Emerging victorious, Ridge, now slightly panting and exhausted, turned to the others who survived. The first one was the man who helped him over the fortifications.
"Vice commander, do you know what's going on?" he asked, to which Ridge could only reply, " I don't know, I only managed to find you guys after restoring power to the ship, though I don't know how long that will last us. What's your name?"
"Peter, sir, I am a machine operator carrying large cargo onto some of the smaller transports within the ship, an engineer basically," he replied.
Nodding to Peter, he thanked him once again and then moved over to the recognizable female who had called out to him when he first encountered them, "Caroline, it seems you guys managed to survive whatever happened to these guys. I don't imagine you would know what happened, but did you at least see anything?"
"No, the ship simply started shaking, and then the power went out. Following this, I had gathered some of the ship's soldiers, who numbered around twenty, but as you can see, these other infected members had managed to wear us down to our current eleven, including you. As for the infected, they just sort of showed up when we were looking for other crew members. We don't know if anyone, including the commander, is still alive," she replied extensively.
"Understood, let's just rest up for a little longer to catch our breaths and also find any extra things we can take as weapons in case we find more of these fungi things. Also, you were one of the engineers assigned to the engine room, correct?"
"Yes sir, I also served as the captain of a small security squad hence why I was able to gather a few of the soldiers," she gestured with her hand showing six male soldiers now resting, " I am also the lead engineer so I was able to gather a few of my engineers after wondering for a bit which resulted in the other four finding us and helping us out."
"That's excellent news. I checked out the engine room not too long ago, before ending up here, and found that there didn't seem to be too much damage. However, the power did go out for a while, so I'll need you and your team to check it out once more, especially since I'm not as knowledgeable," Ridge replied.
"No worries, sir. That should be our first destination before trying to rescue anyone else who could be out there to ensure that nothing goes horribly wrong while we are out in space," she slightly chucked while answering.
"I will take two others with me while the rest of you go to the engine room to make sure it maintains perfect operations. I think the best rendezvous spot would be there as well, oh, and on your way to the engine room, make sure to pick up any supplies, including food, equipment, and maybe weapons if you find any."
"Yes, sir," Caroline replied while saluting and then immediately busied herself with directing the small group to rest up for a minute and then depart for the engine room.
Ridge promptly took two men named George and Falley, who were both soldiers, and led them away from the group, eventually leading them to a passage that had not been explored as of yet.
"Okay, let's just take it slow and scour through every room we pass for survivors and also supplies. I don't know the extent of the damage, hopefully we get lucky with both." Ridge said aloud to the two men, who then promptly nodded, and they all began their sweep.
Within this battleship, each hallway was essentially filled with doors that held supplies for the crew's journey and also cabins where the crew themselves stayed. The only place that was home to many and not just one person was the soldiers' dorm.
Caroline had previously mentioned that she had gathered twenty soldiers, but ten of them had ended up becoming infected, and that led to there only being six soldiers, somehow, though perhaps she also counted the four engineers and excluded herself when figuring out how many there were. In any case, the ship with a population of around one hundred people had about forty soldiers in total, which also means forty guns guaranteed to be somewhere on the ship.
This also means there might be survivors near the soldiers' dorm since they have access to weapons.
The results so far, while walking down the hallway and sweeping the rooms, were unsatisfactory, to say the least, and while one of the soldiers did find a pack filled with supplies that could be used, there was nothing else, including the people the pack belonged to, nor devices that would help locate them.
Ridge, sighing aloud, gestured to the two soldiers, and they kept moving. The plan was to walk to the soldiers' dorm and not only find weapons but also the remaining soldiers.
As they walked their would be an occasional flickering from the lights above that made noise now and then, but for the most part, it was completely silent, which created an eerie atmosphere as they kept an eye out; even with the ship's size, it had never been this quiet before.
Luckily, it didn't take long for them to reach the section of the ship that held the soldiers' dormitory as well as the main cargo rooms; there wouldn't be a mindless amount of walking down different hallways and constantly checking rooms within this section of the ship.
This also meant fewer doors, larger spaces behind said doors, and more time spent making sure they could scour everything they could carry.
It was good news that they were making it to the dorms relatively easily, but it was also a bit worrisome. There was little to no noise at all and if they encountered no one while they were exploring the rest of the ship then that meant they were either dead and gone or at the soldier's dorms which once again wasn't a good sign because there was only ten or so infected they saw which meant there should have been around seventy-eight survivors and with that many people it was impossible to stay as quiet as it was now or at the very least there would be traces showing where they had gone, considering the floor of the ship was filled with metal panels and junk that had fallen due to the immense shaking of the ship initially.
While contemplating this issue, the small group of three finally arrived at the final turn they would need to take.
Just before they turned the corner, though, Ridge turned to the other two and whispered, "George, Falley, make sure you are ready for a fight. There isn't any noise so far, but just in case there are infected around here, prepare yourself."
When both men nodded, Ridge gripped his piece of debris and turned the corner quickly, preparing to face anything.