France
Loud thuds sounded echoing throughout the ship startled me, I looked up from my book and wondered what caused it. Was it gunshots? Or maybe the toppling of cargo in the bowels of the ship? Perhaps even a malfunctioning component or system? On this ship gunshots seemed the less likely, a fight maybe but not gunshots. The sound did terrify me though. The sounds rang out at least three times and appeared to originate from across the ship, they didn't seem to have come from below. Suddenly footsteps were rushing down the corridor, I expected them to pass by the door but there came a knock.
"It's me."
It was Max's voice and although she was my room-mate we always knocked out of respect and did so even if we knew the other was out of the room.
"Come in." I told her and she entered hastily.
"Come quickly, bring bandages, someone's been shot." She quickly explained.
I was shocked, I wondered what happened, the men on this spaceship often had falling outs and occasionally came to blows, but never shots. I reached under my bed but realised that all my medical supplies where at the makeshift medical ward a few rooms away.
"My kit is in the ward. Where did happen? What happened?" I asked her so confused and panicked.
"The lounge area. I think that maybe some are trying to take over the ship." Max told me as she took out her pistol and carefully loaded two bullets into the ammunition magazine.
There were only ten onboard this vessel including me and Max, five were passengers that had joined the ship from the last port they had been at three weeks ago. I was pretty sure they all knew each other before they boarded, maybe it was them that decided to take control of the ship. Or maybe the first mate to the captain wanted to try his hand at being in charge; they had always had arguments and it was no secret that they both held differing opinions on the running of the ship, although I had never seen them come to blows, whilst sober at least.
"We'll go there and then there, I'll cover you." She told me.
Max opened the door and motioned to me to stay close. We entered the ward and I took a kit; upon exiting the room a roar of shots rang out, this time they sounded clearer and closer. I stayed against the wall and looked down both directions of the narrow hallway, Max was gone. I opened my mouth and was about to cry out her name but I bit my tongue. I immediately became frightened and my mind began to fear for her life.
I had known Max a year before we had both joined the crew of The Revenant and so we had been firm friends for just over three years. My mind then turned to myself, was I going to die, I wasn't armed, out of the ten people on this tin can I was the only one that didn't brandish a handgun, shock weapon or blade on my belt. I hate guns and now I needed a gun because I felt like my life depended upon it. Sour thoughts of Max suddenly filled my mind, she knew I was defenceless why would she leave me? But suddenly almost out of a different dimension she appeared several feet away from me near a turn of the corridor. My negative thoughts of her faded as soon as they appeared and seeing her pistol in her hand at her side gave me hope. She waved a hand and I followed.
We managed to make it to the closest hallway to the lounge and there was the first mate on the floor against the wall, the captain standing over him and the another newer crew member on the opposite side of the corridor firing shots into the lounge area.
"France check him please. I think he was hit pretty bad." He said.
I knelt beside him and realised he had lost so much blood as it appeared most of his own was pooled around him. I figured he had been hit in a major organ. I tapped him on the shoulder and got no reaction I checked his neck for a pulse and found none. Upon lifting his head from his chest I realised he had been shot directly in the chest, I quickly concluded that he had perished much before the blood began to pool.
"We picked up the wrong guys." The captain stated as he reloaded his pistol "They are trying to take control of the ship. They are probably fascist agents." He turned to Max "They are using the table as a shield."
I left the medical pack on the floor next to the body of the first mate and stood, the captain glanced at me and I shook my head. Fresh anger painted his face as he returned to firing. Max got my attention and thrust a handgun into my hand; it heavy and wet in my hand, I realised that it was coated in blood and that it must have been the mate's. I had never held a gun before but I held it tightly with my finger away from the trigger.
The new crew member across the hallway suddenly cried out and fell to the floor. I turned my head but Max caught my collar gently with her left hand and stared at me for a moment, I felt her hand slightly wet from the blood on her hand. Her piercing emerald green eyes seemed to contemplate whether they would see mine again, she swept a loose strand of hair from my face and tilted her head and gave me a sorry smile.
"Cover me." Max told the captain who shot out wildly before rushing to take the fallen crew member's position.
I saw as Max almost made it across the hallway a hail of bullets; most clattered against the metal wall but Max stumbled and fell against the wall almost atop the fallen friend. My heart stopped and I wanted to cry out, I felt for certain she was killed. My back fell against the wall and held my forehead, I then realised that the gun lacked a magazine when my arm fell to side I let it clatter upon the floor.
"I got another one!" He exclaimed with hope. He called out to those down the corridor "Give up, we know you outnumber us. What is there one of you left." he dropped to one knee and peered out holding his gun steady. I saw him look over to Max and heard him swear under his breath. Suddenly after several moments of no gunfire the captain took a bullet to the head, his corpse toppled over and his weapon laid in his now stretched out hand before me. I began to bend down to grab it when I looked up to see a man appear who had run down the hallway from where the shooting had came.
"Don't even think about it." He said sternly. He held a pistol in his left hand and had it pointed at me, I reached my hands far to the ceiling in surrender, every other part of me had been frozen with fear. I noticed his jacket was bloodied and that he had been shot in the arm, he winced and said "Lucky we didn't shoot you darling, I need your help."
