Day 1
Drip
Drip
Drip
Drip
Water? Running Water? Marc thought.
Slowly, He opened his eyes. Light crept in, pale and gray, only giving away silhouettes. The world to him was shrouded in a fog. Through his eyes, nothing had definition.
He sat up, slowly at first, but then suddenly, he shot up after noticing that the cockpit had torn open on the top. He saw where the silhouettes of the blinking monitors and the dark steel and the blindingly bright sky merged. He also noticed- gradually- that he could feel a cool breeze. It formed dimples on his skin, and he shuttered. A raindrop landed on the back of his neck.
Then, he remembered what had happened, and where he was. He checked his body for cuts and bruises with his hands, as his vision was only slowly coming back. He traced his hands down the back of his neck, then both arms, his torso, then his legs. Once he was sure that he was uninjured, he turned to the Captains seat.
His body was slumped over in his chair and there was a red liquid dripping from his head.
Marc scrambled to get his seat belt off, and after fumbling with the clip, he was released. He stumbled out of his chair towards the Captain and pressed two of his fingers to his neck- a pulse. Marc sighed in relief, and began checking for injuries.
Aside from a gash on Quinns left temple, he had bitten his tongue and was bleeding from the mouth and possibly broken his right ankle against the Control Board. After Marc was sure that he hadn’t injured anything else, he lifted Quinn from his seat and set him on the ground.
He then limped his way to the still flashing controls and released all the seals on the doors. With a hiss, the cockpit door shot air out into the cockpit and allowed him to open it. He walked into the hall through the door and noticed it was very quiet, and very dark. He pulled out a mini flashlight from his cargo pants and used it to light up the hall ahead. The hall led through another door into the Rec Room and the Crew Quarters. He shuffled through the Rec Room and into the starboard hall leading to Medical, the maintenance room, and the general storage room and office.
As he reached medical, he tried to pull the door open, but it seemed to be jammed. He knocked on the door, loudly.
“Mila, are you in there? Are you okay?” Marc pushed his ear against the cold door.
What he heard both relieved him and gave him a deep dread. He heard Mila, crying.
“Mila, Mila listen to me! Are you hurt?” He cried.
She only continued to sob.
“Mila, I’m gonna check on the others and then I’ll find a way to get you out, Okay?”
No response.
Marc Continued down the hall to The Maintenance room, where to his satisfaction, had a working door. He pushed it open and called out for Adam.
“Marc? Damn, you okay man? That was not good- REALLY not good!” Adam exclaimed “Man, we are so fucked. How is everyone? Ah man, this fuckin’ sucks.” He undid his seatbelt and fell to the floor.
“Adam, calm down. Captain was knocked out cold, an’ Mila’s stuck in Medical. Seems the door’s jammed shut. Jus’ found you and haven’ seen Everett yet.” Marc said, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Jesus fucking Christ. What the hell even happened?” Adam cried out, choking on his saliva while beginning to cry.
“I- I don’t know, really. The weather was bad an’ the wind took us down.” He stammered while putting his hand on Adams back. “Listen, Adam. I gotta find Everett, I need ya to sit tight for just a couple while I go an’ look for him.”
Adam nodded his head and then sat on an overturned filing cabinet before checking himself for injuries.
“I gotta be strong, I gotta get my shit together.” He mumbled to himself.
Marc continued down the hall to the last room; storage. The door opened without hesitation into the void. Before Marc could even see what had happen, he smelled it. Iron permeated through the air with a bitter intensity. His nostrils stung which caused him to pull away uncontrollably. He opened his eyes again to see- and he thought it a blessing that he was currently blind.
Red. An uneven wall of Red. Not just the walls, but the floor, and the ceilings, and every individual box, was Red.
Marc recoiled back into the hallway and let the door slam shut in front of him.
Was that… Everett? He thought to himself.
He was completely frozen with fear. He felt like he needed to check again, just to be sure.
No, I just need to save Mila, and for that I need…The Axe.The Axe, which is stored in the room with Everett.
The Everett room, He thought, The Red Room.
Marc stared at the door for a moment, then stood up and walked toward it before a force in his body brought him to a halt. It was instinct. Pure instinct took over and would not allow him to even touch the door. His arm was glued to his side, palms drenched with sweat.
He then began to pace in front of the door, thinking of other solutions. His mind whirled with other options but nothing he could think of would safely break open the door or prevent him from going into the room with Everett. He came to the realization that he had to go in.
With all the will he could muster, he fought his body back to the door, and reached for the handle, and pushed it open. The smell of iron stung his nostrils again, and looking in with the flashlight only served to highlight the viscera that was left over. One of the heavy wooden crates with a machine for Mila in it had come undone from the storage rack and fallen over. During the crash, the container had jostled violently throughout the room while Everetts body was beaten. All that was left were splinters of the box, impaling chunks of flesh, and thick blood coating all of the walls.
The Axe, where’s The Axe!? Marc thought to himself in a panicked daze.
