Amiss

Chapter FOURTEEN

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.