Once the coast was clear, we began walking down the hallway. I didn’t really ask any questions because I didn’t want him to leave me. Honestly, I also got the sense that he wouldn’t have answered any either.
At least, not yet.
I don’t think he trusts me very much.
That said, I did make a few observations.
I noticed that his armor didn’t contain a single symbol.
No identifying letters nor badges.
I thought it was odd because I thought service members would have some sort of identifier. I don’t know. Something tells me he’s not government affiliated.
He’s a little taller than me, maybe a little under 6 feet. Pretty toned but not too toned. The best way I can describe is that life didn’t appear to have been easy for him. I don’t know how else to put it.
It just looked like he’s seen some shit.
Nonetheless, he carried himself on without fear. He didn’t even shed a tear at the thought of witnessing all his colleagues ripped apart earlier. And now here we were, walking through the blood-stained hallways making our way down to the bottom of the ship. Those things were long gone, probably on their way back to their massacre from earlier.
Eventually we located the stairs that led to Deck 1 and 2 and we began to walk down, reaching a small set of stairs that led to double doors. The man shone his light to try to get a clearer view of the inside but to no avail. He tried to open the doors, but they seemed to have been locked from the inside.
I took out my notebook and began to write on it.
If it’s locked, what do we do?
I’ll check my map to see if there’s an alternate route. He scribbled furiously.
I nodded while he pulled out a little tablet from behind his back. I was a little weirded out by it because I didn’t know he had one. Where the hell did it even fit? I was about to take a closer look when something on the floor caught my attention.
There were a bunch of little red sticks all over the floor.
Flares.
They were long used up though.
Could they have gone through here?
I was about to lean over and grab at one to show the man when I was pulled back violently onto the floor. One of those things had snuck up behind me and got on top of me. Its mouth was wide open as if it was screaming. Its translucent skin was shimmering as a beam of light had found it and from it erupted a small burst of colorless fluid that splattered all over me.
A leg kicked it off from me and quickly pulled me up. The man appeared to be motioning at me to stand back and so I did. There were so many of those things descending down the stairs like a buffalo stampede. He just kept shooting and shooting but every time one went down, another would take its place.
I quickly took out another flare from my pocket and rubbed the end of the flare against the surface of the cap causing the whole room to be lit up in a blinding flash of red. I held it up against the staircase to try to get them to back up and they did. Then I looked behind me to see the man trying to kick the door open and I quietly begged that the doors broke because these flares only lasted around 60 seconds before they would burn out.
To my surprise, the doors flung wide open right as my flare died and something tackled me onto the ground. I laid on the ground struggling as the thing opened its mouth and began to get close to my face when a large knife attached to a stick stabbed it in the side of the head.
It was Akio and his face seemed determined as he pulled it out and slashed another one of those things away from me. The SWAT man lunged forward with a knife out of nowhere and slashed a hand away from Akio’s shoulder and pulled him back from unleashing his fury at those monsters.
I was dragged away once again into the set of doors as another flare was lit up and thrown outside and the doors were slammed shut.
I quickly got up and I hugged Akio for saving me. I looked over to my right to see Jason staring back me and I ran over to give him a hug as well. His white uniform was caked in blood, oil, and some of the clear liquid that came from those things. There was a small gash that came from the side of his temple and down to his cheek.
Honestly it looked kind of painful.
He gave me a worried look and I handed him my notebook for him to write.
What are you doing here? Why aren’t you with the others?
Others are dead. They broke through right after you left.
He nodded and gave a curious look to the guy before speaking to him. I wanted to see what they were saying but Akio motioned me over and began to bandage up a large gash on my arm.
I could see that Jason raised his eyebrow at him as the man spoke and eventually it appeared they came into some sort of agreement because they both took a walk into the hallway. I wanted to follow along, but Akio nodded his head no and continued pouring alcohol into my wound causing me to wince.
Honestly, I didn’t really protest because my adrenaline was still kicked into gear, and I was starting to get really shaky. My arms are trembling so bad that I’m afraid I won’t be able to write legibly pretty soon. It’ll wear off in like an hour or so but that was honestly the most I’ve ever been scared in my entire life.
I’m just real happy that Jason and Akio are still alive.
I think we’re in the engine deck because I’m surrounded by heavy machinery. It’s odd to think that a place that probably vibrated with life was now completely still. I just wonder what is taking them so long from restoring power onto the ship. If they can’t restore power, then this entire trip will have been for nothing.
And we’ll be stuck at the bottom killing time before they break through and tear us apart.
And I don’t think Akio will be able to kill them all.
I think I need to rest before I start demanding answers.
This will be my latest update for now.
Wish me luck.
-Miranda Alcalde