In a much louder crack, the lights suddenly started flickering and died out, surprising O'keal as his grip tightened in the moment. A sudden surge of adrenaline jerked throughout my limbs and I started scraping at his hands and kicking at his stomach, causing my brother to abruptly drop me and step back. The only way I could see him was because of the fire glowing on my arms.
Quickly scrambling to my feet from the fall, I charged at my sibling, grabbing his head and slamming it to the tiled floor, stomping on his knees – aiming to stun him for at least a few seconds so that I'm able to run off.
A sudden yell for O'keal echoed through the room, and I looked up as I remembered Carissa was still here, no longer focused on the wire and instead aiming for me. However, her course was interrupted by a sudden lurch throughout the ship.
While her body slapped against the floor unsteadily, much more alarming bells started chiming everywhere, while a mechanical voice repeated, "Warning: fire spreading in generator. Warning."
Quickly, I started smashing my feet against the hatch, popping it open and taking my chances. A last glance behind me showed that O'keal was getting up, and fast. If I hadn't forgotten about the short ladder and stacked chairs, I would've taken my sweet time clambering down.
Instead I merely kind of climbed down and landed unsteadily onto the chairs, before sliding and crashing on to the top of the tables right before the seats all fell with lots of noise, and I groaned as I forced my legs to not get stiff yet. My legs still had lots of more running to do, I thought.
Right before I set off, up above I heard shouting and loud footsteps as another jolt forced everything to tilt, and I quickly decided it best to focus on my inner strength and set the ladder on fire. After all, those two weren't on my side anymore.
A quick glance at Johni and I felt my heart sink. She shouldn't have died like this. She was so young and kind, but instead she was stuck in this repeating loophole of probably dying over and over... Shake it off, Faith, there was nothing you could do now.
I latched onto the second ladder and easily slipped down to the other floor, looking around in panic. What was I to do, there was no time to fix the fire! I couldn't go back to the emergency pods because I bet I'd need a key for that, but it's not like I could just jump out of a window and hope to land in another planet! Where were the maps when you needed them?!
Oh, yes! Thinking back to when I came in, there was a small map on the side of the wall where the microwave and stuff was. Going up from the pod bay and the kitchen areas, it appeared like the staircase branching off from the one I headed upwards lead towards a sort of suit area. Maybe I'd have some luck there!
I was already running before I had even processed my own actions, running past blaring lights and already sparking wires. As I was rushing down a staircase, a major tilt from the spacecraft slipped my feet out from underneath me, yet I managed to catch myself on my hands before my poor nose could get any more damaged than it already was. Thank you, me.
As I was passing by an even darker hallway, muffled screaming reached my ears and I hesitated. That one second was enough for me to witness sudden flashing lights, as wires on the walls dipped down low enough to interact with pooling water on the floors, causing me to push myself farther away to a safer distance from the now shocking liquid.
I had once recognized those screams, but now, they were all drowning and mixing together with all the others that my ears have been subject to.
Gotta keep moving, I mentally yelled to myself, hurrying in my destination and seeing the two differentiating stairs, finally. The lower one was the path back to the pods, so I went up the opposite one, clutching at the wall with now wet feet. At any moment, I could've slipped and fell and practically bashed my head open, which was a terrifying thought. Any second, some monster could've jumped out from the darkness and dragged me into a dark corner, torturing me until it all ended – but I was too intelligent to know that I could outsmart that monster, like I have, until the very end.
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.
Skimming through the pictures wasn't as difficult as I had imagined. Apparently I just needed to attach a few parts extra... and some strange underwear.
I wasn't going to ask, instead getting to work as much as I could.
Once again, I looked around, trying to keep my balance in a place where the ship kept tossing and turning. I just had to remove my clothes and shoes, putting over some very uncomfortable underclothes, a belt, and then had to put on a sort of net suit.
When I looked up outside the enclosed domain, I'm pretty sure I saw actual smoke – it looked like it was rapidly building, too. Definitely not good.
I felt like I was doing my actions in almost a slow, calm manner – it was agonizing, might I say. And then, I finally unzipped the astronaut suit.
You know, when I first saw these bad boys back at the very first space station, I was ecstatic! I thought it would've been so amazing to just wear one for a minute and then step out, yet here I am! In the midst of a crisis, forcing myself to put on a space suit, because I didn't have any other choice! Jumping out naked into the black abyss isn't a worthy fate, but dying here sure as hell isn't either.
Also, do you know how hard doing motions in a stiff suit like this is? I've learned that making any sort of action requires you to both move your body and to push against the outer suit! It wasn't exactly the most pleasant to attach the gloves and helmet.
