“Edward, please, stop! I can’t move anymore… I need to rest,” barely breathing, Jenny tried to stop her ex-husband, but the man simply shook his head, before forcefully dragging her down the dark technical tunnel.
“We need to move and fast because…,” he made a clumsy attempt to explain his behavior seeing how Jenny was on the verge of breaking, but the woman was already hitting him with her fists. Not that it helped as through the engineer’s suit he failed to notice the impacts of the weak strikes.
“Let me go! I said I can’t! Let me go!” Seeing her futile efforts to overpower even the basic exoskeleton strength, Jenny felt like all remnants of her energy were sucked at once. Dropping down, she simply started to cry, “Why are you always like that? You never consider my feelings, my state, ME!”
“Please, honey, this isn’t a time…,” Edward attempted to pull her up, but she started to resist, wildly swinging her arms, “Okay, let’s have a rest. I think we managed to put some distance between us and that… thing.”
Sighing heavily, the technician released the woman before stepping back and leaning onto the wall. Jenny immediately sat and hugged her knees, continuing to cry. That already stressed Edward’s mind into disarray as he simply didn’t know what to do. The logic screamed to get out of this place and fast. The survival instincts repeated the same, reminding us about the lurking danger in the unilluminated corridors of the ruined city. However, Jenny reacted completely differently, failing to keep a cool mind under pressure.
It was always their problem in the relationships, where he tried to use logic and failed miserably when the situation demanded at least basic empathy. Edward couldn’t feel the same emotions as his ex-wife or most ordinary people after the accident with his parents. Being a late child, he was always treated as their most precious gift from the universe. That led to an even harder strike on his mentality when he watched how they died right in front of him. Still, failing to feel, Edward simulated some part of the expected emotional reactions, slowly rebuilding them from scratch. Only the fear lived freely in his body all this time.
“I am sorry about my behavior. I didn’t wish to hurt you, but the whole situation is… What was that?”
Interrupting himself, the technician redirected his flashlight to the potential source of the weird sound. Making a step forward, he squeezed the cutter’s handle, checking the charge of the battery with a single glance. Then the darkness moved, wiping out all his bravery at once and once again reminding him how futile the resistance was against the sure death. Only Jenny’s grip from behind brought him back into reality. At this point the tall formless figure was already visible, causing another wave of panic… only to throw it away a second later when the light showed the moving mercenary.
“Finally, I found you! Tell me, what were you talking about the spaceship? Do you know where it is? Can you get me there?”
Not spending a single moment on any explanation, greetings, or anything else, the unknown soldier-for-hire asked from the start. However, the questions instantly reminded Edward about the mercenary who was speaking to him near the spot of the group gathering. It was less than half an hour, but his appearance got quite a few traces of the recent fight, losing the image of a powerful and confident warrior. The anxious voice was intensifying the feeling of just a scared man, and not some battle-hardened veteran.
“We are currently heading there… The spaceship is a half-finished project of my chief, who was slowly trying to build it from scratch, not wishing to pay the full price, knowing the admin’s greed. I helped him many times for an additional bonus… The latest flight check had been put outside the city to prevent from potentially falling on the heads of tourists.”
“Is it on the dock?” The mercenary asked, not attempting to hide the worry in his tone.
“No, on the flat surface several miles from the main guest dock… Hidden under the camouflage – the chief didn’t want his life project to be stolen by anyone. But we’ll need a suit for Jenny and more tanks with oxygen – the life support system wasn’t installed yet,” Edward explained, carefully checking the reaction of the armed man.
“Good, let’s go,” the mercenary commanded, pointing forward with his rifle. This time there were no objections from Jenny, and she silently stood up, still hiding behind the back of Eward. The latter only smiled inwardly, thinking how the gun managed to solve the situation with his ex-wife when all other means were useless.
“How many people know about the ship?” The man asked after a minute of walking, anxiously checking the surroundings.
“Maybe a few dozen. But only three, including me, are aware of the latest location. Two others are most likely dead as they had shifts on the upper levels… May I ask you where are others from your team? Was there a beast indeed in the darkness?”
“Dead… And yes, there was, so if you don’t want to join them, move!” Commanded the mercenary, once again using his rifle as an additional argument. Not surprisingly, it worked as the following hour was spent almost in silence with occasional questions from the soldier-for-hire and short Edward’s explanation in return. At this point Jenny was barely walking, looking more like a moving obedient corpse with a dreaded expression, but too scared to leave the technician’s side even for a small amount of time. On the other hand, it helped to accelerate the preparations.
