Amiss

Chapter FOURTEEN

The mechanical warning continued to sound in the background, but my ears were focusing on the groans and sizzles sounding everywhere. If I had to guess, the fire was spreading far enough to reach the other generators; I had to get out before the whole place went up in flames... again.

In thought, the whole ship sharply swayed, my feet dancing to the left but tripping back to my right, and I clutched at the floor as much more small but violent explosions happened everywhere in the systems. I could hear it – pipes were leaking, wires were cracking, gears were getting stuck or either being forced apart, generators either losing power or gaining too much, and it was all a big combustion.

As I was steadying myself up to my knees, the voices above suddenly changed to Carissa's voice, crying out, "You won't make it off here alive! If- if the ship is going down, we're taking you with us!"

When I kept running I found a closed door blocking my path, so I tried to bury my fingers into the cracks to pry it open, wiggling the door knob and crashing my elbow into the glass part. At this point, it was starting to smell somewhat smoky, alerting most of my weakened senses awake again.

"I don't know what I was thinking, or how you managed to evade our attacks so smoothly. I guess we, I, just got hasty. Because, you- you shouldn't be that far along by now! Oh god, O'keal, please wake up..."

She was carelessly mumbling into the microphone, but honestly, I felt no remorse or sympathy for her. Those two caused so much damage, could've let so many things just stay good and happy! Or perhaps, it wasn't their fault – maybe they couldn't help it.

Or maybe, my subconscious interrupted, maybe you shouldn't worry about that and instead focus about getting out. Fair play, brain.

Impatiently, I grabbed a nearby pipe, ignoring the small shower of water on my head, bashing against the door. As the smoke got stronger, I unprofessionally covered my nose and mouth with a hand, finally shattering the glass open. Now, the fun part; reaching through and opening the door from the other side.

Snaking my arm through the opening, I both carefully and carelessly searched around for the handle, until I could feel it. Frustratingly, it kept slipping from my grasp, until I finally forced the handle down, and the door popped open.

I rammed my entire body to heave the heavy door out of the way to continue down the halls, almost smacking into another door that was out on the open. Suddenly, a big sign off to the side with a sudden heavier door: Changing Station.

Jackpot!

This time, I easily opened and locked the door, and walked inside as I heard the robot voice again, this time repeating something different.

"Kitchen generator down. Lower engine generator down. Emergency life pods destroyed, and on fire. Orbital stabilizers falling."

Well, it sure was a good thing that I didn't aim for the space vehicles! Because it sounded like they are both on fire and practically dying.

All around me were the same old space suits, except in a different style and colors, protected by some weird glass screens. The warning lights weren't going off in the room, so I had assumed I was safe for a little bit.

Nevertheless, I hurried as much as I could, opening the glass door as more frequent shudders started playing, as if counting down for a final blow. I was just about to step inside when I realized something.

I had no clue on how to put on a space suit.

However, there was a convenient poster on the wall dedicated to just my exact problem! It literally showed what to put on first and how to do it carefully. But I couldn't read the words... They were like a much simpler form of ours, all spelled differently! I would just have to go by the illustrations, which wasn't too hard, I suppose.