What seems to be the longest day of my life shows no signs of letting down at any point. I can't help but wonder if it'll end at all with any survivors. My ponderings take a grim look at the past twenty-four hours and my heart sinks. Who's really going to survive this place? If there are any, there is no way that they are coming out the same way they came in.

One fateful mission in restricted space. One asshole who thought that evolution was the gateway to transcendence. That all would be alright and that no one would catch them as they tore apart a planet that we were not supposed to touch. But who am I to say anything. I'm just a damn engineer. I fix things. It irritates me now that in all actuality I am dead. I will not be returning from this mission as I once was. This I am certain is the whole hard truth of the matter.

"Maybe Nicole was right." I mutter to myself. I look over at Nicole. She lies motionless on the floor. Still unconscious from the boot to the head that I had pleasantly gifted her with. I smile. Fulfilled at the moment by my actions towards her. I could care less about what has or will happen it wasn't going to change the facts that while I am dead, the rest of the galaxy has no clue. No one will care. No one will mourn us. I take a sip of my coffee and sigh. I hate waiting here, but something tells me that I shouldn't leave.

Nicole stirs. Her groan, the only thing that reminds me that, in fact, I haven't killed her after all. I just made her think about her actions before she thinks about pinning me to the floor for her own damn satisfaction. I said nothing to her. Nor did I bother to look at her as she sat down next to me. She stares watching me prop my feet up and smirk.

"Was that really necessary?" She asks rubbing the side of her face. It was now bruised slightly and swollen.

I snort my approval and sigh. "Yes, it was." My only words that I could express the amount of gratitude I had for using her as a punching bag. "Maybe you'll think about what you say before you throw me to the floor." I look over at her and her head is down. She won't make eye contact with me.

There is a long silence between us. There is nothing for us to really say to one another. I proved my point. If she says that I killed Chris. For what reason, I don't know. There would be no point to kill a dead man again. Why would I do it? Maybe she's lying again. I take my actions for the first time he was skewered very seriously. Since indeed it was my fault.

"I'm sorry to do this to you, but I have unleashed my pet on your dear engineer." Mercer's voice breaks through the silence like a shriek of the dead.

I spring from the chair in an instant.

"Mercer! Don't you fucking think about it!" I scream into the comm.

"It is too late! He will be one with us." Mercer explains. The raving lunatic cackles with glee as I grab my rifle and start for the door.

"I knew I should have put a bullet in you when I had the chance." I growl as I hit the metal staircase.

Mercer continues laughing like a madman. Nicole is right behind me. She says nothing just follows a couple steps to the rear.

"No. You must stay in flight control." Kyne interrupts.

"Really. I think I have some ass to kick." I retort, never losing my pace. My eyes dart from left to right as a necromorph, black and angry starts towards me. I aim and fire without much thought. It yowls in disagreement to the assault and starts its charge at me. I keep firing, backing up slowly with each two steps it takes. Blood and mush fall to the ground in heaped messes of guck. It slowly dribbles through the grates and hits the ground. It makes one final leap towards me and my weapon clicks rapidly. "Shit!" I swing violently knocking in across its scythe like appendage. It hangs loosely from the nub of its upper arm; held together by the few strands of rotting flesh.

I keep swinging it's the best thing I can do. It screams and charges closer. I grab at its remaining swinging limb and its head stairs down at me. Its jaws open like flanges on a cupboard, wide and gaping. I can't let go of it or let it get too much closer to me than it already is. I'm now in a death lock with it.

"Here!" Nicole finally says. She tosses me a pipe and I let its nubby appendage go. It was the only change I got. I swing, smashing it alongside the head. It falls to the side in an unnatural fashion and I hack at it again. Its head rolls off and smacks the floor, jaws upward staring at me hungrily. I kick at its chest to give us some distance between each other. I look to my left and see that there is a pack of ammo that I hadn't seen there before. What the hell is going on?

I grab my rifle and dodge the headless beast's charge. Reloading the gun and feeling like I can a galactic invasion of these assholes, I fire. The rattling shaking my injured shoulder to almost bits. The pain was for lack of a better word, intense. There is nothing that is going to stop me, however. I aim at its legs and fire. Spraying and praying and watch as the holes that I create make an imperfect dotted line. The necromorph staggers and falls back a little bit. I'm almost out of ammunition again so I close my eyes half expecting the inevitable and squeeze the trigger.

The clicking starts again, but the monster hasn't reached my position yet. I open my eyes slowly and see that the monster lay in a haphazard heap in front of me. Most of it was blown to the floor and what remained was a torso, riddled with holes and motionless.

