We packed up our things and started getting everything together to head into the cabins. We had finished making sandwiches for later and moved the blockade from the doors before heading off. We moved quiet yet quick and began deciding what rooms to go through first. The regular passenger spaces had plenty of different cabins to go through. It had all the standard passengers, the farmers, industrialists, historians, and the many other hands on civilians. The Class A cabins had all the “thinkers”. They were actually the rich that paid plenty to get the nice spots and not have to do much work. Everyone has to pull their weight while in space or on the planet but they didn’t have as much work to do. I personally didn’t like the idea of it and wish everyone worked equally to get everything done quickly and efficiently but the company is the company and not much I could do to change it from the lower end of the ladder. We decided to look through the contractor’s cabins and see if they left any tools we could use from before they were put to sleep.
All of the lights were off so it took a couple of minutes to get to the section where they lived but we eventually found it. We had to scan all the rooms and halls on the way with our flashlights hoping we wouldn’t have the same encounter as last time. They had all sorts of tools, some of them state of the art. Ours were ship specific and weren’t going to be of much use off ship once we made it to the system. The ship itself wouldn’t be dismantled or just left in space to drift forever. It would be the main command center for when we started colonizing the planet. It would be the main staging post and we could use the transport ships to go back and forth easily. The unit we were about to enter was to be home for three people once they woke up. We broke the lock and walked in.
“I’ll get the left side, you work on the right.” I had an Idea of what I wanted and hoped the main contractor here had the multi tool. This was the bunk of Tyler Boston. I spoke to him briefly before he was put to sleep. He had long red hair with a slim tall frame. Good man, if we find him he may be able to help in constructing barricades. His multi tool was one of his proudest possessions and had many different uses. It could be a hammer, laser cutter, anything really.
I slipped the tool into my belt and went to get Yuri. He was engulfed in a magazine.
“Dude, look at this!” He was going through the belongings of one of the other contractors and found a porn stash. I wish he could take this a little more seriously. “It’s vintage too, from 2014!”
“I got the tool we needed, let’s go already, and drop the magazine.” I slapped him upside the head. “You can look at that shit later. I’m sure your laptop is filled with it anyways.” He looked a little hurt by my comment and looked like he wanted to say something but decided not to. “Look, well head to the A class cabins and see what we can find there. Get what you need from there. I’ll be doing the same.”
“OK, you don’t need to hit me over a simple magazine.” Yuri was red faced.
“I don’t care that you look at that shit, it’s just not the time to be doing shit like that. We have bigger things to worry about, not the next time to beat off.” He relaxed a little after I said that. He must really have been hurt by that. “We can get some more food maybe from the cabins as well as some supplies to help with securing a spot. Most of the A class cabins have a fridge and other sorts of goods the normal cabins don’t.”
“Got it, I just want to get out of this jump suit. Would rather wear a hoodie or anything but these.” He was right on that, being able to have a bit of freedom would be nice.
We walked out of the cabin and headed towards the A class section at the end of the hall. The sections were split by a security checkpoint between the two. They wanted some sort of security and the company complied with it. We stopped at an intersection on the way and I looked down the hall with the flash light. I saw blood on the ground near the end. We were both getting a little nervous thinking of what might be down here. We slowed our pace to focus on hearing, not saying a word to each other the rest of the walk. The A class checkpoint was caked in blood with pools of it coming from under the door.
“Fuck that.” Yuri whispered.
“I am right there with you. Let’s go somewhere else.” We thought going back to the cafeteria would be the best idea. We had some food already but needed some more. We could have gotten some from the A class rooms but after seeing the blood, neither of us wanted to be over there.
The trip towards the Cafeteria was just as eerie with blood splatters on different parts of the walls and large prints of either hands or feet on the ground. They didn’t exactly look human and some were fresher than others. Down another hall we found an exploded body, it was everywhere. We wouldn’t have known it was a body if not for the severed head in the corner of a door. He must have been a passenger. Neither of us knew who he was nor what he did. If he had a uniform it was long gone. We snuck towards the Cafeteria and saw blood on the door. Whatever it is, it may have gone through here. We couldn’t tell if the blood was old or new. We peaked through the window and saw nothing. Whatever it was, it may be long gone.
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Entering the cafeteria we saw blood on the ground. We were on the southern side of the Cafeteria. We originally went through the doors in the north side near the kitchen when we got here a couple hours earlier. I thought I heard a noise down the hall and quickly aimed my gun. I didn’t see anything.