As I focused on the outside again, the smoke had just proceeded to build up, the room now a glowing red, yet the noises of alarm were only muffled in the suit. I forced my fingers to switch a few knobs, turn a dial, and all the pressure, water, and air I needed was suddenly flowing around my body.
At this point, I was starting to doubt my thoughts. Was jumping out really the solution to this? Wouldn't it be easier to just fix the generators? Weren't we near a planet? Couldn't we just use the orbital stabilizers to head towards them?
In a single second, I realized that all of these were stupid questions. In the easiest resolution, here was my conclusion: I was doomed to stay here, better leave now.
Oh boy, if I had thought that putting on a suit was hard enough, I never knew the task ahead of me. Gripping the glass domain's handle, I tried to gently pry it open, but ended up having to just yank it to the side. And then I stepped out.
I rigidly looked around, searching for the way out, but then loud slams somehow had reached my ears, and I turned around towards the entrance. I was shocked to see Kyasha, wide eyes begging to escape, causing me to try to swiftly stagger towards the new friend.
As I arrived at the door, the red-hair brought a sort of headset onto her head, looking behind her anxiously for a second before she turned back to me, tapping a button on the headpiece.
"Oh god, you- you're alive! I- I can't believe it, because they- the others- they're all dead, I think," her voice rang throughout my helmet; she must have attached her gear to my own.
She was stumbling over her own words, which worried me to no end; I remember her looking so calm and neat, but now she was all-over worried, paranoid.
"Kyasha, calm down. Are you okay? Are you hurt, bleeding, anything at all?"
"No, I'm not okay, I just watched my best friends die! Faith, Faith, there's something- something here, it wants us dead. The consoles, it said system failure, Faith, and the fire stopped, I think, but it managed to kick enough of the generators. There- there's no way to fix it," the girl rambled, gasping for breath between sentences. I had never seen someone so distressed in my life. And god, do I never want to again.
"Please, Kyasha, please calm down, you're going to be okay. I- I can just open the door, you can put on a suit. We'll get out here alive, just don't..." I trailed off at noticing some strange movements behind her, and wiggled the door handle in vain.
Noticing my concern, Kyasha swiveled around, and I managed to catch a glimpse of her mouthing something before a bright flash bounced off the walls, immobilizing her, but it wasn't like she could move anyway – a knife had just been plunged into her throat.
I mean, I didn't mean to make it sound so casual, too, but it was just as surprising as you'd imagine!
I squeaked and stumbled back, the knife's tip just managing to tear past the glass by a hair, blood dripping down. Continuing to step back, I watched as Carissa's figure appeared, staring me dead in the eyes with a harsh glare as she repeatedly slammed Kyasha against the door.
Slowly taking the headset for herself, she started speaking to me as I panicked and turned to look for the exit.
"Faith, you've got a death threat on your ass and you bet that I'm not picking it up anytime soon. We can do this the easy way, where you just open the door, or we'll have to do it the complicated way. Now, just stop moving so that we can make this easier."
I pivoted on my heel, seeing the big blue doors with a button to the side, and I slammed my hand into the square as I resisted the urge to look behind me. The large doorway opened, leading to a small area where the last doors were, and I saw a quick reflection in the helmet of my suit that Carissa was trying to knock out the glass of the doors. They were already cracking.
"Faith, you know I'm going to get in. Come back here and accept yourself!"
That only caused me to hurry more, and I looked to the right wall as there was a lever to close the door behind me. I didn't even think before I was heaving my arm to force it closed, since it seemed very rusty.
As I heard my attacker threaten, "Faith, Faith, you're going to die out there," I heard slamming on her end, before a crack replaced it. Shoot, she was breaking in.
While I walked towards the second switch near the final door, fists slammed into the one behind me, rough, unforgiving slams.
Carissa's voice screaming my name pounded into my mind, as well as her slams, and it felt like my motions were all mechanical now. I pulled the lever, watched the doors slide open, and I felt my face go pale from looking out at the blackness once again.
It made me sick, scared.
But I jumped out.
I could feel my suit being attracted to the gravity of the station but I resisted, swimming towards the nothing in front of me, breath heavy, instincts sharp.
For what seemed like forever, I was just spinning around, tossing, trying not to get sick at all the motions when a sudden force pushed my suit away.
Explosion, was the only word that crossed through my mind.
I couldn't control my body at all now, spinning and tossing and jolting. The lights from the eruption were fading out, bits and pieces of metal and scrap zooming past me, but somehow not even hitting me.
I would've called it luck, but at this point...
Was I even lucky to be alive anymore?