Redemption

Exhaustion

But ignoring that for now, side-tangents won't help solve my issue, I just needed to focus.

Obviously, I couldn't just keep on with searching every room, not only would that just be wasting time but it could also potentially put myself at risk, my vessel was still dangerous after all and I have to keep it in mind that I no longer had the luxury of not having to worry about things such as contracting diseases or breaking a limb by falling through a thin deck plate or something like that, I had to be mindful of this body's own vitality.

But with that said, I also couldn't just isolate myself in one place and wait for a rescue, 72 years spent abandoned at sea with no one the wiser to my presence had proved that. I had to do something productive.

So... what were my options.

Thinking logically, I would be wasting my time trying to find an intact or unoccupied pair of clothing below decks, it would simply take too long and even if I did, then I probably wouldn't be able to wear it if the rats and other diseased creatures had anything to say about it.

Going off of that reasoning, then I would have to look for clothing that has been kept in both safe and enclosed spaces, some place where the rats wouldn't be able to get their dirty little hands on them but I also couldn't just keep checking every locker I came across, that would be counterproductive.

No, the only option I had left then was to look for my required items in places that were both the furthest away from whatever animal wanted to make a nest out of what scraps they found of it and the most likely to have spare uniforms kept hanging in an enclosed locker or something the like.

"...Last I re-mem... remem... buh, remember, the cap-tan still had some sp-air uni-forms kept in his qua... quart-ers. Good cha-unce I mi-ite find some boo-ts as well."

And if that search didn't prove fruitful then I could simply move on to one of the other officer's quarters and investigate there instead, one of them had to have something and even if they didn't, then at least their rooms would work as a good place to rest for the night without having to be concerned about something biting at my flesh while I slept.

It might have had its flaws in certain places but it was as good a plan as any, and I had to go up there anyways to retrieve something the captain kept hidden in his room so all I really was doing in the end was killing two birds with one stone.

All I needed to do now then was to head on up to the cabin deck below the bridge and keep on going until I came across the door to the captain's room, simple.

With my plans set, I finally finished in tying off the scraps of cloth wrapped around my right foot and set both down onto the floor, experiencing the same kind of flare up as before while setting the two crutches back in their positions beneath my arms, hissing a bit as the hardened rubber pressed roughly once again into flesh before taking a step forward...

And immediately observing the missing steps to the next set of stairs leading up, the places where they should have been appearing empty and barren save for some slight traces of its presence near the girders where they had previously spread between.

Simple... in theory, at least.

The path up to the cabin deck had been... rough, to say the least, not only had my ascent to the upper level been delayed by the different sets of collapsed and missing stairs but in some places, I had also encountered obstacles in the forms of piles of debris caused by both collapsed sections in the floor above and missing portions of the level I was walking on, the supporting beams too far spaced apart for me to safely walk across to the other side, forcing me to double-back to a previous location several times.