Alien: Out of the Shadows isn't so bad if you choose to look at it all as a dream or nightmare like I do.
"In dreams, no one can hear you scream." The book actually hints that Ripley could still be dreaming.
It's sometimes difficult to tell whether you're living in an incredibly vivid dream world or not. I believe that the reader is left to make up their own mind on whether or not Ripley is actually awake.
Spoiler alert for the end of the story: Ripley enters a medpod-like device that apparently erases her memory, but if you choose to view it all as dream, you can look at it simply as her forgetting the dream, and her mind needing a logical way to explain why the lucid dream is forgotten. The memories end up getting erased, however, it's a little ambiguous and can be viewed in different ways.
Sometimes when you're trapped within a dream, you try to scream louder only to realize that there is no actual air to carry the sound of your screams. This can have the effect of causing the individual to realize that they are trapped in a lucid dream, whereupon they wake up. Sometimes they wake up screaming and awake themselves that way. Another way to know whether or not you're in a dream is to pinch yourself. Although I suggest lighting a match and then extinguishing it with your fingers, because the sensation it causes works better than pinching yourself: "the trick is not minding that it hurts."
I'm prettty sure that Alien 3 is a dream too, or one of the company's simulated realities.. The creature doesn't even look real in that film! That's how you know it's just a virtual reality simulation. I think the company is tricking Ripley's mind about everything. She's not really dead: she was only sleeping. Androids don’t require sleep in the same way that humans do. I choose to view it as a dream.
The Aliens in Out of the Shadows are indeed more like the ones in Alien: Resurrection. It may be possible to view Alien: Resurrection as a dream or simulated reality as well. The company possesses technology capable of tapping into Ripley's subconscious; therefore, it is literally possible for the machines to view Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection as Nightmares, or to delete those events from her memory depending on if you choose to believe in the Big Deletions or not. It's almost better to view them as dreams...