I sigh, wiping the sweat from my brow and smiling. The adrenaline wearing off made me start an instant detox effect. I start to shake and it was only natural that in those few moments, I thought that my heart was going to explode.

"Doctor Kyne, I have to go." I tell the babbling man over the comm. He hasn't stopped talking during this whole thing started. He didn't even know I was under attack. Frankly I don't think at this point that he would even care.

"No you must stay! Please!" Kyne pleas fall on deaf ears. "If you'll just-"

The comm goes dead. There is no static. The lack of sound brings me to a stop.

"What is it?" Nicole asks. I put my hand up to shush her.

"I don't know." I utter. Unsure of what had just happened. Shipboard communications shouldn't be down. They can't be. It's running off of a secondary system. The only way that someone could have shut it down is if they were-. "Son of a bitch."

"Drea?" Nicole asks. I look at her with an evil glint in my eye.

"I know where Kendra is." I state.

"How?" Nicole questions. She doesn't believe that I know. How could she? She probably just thinks that I'm rambling off locations just that I have an excuse to get away from her.

"It doesn't matter. I need to find her." I say with a determination that cannot be waned.

"Kyne said to stay here though." Nicole protests. She crosses her arms across her chest as if she was making an attempt at defying me.

"Look, Mercer sent that damn monster after Isaac. Kendra locked out my communications so now I'm blind to whatever is going on." I retort. "If you want to stay here and act like a bitch than fine. Stay. But I'm going."

"Ondrea, please." Nicole pleas. Her voice, as it always does, grates on me.

I look at her. She isn't fearful of going through the ship. She just doesn't want to go. Why the hell not? We're supposed to be keeping her boyfriend safe.

"Listen, whoever it is I'm talking to. I've sent Isaac on a fetch mission. You will not be able to get a hold of Isaac any longer at this point. You're assistance is no longer needed." Kendra's voice blares over the PA.

"What the hell do you want, Kendra?" I ask through gritted teeth.

"Nothing you should be concerned with. I'm half hoping that Mercer's pet project will hold out on killing Isaac for just a bit longer." Kendra states. She seems to be reveling in the torture she's putting Isaac through. "You do realize he's here for Nicole."

I nod and look over at the apparition. "Yes, I'm aware of that. What have you got planned for him exactly?"

"Mercer knows what's going on. He's sent that regenerator after Isaac. Isaac on the other hand is doing some task for Kyne." Nicole explains.

"So what do you plan on doing with me?" I ask her. I already know the answer, it's as plain as day.

"Leave you here, of course. You'll be marked as just another casualty of a mysterious event that has taken place. Just as Isaac will be." Kendra chortles.

"Kendra-" I start only to be interrupted by the comm going dead again. "Damn it!"

"So Kendra is behind all of this?" Nicole asks.

I shake my head and look at the door that I was about to go through to get to the flight lounge. The door is locked. "Fuck." I mutter. I walk over to the control panel and see that all control had been sent over to the central computer. "I'm going to kill her." I state under my breath.

I don't know whether to cry or hit the person next to me. While the former wouldn't exactly be a mark of weakness at this point, the latter wouldn't be any help either. I sigh again and take out my cigarette. My fingers leave blood stains on the paper, but I worry not about it. There wasn't time to dilly dally about the sanitary nature of cigarettes.

"Maybe you should go back to the control room." Nicole suggests. She looks around to see if there are anymore predators in our vicinity. I say nothing to her. It seems like a plausible idea given that I'm locked out of the rest of the ship, but would it really change anything? My hands are tied and I have no way to get to Isaac.

"What do you mean I should go back to the control room? Aren't you coming too?" I ask, cocking an eyebrow as a show of my own amusement.

"I am going with you." Nicole states. She seems distant now towards me. Part of me doesn't see the fact that she isn't the same conniving bitch that only a little while ago was screaming for my blood. Yet, her tone isn't very reassuring.

"Then let's go." I order her propping the rifle up on my shoulder. I walk passed her and head back up the stairs. My heavy boots rattle the rickety metal and the creaking made sounds that itself was going to fall apart and right out from under my feet.

I open the door and throw the gun at the wall. I'm hoping that if there are any monsters near me that they'd hear the noise and start running towards me. The pulsing in my brain lets up for a split second and I see it…


"Dr. Mercer has locked the doors! Isaac, you need to get out of there!" Kendra yells. Her concern, a lie. Obviously. "Do you have what we need?"

"I got them." Isaac states. His breath rapid and a crash from the ceiling send him running again. He runs toward a door and sees that it's locked.

