The room was dark. The air cold as it seemed to burn my lungs. I couldn't remember much of what happened before. The training manual always said that cryostasis would be a bit... uncomfortable the first time it is experienced in the middle of space travel.
I could remember coughing, my throat sore and sputtering as the thick saliva spewed out from my mouth. The rancid taste of acid stained my tongue, as I fell to my knees after managing to climb out of the cryo pod. Vomit. I could only hear the sound of my gagging as it broke the silence in the chamber.
If this was how my first day out of the pod was going to be, then who knew just how else my time on this ship would fare?
As I recover from my sickness, I spit out the remaining fluid onto the floor as I struggled to get up onto my feet. The first thing is noticed, asides from the yellow flash of the alarm, was that there was no one else in the chamber but me. Surely my cryo pod wasn't delayed or... malfunctioning, was it? I was no engineer, but even on a high end ship like the EFS Hoffnung, the chances of their being faults like this were quite low.
While my throat kept with its burning sensation, I would try to mutter out the words that came to my mind. "Is anyone there...?" I tried to call if anyone was around, yet no answer came back. The ringing of the alarm was all that seemed to respond to my nervous question, as I carefully took a step forward, feeling for the wall. I used the dim yellow light that constantly flashed in an effort to see - or at least squint - what was in front of me. The chamber door was slightly open, the center cracked just wide enough for me to squeeze through. Admittedly, I didn't want to even think of trying to push myself through the space.
My claustrophobia had been screaming at me as it was.
I pushed my arm through the opening, soon followed by my nearest leg. Soon I proceeded to force my way through, until finally I had made it to the other side. Outside the chamber, was a long dark hallway with doors on either side. A couple other yellow lights were flashing ahead, as I would feel a sudden chill. Why was there no one around? If the alarms were going off, why wasn't I woken up by the time everyone else had been roused from their deep slumber? There were many unanswered questions and so far no answers.
The first thing that came to mind for me was to get to the locker room, which thankfully was not too far. As there were dozens of cryo chambers, the ship designer believed that locker rooms and showers were definitely needed to be in close proximity. I knew that the locker room was on the left side of the hall, so I placed my hand against the wall and began to step forward one foot at a time, feeling along the wall for any potential locks which could be opened with the biochip that had been embedded under my skin before embarking with the others. All crew members were obligated to have one.
I couldn't tell whether it had been seconds or minutes, but I finally reached a door, as I scan the biochip onto the lock's sensor. With the sound of metal grinding, the door soon opened and I made my way inside. The room, just like outside, was dark. But the flashing lights helped me navigate to my locker. A wall of lockers were lined up as I soon reached mine. A. Weber. I opened it and grabbed my uniform, putting it on as I pulled a tab which tightened the suit, making it hug my figure as I was now properly geared up to explore the rest of the ship.
I wasn't sure what was happening. But I had to find out. Thus, I took several deep breaths and made my way outside. Only the darkness would greet me in the eerie quiet.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//....... Loading ......... //
~ System Loading
~ Error/Unable to load system
- Please contact technician -
"Ah fuck..." A man's voice would say, his voice shaking as he messed with the wiring. It hadn't been long since he woke up, only to find that everyone around him has disappeared... Well that is everyone except for a young woman he found hiding in one of the storage units. She wore a medical uniform, but blood had been splattered all over her. He tried to get her to talk, to learn her name, but she is too petrified to even speak. What the hell had happened and why hadn't there been an announcement?
While he fiddled with the machine, all it did was pull up an error message, leading him to punch the wall in frustration. "Goddammit you stupid piece of..." He let out a long, exaggerated sigh as he sits back. He wouldn't be able to hack this door open, which led to the central Atrium. Someone had to lift the lockdown protocols, but that was not something he or his companion could do in their area. More particularly, the area of Residential Block C was nowhere near the Security Center where the lockdown was in effect.
He gave up as he would take a seat next to the woman, hearing her quiet breathing as he stared at the wall.
When he came to, he had woken up in his cryo pod, only he was the only one there. That is, he was the only one, save for Marlow, whose corpse remained in their pod. He couldn't even begin to explain how Marlow looked. They appeared to be fine, their body pristine thanks to the cryo stasis having kept him frozen. But that was it - the monitor on the pod had declared him dead, flatlined. If that didn't make matters worse, he'd seen a blood trail lead to one of the restrooms, but he refrained from entering it, not wanting to see what awaited his discovery. How things turned out like this, he had no idea. But to him, all that mattered was that he and hopefully the woman with him could find a way out of here before dehydration and starvation come to take them. Because today of all days, he had plans that did not involve dying here.
At least, no one did, but fate always had an unfair deck hidden in its sleeve. One wrong move and it was game over. Simple as that.