Among Us....

Chapter 9: Fire starter

The bang woke her up. Tayjah gasped and again gripped her chest. She looked around her room, but realized the sound had come from down the hall. Anxiety grew in her stomach at the thought that somebody or something was outside her door.
"What was that?" She thought.
The sound reminded her of a memory, she tried to place it. When everyone had gotten to drunk and Andrew knocked over a stool.
"A stool!" She whispered. But who was in the cafeteria? The thought panicked her.
Tayjah sat up in bed and put her glasses on.
She sat there silently, debating if she should investigate or not. Her heart beat got faster as she thought it over a bunch of times.
"It was probably just a bot...go back to sleep Tayjah." She whispered, Tayjah reached for the light switch until something else caught her attention. The faint sound of something cracking, it was a thud kind of sound. She shot up and put her suit on immediately. Tayjah hesitated before opening the door, her hand trembled on top of the hand sensor. But she waved it, and it opened.
Immediately her body shivered, the cold wind entered her room. When suddenly an idea popped into her head, the armoury was down the hall to the opposite direction.
•
"Who's there?" Tayjah spoke out to the empty cafeteria, her voice echoed back to her. She held her weapon of choose close to her.  The first thing she noticed was a smell, there was a thick aroma in the air that reeked of penny. As the young woman took a step forward her boot splashed in a liquid. She gasped.
"Lights on!" She shouted, Tayjah squinted her eyes as the light blinded her, she lowered her head, and saw that she was standing in a puddle of blood. Her heart leapt from her chest as the red shined brightly under the light, she let out a panicked moan and looked to see where this was coming from.
That's when her eyes landed on the body, soaked in blood. Deelan's face was bruised and pale.
"D-Deelan?" Was all she managed to get out, the realization set in and Tayjah backed away from the blood and the body and let out an ear ripping scream. She placed both hands over her ears and screamed again. The long weapon fell from her now trembling hands and hit the floor aggressively.
"HELP! HELP ME!" She screamed closing her eyes tight, it took a moment until Anant's door had bursted open. He didn't care if it was a trap, Tayjah needed help. Anant finished buckling his pants and hugged himself as his bare chest was exposed to the freezing temperatures of the ship until he buttoned up his shirt, He turned the corner and saw the figure of his friend, she was shaking and had a weapon at her feet.
"Tayjah! What's wrong?!" He quickly approached her from behind.
She was unresponsive, Anant quickly grabbed her shoulder and whipped her around.
"WHAT HAPPE-" his mouth stopped forming words as his eyes caught a bright glimmer of red. He let go of her shoulder as his eyes grew wide, "oh my god." He whispered. As in the distance of the cafeteria, he saw a body.
"No, no! No please!" He shouted in fear, Anant ran through the blood, it splashed up on his pants as he approached the body of his friend. Who's neck was nearly busted clean open.
"Deelan..." he whispered. Deelans suit was soaked, her face was concentrated, like she had died fighting, although her head was tilted to the side like she was asleep.
"What... did this...to you?" His voice shivered with terror. Anant bent down and closed her eyelids that were sticky with blood. As the young man slowly stood up, he spoke while keeping his eyes on the limp body.
"Tayjah...we need to get Carter."
He didn't hear a response.
"Tayjah?" He repeated, finally his head tilted up to locate his crew mate. Anant looked at Tayjah, she seemed frozen. Like a statue in a museum. Her face was painted with fear, as her brown eyes locked into something in the opposite corner of the cafeteria. Confusion struck, what was she looking at?
Anant bit his lip, and slowly drew a straight line from her, to where her eyes were pointing to.
Tayjah slowly parted her lips and asked
"Wait...what?"
Anant looked at the figure across the cafeteria, it stood at the same height as him, with a buttoned up shirt, and short curly brown hair.
He looked scared and out of breath.
"What are you?" He asked, Anant clenched his fists.
"Holy shit..." he responded, nervously he looked over at Tayjah.
"Tayjah, stay back." He prompted her caustically, and slowly took steps towards her. With fear of the man standing by the body.
