U.S.S.A Umbra

Chapter 9 Face the music

 "Ah I see, this one's mind and body are stronger than I'd originally thought, we'll just have to see about that."

Emily followed behind at an apathetic pace, quietly sobbing while carrying her stuffed toy. Damien noticed how far ahead of her he had gotten, he took long yet quiet strides whereas Emily dragged her feet making small echoing sounds throughout the hallway. "Emily you need to stay right behind me and you need to be quieter." He said in a stern voice. Damien didn't have much experience in dealing with children, he didn't have much of a childhood; having been raised most of his life to be a soldier. He understood how she felt, both having lost their fathers. They walked through the carpeted, dimly lit halls of deck nine on their way to a repair station. That would not be the last of their destinations, not by a long shot. Emily finally caught up to him. "Shhh"  Damien signaled his hand in front of her face, several splinters were shambling just a few meters away from them. The creatures did not seem to notice the two, Damien did not want to risk fighting any of them while Emily was near him, but even he knew they'd only be able to stay silent for so long.

They crouched amongst the shadows of the crimson-stained walls and searched for food and water, those were abundant. Bullets and safe refuge however were not. They had found a repair station without alerting any splinters; they were just lucky Damien thought to himself. Damien walked over to the machine; repair stations are open for civilian use not unlike that of a vending machine, they were a combination of a 3d printer and a sewing station. "If only these things could fabricate weapons and ammo; uh hey you might want to look away, oh and if you spot any of them, tell me,"  Damien said looking into her eyes. Damien took off his armor and uniform and placed them inside. Emily was outside the station, she was on the lookout for any threats. She began to feel nervous, she could hear faint noises in the distance. She felt as if something was crawling under her skin, she itched but couldn't quite scratch it. She jumped up; the jingle of the repair station had startled her, she looked back through the glass. She could see the light emanating from the machine off of Damien's body; she could just make out his dark figure as she peered through the window. Emily lay against the cushioned backrest; a few blinks are all it took for her to fall asleep on the bench.

Damien could hear whimpering from outside, he thought Emily could be in danger. The sound of the door opening startled Emily; There Damien was, clad in dark blue armor, which further made his dark looming figure even more intimidating to her. "Did I startle you?" -"Mmm-hmm" Emily looked up at him and nodded. Kkkshehehe. They heard wet phlegmy cackles coming from the shadowed hallway in front of them, two small black figures walked out from the shadows. Emily looked on in terror; clutching her plush toy as the two small grinning figures walked closer and closer towards them. Damien grabbed Emily's hand and positioned her behind him. "Look away, just close your eyes." Damien lifted his shotgun and cocked it, the two small creatures sprinted towards him, and all she heard were the sounds of shotgun blasts and high-pitched shrieking and crying. Emily opened her eyes to see Damien standing over two small corpses, he then looked back towards her, they were children..."They were."

The two made their way to an elevator and went down to deck six, bypassing what other horrors may be in the decks between. Deck six was one of the few decks that led to the cargo bay where the Ebony was docked. The flooring and walls weren't the nice carpeting and art-covered walls as above but instead had blue steel-plated flooring and tarnished silver walls. The brig here was where the worst offenders were detained and over the last several days, more and more people were kept, he knew to be careful here. Damien after they got a look at their surroundings called Frank to check up on his status. "Frank, are you there?" -"Oh my god, Damien you're still alive? Whatever in the hell happened?" -"I'm looking for the Ebony and Alice if she's still alive."-"You're not gonna leave us all behind are you?"  Frank said worriedly.-"No of course not, as much as I'd like to get off this ship, I'm not gonna leave everyone to these monsters, how's everyone at the cafeteria?"- "We're mostly doing fine, though some of us have been feeling sick, those things have mostly left us alone, thank god." -"Good, if I get back I'll have someone tagging along, but for now, I've got to get going. Damien out."  Damien hung up and they made their way through deck sixes dark silvery halls. The two came across closed security bars; used for preventing prisoners from continuing further in case of a breakout. Damien shook the bars but there was no point as he could not possibly bend them. There was loud gunfire coming from somewhere around the corner, then loud footsteps and shouting, two marines ran past them then another who was very large with a woman with blond hair. could that be her? He thought as his heart raced.