Looting half of a dozen emergency boxes that were marked with red signs, they barely managed to get the needed items. It wasn’t surprising that most of them were already broken into and robbed by an unknown, while the others weren’t checked for years. In some cases, it led to damage from the time or environment. Still, after a full hour, their small group was ready to go outside of the station. At least the further they went from the epicenter of the orbital strike; the better the situation was with the sections.
“I think the fleet stopped almost immediately, noting an absence of the resistance. Otherwise, all Fantasy City would be turned into a melted rock in no time… Maybe it was a mistake? An accident? Who knows… Not that it matters now. Move!”
The mercenary continued to push both Edward and Jenny forward, completely disregarding their opinion. Calmly walking past several groups of the survivors, the man lied with ease, describing their trio as the search team of the bigger party under the command of the administration.
“Yes, just follow our traces backward and you’ll find them in no time. They are making a proper plan on how to evacuate everyone… Yes, Mr. Wright is also there, together with others… No, no need to go with us or wait for us as we are trying to mark all damaged sections. We’ll use another route on the way back. We aren’t the single team with such a task… Listen, if you don’t believe me, do as you wish. Just a friendly reminder that we are all in the same boat, trying to survive on the broken station. Your life – your responsibility.”
Jenny tried to warn others, but the rifle was always looking at them, threatening in case of any exposure to burst into a deadly action. So she stood silent, watching how the groups walked directly toward the terrifying monster instead of safety. At least once they heard horrifying screams with gunshots. The latter quickly died, leaving no doubts about the group’s fate. However, the event caused Edward to look at the situation from a different angle.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Don’t you think you are marking the way for that creature by sending the people in its direction? It literally follows us, and they can’t even halt for any prolonged time at all.”
“Well, shit,” Edward’s comment led to a wave of swears from the mercenary, “Yep, good point. Next time I will use a different direction… But didn’t you say that we were already near the gateway leading to the surface?”
“Indeed, just a few corners away,” the technician confirmed, getting a barely noticeable nod from the armored figure. The mercenary went forward, while Jenny paused her tracks near him. Grabbing his hand, his ex-wife quietly whispered.
“Thank you. I don’t want more blood of innocents on my conscience,” slightly smiling, she increased her pace, leaving a dumbfounded Edward on his spot. The man barely stopped himself from correcting her as his remark was dictated by the fear of attracting the monster, and not by wish to save anyone. Luckily, on their way to the gateway they hadn’t met anyone, avoiding the situation where Edward would have to choose between the safety of others or their own.
The familiar gateway that Edward used to get to the ship seemed to look no different from before. Old rusty metal on the thick round door, the visually broken control panel, and even quite a few remnants of unknown metal construction spread on the floor right in front of the closed door. The huge sign “out of usage” that was put in the center of the corridor was finishing the picture that aimed to deceive everyone from checking the state of the gateway. Considering who was responsible for its state, Edward’s boss did everything to decrease the chance of finding his unfinished ship. Obviously, after the work was done, he was going to cover his deeds by “repairing the damaged equipment”, but fate had its own plans.
Ignoring the questioning looks from the mercenary, the technician forcefully pushed aside a big metal plate only to open a view of a true control panel instead of a fake one. The short authorization process to confirm his identity was followed by a quick checkup of the system. Only seeing that everything seemed in the same workable state as before the strike, Edward sighed with relief. Turning around to the mercenary, he was met with an image of an armored figure that was aiming at something behind their backs.
“Open! NOW!” The man shouted with fear, immediately opening firing.
Not thinking straight, Edward pressed the button on the screen without a second thought, pushing the heavy doors into motion. Not checking the results of the shooting either, the technician instantly turned around and sprinted toward the frozen Jenny. Unfortunately for him, it was the exact moment when his ex-wife’s mind had succumbed to panic, sending her into a brainless run… right into Edward. The sudden collision brought both of them to the floor. However, the fear in Jenny was too strong, so even a physical hit wasn’t enough to wake her up from the terrified state.
Pushing Edward’s hands away, she tried to crawl away no matter what. The technician had to press her to the floor to stop from running directly into the fight between the black monstrosity and the mercenary… if it could be named one, as the confrontation ended too quickly. Getting the full burst into the horrible head and tanking with ease, the creature rammed into the mercenary. Grabbing the armored figure during the hit, it raised the man before throwing it backward only to follow with another lunge.
