Pitter Patter

“Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.”

Anyone that ever said that has obviously never been in a star cruiser going a million miles an hour through a ”secure“ space fabric travel route, that has been hijacked by blood crying, blood thirsty, quadruple armed space cadets. Yes, that’s four arms on the torso, using blunt force to immobilize you. Yeah, fuck. How did we end up in this situation? That may very well have begun 24 hours prior to my inner dialogue, but that can seriously wait. Right now I’m holding my breath, sweat drenched with two of my colleagues while listening to the pitter and patter of feet rushing with a clogged growls. Whilst we are concealed by a thin curtain in the medical wing.

I’m sure my eyes are strained because I can barely make it out in Harper and Jack, as the lights had an uneasy and un-learnable flicker pattern. Screams echoed, from a not so distant cadet, Mandy. She decided to make a run for the corridor, unfortunately the door was jammed, pitter patter of a few pairs of feet chased her down, you can guess the rest.

I watched as Jack was mouthing particular offensive French, while he held on to the railing of a bed in which we were hiding behind. Harper had her hands over her mouth and nose attempting to control her sporadic breathing. I was scared shitless, I was sweating an ocean and my adrenaline was pumping. The screams and struggle died down from the direction of Mandys attempted escape, but I can hear some gurgling coming from the bed that we hid behind of.

I mustered the courage to peek at who was lying there, it was Johnny, he was rushed to the medical wing after he collapsed in the food court a few hours prior to this moment. He must of been convulsing because he was tied down to the bed. Ventilator in his mouth. He needed help, I reached out slowly, not to be heard over the railing and was stopped abruptly by Harper, gripping my elbow.

“Don’t,” she mouthed with quivering lips and wild eyes.

”He can’t breath, the ventilator is suffocating him,“ I whispered as quiet as a mouse. I looked at Jack and he was shaking his head rapidly. Jack gestured with his hand and two fingers, from eyes to mouth, then pointed at Johnny. Fuck, he was right he had bloodied tears running down his cheeks. Harpers grip numbed my hand, so I retreated it to the ground, balancing myself out as my knees began to get sore. Harper began to become paranoid shifting her gaze from me to Johnny and back to the sounds of gurgling in the direction of Mandy.

“We’ve got to get the hell out of here. Lets go back the way we came, take the elevator and regroup at the Deck. Grab anything to defend yourself wi—“ SMACK! I was interrupted abruptly when Johnnys’ hand landed a blow on my head, I instantly grabbed my head and looked at him lying on the bed just to be met with a glare from rose colored eyes. He began to convulse and try to loosen the restraints on him.

“LETS FUCKING GO!” Harper yelled, springing to her feet and we ripped the curtain that was hiding us and bolted to the left. We dashed as fast as we could down the medical wing jumping and going around chairs and supplies on the floor. I could here the rapid pitter patter from our feet as we sprinted coupled with heavy breathing.

“Go, go, GO!” I yelled as I watched Johnny rip out the ventilator from his mouth behind us, screeching as he did alerting the three cadets and Mandy as if Harpers’ yell wasn’t enough. The three cadets began to bolt toward us on all six limbs and Mandy on her legs. The crawlers were gaining.

“Ellis, heads up!” Screamed Jack, pointing in front of me. There was a cadet standing guard at the direction of the door, it stood in ready stance with its four arms ready to grasp when I slid like a professional footballer and went in between its legs. As I slid through, I yanked one of its legs and ripped the floor from under it. It screeched and face planted. One of its arms attempted to grab Harper which she jumped over, it and I, landing in front of me and she continued to sprint ahead of me. The cadet used its extra arms to push off the ground, but was interrupted by Jack jumping on its lower back and rendering it idle with a snap. This gave me enough time to spring to my feet and Jack pushed me towards the door so I hit the ground running. Jack followed behind as the cadets trampled their injured ally without hesitation.

Harper made it to the door and readied herself to close and latch it. “Come on!” She beckoned to us, I turned to see Mandy falling behind while the other cadets on a six limb crawl were gaining on Jack. I reached the door frame and grabbed an oxygen canister just inside the medical wing and chucked it as hard as I could in Jacks direction. He ducked just in time for the canister to smash into a lunging cadet that fell onto another crawler while slowing the third. Jack made it past the door frame, but in a split second two arms grabbed onto Jack. Harper slammed the door onto the creatures two arms, it began tugging him towards it and the ceiling. This damn thing was on the ceiling hissing! What the hell! At least now they had a solid barrier between them, but we weren’t out of the frying pan just yet.

“Its got me!” Jack exclaimed in panic, “do something Ellis don’t let it take me man!” His left hand was gripped by two hands, yanking furiously.

