Among Us

Chapter 16

Cain snapped out of shock first. "You."

"No," I said, voice growing desperate. "I don't know what that was. Please. I can explain!"

"What is there to explain?" Aron said, sitting back down and slipping his helmet on as if nothing had happened. "You weren't in navigation. You know self defense. And you have no Alibi."

"No!!" I yelled. "I do have an Alibi."

"Oh yeah?" Cain said, glancing around the room. "Who?"

The room kept quiet. I glanced at Jacks, eyes wide. My heart burned with betrayal. I was about to be ejected, all because he didn't want anyone to know he loved me.

That isn't love.

I felt my face go red with anger, sadness, desperation. "Jacks! Tell them!"

"Jacks?" Cain said, raising an eyebrow. Jacks sighed and stood up.

"El's right. She was with me in electrical." He said. Cain's eyes narrowed, almost angry. Was he... Jelous? The thought made me smile faintly, but I quickly covered it up. With my deflecting visor off, everyone could clearly see my facial expression. And smiling would just look suspicious. 

He sid nothing of our kissing. I felt a wave of relief, but then my eyes widened. No doubt they would think-

"Electrical?" Aron said, standing up. "That's it! It's both of you!"

"Electrical was sabotaged earlier after you guys were in there!" Cain said, almost excited about piecing the puzzle together. Aron nodded. "You could have tampered with a few wires and Bam! And besides-"

"And there are no tasks there!" Dean finished.

"We weren't doing tasks." Jacks said. 

"Then what were you doing?" Cain asked.

"Kissing."

Aron laughed. "Yeah right. For two hours?"

"You've never kissed like that before?" Jacks asked with mock sympathy. Aron's face went red as Jacks continued. "Yes, we were kissing for two hours. So what? We've been dating for a while now."

The room went quiet. I brushed down my faint embarrassment and looked at the three defiantly as Jacks put a gentle hand on my shoulder. 

The tension increased, but suddenly it left the room as Aron inhaled.

"I still think it's either one of you. But fine. We'll skip."

I breathed a sigh of relief. Thank God.

Everyone nodded with agreement and stood up from the table. We split in our usual groups once more. Jacks and I headed to Electrical again, but this time it was to inspect the impostor's damage. None of the wires were cut, but it was obvious a fuse had gone off, damaging the switches and fraying some of the wires to the point of a fixable blackout. Not very smart of the impostor. If I wanted to kill someone, I would make the blackout permanent.

Unless the blackout wasn't to kill. Unless it's purpose had been for something else. 

Thoughts ran through my head. Of course. Nobody would just start a killing spree when heading to Planet X. First of all, that would ruin your chance of living there. Second of all, we all had psychological evaluations before coming. The fancy, 100% accurate kind. 

What if the killing of Barracks wasn't on a whim?

What if it was to cover something even more illegal, more dangerous?

If I was right, Barracks had discovered something. And his death simply started a few chain reactions. Kate was killed because she had figured it out. Perhaps Barracks had told her before. Perhaps she had also seen whatever the killer was covering up.

Ari had been tricked. 

What about Sam?

I shook my head and ran through my memory. What was an illegal thing, worse than killing?

Something that would be important on Planet X?

I didn't know about gold, but it wasn't illegal. It wasn't dangerous to kill over. Alcohol didn't exist anymore. Animals already lived on Planet X, brought by the first few ships. And besides, where would an impostor hide a cow?

Where would the impostor hide anything, for that matter?  

It had to be a hollow place. Muffled. Maybe in the walls? Pipes?

I walked over to Jacks to report the wiring issues. The floor was firm enough. I stepped over the vent, which made a hollow clank.

I froze.

The vents.