Every step he took in that room caked his boots in blood. It clung the floor every time he lifted his foot, and caused him to slip every time he stepped. He had no choice but to steady himself on the wall, which was also coated in blood.
He traced his way along the right side of the wall until he reached an emergency fire axe. He struggled with the lip of the container, slipping over the blood, eventually jamming a fingernail under it which let him pop it open. Inside was a pristine axe, unused, waiting for a day like this. He took it from its rack and slid and slipped back towards the door using the axe to anchor himself.
After reaching the exit, he closed the door without looking back and then collapsed onto the floor. His hands and boots were coated in a thick crust of blood and black hair and brain matter and little shreds of clothing. Marc coughed, and made a gagging sound. Before he could hold back, he projected his previous meal into his lap. He stared at the floor and his bloodied hands for only minutes, but it felt to Marc like an eternity.
This was all that was left of his friend.
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“Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Oh my god I can’t fuckin’ believe this.” Marc stood up. While weak at the knees, he wobbled back to Medical. He started down the long dark hall when suddenly his flashlight cut off. He smacked his flashlight against his hand a few times, causing it to flicker once or twice before it died for good.
There, in the dark, he noticed the dim cyan light of the glow in the dark strips on the floor, leading down the edges of walls.
He stumbled down the hall, following the dotted and dashed line. It continued down the hall in a straight line, and then through a door leading into a hall, leading into another door, leading into a hall.
Dot Dot Dot, Dash Dash Dash, Dot Dot Dot
He continued to meander down the hall, then through a door, down a hall, and then to a door. Once through that door, he found himself in a hall, which led to a door.
Dot Dot Dot, Dash Dash Dash, Dot Dot Dot
He found himself in a familiar hall, leading to a door. The lines led him down a hall, and into a door.
Dot Dot Dot, Dash Dash Dash, Dot Dot Dot
Day 2
Mila sat up from the cot set up in the crew quarters. The rain was too loud. She sat awake, staring at the ceiling, listening to it. It was loud, sure, but it was also beautiful. In 6 months, that was the first natural sound she got to hear. She listened intensely with a certain look on her face. Her eyes, half closed, staring into the middle distance with tears streaming down her cheeks.
Before too long, her stomach started to growl which snapped her out of her trance. She strained her eyes to see in the dark, and could make out the faint glow in the dark lines where the floor met the wall. She unwrapped the blanket from her body and stood up, still dressed in yesterdays uniform.
Scanning the room further, she noticed that Adam and Marc were missing, and Quinn was still in bed. She paced slowly towards Captain Quinn.
I wish more of the medical supplies had survived the landing. She thought to herself. She was able to stitch the gash on his forehead closed but his tongue had to go largely untreated, and they were forced to use a pipe and a torn blanket as a splint for his ankle, not that walking was a huge priority since he still hadn’t woken up, even a day after the crash.
Just as Mila was preparing to leave the room, dim orange lights flickered on throughout the ship. The emergency generator was still working, and someone had turned it on.
*Bzz*
“Mornin’ crew. Adam and I got the back-up generator runnin’ which means we have limited power for now. Unfortunately, unike the ship engine, it's runnin’ on gasoline, so it’s only a temporary fix until we can get the Engine up and runnin’ again.
“Mila, please come to the maintenance room so we can talk about the next steps we are goin’ to take.”
*Bzz*
Mila, sighed, and moved towards the door. She pushed it open just in time to hear someone walk quickly into the Rec Room. She followed down the hall and passed into and back out of Rec. In the starboard hall now, she passed the door to medical and glanced down the hall toward storage. She wasn’t expecting to see anything, but was stopped in her tracks when she noticed red stains on the floor in front of the door.
It looked like something large and heavy was dragged from the room and down the hall, and reddish brown footprints appeared in the middle of the drag marks, all the way into the maintenance room. Mila took a hesitant step toward the storage room.
Is that blood? Is that, Everetts blood? Mila questioned.
She didn’t have time to get any closer to storage before the maintenance door swung open.
“Mila, good, you're here, I was really hopin’ the Captain would be up by now.” Marc leaned out and pulled Mila by the arm into the room.
Maintenance was buzzing with the sound of a generator in the corner of the room. It was a large yellow generator with two wheels on one side for pulling it around. Next to it sat two empty gasoline cans. The floor around the generator was covered in scuff marks and that same red stain from down the hall.
“So, Adam and I have power running for now, and after we looked around the ship, we aren’t really lookin’ too bad off. We check-” Marc was cut off by Mila.
“Not bad off, Marc? We- we crashed! You told us last night that Everett- that he- and the captain is still unconscious! The SOS can’t reach anyone so no one even knows that anything is wrong. How far off course are we? Even if we can get the satellite into orbit from here, where will Team 2 be landing? What if they drop their landing pad before we have a chance to tell them what happened and we can’t set it up for them?”
Adam shifted in his seat from the other corner of the room.
