There Are Imposters Among Us

DAY 5 - Midday

Cyan1 sat on a chair in the Cafeteria unmoving. Her sister, Cyan2 was kneeling on the ground wrapping some bandages around Cyan1's wounded arm. She was staring blankly at the windows to space. Cyan2 shoved her face blocking the view trying to see if Cyan1 was okay. "You okay? You seem a bit distant and the pain from the wound doesn't even make you flinch when I wrap it up..."

"I'm okay," she replied blankly.

"Mmkay..." Cyan2 wasn't convinced.

Cyan1 heard some faint footsteps and blinked, looking over to the corridor from Medbay. Red, Orange and Purple entered the Cafeteria. The three pulled out some chairs in front of the two Cyans and sat down.

"Now that we've finally gotten rid of one Imposter that leaves just Orange and Cyan1 who haven't scanned... It must be one of you!" Red concluded.

"I'll do it! I'll do my scan!" Orange exclaimed with her hands on her hips.

Everyone looked over to Cyan1 who had lost interest in the conversation and had gone back to staring out the starry window. "We'll see," she just replied and stood up, ready to go to the Medbay.

The remaining 5 crewmates headed back to the Medbay for the moment of truth. Orange hopped onto the Medbay scanner and stood still bravely as the machine turned on. "I'll be right back," Cyan1 said and quickly left the room before anyone could reply. Cyan2 stared at the entrance to the Medbay nervously, waiting for her sister to return. The scan was about halfway done when the ship's alarm went off and red lights flashed everywhere.

Cyan2 looked down frantically at her arm's suit screen. [OXYGEN DEPLETED IN 50 SECONDS]

Everyone turned around to run and fix the crisis but then froze with shock. Everything seemed to slow in time, as the lights blared slow footsteps echoed throughout the ship as Cyan1 walked back in. She stopped in the middle of the door way and lifted up her right arm, gun in hand aiming it right at Orange. Cyan2 watched in fear as all the memories from Earth came crashing back down onto her.

Cyan1, my older sister by one day was holding a mini toy gun. She had one eye closed and her tongue on the side of her mouth, poking out with concentration. We were in the backyard at home, the sprinklers were on and our pet dog was running around. I remember it was a hot day. A prop up target was standing at the edge of our backyard. I watched my sister with excitement to see if she could hit the middle of the target. She looked at me from the corner of her eyes and grinned. "I never miss."

//BANG//

Red crashed down onto the floor after leaping in front of Orange, sacrificing her life for another. The bullet would've hit Orange right through her heart but instead hit Red. "RED!!!" Orange screamed as Red bravely saved her. Cyan2 sprinted into Cyan1 and grabbed both of her arms, trying to disarm the gun and forcefully clutching hard onto the injured arm.

"RUN!" Cyan2 yelled at Orange and Purple. They hesitated, still scarred from the shooting but then both nodded and ran past Cyan1 and Cyan2 to fix the sabotage. Cyan1 clenched her teeth from pain Cyan2 was inflicting back onto her wounded arm as they wrestled in the Medbay.

Cyan2 thought she had the advantage but Cyan1 soon overpowered her and slammed her into a wall. Quickly Cyan1 grabbed her by the neck with her left arm and pointed the gun at her sister's head with the other, about to shoot. Cyan2 instinctively grabbed the arm crushing her windpipe attempting to struggle out and strongly grabbed the hand with the gun, angling it away from her face to the wall.

"Stop struggling, you're only making it harder than it already it is!" Cyan1 growled trying to move her arm to shoot Cyan2.

"You- don't have to do this!!!" Cyan2 cried as she continued to try and hold Cyan1's arm but could feel Cyan1's brute force slowly overpowering her. Cyan2 desperately analysed the gun in Cyan1's hand. She recognised the gun from her astronaut training. It could only hold three bullets at a time!

Cyan1 pulled the trigger. BANG, the bullet just missed Cyan2's head from an inch and was shot into the Medbay wall. One more bullet left. Cyan2 quickly shoved Cyan1 away and ran for the exit.

The Imposter grabbed Cyan2 instantly and head-locked her with their right arm, the gun now in their left hand. The gun clicked about to fire. Cyan2 flung all her weight backwards and slammed Cyan1 against the wall. She was shocked for a split second and let go as Cyan2 attempted to flee again but quickly kicked out knocking her sister to the ground.

She crawled away, unable to get back up as she heard Cyan1 reload the gun. She passed Red who was bleeding out on the ship's floor. The report button flashed up onto Cyan2's screen but she did not press it. There was no point for another vote, not when her last two crewmates were trying to fix the crisis. She had to finish this here and now.

She screamed as a hard foot pinned her down against the ground. "Any last words?" Cyan1 panted. Cyan2 looked around frantically for something to grab in a last resort to escape. She spotted her sister's water bottle under a bed. Cyan2 reached out quickly and threw it at Cyan1 with all her might.

The bottle hit Cyan1 square in the head, rattling her helmet. She dropped the gun in surprise and forced off the helmet from pain. Cyan2 kicked the gun away as it skidded underneath someone's bed. She got up swiftly and finally ran out the exit of Medbay out into the corridor.

She ran right to reach the Cafeteria but stumbled to a halt as an emergency door finished closing down blocking her way. Quickly she turned around to run the other way but Cyan1 was already there and grabbed her. Cyan1 flung Cyan2 up against the wall then she crashed down onto the floor in pain and exhaustion. She tried to pull herself back up as her broken helmet fell off her head.

Cyan1 threw a kick into Cyan2's stomach. Cyan2 fell back to the ground and coughed up blood, gasping for breath. She reached out and yanked out Cyan1's leg making her collapse to the ground with her.

Cyan2 crawled as far as she could go before Cyan1 grabbed her leg. She crawled on top of Cyan2 and pinned her to the ground with great force. The other door at the end of the corridor right next to them was slowly closing down. The emergency lights stopped flashing red and the alarms turned off. Cyan2 smiled, her friends were safe.

With the last bit of energy she dragged Cyan1 with her underneath the closing door. Cyan1 only then realised what her sister was trying to do. Cyan2 rolled out of the Imposter's grasp and turned over to pin them down.

"What are you doing?! You're getting us both killed!!!" Cyan1 screamed at Cyan2 trying to struggle out of her sister's clutches.

Cyan2 smiled and shook her head, tears started fogging up her vision. "We can finally end this nightmare together."

The shadow of the door loomed over them as it neared the two astronauts. It closed down onto the two, Cyan2 could her the sound of her arm's bones crack as they both began to bleed out. They both closed their eyes as the terrible pain overtook their bodies and the last bit of nerves numbed from shock.