“You ok man?” Yuri was looking at me concerned. I must have imagined it.
“Y-yea, let’s go and finish making food in the kitchen. We will need all we can so we don’t have to come back here again.” I was nervous, hell, we both were.
We headed into the kitchen and put our little makeshift barricade back up. We both felt much safer having the little sense of security protecting us. We decided to make some sandwiches to store for later, we would need a couple of days of food to last us before we would make another expedition down here. It was pitch black if not for our lights and neither of us wanted to be stuck in a place with so much blood. The smell was masked a little bit thanks to the food we made earlier, but other than that anywhere else outside the kitchen was rank with the smell of rotting flesh.
We both turned towards the door at the same time, I thought I was hearing things again but seeing Yuri turn at the same time sent a shiver down my spine.
“Do you feel that?” Yuri was shaking. He must be feeling what I felt before, a deep dread affecting both of us. That primal instinct of being the one hunted. We felt like we would be swallowed up by it any moment.
“Yea.” I could hardly speak myself. Is this what an animal felt like when it was trapped in a corner? We needed to get out of here. “Let’s go.” I whispered. “Come move the tables with me, let’s head through the lounge. I don’t want to meet whatever is out there.” I hope he can at least help me and not freeze up. I for sure wanted to do just that.
He was hesitant to move at first but finally mustered up the courage to do so. We felt that any sound would disturb whatever it was and we knew we wouldn’t last a minute. We quietly moved the tables blocking the passageway to the lounge and slowly inched our way forward. It felt like time took forever. I had my MP pointed in front of me leading the way with Yuri nearly glued to my back watching for anything behind us. At the end of the hall we peaked through the window and saw only blackness.
“Let’s just head back man, I don’t want to deal with this. The kitchen is safer than going through that death trap!” He was cracking a little.
“Shhhh, well head back to the research center, it might be safer.” I had a thought that it didn’t like lights or at least bright areas. If we made it to the research center, we may have a chance.
BANG, BANG, BANG
We heard a loud noise coming from the kitchen. We both looked at each other and started running through the door towards the stairway in the back of the room. We were half way there when the unthinkable happened. The lights in the stairway went out. It was completely black. I fell down mid run and pushed myself against the wall trying to make myself as small as possible. I could hear Yuri breathing heavy nearby, roughly 5 meters from me.
We didn’t turn on our lights due to fear of whatever monstrosity was out there would see us and come charging at us. The banging stopped and we could hear the creature slowly walking around, we weren’t sure if it was coming towards us. We soon heard its footsteps walking into the lounge. I could hear it slowly walking around looking for us. It started moving closer to us, besides the thuds of its feet coming closer, the both of us must have stopped breathing. I remembered the food we had wrapped up in our bags. I slowly brought my bag around and got a sandwich out. The footsteps had stopped. But I could hear its breathing uncomfortably close to me. I threw it as hard as I could near the doors to the Cafeteria, or at least where I thought they were.
It heard the sounds of it hitting a table and I could hear its steps prancing over. I didn’t know where Yuri was but I had to make it to the stairs. I slowly started sneaking towards the stairway in the opposite direction of the Creature. I felt I was nearly there when the stairway light turned on. I froze like a deer in headlights when that happened and slowly turned around. The creature didn’t seem to register the lights or see me at least cause it was still eating. It was disturbing to look at and I was transfixed by it. It was definitely not from earth and truly was a monster from the children stories. It was large, at least 6 feet with something like bones or antlers sticking out from its head. It had large front arms that were used to walk around with and small back legs. It was very muscular with little hair anywhere but what looked like a ring of fur around its neck. The worse of it was it being covered in blood from head to toe. Kind of like a gorilla but light brown.
I saw Yuri in the corner close to where I had hid, he saw me and slowly started moving towards me. I don’t think firing at it would do anything. We would need something bigger.
I slowly moved towards the stairway when Yuri tripped over a chair making a small yelp. The creature turned around and stared straight into my eyes. I was transfixed staring at its face. It had a deer’s skull placed over its head like a helmet. We both sprinted for the stairway hoping the light would keep it away. All of a sudden, everything felt off to me. I felt like I was falling and hit the ground with my gun hitting me in the face. I was a little dizzy from the heavy magazine of the MP hitting me and could hear Yuri shouting in the distance. The creature was soon staring at me, blood dripping from its face. Then hit me with its large fist. Everything went black.