(Author's Note: This is a little something inspired by FluffyFriz's Left Behind. Please don't forget to review, I appreciate feedback dearly!)
"Ohh… My back…"
Brittany was coming to slowly, the sight of the setting sun greeting her. Her entire body was wracked with pain as she took in the deserts around her weakly, trying not to move too much. She looked up and thought back to earlier. She remembered fighting that gelatinous creature, remembered how she ended up stuck in it and lifted in the air, and how it spun and flung her hard across the air. She swore she could hear the screams of her crewmates as she flew across the sky and well out of their sight.
After a few moments, Brittany decided she had had enough of a lie down and attempted to get up, which turned out to be a big mistake. She winced as a throbbing headache bore down on her hard and kneeled over, holding her helmet in pain. She also felt incredibly lightheaded and it was getting harder to breathe by the minute. Just what kind of damage did that creature do…?
The answer came to her in the form of a warning blink from the suit's alert system. A few seconds later, the messenger said, "Warning! Severe rupture in suit tank! Fatal amounts of oxygen detected!"
Just great… Brittany found it increasingly difficult to breathe as the oxygen started overtaking her in higher doses. As she laid down, desperately struggling to keep conscious, she could hear the fluttering of wings ahead and could faintly make out a group of pikmin surrounding her. What were they doing…?
Brittany's vision blurred further until she finally blacked out, the pikmin moving in on her.
"Captain?"
"Yes, Alph?"
Alph, Charlie, and Olimar were all in the S.S. Drake, watching the screen in worry. Brittany's tracking signal was unfortunately broken. However, her health support was intact and could still give them data on her current condition. Alph looked at Charlie nervously. "Should we search the whole planet for her?"
"…" Charlie shook his head. "I don't think she got thrown that far, Alph. Still, it would take a long while before we'd be able to get any leads on her position, with her tracking signal being broken. I'm… worried, to say the least."
An uncomfortable silence overtook them all. Captain Olimar knew what Charlie was thinking, although he didn't want to say it out loud in front of Alph.
"Captain?" Alph asked again. Charlie nodded in response.
"Do you think… Do you think she could be safe with the pikmin?"
That was an interesting question… Charlie knew that pikmin were certainly capable of protecting her, although he worried about what she would do in a suit with no food nor air. He looked up at the monitor with a grim expression.
Brittany's vitals were dropping fast. Charlie paled as he watched the numbers on screen drop lower and lower…
A message popped up on screen. "Brittany has passed away. Cause of death: Oxygen poisoning."
Charlie hung his head while Alph trembled in horror. "C-Captain…"
"…I'm sorry." Charlie held Alph in a tight hug, trying to comfort him as the screen blinked off. The two stayed that way for a while, looking much like a father and his son. Charlie reluctantly broke the hug before announcing, "We're going to have to send notification to Brittany's aunt and father. Tell them… tell them what happened. Bea won't take the news very well… I'll take some time out to comfort her in her grief. Brittany was a great loss to all of us, and it's up to us to make sure her passing wasn't in vain."
Alph stood tall, still with that sad look on his face. "Y-yes, captain. Let's go home."