DEATH COLONY: SURVIVORS
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6
Mia awoke
with a throbbing headache, her back on the floor with her legs
sprawled along the wall. Her neck was ajar and sore. Gently, she
shifted her weight and moved into a comfortable lying position,
eventually adjusting to a sitting position where she rested with her
back against the wall.
‘What the hell was
that?’ she shouted aloud, wondering if anyone heard her, and in the
least not caring. The room seemed to be slanted slightly, as she had
trouble standing at first.
‘What the…’ she
said again as she peered out of her cell. There was blood everywhere,
yet the room was strangely quiet as though everyone were sleeping. But
they can’t be, Mia thought. Some of them snore quite loud and
I’d have heard them.
She took a step
forward and looked at the entrance – and exit – to her cell. The
laser beams used to keep the prisoners in their cells were invisible,
but highly deadly. One touch could take your hand off. She took off a
shoe and tossed it through.
Nothing.
Just for reassurance,
she took off the other and holding the bootlace, she waved it through
and eventually threw it with the other.
Nothing.
Breathing deeply, she
nervous jumped through the gap to find that she had survived. The
power was out, with only emergency lighting to show the way. When
there was a power cut all locks and lasers were disabled. In fact, Mia
doubted that there was any security on the vessel at all at that
point.
It was then she
noticed the carnage.
Slapping a hand to
her mouth, Mia vomited at the sight – several of her cell mates lay
decimated around their cells. Some were missing with no trace at all.
Coming to her senses, she heard a tiny murmur coming from the old
man’s cell. Stumbling, she ran into his cell to see him sitting up
the corner with a gash the length of his forearm across his chest. His
breathing was shallow and quick. He was dying.
‘They always told
me I was gonna die ‘ere, on this ship.’ He said. ‘I was
guessin’ they’d be… be right.’ He struggled to breathe.
‘Try not to
speak.’ Said Mia, trying to make the old man comfortable. He merely
waved her help away with the gentle smile he always gave.
‘I’ll be doin’
all right,’ he said. ‘It was me time anyway, ya understand,
yes?’
Mia nodded. But she
didn’t understand. She didn’t want to understand. This was a
horrible existence. To live and die on a prison ship where this sort
of thing could happen daily was inhumane.
The old man coughed
and took a breath. It was his last. Mia closed his still gray eyes and
fought back a sob. She didn’t know the old man, she had never even
found out his name, but he was gentle, like the people she had known
back home, before she was accused of murder.
Standing, Mia glanced
around her. She guessed that some of the prisoners must have done what
she was doing: escaped when they woke up, if they were ever
unconscious.
Leaving the old
man’s cell, Mia climbed the stairs to the upper level to see Finch
lying face down on the floor, a foot long gash in his back, his
blood-stained knife still gripped tightly in his hand. Bending down,
Mia took the knife and tucked it into her boot.
‘Arsehole.’ Said
Mia, not at all sad that Finch had met his end. She still shuddered,
as thought of what he wanted to do to her entered her mind. She pushed
it away and climbed down the stairs, finding no one alive.
As she reached the
lower level, she noticed something lying on the floor – a radio. He
must have dropped it when he died, thought Mia, picking it up. It
was smashed and in no way useful. Cursing, she tossed it back to the
ground.
*
At length, she
decided that remaining in the cell room was no use to her – whatever
was wrong with the ship could only hurt her more if she stayed in her
cell, right? Besides, she didn’t see any guards so she didn’t see
the harm. She would just stay on her guard.
Carefully and
quietly, Mia ventured out of the cell room, for the first time ever
without a guard prodding his gun in-between her shoulders. It felt
strange, even after just two days, as though she had been used to it
her whole life. However, it was a welcomed strangeness.
‘Oh my god…’
the words seemed to fall out of Mia’s mouth as she stepped over
corpse after corpse, each one more mutilated than the last. She had no
idea who… or even what could have done such a thing. Everyone
was dead!
‘This is… I
can’t believe it.’ She said, unsure whether she was glad of her
freedom, or sad for the death of so many. She stood and pondered this
for quite some time. Most of the people in the prison, unlike Mia,
were actually murderers, rapists, robbers, drug smugglers, pedophiles
or otherwise. Very few people got convicted of a crime they didn’t
commit these days. If you were going to frame someone you would have
to be good at it.
‘I suppose it’s
not all of a bad thing.’ She said, as if to verify their death’s
and lessen her guilt for apparently being the only survivor.
It was then she heard
a scurrying. A lot like the sound a rat would make if running across
steel, though heavier, but just as quick. And whatever it was had
claws. Sharp claws.
‘Someone there?’
she said, pulling the knife from her boot and holding it aloft. She
listened again and the scurrying came. Louder this time, though all
around her like an echo.
Her eyes darted
around the ceiling and floor for a potential attacker, but no one
came. She stood for a minute or so with her back against the bulkhead,
worried that if something should sneak up behind her, she wouldn’t
be able to defend herself.
‘If someone’s
there, I’ll cut your throat if I see you.’ She warned, trying to
sound as tough as she could, but the nervous squeak in her voice made
her words redundant. Slowly, she edged forward, heading for the
cockpit. It must be this way, she thought. I’ve seen soldiers
head this way hundreds of times.
So that was her
choice. She decided to follow the large air vent that ran up the top
right corner of the wall the length of the ship.
As she walked, she
took note of her surroundings. Despite the blood stains, the Alpha
Turret was beautifully crafted; each hatch was engraved intricately
with the Alpha Turret logo, and even the deck and bulkhead were
engraved with a pattern of some kind. But over the years, the care for
this art faded and the Alpha Turret became nothing more than a flying
scrap of metal.