Tayjah's eyes darted back and forth between these two men, who were identical. This all felt like a fever dream, a nightmare. She felt like her head was going to fall off.
"STAY AWAY FROM HER!" Anant shouted, stepping away from the body and a few feet towards Tayjah.
"No, YOU stay back!" Anant shouted.
Within all the fear and confusion, Tayjah bent down and grabbed onto her weapon, it was heavy. She held onto it as tight as she could and lifted it up, stepping back. That's when she noticed how dizzy she was.
"GET BACK!" She yelled, and switched it on. Suddenly a small flame ignited on the tip of what looked to be a spout. Her face represented how she was feeling, scared, confused and most of all, angry. And beads of sweat danced their way down her brown face.
"It's me Tayjah! That's an imposter!"
He shouted, the other young man shook his head in disbelief.
"Tayjah, you've gotta believe me! That THING killed Deelan! Look, he's standing in her blood!" He pointed.
Tayjah looked side to side, then closed her eyes as the two of them inched towards her.
"Shut up." She stated, panicked by the situation at hand. Trying to regain her focus, a sharp pain began to radiate from within her head.
"Tayjah kill it!" A voice shouted.
"Don't let it win, don't let it kill all of us!" He also shouted.
"Be quiet I can't!-" she struggled to focus, as her heart began to race out of her chest!
When Tayjah opened her eyes, she saw two of the same crew mate standing defensively before her. They both looked scared and confused, and they both had their hands up and out in surrender. Anant had tears welling in his eyes. And Anant's hands began to tremble. They were both trying their hardest to communicate to Tayjah! Who held the weapon to both of them!
"Shut up! SHUT UP!" She screamed and cut them both off. They immediately stopped yelling, not a second later, both their eyes grew wide. Something wasn't right, and it wasn't that there were two Anant's. It was that Tayjah had suddenly dropped the weapon, it hit the ground and broke into 5 different pieces. Her arms hung by her side as though they each weighed 100 pounds, until her right hand slowly lifted to her chest and gripped at the cloth. Her chest tightened.
"Tayjah?" Anant asked, he leaned forward fearfully.
Tayjah let out a groan as she fell hard to her knees, her chest convulsed up and down inconsistently, Tayjah held her chest in pain and clawed at her throat, as her eyes rolled back into her head, as if her heart was being squeezed into straw, she then fell to her side and laid limp, dead on the floor.
The two men stood shocked, silent. Quickly Anant dashed towards her, falling to his knees and scooping her up into his arms.
"Tayjah! Tayjah! Wake up!" He began to cry, and shook her lifeless body.
"WAKE UP!" He yelled. In this moment he wished for nothing more then his crewmates to come and help him. For the two doctors to help her, and for everyone else to be together again. But closed his eyes and held her, but something quickly pulled him back into reality. It was a sound. The sound of laughing. Anant opened his puffy eyes and slowly looked up, to see his mirror image...laughing. It placed both hands on its knees and let out an incredibly loud holler. It looked like a cat coughing up a hair ball, nearly gagging, laughing so hard.
"This is funny to you." Was all Anant could muster up to say, he hissed it between gritted teeth.
It's laughing slowly stopped and it looked at Anant. Seconds of dead silence fell between them, as it's dark eyes glared down at Anant. Not breaking eye contact with him. It kept watching him. In silence.
Anant sat, horrified. Holding Tayjahs lifeless body.
It parted its lips,
"What is your species called?" It asked.
Anant blinked, it watched him like an owl watches a mouse. It's eyes reverting to its natural state, huge and black, they stared at him. With a totally blank facial expression.
"Did you not hear me?" It asked, almost innocently.
"What?" Anant asked.
"You. What are you called?"
"Human." You could hear the dryness of his throat.
"We're humans." He finished.
"Hu- Mans-" it repeated the word back to him.
"I...enjoy killing... you... humans..." it's voice had deepened by this point.
"You make it so easy. You-" it paused.
"What is it called, when you humans are unresponsive for a period of time, then are responsive again?" By this point it had knelt down to a squatting position, and leg its arms hand between its legs.