"Hold on Isaac, I'll get them open." Kendra states.

The regenerator bursts through the ceiling and swipes at Isaac. He dodges and runs into a corner. Why is he running into a corner? He slows it with the stasis module and runs around it to put some distance between him and it.

"You will be one with us, Isaac." Mercer mocks through his comm.

"Isaac! The door is open move!" Kendra orders.

Isaac bolts for the door and…

The whispering shifts me to a different scene. Where am I? What am I doing? What is Mercer doing? Why are you on your knees?

"I await your gift!" Mercer decrees, his arms spread wide and I hit him. The pointy straw of a… necromorph impales him in the cranium like he had once done to that couple and all those countless other people.

I feel his life force slipping as the poison I'm secreting into him fills up the cavity I've created. When I've completed my task I let him fall like the pile of trash that he is. Like he'd done to so many others. How karma works. Is it really though? Is it really? He wanted it to happen. Fucking Unitologists.


My vision goes black and in this void, it all makes sense. The writings, the whispers, everything. I know what he's thinking and doing at any given moment. It's like flipping through channels. Whatever force is trying to show me still makes no sense. Is this the power that I have? Can I do it to someone like Kendra? Can I destroy Nicole with a thought?

My vision returns. The throbbing completely gone now and what is left is a knowledge and understanding of all things good and evil in the universe. What answer do I have now with all the questions that I've posed to Nicole and Chris?

"Nicole!" I say out loud. I don't see her anywhere in the control room. Where did she go? I go to the window and peer down to see if she was on the deck. There is no trace of her at all. "She's gone." I mumble. Half of me is nervous about being alone. The other is elated about being alone and without her heckling and snide remarks.

A subtle crackle comes up over the comm. I can make out the voice faintly.

"Ondrea. This is Doctor Kyne." The whispered voice says. "Can you hear me?"

I look around and shrug. Nothing could surprise me anymore.

"I'm here Doctor. What do you need?" I ask as I sit down and prop my feet on the chair next to me. I pull my helmet off and drop it beside me and wait for him to reply.

"You are still in flight control?" He asks.

"Yeah. I'm still here." I answer back. I run my fingers through my hair and lay my head against the back of the chair.

"Really?" Kyne's voice rings as if he shocked to know that I'm here. "I thought you were on your way to Isaac." He stops and clears his throat. "My wife wants you to know that Isaac is on his way to get the emergency shuttle."

"Alright." I remark with a sigh. "So what do you want me to do?"

"Nothing. Stay right there." Kyne responds. There is a long pause and followed by, "Don't worry, I didn't tell him you were here."

It is strange how he states that. He almost seems to think that is a cursory option that needs to be explained.

"Well once this emergency shuttle is up here, what do you want me to do? Can I get to the shuttle?" I ask. My heart skips a beat about the thought of getting out of here.

"No. Once Isaac gets the Marker on to the shuttle we're taking it down to the planet." Kyne explains.

"What about me?" I yell.

"You are staying. You've been tainted by the Marker. My wife told me so." Kyne flippantly snaps.

"Kyne! You son of a bitch!" I scream into the comm. I jump out of the chair and start towards the door. From the other side of it I hear the scraping of clawed feet on the stairs. I press my ear to the door and from the other side I can hear the breathing of a necromorph. I pull away from it and a sharp thud hits the door with such a force I think it'll break through and that'll be the end of it.


"Emergency shuttle set into docking bay for lift off." The computer's voice chimes.

I run to the window and see the shuttle there and walking on the gangway was Kyne strolling up to the shuttle. He opens the door and looks up at me. He smiles and waves and enters the shuttle with nary a thought.

"Kyne! What the hell do you think you're doing?" I call over to the cockpit. "Where's Isaac? What did you do to him?" I wait and the buzz over the speaker tells me that the signal is getting through. I push the call button repeatedly hoping that insane son of a bitch will answer me. He owes me that much.

"I'm so sorry, Ondrea, but this has to be done. You have to forgive me." Kyne's voice rings over the speaker.

"Come on, Kyne, think about this. I've done as you asked. Why won't you get me out of here?" I plea to him. I don't want to stay here. Maybe I should.

"No, no, no, my dearest won't let that happen. Isaac has to bring aboard the Marker and then we will be free of this place." Kyne babbles.

I let go of the button and mutter, "Fuck."

"It's probably for the best." Nicole says from behind me. I look over at her and stare.

"This was your plan the whole time?" I stammer. "You never wanted me to leave, did you?"