Then, like a bolt of
thunder, something zoomed past her in the air vent. A small creature
that walked on all fours. Mia had no idea what it was, but it made the
same sound. She considered for a while whether to continue her
original path (after all, she would be following it and this may not
have proved too safe) but then decided she had no better route to
follow.
About an hour later,
Mia was devastated to find she had somehow managed to walk around the
Alpha Turret in an entire circle. She kicked the bulkhead and cursed
loudly, throwing the knife to the floor.
‘How the hell am I
supposed to get out of this god-forsaken ship?’ she screamed, her
voice ricocheting her words back to her twice over.
‘Hey.’ Came a
sudden male voice behind her. Mia spun around and picked up the knife
quickly. The man held his hands aloft in surrender. They were blood
stained – probably from the cuts on his head and arms.
‘I know you,’
said Mia, lowering her weapon. ‘You’re the officer that helped me
out earlier.’
Hal nodded.
‘Don’t worry I’m not here to take you back to your cell. My name
is Sergeant Hal Dexter.’
‘I’m Mia.’
Hal nodded again and
sighed. ‘Everyone’s dead. Anyone who’s still alive tried to
escape. It killed them all.’
‘You mean that four
legged thing? I saw it,’ said Mia. ‘It ran along the air vent
toward the uh… the cockpit, I think.’ She said. ‘What the hell
is it?’
Hal shrugged. ‘You
wanna give me the knife?’
Mia shrugged.
‘No.’ she smiled dryly. ‘I’m armed and staying that way,
thankyou. I want to live.’ Her smile faded when she noticed Hal’s
arm. ‘My god, you’re going to bleed to death if you don’t get
that patched up.’
Hal glanced at his
arm. ‘I know,’ he said. ‘Can’t get to anything right now.
It’s too dangerous. I got this trying to save the Captain, but that
thing killed him as soon as we landed.’
‘Oh a landing is
that what that was?’ Mia scoffed, gesturing towards the slanting of
the ship.
‘Don’t be a
smartass with me.’ Snapped Hal angrily. ‘Technically, you should
be dead like the rest of them. Wasn’t that your sentence? Life on a
penal colony? You’d be dead in a week in one of those things.’
Mia swallowed hard.
When were people going to listen that she was innocent? She said
nothing, but turned to walk away. She then stopped, turned back.
‘Why are you still
here?’ she asked.
‘I’m looking for
a guy named Kyle Stratton.’ Said Hal gloomily. ‘He’s a good
friend of mine. We grew up together.’
‘Where was… where
is he stationed?’
Hal thought and
shrugged. ‘No idea. Last I heard he was down in sick bay in the
psyche ward – the guy’s a psychiatrist.’
‘Then why not look
down there?’ asked Mia. Hal said nothing but chuckled slightly.
‘What?’ she said.
‘Nothing, why so
interested?’ he asked, chuckling again.
‘I don’t know,’
she admitted. ‘I may aswell be on death’s doorstep according to
you so I was going to suggest that I help you look for him. Maybe I
can finally prove to you people I’m not a killer.’
‘Hey, I’m the one
who said that you weren’t, remember?’ said Hal, putting his hands
up again. ‘But if you wanna help, I wouldn’t say no.’
As they entered the
psyche ward, their ears were greeted by the deathly moan of a grown
man. Splitting up, they searched around until eventually Mia came
across a young man, perhaps twenty-five at the oldest, lying on the
floor with the same long, deep gash in his stomach as all the other
corpses had. Except this one was not yet dead.
Not yet.
‘Hal! I found
someone, he’s still alive, but he’s hurt pretty bad.’ Shouted
Mia. Hal came running over and stopped dead in his tracks, his face
flooded with grief and confusion.
‘Are you okay?’
she asked. The dying man lifted a hand up to Hal, who slowly crouched
down and took it.
‘Kyle.’ Hal
choked, not listening to Mia. ‘Man, I’m… what happened?’
Kyle struggled to
breathe but managed a few words. ‘The thing… it came… killed…
everyone… It was… a stowaway from… from Talnis.’ And he said
no more. Kyle lay there motionless, his eyes staring through Hal, his
clothes and the floor around him bloodstained.
‘Kyle?’ Hal
gripped his friend’s hand tighter and shook it a little, as though
he were trying to wake him from a sleep. ‘Kyle?’ he asked again.
Tears flowed freely down his cheeks. Mia stepped back, holding back
her own.
‘I’m sorry Hal,
he’s gone.’ She said softly. But Hal wouldn’t listen. He shook
his head, gently lay Kyle on the floor and began mouth-to-mouth
resuscitation, being as careful as he could not to put too much
pressure on the chest laceration.
‘Hal,’ said Mia
again, crouching down next to him. ‘He’s dead. I’m sorry,
there’s nothing you can do.’ She put a hand on his shoulder which
he violently pushed away as he stood up.
‘What the hell
would you know?’ Hal shouted hysterically. ‘I’m guessing
that’s never happened to any of your damn friends, has it?’
Mia shook her head,
more out of speechlessness than anything.
‘I didn’t think
so.’ He said and emotion overcame him, sending him to the floor in a
sobbing heap. Mia said and did nothing for some time, letting Hal get
all the sadness out of him. At length, she crouched down and stood him
up as he pulled himself together.
‘We’d better get
out of here before we end up like Kyle and all the others.’ Said
Mia, carefully wiping the tears from Hal’s face. Hal nodded and led
the way out of the room and towards the nearest hatch that led out of
the Alpha Turret onto the unknown planet.
