Among Us: A Novel | ✔

4｜Orange

Orange ran to the Navigation Center, the halls were busy, people were scrambling either trying to get the hell off of the ship, or to get buckled in for liftoff.

"Liftoff in T-minus 60 seconds,"

Have you ever noticed if you say one minute versus 60 seconds, 60 seconds sounds faster? It was like the girl on the speaker was trying to rush everybody. She probably was.

Orange took the orange seat (it only seemed appropriate) and started clipping in the complex buckle. (They had spent a whole class learning that)

Cross the straps. Clip the diagonals. Twist the second one and attach it to the third.

Then he was strapped in. A Girl in a bright lime green space and a boy in a cyan suit were at the dashboard frantically clicking buttons.

"Liftoff in T-minus 30 seconds!" Lime screamed into the microphone on the dashboard.

All of a sudden a dark brown cat jumped into his lap. "Aaagh!"

Orange was allergic to cats.

"Sorry!" A girl in a brown space suit ushered the cat into her lap, "This is Space Cat, she's gonna help us with experiments on Polus!"

"I-I'm allergic to cats," Orange was glad the spacesuit didn't allow the cat fur in.

"Oh sorry, I tell Space Cat to stay away from you." She turned to Space Cat, "Isn't that right Space Cat,"

The cat turned its head and hissed at Orange.

"Well, then it looks like she won't mind staying away from you," Brown gave him an apologetic smile.

At this point, the whole crew was strapped in and everyone else was off the ship. Hopefully. The doors were closed and if someone was still on the ship, then they'd be getting a free trip to Polus.

"Liftoff in T-minus 10... 9... 8" Lime initiated the countdown and the rest of the excited crew joined in. Out of the corner of his eye, Orange saw Yellow still rolling. He hoped their whole mission wouldn't be on camera, Orange couldn't handle that pressure.

"5... 4... 3... 2... 1!"

And they were off. With the latest advanced MIRA technology, it would take them one minute to break through the Earth's atmosphere. Then five more days to get to Polus.

It was the longest minute of Orange's life.

He couldn't move. At all. The pressure pushed against his body forcing him into his seat.

No, his ears didn't pop because MIRA had designed the spacesuits to prevent that despite the sudden increase in altitude.

* * *

"Alrighty crew we have successfully made it out of the atmosphere and the course is set for Polus, you are now free to move around the ship." Lime unbuckled her belt and floated to the ceiling.

"Stop acting like a flight attendant, Lime," Cyan floated up to her.

"Stop thinking I'm acting like a flight attendant, Cyan," Lime placed her hands on her hips and the rest of the crew took that as a cue to leave.

Orange tried to float away. It was harder than it seemed. "Uh, hey, could you turn on the gravity?" Green took the words out of his mouth.

"You all have rocket boosters in your boots," Blue told them. A small fire emerged from the bottom of her boots. "MIRA tech am I right?" She flew around the rest of her awestruck crew with a sly smile on her face as they ooohed and aaahed.

"So how do you activate them?" A boy in a red spacesuit was staring at the bottom of his shoe.

"Just flick your foot like this,"

Orange started flying around the room. He remembered his first experience in zero-gravity, but flying? Way cooler.

An annoying alarm clock noise and blue lights started dancing around the dashboard screen. Lime flew over to see the fuss.

"Nefari wants us to go to the cafeteria for an introduction meeting. And she already said yellow can't film it," She pointed a finger at yellow then removed her helmet, "The oxygen is stabilized, we don't need these anymore,"

They flew to the cafeteria.

* * *

Orange didn't know who Nefari was, but according to the other's expressions, she was important.

They reached the cafeteria and Blue pressed a few buttons on the main screen. A picture of the CEO of MIRA appeared.

Wait no, that wasn't a picture. It was the real CEO of MIRA. Woah.

"Hello, space explorers," She wore a completely clean white suit (how did she do that without getting stains on it?) Which contrasted her dark skin and went neatly with her cropped hair. (She always said long hair gets in your way of greatness, but Orange liked his long curly hair)

Nefari wasn't her real name, of course. It was her code name, like how he was Orange. No one knew her real name, or who she was, or where she came from. She was mysterious like that. Yet she ran the biggest private space exploring company in the world. Even NASA couldn't keep up.

"We are here to inform you and set ground rules on this ship," They all nodded.

"First, this ship is called The Skeld. Please treat it with respect as well as your crewmates. I know that none of you know each other as this mission was a tad last-minute, but that does not mean you may disrespect one another. Second, all of you are between the ages of 18 and 20 so you will notice there is no adult supervision aboard the ship. There are cameras that can be accessed at HQ and on your ship in the security room. Third, Blue is your captain. Listen to her."

White grumbled.

"Fourth, under this table are tablets, each of you will receive one filled with tasks and information used to keep the ship running. Please no funny business on these tablets they are owned by MIRA. And use your color only."

A boy with dark braids in a purple spacesuit handed out the tablets. They all took the tablets with their corresponding color.

"And lastly," Nefari hesitated, "Based on data from our analyzers, we seem to have found a breach in the code. A breach that suggests... that there is an imposter on the ship. Sent to kill the crew and sabotage Mission Surreptitious 5"

Rows of gasps filled the room.

"We believe that this is also the reason for the disappearance of the other four ships because similar traces were found. Be wary of your crewmates. Still treat them with respect but remember that one of them is an imposter. We will do the work on our end to figure out who but we ask that you work on your end as well. But there is a red button on the table to call emergency meeting if you see something suspicious. And your tablets have report buttons as well. Unfortunately, we cannot bring you back. The Mission is too important. Just know, that one of you is an imposter,"

Orange looked around at his crewmates and knew they were all thinking the same thing.

There was an imposter Among Us

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Heh heh, let the murder mysteries begin!