Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Contamination

The hallway was crowded, limbs blocked the path like the trunks of trees in a dense forest, but worse because these ones were moving with agitation. Krill was too short to see over the bodies, but he wasn't about to stand politely at the back and wait for things to calm down, he shoved inward, "MOVE, please MOVE!" his shoving wasn't much against the average human, but his voice was loud and insistent, and eventually he broke through the line of people huffing with the exertion.

"What in the hell is going on here!" he demanded

The hallway behind him was pact with wide staring eyes as human and Drev alike clustered together in a confused group.

Looking into the crowd he saw familiar faces of the crew clustered together in search of answers.

Maverick

Ramirez

Narobi

Simon

And others, all expecting some sort of explanation. Ahead of him Sunny was standing at the door to the captain's quarters slamming her fist repeatedly into the metal. Beside her, Waffles ran back and forth in agitation, her tail tucked low whimpering and barking.

Sunny turned to look at him her face a mask of concern and worry, "He won't let me in, he's not making any sense."

Krill stepped forward, pushing her unceremoniously out of the way. There was no time for him to be polite, but there would be plenty of time to apologize later. Behind him the clamor was making it hard to hear, and Waffle's insistent barking wasn't helping. He turned on his heels filling up his lungs with all the breath he could manage.

"QUIIIIIIIEEEEEET!"

The hallway fell into shocked silence, a few of the humans taking a step back in the face of Krill's anger. Even Sunny backed up a pace or two. Beside them, the dog was still whimpering, and Krill turned his eyes on her next, "Lay down!" He demanded eyes locked with hers.

The dog stopped in her agitated pacing before slowly closing her mouth and lowering herself to the floor rolling onto the side and lifting her paws to expose the creamy fur of her underbelly. Jeffery rested his head in her chest low to the ground staring at krill with his wide green eye.

"That's better." Krill muttered turning to the door.

"Adam, what's going on."

On the other side of the door, the room was dark and stuffy. The one vent into the room had been covered by a taped-up plastic bag and any other available clothing. Adam sat with his back to the door heart pounding. His face was slicked with sweat, as was the neck and shoulders of his dress shirt

His titanium grey uniform jacket lay discarded on the bed, and one of his sleeves was pulled up to expose bare pale skin.

He squeezed his eyes shut, and inside..... inside his body he thought he could feel something.... Something wrong. As if he could sense it growing inside him.

He fought back fear and panic with long deep breaths.

He didn't know that, all he knew is what Kazna told him, and he didn't trust her as far as he could throw her, and lets be honest she was a big ugly bitch so he wasn't very confident in his ability to throw her at all. Perhaps she had just been playing tricks with his head, trying to convince him he was infected,

Maybe this was some sort of mass hysteria that happened in the movies.

People could often show symptoms of things they didn't have if they were worried about it enough.

It was a truth he was almost willing to believe until he looked down at his arm, looked down and saw pale glowing lines or reddish orange light following the path of his veins and pulsing slightly. He clenched his fists and leaned his head back against the wall covering his mouth with a hand.