Nicole frowns at the accusation and shakes her head. She looks out the window and sees Isaac. Behind him is the oddest creation I have ever seen. It is so beautiful an object that I am astounded that they had found it at all to begin with. It is so well preserved that even I want to be close to it.

In an instant the dead whispers come back. I shut my eyes at the breathtaking pain. I clench my teeth, praying that whole damn thing would end. I feel Nicole place her hand on my shoulder and gently squeeze. I slowly open my eyes and see her watching me.

"It's alright. It's almost over." She coos. She brushes my hair out of my face and smiles, like a mother would to a child.

I feel two more hands touch me and I turn to see who it is. I'm greeted by those same blue eyes and striking features. A small smile fills in the void and a small string of blood drops out of the corner.

"Chris?" I gasp. "How? Why?"

He presses his finger to my lips to hush me and his face turns from that of delight to serious. I don't know how to respond. There are no words for what I'm feeling.

"Chris is dead." Nicole states. I feel the pressure from her hand grow heavier.

I shake my head. "No, he's right here."

"It's all in your head, Ondrea." The third person says from behind me.

"It's not possible. I can see him right here. Why can't you see him?" I plea to the voice with a sadness that aches. I look at Chris again and he is gone. I blink quickly and there standing in his place is me. Very naked. The same red eyes and heavy and erotic smile she had before.

"I need you to do something, Ondrea." She states in a calm voice.

"We need you to do something." Nicole corrects. I look at her.

"What's that?" I ask as I turn my attention back to Isaac. The Marker was still making its slow trek to the cargo bay of the shuttle.

I stand there watching as Isaac turns off the artificial gravity. His grace and slight disorientation was something that was worthwhile to watch. Me, myself, and Nicole stare out the window as he disappears from view.

The artificial gravity returns and Kyne comes into view from the shuttle. A single gunshot rings out and Kyne falls. I see Kendra walking towards the shuttle.

"Sorry, Isaac. I didn't want it to be this way, but this is how it has to be." Kendra says. The boosters to the shuttle ignite and I watch as the shuttle makes its way to the hanger and start to disappear into the darkness.

I look over at Nicole and she shakes her head. "Don't worry about it. You'll take care of it."

I nod and whisper, "Isaac come up to the control booth."

Just as soon as I finish the words, Isaac abruptly turns and heads off the catwalk and back in my general direction. I can hear him on the stair steps. His footsteps rapid as well as his breathing. He opens the door and I hold my breath.

"It's okay." Nicole whispers in my head. "He sees me."

"I'm so glad to see you again, Isaac." I state. My heart filling with elation. I turn to the panel and press a button. "Use the gravity tether and we will bring the Marker back.

I look over at Isaac and he's staring at me. The glow from his helm shines brightly as if to blind me.

"Nicole, I-" He starts.

"Shhh." I whisper.

He turns and presses the button. I turn back to him to say something and over the speaker Kendra's voice is heard. "Damn it, Isaac what are you doing?" A small pod jettisons and falls towards the planet.

"Damn it." Isaac growls.

"It's alright." I answer. I watch as the shuttle comes back to the docking area. "Go ahead. I'll be right there and we can take it back so we can be whole Isaac."

Damn those words again.

Isaac starts for the door and then stops. I look back at him and smile faintly. I nod for him to go and he shutters.

"Not too much longer." I hear myself say.

"I know." I respond.

"Go then. Fulfill what you are supposed to do." Nicole says.

I start for the door and stop myself.

"It's alright." Nicole urges me on with a smile. "Just remember what you are supposed to do."

"Are you sure about this?" I ask.

They both nod and smile. I turn back towards the door and head down the stairs after Isaac.

He makes it to the shuttle first and I follow. I stand in the entrance and see him there. If I could run up and hug him for surviving I would. I need that right now. Human contact. The be all end all. Tell him thank you for surviving that my actions aren't in vain.

I take my seat next to him and smile. He looks over at me and I know he's smiling back. I can feel it.

"Let's end this, Isaac." I murmur.

Isaac presses the button on the console and the shuttle takes off. Destination: Hell. The end of it all. Where I should be laying my life down for him and yet he has no idea who I am. I wish it would stay that way. He has no reason to know me. The way Nicole toiled with our heads was enough to make any person hate the sight of another. But we are kindred spirits who faced down death on numerous occasions.

I look out the window and see the Ishimura floating in space. It is a dead ship with a dead crew floating above a dead planet. Nothing made me feel sicker in that moment. All the people I have lost, my parents, friends all gone and I have survived. And for what? To see the end of everything, just as before.

"We're going to hit reentry." Isaac warns. His gloved hand caresses mine.

I nod and watch as the whole universe turns white.