METROID
Chapter One
The only thought running through my mind was death. The death of my commanding officer. The death of the person that loved me, who I also loved back. And the death of me, Samus Aran.
I rolled around for half the night, thinking of how to end my suffering. And finally, around midnight, the solution was found as a gun was raised to my head. The hand holding it belonging to me. But keeping me from pulling the trigger was the flash. The flash every person sees before death. The flash of your own life. The three seconds that replays every year of your life starting with your earliest memory. Which for me, started when I was three.
* * *
I had been wandering around my home in the K2-L mining colony, looking for food and shelter among the rubble. I hadn't eaten in three days, and already my rib cage was visible on the surface of my skin. Being three and alone eliminates the possibility for entertaining stories about my survival. At least until the Chozo showed up to finish negotiating their Afloraltite deal with my father.
They stepped off the ship with smiles on their bird-like faces, which immediately leaped away when they saw the grisly aftermath of the battle that destroyed my home. Dead bodies with decaying flesh lying all over, the smoldering of the grass and trees that once shaded the colony, houses and buildings now lying in piles of rubble, and slaughtered animals with their innards and carcasses lying over the ground.
The Chozo were elderly gentlemen, and moved slowly through the colony. I was inside a house that was still standing, but still missing several good-sized chunks, and was really happy after finally finding some food; a garble fruit. But after taking one bite, I dropped it and ran outside after hearing faint voices and footsteps. And when I got outside, I immediately recognized Old Bird, who I'd made friends with a few days earlier. "Big Bird, Big Bird!" I shouted as I ran into his arms.
"Oh my god, Samus?" He wrapped me in his arms and hugged me tightly. "How did you survive?"
"I don't know," I told him after he let go of me.
"Go into the ship, I must speak with Grey Voice. I walked onto the ship and Old Bird turned to begin his conversation. "What must we do? Humans can't survive on Zebes."
"I know," said Grey Voice. "Let's leave and report this to the Mother. I will give her a pint of my own blood to help stabilize her own."
"Very well." Old Bird and Grey Voice walked onto the ship and it flew back to Zebes. On the way, Grey Voice sat in the medical room for an hour 'til he called me to go.
"Samus, I must warn you, this will hurt, but it's the only way to keep you alive," he said.
Being three, and slightly clueless as to what he warned me about, I just said "ok," and sat on the table ready for the operation. The Chozo doctor pushed a needle into my upper arm, which made me cry a little. But I screamed and cried loud as all get out when the machine started forcing Grey Voice's thick blood into my veins.
After it stopped, I laid down on the medical bed and cried myself to sleep. And while I slept, Old Bird and Grey Voice started discussing what they were going to do with me.