Suddenly a shot rang out clearly disrupting the new found peace and I covered my face and fell to my knees with my hands still raised. There came a thud in front of me and after a few silent moments and I uncovered my face and looked to see the man dead upon the floor, his body strewn across the captain and bullet in his back. I thought to lower my hands, I did not know from which gun the bullet had came, so kept them above my head. My arms soon tired and it remained silent, surely they know I am the last alive so why didn't they come and apprehend me unless they believed I had shot him. But who had shot him? Perhaps one of his own, maybe they were now fighting each other, however little of them must have been left. After what felt like a minute there was another gunshot that sounded as though it came from in front of me, I heard it shatter against the metal wall far above my head to my right, it was not returned. At that moment I realised Max was not dead, I found her slumped against the wall and rushed to her. The other crewmember had bled out and was unconscious; bloody marks showed that Max had crawled across the floor.
Her arm was bloodied she looked up to me and smiled when I knelt beside her.
"Friend I though you were dead." I admitted "Where are you hit?" She didn't reply and held out her hand for me to help her up. "I don't want to move you yet."
"My shoulder." She told me as she tugged on her blooded sleeve. "And..." She looked at her torso and added "I think that is all."
She sighed and tried to move but I placed my hand on her shoulder stopping her.
"Are you okay sweetie? Are you hurt?" She stuttered.
I shook my head in answer to both questions. I reached over and shook the captains leg. After a quick look over it was clear he was dead. I turned back to her and told her he was gone.
"Is your leg okay?"
"It froze, went stiff, I tripped. It's I thing I've had since the military."
I knew what condition it was but I didn't know that she had it and tried to help her stretch her leg out.
"Okay." I said relieved. I put out my hand and helped her slowly to her feet. "Are you okay? Do you feel faint? Sick?"
"I'm okay." She replied shaking her head "Wait Jon?"
I suddenly remembered the other crewmember and knelt at his side and checked quickly for a pulse. I shook my head.
"It's just you and me." I said.
"Let's home so." She replied thoughtfully. "Come on quick incase."
Feeling saddened and still shaken we both made it to the medical ward and I got her to sit on the bed. I was about to cut her sleeve to get a better view of the wounds but I looked to the door and thought to lock it.
"What was that for?" Max asked. "I killed the last of them."
"We never counted the bodies." I reminded her. "I'm not taking chances until certain."
"Fair." Max said in agreement as she held out her arm to me. She swore and winced.
I got her to lay down so her arm was relaxed and began to cut away her sleeve. Her arm had been grazed by a bullet and bandaged that before thinking of approaching her shoulder where she had explained most of the pain came from. I unbuttoned her shirt which revealed her bare torso with the bullet wound in the top of her left shoulder, luckily the bleeding had been minimal and it was stopped. I gave her several pain killer capsules to take with water and then examined the wound. I was glad to realise that the bullet had gone straight through her arm, this meant that I just needed to clean, staple and wrap the wound.
"How does it look France?"
"It looks great." I replied only realising after what it was that she was asking me.
"I meant the bullet hole." Max said cracking a smile. "Not me."
She made me laughed and I playfully told her to shut up. I explained that I would have to give her staples to hold the skin so that it would heal. I set to work cleaning the wound during which we both said little, she mostly looked up at me with her beautiful seducing eyes. I tried my hardest to stop myself from gazing into her eyes and eventually gave in and she smiled and she raised the palm of her right hand towards me which I held to wiped clean of blood. I closed her hand into a fist and kissed the back gently, I knew she had saved my life but I didn't know what to say; I figured I would say something later. The thoughts of the other crew entered my mind again and I felt like I wanted to weep but knew I was way too tired to shred a tear. It was technically the late evening and I had slept poorly for the last few days due to a fever that I had recently overcome. I should be more alert than I was although all I wanted to do was to rest.
My mind briefly turned to the ship: I realised for the first time ever we were both not only on the ship alone together but also shared complete control and ownership of the vessel. Yes I would own a portion of the ship unless Max was indeed mistaken in her claim that we were the only left alive.
I did her staples on her front and then got her to lie on her back and did it there too. Eventually I finished up and told her to sit up. We then both sat looking at each other in silence, I waited for her to speak, but I think she was waiting for me to say something. I missed the blood down her arm and her other hand and took her arm in my hand.
"I know." she told me and pulled away. "... I'm sorry." she apologised, shook her head and stood up. "We should check the ship, count the dead and then shower. I thought for certain any left would have attacked us by now, but you planted the thought in my head, that maybe we are not alone. You look so tired and we are both shaken up. We both have a lot of questions."
She read my mind and reached for the door, when I stopped her.
"You look cold." I told her pointing to the fact that she wasn't wearing a shirt or anything else covering her torso for that matter. I took off my jacket and placed it around her, I helped her put her arm through and then zipped it up. She nodded and we left the room. After several seconds she cursed and turned around went back for her pistol she had left behind.
"Like you said I'm not taking chances either." She told me holstering it. "Didn't you have a gun?" She asked almost offended that I wasn't carrying anything.
"I dropped it." I replied cringing as I remembered she had given it to me without bullets.