Below Top Secret is a 2022 short story written by Chris Ryall, published by Titan Books as part of the anthology Aliens vs. Predators: Ultimate Prey. It centers on a young man and woman who sneak into Area 51 as part of a social media event, coincidentally at the same time that a Xenomorph is set loose within.
Plot[]
Conspiracy theorist Brockton and his skeptic friend April take part in a "raid" on Area 51 in Nevada along with several hundred others, hoping to discover the truth about longstanding rumours of UFO research and extraterrestrial experimentation at the base. The group reaches the outer base perimeter to find the guard post unmanned and soon begin moving further into the restricted area. However, unknown to the others taking part, Brockton has been in contact with a member of staff inside Area 51 who has told him classified information about the base and given him details on how to access secret areas.
To this end, Brockton leads April away from the main group of trespassers and into a seemingly nondescript, abandoned office building near the base's edge. Inside they discover a secret elevator, accessing it with the code Brockton has been given and descending to the laboratories hidden below, narrowly avoiding capture by base security in the process. Upon arriving at the lab, they encounter a Dr. Stephen Renfro, the source of Brockton's insider information, but Renfro is immediately killed by a hostile creature that drops on him from above. Fleeing for their lives, Brockton and April encounter another scientist at the laboratory, Dr. Amy Kupihea, with whom they take shelter in a safe room.
Kupihea explains that the creature is a hostile alien that has escaped containment, and that they are unable to call a security team for help because to do so requires Renfro's ID badge, still attached to his body outside. They also lack any offensive weapons with which they could hope to kill the creature themselves, but Kupihea cryptically suggests something being held elsewhere in the lab may be able to help them. When the Alien loses interest in their secure hiding place, the trio make a break for it, narrowly avoiding the creature and reaching another containment cell, at which point they release its occupant — another alien, this time a juvenile hunter, which immediately engages the Alien in a hand-to-hand brawl.
Despite receiving serious injuries, the hunter succeeds in trapping the Alien inside his now vacant containment cell. However, the creature proceeds to tear off its own arm and uses its acidic blood to breach the cell door, causing battle to resume. Seeing that the Alien is gradually gaining the upper hand, Kupihea throws the hunter an orb she has been carrying with her, revealed to contain a highly corrosive blue fluid when the hunter breaks the orb and forces it down the Alien's throat. The Alien dies as it is dissolved from within, while the hunter lives just long enough to celebrate his victory before also succumbing to his wounds.
In the aftermath, Kupihea uses government connections to have Brockton and April spared serious jail time, but the pair are sworn to secrecy about what they saw, the suggestion being that their lives would be forfeit if they ever revealed what happened at Area 51.
Trivia[]
- Below Top Secret features real historical individuals or events as a framework for its tale — specifically, the social media-driven "raid" on Area 51 is specifically mentioned in the story as being a follow-up to the Storm Area 51 event that took place in 2019, in which a group of conspiracy theorists likewise attempted to enter the base in search of extraterrestrial life (although none actually breached the base perimeter).
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