I made this for a speculative fiction class that I'm attending. The events of this story takes place in an alternate universe, almost completely different from the main storyline: Isaac Clarke, Zach Hammond and others are already onboard the Ishimura as a part of its crew, Nicole is not dead, and the necromorphs end up aboard the ship through an entirely different means. Depending on whether or not I feel like it, I may turn this into a novel; otherwise, it remains as a one-shot.
Isaac held the high-powered plasma cutter in front of him, the makeshift weapon shaking uncontrollably in his hand. The attached flashlight jerked about in his unstable grip, casting shadows in various areas and making the owner of the tool feel an overwhelming sense of claustrophobia.
This was crazy, absolutely crazy; one minute, he was in Zero-G and working up in fuel storage with the rest of the maintenance crew, and the next he found himself dropping like a rock onto the deck. Then, hordes of necromorphs appeared almost out of nowhere, killing most of the engineers before anyone could realize what was going on.
Isaac and a few others were smart enough to utilize various mining and engineering tools as weapons, and were able to escape certain death; however, he had since been separated from the others after another attack; most likely they were dead, and now he was alone with this new infection onboard this section of the ship; especially within the confines of his engineering RIG.
"They don't pay me enough to do this," the unfortunate engineer grumbled.
Gathering his wits, he took one step forward – before letting out a surprised yelp when static began to crackle through his helmet. It took him several moments to realize that it was just a transmission that was trying to get through; he placed a hand over his chest.
"Issac? Issac, are you there?" A holo-display appeared in front of the engineer, with the live feed of a middle-aged, dark-skinned man in a grey security RIG.
Issac sighed in relief. "Shit, Hammond… You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
Hammond laughed, a bit nervously; the engineer noticed that the man was constantly looking over his shoulder, holding his pulse rifle with a death grip.
"H-Hammond," Issac could barely hold back the fear in his voice. "What the hell is going on here? Why is there another necromorph outbreak? Why is the power out, why are all the engineers dead, and why the fuck are none of the soldiers mobilizing?"
"Isaac… If I knew, then trust me when I say you would be the first one I tell." Hammond looked over his shoulder again, and turned back to the screen. The background began to move at a heightened speed; the man was on the move. "I'm on my way to fuel storage now, to pick you up… Try to stay in one piece until I get there." The holo-display abruptly went dead, and once more the engineer was left alone.
Isaac's helmet uncoiled from around his head, and the engineer took a deep breath. "This is crazy… this is too fucking crazy…" Once again, he gathered his wits before refitting his helmet onto his head and heading for the tram station.
By the time he had reached the station, he found the tram and Hammond waiting for him. The dark-skinned man beckoned for Isaac to hurry, with the engineer did without any hesitation. The two of them boarded the car, and slumped against the walls in relief as the door closed and the tram was off.
"Isaac!" The engineer was taken slightly aback when something embraced him. Looking down, he saw that it was his long-time girlfriend.
"Nicole… Oh, thank goodness, you made it," he replied wearily. There were others on the station, some of whom Isaac recognized. All of them had the same fearful expression.
The woman shuddered a bit as she let out dry sobs. "I was so worried about you, Isaac… They said that fuel storage was hit the hardest, and I thought that they… they…"
The engineer rubbed her back reassuringly. "It's alright. I'm fine now… we're fine now. Everything's going to be alright…" And now, for the more pressing matter. Isaac turned his attention to Hammond, whom was hunched over on a seat.
"Hammond, you're chief of security on this hellhole. You have to know something about what just happened, right?"
The security captain didn't respond for a while, and Isaac was just about ready to blow his top. However, Hammond looked up and looked at the engineer with a serious expression.
"I just received word from the bridge. We… The Ishimura was caught in a serious meteor shower. ADS cannons couldn't even keep up; several asteroids made it through, and breached the hull." The man's tone went bitter as he kept explaining. "Apparently… A few of our 'friends' were hitching a ride on one of those asteroids. And as for the mobilization…" He laughed bitterly, and said nothing further. Isaac understood the implications of his silence, and was partially shaken by it.
"A godsend… Divinty in human form…" Hammond turned to glare at the one that had spoken.
"I don't know how screwed up your religion really is, Mercer, but those things are far from 'divine'." Isaac could sympathize with Hammond's frustration; along the way to the tram, the engineer had noticed some Unitologists willingly give themselves to the infestation.
However, Mercer merely shook his head and laughed at the security captain's words. The engineer felt Nicole's arms tighten around him once the scientist began to speak again.
"You… You all would not understand," Mercer said with a slightly hysterical voice. "These creatures you call 'necromorphs' are a godsend! They have been sent by The Lord Himself to… to cleanse humanity of those that are unworthy!" Isaac's hand balled up into a fist, his entire body shaking with rage. That piece of shit called this a cleansing?
However, neither he nor anyone else needed to vent their frustration; someone else did that for them.
"Those things are not godsends!" A man wearing a blue officer RIG yelled angrily at the Unitologist. "They're just reanimated carcasses, warped and mutated into… into…. into whatever the fuck those things are!"
Mercer raised a hand to silence the enraged officer. "You are a fool, Nathan… My wife and daughter both have already transcended, and are well on-"
He was cut off when the officer's fist met with his, and sent him sprawled onto the floor. "Don't get chummy with me, you fuck!" The officer aimed his divot pistol at the Unitologist, breathing heavily. "You let your own fucking family get killed by those things? You make me sick!"
Immediately, Hammond placed a hand on Nathan's outstretched arm and lowered the weapon.