This time the spiked knee appeared to find some gaps, causing a painful groan through the outer speakers on the armor. The bright white flash and following explosion abruptly returned Edward back to reality, giving him the ability to register the location of both opponents. Pushing away Jenny, he hastily stood up and ran back to the control panel. The next moment the hastily pressed button activated the mechanism of the door, cutting away the fight from the technician and his ex-wife. This was the moment when Edward’s heartbeat accelerated to an insane degree.
Watching how slowly the thick metal was closing the hole, which led to the surface, his mind a had single thought – may it work. Repeating it again and again, Edward didn’t even blink, not leaving his sight from the moving door. The adrenaline stretched the time to almost eternity, making him halt his breathing. The sudden explosion that deformed the metal caused his heart to skip a few beats, darkening the surroundings from the panic. Fortunately, the damage wasn’t enough to prevent the doors from closing. And when this moment finally came, Edward was ready, instantly sending another command.
The control panel had already overwritten safety restrictions in an attempt to cover their doings with the chief, so there was no additional message to confirm the dangerous operation. Like an obedient puppet, the system executed the command without a single delay, opening to both figures the empty surface of the unpopulated planet. The problem was in the absence of atmosphere, causing the difference in the pressure to become an efficient killer. Especially, when there was no previous equalization between two spaces.
The following blast threw both fighting figures out of the now deformed gateway, sending the mutilated bodies together with air. However, just after a few seconds, all the air from their bodies started to suck out. Not just from the lungs, but even from the blood. The mercenary failed to register it in time, having a few holes in his armor. Only when his eyes popped out, did the pain wake him just to send him into a real torture. Luckily for him, it lasted several seconds before life left his remnants. The creature wasn’t much better, being torn from inside because of the dangerous environment. Curling in the ball from the pain, it turned itself into a pitch-black sphere that lost any traces of movement after a minute. At least it was what Edward noticed through the last camera that managed to survive.
“I hope it’s dead…,” quietly muttering, Edward turned to Jenny, “Honey, we need to go now! Let me help you… Please, don’t resist.”
It took some time to calm his ex-wife, but the technician was happy to see the return of the clarity to her eyes. The quick check-up and long tirade in an attempt to convince her that the closest way to the spaceship was actually through the same gateway. The cutter and a few strong hits created a hole that caused another devastating effect on the corridor. But at this point, Edward didn’t care. Literally dragging Jenny through the damaged door, past the black sphere and mercenary’s body, he made her walk with him until the spacecraft appeared in front of them.
The closeness to the way out of this place had clouded his mind, putting away all emotions for the next unknown time. The quick flight check, the attempt to make Jenny sit in one place and not cry in panic, the short repair of the engine’s fuel tubes – everything went like in a dream. Only when gravity pressed him against his chair while the spaceship was rising up, did Edward ease his worry. Still, the thought about the terrifying creature lingered in the back of his mind even when they were in orbit and sent the emergency message to the fleet. Seeing how Jenny fell asleep, he still couldn’t stop but double-check everything.
Making a short flying tour around the small spacecraft in search of the unwanted guests, Edward managed to calm down only after finding nothing. The incoming signal from the rescuing ship redirected his attention from the imaginary threat that seemed to linger around to the safe reality of a cabine far from the surface. Accepting the call and listening to the information from an officer, he confirmed his identity, acknowledged the authority of Free Coalition over their ship, and after a long session of question-answers got to the dock where he could land.
“Jenny, we made it! We are saved!”
Edward’s loud exclamation was met with silence as his ex-wife was long gone into the dimension of the Dream God. It finally relaxed him, switching off the state of survival. The man felt how the pressure and worry were slowly leaving his body, instead shoving the exhaustion right into his face. Dead tired, but alive, the technician dived into his thoughts, imagining how this dangerous situation might fix their relationship with Jenny. Or he finally got the real reason to quit the damned job to pursue his dream. Or… There were a lot of ideas in his head, but after another deep yawn, he pushed everything aside. Setting the alarm to the moment of docking, Edward closed his eyes.
“Now everything will be fine…”.
At the very same time, a huge formless black blob was gripping the gaps of the unfinished ship on the outer side of the hull, hiding from the scanners because of its metal nature and waiting for an opportunity to continue its hunt. But for now it patiently followed the example of the crew, falling into deep slumber.