EarthFall

Chap 30. Emergencies only.

Carson screamed and beat the glass furiously. He hit the door switch on the control board. He had to get out there...

It beeped at him. A safety feature. A holo display popped up, showing how many seconds remained until he was free.

He sat there for 30 long, helpless seconds before the Atmosphere came back to the loading bay.

It had only taken 10 for his team to surround and neutralize the Commander.

When the door opened, Hail was in Cuffs. But Carson and Maia went straight for Abel. He was still alive... but not for long.

His exposed blood had become a foamy soup, a result of the liquids boiling away in the vacuum.

He looked like he was trying to speak, but didn't have the diaphragm anymore to do so.

Brianna held him, rocking him gently. He only had a few seconds left.

"No." Maia suddenly said.

They turned to her.

"No." She repeated. Then, louder, she asked:

"Can you all... keep a secret?" She said.

"Sure. What is it?" Carson asked.

"I stole one extra... reanimation serum from Gaia before we left.... For emergencies only." She rolled forward.

"Do you think this counts?" She asked.

"Yes this counts... But how--" Carson began, but he shook his head. There were intestines lying all over the floor...

Maia extended a needle tipped rod. She paused, half an inch away from Abels neck.

"Would you mind... trying to... put some of the... stuff... back inside the cavity, before we begin?"

Carson immediately scooped up parts and pieces of unrecognizable bloody meat and started shoving them back into Abels torn stomach cavity. He didn't know how much good it would do though....

Abels eyes began to flutter. Carson recognized that look...

"Quickly," He urged Maia on.

Maia injected Abel, and what happened next was one of the most disturbing things Carson had ever seen.

It took all 5 of them to hold Abel down. Meanwhile he thrashed and screamed like an animal. He screamed himself hoarse a number of times, but it seemed the nanites would simply repair his throat because after a few minutes he would be at top volume again.

He broke the back of his skull against the metal floor, and bled all over the place before the nanites healed the cut. This happened over and over again until they managed to wrap a jacket around his head to pad it from the convulsions.

And the intestines... that was the worst part. They wiggled and squirmed like they were alive, moving and shifting like giant worms in plain view from inside Abels ruined stomach cavity.

Finally, it seemed Abel had passed out, which didn't seem fair that he was able to where Carson wasn't... but the skin began to convulse, and flap back together slowly, until all that was left was a constellation of scars that looked like miniature freckles. They wrapped around his whole abdomen.

He was breathing steadily... finally.

"Well will you look at that." The sound of Hail's voice echoed through the Chamber.

That reminded him. He took Maia aside, away from the others, and asked her about the surveillance systems again.

"No... there are very few cameras at all.... Throughout the whole facility... some spots are... completely dark to me..."