It felt like years and my chest was numb with pain. I had no idea if I had been holding my breath for as long as it felt, but everything was fuzzy. My head was spinning as it pounded like I was being repeatedly hit in the head with a bat. My arms had gone numb, and I couldn't tell if I still had all my fingers in the crevice of the wall. I couldn't even tell if I was warm or cold. Everything had been going all over the place, up, down, side to side, I couldn't make sense of direction anymore. My brain wasn't exactly trying to focus. This is where I die, then. Out in space, the one place I could get away from all my problems back on earth. The one place where people didn't treat me like crap, always making fun of me and injuring me, and I'm going to die. I felt myself start sliding away, slowly. I realized my hands were starting to give up, but I couldn't muster the strength to dig my fingers back in. The crevice was sharper than it looked, so probably part of the problem was the fact my fingers were excessively bleeding from digging the corner into my hands. My chest all of a sudden had an extreme pang of pain, which made me gasp, loosing some of the air and letting go of the crevice. I tried desperately to grab the crevice again, but I had started floating away from it, so I couldn't grab it again. My chest was screaming now, and I was just about to pass out. Suddenly, I think, there was a click! noise. I'm not sure, because space cancels sound out due to its endless space. I saw the airlock doors start coming down, and I was just able to grab onto it. The door helped bring me back into the airlock, and as it closed it started filling the room back with oxygen. I fell to the floor, gasping, coughing, doing everything to calm my body. I heard the other door open, and felt someone help me up. Helped the air flow easier, but I was still choking to death trying to swallow all the air in the entire universe. As I started regaining my breath, I collapsed into the arms of whoever had helped me up, panting like a dog. I was too exhausted and in pain to open my eyes. I could just make out different voices, but I was worried about other things to care. I opened my eyes slowly to see Lucas's panicked eyes gazing back to me. Again, I coughed a few times, before shooting myself upwards.
"Airlock- some-someone- im-..imposter- ali...en killed- Lucy- I... saw- unlock... murderer-" I stammered, still coughing and trying to get air, trying to calm my pounding head.
"Woah woah woah relax! You just survived almost being shot into outer space, tell us when you have the breath," Lucas said, putting his hands on my shoulders.
"For now let me help you to Medbay," he said, going around to my front and kneeling down. I didn't even want to try to argue, so I weakly wrapped my arms around his neck as he grabbed my legs to hoist me up. I only then noticed everyone else was there, including Sasha, who seemed horrified. I just have them all a weak glare of anger and annoyance as Lucas passed them, bringing me up to Medbay.
"There, your hands are wrapped now, just don't do your tasks for now, ok?" Dizzy said. She was the medic of the ship, which was a lot handy. I nodded slowly, as I was still a little light headed.
"Are you able to tell us what happened?" Tristan asked.
"Well, I was thinking to myself.. about who may have.. killed Lucy... and I figured something out," I began, making everyone look a little curious, "Thay since none of us.. would kill each other.. genuinely, that an alien.. or something.. is posing as one or two of us.. and is now trying to.. kill.. the rest of us," everyone looked shocked at this staement, although I knew one of them atleast was faking, "At that moment, though.. someone.. no idea who, unlocked the.. outer airlock door.. I have no idea.. how I'm alive.. glad I took swimming lessons..." I finished, looking down at my hands, now bandaged in already slightly soaked bloody bandages. Everyone was silent for a while, before Rachelle eventually said,
"Well, you have been proven innocent now, there was another person found, and besides that someone tried ejecting you into space..." Didn't make me feel better. I looked up to see the remaining people standing around. Rachelle, Tristan, Sasha, Lucas, Kyle, Zach, and Dizzy. Mackenzie died.
"Mackenzie..." I whispered, looking back down. When we had gotten on the ship first, I actually had a little crush on her for a while. Then she started dating Dizzy, so I ditched those feelings, then realized I was bi when I found another crush. I still haven't ditched the feelings since he wasn't exactly interested in anyone, but I just ignore them so they don't ruin the close friendship we have. Mackenzie actually gave me dating advice at one point, as well as made me feel better when it was one of those, "miss home but don't wanna go back," kinda days.
"She was strangled to death, I actually heard her last words before walking into the room as her killer used the vents to escape... she was wishing we all find the killers, or the alien imposters," Tristan said. I just scowled at the floor, before standing up and opening my last night procedure scanner.
"Last night, I felt I was being wtached so I went to Admin. I ran the LSP and 12 lifeforms came up. Ran it again, 11 lifeforms. The aliens merged with 2 of us, so theres 2 killers. My guess their killing us for either food, safety or because they have no idea what we'll do to them if they get found out. I suggest pairs, unless you wanna do tasks alone. But that just means you're more likely to die without a witness." I stated, scrolling through my night activities, heart rate monitor and step module. Everyone looked shocked at the sudden use of all these great ideas.
"When did you become master detective?" Zach jokingly said, although seemed nervous still.
"I always figured out who the murderer was in the Mafia, Witch hunt Werewolves games, even though I chose them. It was utterly obvious to me by the looks, tone of voice, word choice and movements regardless that they were the killers, although these aliens know how we act pretty damn well." I replied.
"And this is the guy who, half an hour ago, was half-dead from lack of sleep," Mackenzie stated. I just looked at her, in which she shut up. I still felt like my energy went down a shower drain, but we had a bigger issue than me needing to fight sleep.
"So we have Master Detective, Engineer, a killer and a Medic, what else do we have?" Sasha said, quite sarcastically.
"Oh I don't know, a jealous female trying to get me killed because I rejected her?" I said, with twice the sarcasm she had, glaring at her as I stood up and left Medbay to go to Admin and do what I wanted to do originally. I quickly marched through Cafeteria and entered Admin to do an LSP.
"7 LIFEFORMS FOUND." Did two more people die? I checked Admin table, and it shocked me. Everyone had gone to do tasks, but it said that one person was in Admin. The dot was over by the ventilation shaft though. I was over by the door. I looked up to the vent, and saw a shadow slowly creeping out of the vent. Right then and there, a loud alarm was set off, blasting red lights and an agonizingly concerning noise. I quickly raced out of Admin into Cafeteria before checking my holopraphic map. It said the Reactor was melting down, so I ran through Upper Engine as fast as I could. I was met by Kyle, who was stuck on the Manifolds and wasn't able to leave until he finished, and Dizzy was slowly, and seemingly unsure about it, walking towards the bottom hand scan which restarts the Reactor, fixing it. I raced up to the top one, placed my hand on it, and met Dizzy's eyes before she put her hand on it. The blaring alarms and lights dimmed out, and the Reactor went back to it's normal color.
"Oh thank god you guys fixed it! I can't believe I got stuck on Manifolds during that so I couldn't help." Kyle exclaimed, quite relieved and disappointed. Most likely in himself.
"It's cool, no sweat," I replied, patting him on the head as he slouched over while sighing. Something told me, at the back of my mind, though, that this was far from over.