“Then what? A pscybotic is trying to escape?”

Ripley’s expression changed. At first, she’d thought that maybe a small explosion in the lab might have set off the alarm as usual. But now she realized that a completely different experiment had caused the alarm to go off. An experiment she knew all-too-well. Sarah was right.

Sarah noticed the shock on Ripley’s face. “What is it?”

“You’re right.” Ripley’s voice came out just more than a whisper.

“What?”

“About the whole ‘pscybotic escaping’ You were right.”

“How am I right? The only pscybotic you have here is Sommer. And if that’s true, then...”

Without another word, Ripley ran down the corridor. Sarah followed in hot pursuit. Sarah’s lungs felt like they were going to give out on her. They stumbled into the lab to find the group scattered around the floor again.

“What happened?” asked Sarah.

“It’s gone!” said Selena. “That damn pscybotic is gone!”

“How did that happen!?” asked Ripley, shocked. “I set the remote. She... was reprogrammed. How could she be gone?”

“Yeah, well maybe you didn’t!”

“Doug,” said Sarah, defensively. “Why would you say that? You saw her do it yourself.”

“Yeah, well it doesn’t explain what just happened?”

“You don’t know what happened,” said Selena. “So why don’t you just shut up!”

Sarah noticed that someone was missing from the party. “Where’s Eduardo?”

Sam huffed a tired breath as he’d just got to his feet. “He’s gone too. Sommer took him with. She thrashed us then grabbed him. He’s gone.”

Sarah heard Ripley gasp one final word: “no.”