Anant paused, he didn't know what to say.
He slowly turned its head to the side, not taking its eyes off him.
"Sleep. We sleep." He answered.
"Sleep." It repeated.
"You...humans...sleep...for so long...defenceless." A whisper. It slowly turned its head, its neck seemed to double in length, and faced Deelans body.
"Your..." the alien paused. And pointed down to Tayjahs arm with an extended finger nail.
"S-skin?" Anant asked, his face grew more and more pale as this conversation went on. Who or what was sitting in front of him.
"Skin. Your skin...is so weak, and soft. Easy to penetrate. And to bite though." It spoke with a deep, jagged voice.
"That human..." it pointed to Deelan.
"She did not move...and expelled...liquid from her-"
"She cried!" Anant shouted over it, cutting its sentence short.
"She cried before you killed her." He contorted his face in anger.
The alien turned its head,
"Yes. And I enjoyed watching...it." It concluded, before standing up and slowly turning around.
Anant's eyes widened, "where are you going?!" He shouted.
"To your captain." It responded, as it stood up Anant could see its body had nearly doubled in size, its joints broke and bended in different areas. And black goo oozed from open pockets it had created.
Gently Anant placed Tayjahs body on the ground, and he stood up.
"No your not! Get back here!" Anant yelled, throwing a piece of the broken weapon as its back! Quickly it flinched and turned to face him. Anant ran and tackled it to the floor, punching it's distorted face. It growled loudly and kicked Anant off of it almost immediately. Effortlessly, it sent Anant flying back a number of feet. He hit the floor and rolled in a puddle of cold blood that was once Deelans. His head spun as he slowly got back up, not being able to tell what blood was his. As his vision cleared up, something shocking happened. The alien had completely shape shifted back into Anant, a mirror image of him.
"You bastard!" Anant snapped.
"You basted!" It repeated. The two charged at eachother, and immediately began violently scratching, punching and beating eachother senseless. The two nearly mirrored each other's exact moves, it made it hard for Anant to know how to hit it. Because It was faster than him, and stronger. Effortlessly it sank its fist into Anant's stomach, causing him to fall flat on his face, winded. It then drove its boot into the side of his hip and toppled him over to his side, Anant groaned in pain that radiated throughout his body.
"Humans..." it mumbled, as it planed a boot on Anant's throat.
"Your skin. Is so soft. You...are so...defenceless."
Anant choked, and began kicking his legs in panic as it stepped down harder.
"What do humans say when they depart from one another?" It asked, and looked down at Anant who's face has turned red as he struggled to breathe. The alien lifted its boot and knelt all the way down, hooking it's arm around Anant's neck and bringing him close into a headlock, pulling it's bicep as hard it could and draining the life from him. Anant kicked and thrashed as hard as he could but his strength was no match.
"We say Goodbye." The voice came from Tayjahs body, the two beings looked up and saw Carter standing there with a second flamethrower.
Immediately the alien cried, "No carter! It's me!" And let go of Anant.
It's victim laid weakly, and mumbled,
"do it...do it..." He whispered, choking on a closed throat.
"I'm sorry Anant..." Carter cried, and pulled the trigger, blasting the two of them into an abyss of blue and red flames, the heat alone was hot enough to make Carter close his eyes. The alien thrashed around in the flames and screeched, until it toppled over in a fiery pile of burning flesh, Anant's body didn't move at all. It seemed like the fire only put him out of his misery. Carter didn't let go of the trigger, even as it roasted on the hard tile floor next to his friend. He let out a cry and dropped the weapon. Falling to his knees, Carter breathed heavily in and out. Trying to catch his breath. What laid before him was a massacre. A massacre of his assigned cadets...and friends. He looked down at Tayjah, who laid helplessly. And grief swarmed his entire being, as his watery eyes followed a trail of blood that led to the teams nurse. Stabbed to death. Eventually the fire extinguishers went off, and put out the fire that was two friends Anant and Daniel.
The captain cried and slowly stood up, carrying Tayjahs body with him. He brought her over and laid her next to her crew-mates.
He then left the cafeteria and recorded one last captains log.