The cadet using its extra limbs anchored itself on the other side and began to heave and pulled Jack closer to the door. The cadet was injuring itself to get to Jack, unflinching to the pain. I held onto Jacks legs for dear life. His hand had almost completely passed the door frame when Harper in a last effort to close the door, slammed it shut at the cost of a few fingers from Jack, the latch secured the door. Muffled bangs and screeches on the other side, gave us an unsettling victory.

“Good job Harper, bye-bye to Jacky.” They all snickered in relief. Good ol’ Jack lightening the morbid situation. He was bleeding profusely; starting at his middle finger and ending at his pinky, completely sliced by the door. Sweat ran down the side of their heads. Jack was drenched and his chest rose higher than the rest. The taste of salt on my lip. The smell of iron in the air. The heat from the adrenaline pumping in our veins.

“Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.” Kept playing on my mind, what idiot ever said that. Scream counter: five. Heard them, all of them, whilst in the vacuum of space. Ha, what a foolish thing to think, right now. The victory was short lived, we didn’t know if these things would be able to get through the door. Oh Mandy… I’m so sorry. Gathering myself, I wiped the sweat off my brow and rose to my feet. Harper, empathized with my face, her gentle touch reassuring, eyes easy going and understanding. “It’s okay.” Is all she said as she nodded.

With a slight smile I say, “we’ve got to get moving,” I hoisted Jack up with his good hand, leaving blood in mine from him nursing his wound. I rubbed the warm liquid on my shirt. “Elevator is at the end of the corridor, lets go.” I began to walk and picked up my pace with a light jog. Pitter patter of our feet and A/C blasting a cool 70 degrees Fahrenheit, was all that was heard. ‘They must evolve,’ the thought kept swimming in my mind, ‘Mandy only had four limbs. How much more will they evolve is the real question?’ Anxiety, flooded my nerves. At the end of the corridor we turned to the right and stopped dead in our tracks. There were three cadets in between us and the elevator. They seemed to have mutated, they had six limbs, one was dead center facing down. The other two were on either side of the corridor propped up against the wall. The windows on the wall gave me slight comfort as I could see the stars and galaxies twinkling in the distance, in the vacuum of space. I could see a fire stream coming out of the side of the star cruiser, not a good sign. The elevator had an angelic glow to it, ‘safety’ I thought. We all went into sneak mode; low and steady. We were in synch now. As we inched towards the elevator a putrid smell burned my lungs and forced me to have a muffled cough into my elbow. My eyes were watering as Harper and Jack went around me and the first cadet facing face first into the floor, lying in its own discharge. Harper gestured to be quiet. I had intensified my core and muffled another cough, I was redder than the Sun.

I followed the trail of blood that Jack was leaving behind. It was a lot of blood. I began to hear my heart beat drumming away in my ears paired with a symphony of my steady breathing. There was a rumbling throughout the whole star cruiser which made the cadet we passed gurgle. My breathing became more intense. Drowning out all other noise. Harper stopped to balance herself out on the wall but Jack stood up and tip toed rapidly over the other two creatures. Harper mimicked, and I trailing did the same. As Jack reached the foot of the elevator, his hands tried to hold onto his balance, he suddenly fell backwards onto his back, out cold leaving blood on the elevator door, all the while another rumbling shook the cruiser violently. Behind me I could hear gurgling and I swiveled on my heel to be faced by all three cadets, on their feet, the first one we passed had its face completely deformed, but the other two I recognized, Annie and Bill… they were so nice to me… what the hell do I call them, creatures or my comrades? Harper had reached Jack and pressed the button to retrieve the elevator, DING! The creatures without hesitation began to sprint towards us! I dashed towards Jack and Harper, Harper grabbed one of Jacks legs and was pulling with all her might into the cage, I slid next to Jack and began pulling on his arm all the while slamming the ‘Close Door’ button, the door closed painfully slow, “ahhhh!” We yelled in unison, as the door barely closed and muffled a thump on the other side. I managed to half jump and press the ‘Deck Level’ button. We began to ascend. The air was tense and hot, our breathing sporadic.

“Hey Jack, come on buddy, wake up.” Harper was shaking Jack, she ripped a strip of his shirt and mended his bleeding hand. I looked at her, eye brow raised, “its his wound, his shirt,” she said mater-a-factly. As I gathered my breath I thought about how its deformed face was seared into my brain, rose colored eyes with bloody tears running down its cheeks, the lips were missing and the tongue elongated passing the lower jaw line. Skin was pallid, almost decaying, sores all over the face and arms, the color of the ocean. Is that whats to happen to Mandy? Annie? Bill? The thought sent shivers throughout my body, must be jumping from host to— BANG! A huge explosion could be felt through the cruiser, and SNAP! Now we were descending with a driving downward force ,we slammed onto the ceiling of the elevator, emergency red lit room, alarm blaring! The force was so intense on our stomachs that when we caught our breath it was too late, “eeeehhhhAAHHHHH!” BANG!

Scream counter: nine… I think.

24 HOURS EARLIER…