“Listen, I know how this looks, but we need to focus on work right now. We have a month to set everythin’ up and if we are far off course, we need to do it fast so that we can communicate with Team 2 about a change in plans and a rescue. We need to hurry an’ we need to work as a team. Right now it’s jus’ the 3 of us, but Captain is still alive an’ I’m sure he’ll be wakin’ up soon enough.” Marc tried to calm her down. He reached his hand to her shoulder reassuringly.
“Everythin’ is gonna work out, alright?” He let go of her shoulder and continued “We need to set up the launch pad for the satellite and launch it. According to protocol, that should take us about 6 or 7 days. For now, the ship is serving as fine shelter, but we should try to set up the lab as well, if we can. That way we can store the lab equipment, and when Team 2 arrives, we will have better access to medical equipment.”
Mila stepped back a few paces, holding her arm against her side. Tears again welled in her eyes. She looked down at the floor seeing the red streaks.
“How bad is Everett…?” She managed to choke out. “Hi- his daughters birthday- is- is in a few weeks.” She couldn’t keep it in and sobs burst out. She dropped to the floor, her knees tucked into her chest and just sobbed.
Marc watched Mila for a moment, and then looked at his blood stained hands.
“We will… have a funeral when we can. Like I told you last night, it’s not-. Everett-” He trailed off, unable to find the words he was looking for. “Adam, before we landed, how many of the launch supports were you able to set up?”
“Just the three that you saw. That only leaves two more to go, then the platform. Not to mention the most difficult part, the tower launcher.” Adam responded while rubbing the back of his head, scruffing up his dirty blonde hair.
“Good ta know. You finish up those supports an’ I’ll give the outside a good survey to see where we can set up.” Marc turned back towards Mila on the floor “Mila, I know it’s gonna be hard but I need you to be strong for us here. You keep an eye on Captain and take inventory of all the food and medical supplies we have left. Neither of you are permitted to enter the storage room office. I will personally check for supplies there if we need to.” Marc paused for a second, studying his crewmates' odd expressions “It’s just protocol, we need that room to be left as it is for now for an investigation. As soon as Team 2 lands, they can take care of that.”
He looked around again, Mila still had streaks down her face but was only frowning now, and Adam was gritting his teeth.
“Dismissed.”
-----------------
Are they blaming me for all of this right now?
Step, Step, Step
How could this have happened?
*Bzz*
Where the hell are we? Why is it so dark?
*Sob*
“Good to see you all! I am Captain Quinn Langley, and this is my 2nd Hand, Marc Edwards. We are excited to make the longest trip that Reyda-Con has ever funded. Our task will be to go in ahead of a research team and set up a base of operations for them. We even have our very own researcher for this trip, Dr. Markovits.
“Let’s see, I also have our Senior Mechanic and Engineer, Adam Dubois, and Everett Becker who is part maintenance and our designated Chef, so everyone be kind to our man Mr. Becker if you want sweets!” Quinn chuckled.
“Management has our Ship all loaded up already which just leaves us to do one final sweep to make sure everything is set to go and then we can get on with this trip. I know all of you aside from Dr. Markovits has been briefed so to make it quick, this trip will be 187 days in total and it will be pretty bare bones in terms of supplies so we need to stick closely to the schedule. We are to set up the Lab and base of operations before Team 2 arrives with the rest of the supplies we will need to make our visit to Planet 67-72656564 a permanent one.
“After we are situated, our crew will become base management and maintenance for the next year until they send more staff and our families over. Then it’s just a matter of staying there for the next 5 years until it is safe to say whether or not we can send a colony ship.
“I’m sure you all are feeling a lot of things right now, not the least of which is anxiety about this, but we are making history with this! This is the survey that will prove that humanity can persist through the cosmos. This is our stand!”
“Captain Langley sure is an energetic one, huh?” Everett chuckled.
“I guess so, he seems like a decent man.” Mila responded meekly.
“You must be Dr. Markovits. I’m Everett, but you can just call me Eve.” The man reached his hand out slowly, making sure not to drop the heavy backpack he had resting on his shoulder.
“Nice to meet you Eve, you can just call me Mila.” She took his hand and gently shook it.
“Ah, Mila. Okay, well what brings you on this trip, Mila?” Everett leaned in to listen.
“Oh, nothing particularly. I guess I’m just doing it because I’m being paid to.” She looked down at the floor, somewhat embarrassed by her lackluster answer.
Everett laughed loudly
“I guess that’s a fair enough reason to do your job! Well, I’m gonna go start the sweep for storage. Gotta make sure everything is nice and organized I guess.” Everett turned into the airlock for the ship, currently left all the way open.
Mila looked up from the floor finally, and noticed that Quinn was looking at her. They met eyes for a moment, she could have sworn, for just a brief moment there was a sinister look to him, but all at once the expression faded away, and he gave a half hearted smile. She then turned into the ship to do her sweep in medical.