They moved in a tight group, Saito in the lead, Webb covering the rear. Chen stayed in the middle, her heart pounding so hard she could feel it in her throat. The corridors of the Magellan's Hope had never seemed so long, so dark, so full of shadows that might hide anything.
They passed the medical bay. The door was open, the lights off inside. Chen caught a glimpse of something on the examination table—a shape that might have been a body, but she looked away before she could be sure.
"How many are left?" she whispered.
"Five of us here," Webb answered quietly. "Amira, you, me, the captain, and—where's Okonkwo?"
They stopped. Chen counted. Saito. Webb. Herself. Amira. That was four.
"Okonkwo?" Saito called. "Kofi?"
No answer.
A sound came from behind them—a wet, tearing noise, like something being pulled apart. They ran.
The corridor to the escape pods stretched before them, seemingly endless. Chen's lungs burned, her legs ached, but she kept moving, driven by pure animal terror. Behind her, she could hear the others, their footsteps pounding on the deck plates.
Something dropped from the ceiling in front of them.
It was the creature, but changed—larger now, more defined. Its head was elongated, smooth, with no visible eyes or mouth. Its limbs ended in sharp points that clicked against the deck. And its tail—long, sinuous, tipped with a blade that gleamed in the emergency lights—whipped back and forth like a cat preparing to strike.
Saito fired.
His sidearm spat plasma bolts that struck the creature's chest, burning black holes in its flesh. It didn't scream, didn't even flinch—just kept coming, moving with a speed that seemed impossible for something its size.
It took Saito first.
One moment he was firing; the next, the creature's tail had punched through his chest and out his back. He looked down at the appendage protruding from his sternum, surprise on his face, and then the creature lifted him and threw him aside like garbage.
Webb grabbed Chen's arm and pulled her into a side corridor. Amira followed, her face a mask of terror. Behind them, they heard the creature continuing its work—more shots, more screams, then silence.
They ran until they couldn't run anymore, then they hid in a storage closet, huddled together in the dark, listening to the sounds of their ship being taken apart around them.