"Don't do it, Nate… He isn't worth the ammo." The security captain glared at the Unitologist, whom was bleeding through the nose. "Consider yourself lucky that we require your 'expertise', doctor… Or else I would've let my friend here kill you already."
Mercer glared up at the two armed men, but said nothing further. Isaac couldn't help but chuckle; at least the Unitologist knew when to shut up.
The officer scoffed, and holstered his pistol before resigning to simply sitting back down. "After this shit is over… I'm going to kick his ass," he said offhandedly.
Get in line, Isaac thought with amusement.
Hammond looked around to the rest of the survivors, most of whom were just broken families. And most of them were women and children; Isaac couldn't help but wonder just what they had to go through.
"Alright people," Hammond began. "I know we're all stressed here, but you don't need to worry. Sgt. McNeil and I," He indicated the officer. "Along with our 'specialist' Isaac Clarke," He then gestured to the engineer. "Will get you all off of the Ishimura safely."
The security captain looked at the engineer's girlfriend. "Ms. Brennan, I'll require your assistance in performing a psychiatric evaluation on everyone here. Including and especially Dr. Mercer." Again, he glared at the Unitologist, whom merely glared back.
Nicole nodded, and released her embrace from around Isaac. The engineer hadn't realized how lonely he felt after that – even though she was only a few meters away from him at anytime. His girlfriend went to each and every person on the tram, recalibrating the bio-readers of their RIGs and asking them various question.
When she came to Isaac, he reassured her that he was fine; after all, he had the most experience with the necromorph infestation, and had since grown immune to the subsequent fits of insanity that the infestations seemed to bring.
"Are you sure, Isaac?" Nicole placed a hand on his helmet, where his cheek would be. "I mean, you've been under a lot of stress lately, and…"
He wrapped a gloved hand around her wrist, and gently pulled her hand away. "Believe it or not, dear… I'm in my element." His helmet yet again unwrapped from around his head, and he gave her a reassuring smile. Though in reality, he was frightened; not only for his life and everyone else's, but for her life as well.
Her expression hardened, and he could tell that she was trying hard not to cry. "Isaac…" She stayed silent after that, her body shuddering with held-back tears.
"It's okay, Nicole. Really… Just stay close to me, and I promise that you'll get out of here alive." He meant every word; no matter what, he was going to get her out of this hell.
"How touching…" Isaac slowly turned his head to look at the snickering doctor. "Though I still fail to understand everyone is so fixated upon escaping this enlightening."
"Mercer, shut the fuck up," the engineer said through gritted teeth. The Unitologist's snickering elevated into a full-out laugh, and the doctor slowly got up to his feet.
"You of all people, Isaac… I would love to see you ascend." He sneered at the engineer; Isaac felt his girlfriend cling to him again, letting out a slight gasp. "Even though you are but a simple engineer, you have a spark that most soldiers tend to lack." Obviously, he was talking about Hammond and Nathan.
He stepped forward, his hands outstretched; Isaac immediately stepped away, instinctively holding up his plasma cutter in defense. The engineer knew what was happening now; Mercer was succumbing to the 'Marker Effect', as he called it: the fit of insanity that came with an infestation.
Hammond and Nathan followed suit, holding their weapons up and aimed at the doctor. Though Mercer didn't seem to care.
"Join us, Isaac Clarke… Make us whole again…" His tone became devoid of any reasoning, his eyes growing dull and empty. The engineer pressed his finger lightly against the trigger of his plasma cutter, holding Nicole protectively against him with his other hand.
Mercer's nearly-psychotic expression immediately relaxed, and the doctor slumped onto the floor unconscious. Nathan spat on the doctor's inert form, and checked the butt of his pistol's grip for any damage.
"He's gone loony on us, just like all of the other Unitologists we've met…" Hammond nodded at the officer's words, his expression unreadable.
Nathan sighed, once again sitting down – but keeping his pistol drawn. "For fuck's sake… Why couldn't we have gotten Kyne instead of this prick? At least Kyne was sane, unlike the others of his cult…"
Isaac pelt a pang of regret. Kyne… The one Unitologist that I've actually become friendly with… At least one of the many maniacs aboard the ship was sane enough to realize what these things really were.
He realized that Nicole was still clinging to him, shivering uncontrollably and sobbing. Lowering his makeshift weapon, he rubbed her back to calm her down. "… We need to get out of here Zach," he said in an even voice.
Hammond nodded. "I know… We're to meet with the surviving crew of the ship at the bridge, and this is the last batch of survivors. Everyone will be evacuated to the nearest populated planet, and we'll finally be out of this nightma-"
The security captain was abruptly cut off as the tram lurched to a sudden halt; everyone that had been standing careened to their side and fell in a heap.
Nathan was the first to regain his composure, sitting up and rubbing the back of his head. "The fuck was that?" Hammond shook his head, and got up to his feet.
"I don't know. Maybe a power surge, or a severed cable or-" Their answer came in the form of another sudden lurch of the car, from something on top of it. Hammond fell back down again, banging his head against the edge of a seat. The security captain let out a string of curses, and was about to yell for all of the panicking tenants to calm down – before his eyes widened.
Everyone could hear it, and everyone stayed silent. The guttural sounds of distorted roar, squeals and barks, the sickening sound of flesh rubbing against flesh, the scratching of something hard and sharp against flooring…
Isaac slowly stood, his helmet once again refitting himself around his head. He held a terrified, wide-eyed Nicole close to him as he raised his plasma cutter up, aimed towards the main door of the tram.