Just so you all know, this is the second to last chapter of this story. I wanted to keep this short because I didn't want to drag it on for too long. (Like I do with many of my stories rip)
Plus, there's plenty of other scenarios I'd like to write for this game. There's so many things to explore.
But in the meantime, I hope you enjoy^^
It took until morning before the strange alien scent faded back into the regular stench of sweaty, unwashed astronauts.
Honestly, the captain preferred the bleach-like smell of the smoke. At least inhaling it seemed to have a few healthy benefits.
It was Day 17. The captain set a newly crafted can of soup in the cabinet. With a dull glance at her still-broken coffee maker, she frustratingly filled her mug with water instead.
She scowled, studying the beverage as if it were poison. A bumping noise interupted her from back in the cabin, the woman merely clicked her tongue, expecting it. "Good morning, fellow lumberjacks... Did you sleep well? Did the game logic idea work out?"
She frowned, hearing no response. She at least expected Emmet to spit back against the "lumberjack" comment, maybe calling her a hypocrite and that they had much worse to worry about than just their looks.
She twirled to face them, then froze once she saw her crew's now-awoken appearances.
...They both looked like stoners, to say the least. Their eyes were bloodshot pink with drool slipping from their lips - Baby looked like he just got done donning that pair of underwear on his head.
Deedee facepalmed in disbelief, rearranging her dishoveled red bandanna, "Looks like we're not in the game..." She laughed pathetically.
The two men gazed mindlessly around the shuttle, seemingly lost in their own heads. Dawkins gladly hesitated walking up and attempting to get their attention. She snapped her fingers in front of Baby's face, making him jump in surprise.
"Are you ok?" She asked him, despite the answer being clear. "Ahm fine." He stated robotically, "Let's just get the job done, worry later. You know the drill..." His eyes flicked to the lone soup in the shelves, then he fell silent again.
The captain furrowed her brow, she'd never heard him speak in that tone before. Much less mention anything about 'Job's or 'Drill's. What the hell was he on about?
The blonde tried to get his attention once more, but he had already escaped into his melancholic mental realm. Curiously, she turned to Emmet, who wasn't in any better condition. His teeth were strained in misery and one of his hands was lost in his mess of an afro.
Groaning in both regret and aggarvation, she ripped ASTRO's text out of the console.
"You decided it was a better idea to risk your crew's health rather than your own. Both a good call and a bad one, captain. While the fumes weren't too dangerous - it took a serious impact on your companion's mental states. So now you're stuck with lunatics... Enjoy it while it lasts!"
End transmission.
Deedee scowled miserably, taking two flasks of science and smashing them into the crafting system. Two days for one sock... She reminded herself, glancing back at her crazed crew,
Four days for two socks...
Slipping back in her chair, Deedee rested her head in a hand, tapping a finger impatiently. Now what was she going to do? Try to talk to them while their minds were too frazzled to know who she was?
Or just wait to see if Tom ever came back, if he even did.
Hours dragged on, only occasionally did the blonde woman hear one of her crazed friends mumble something about "the power of the conch" or... other things.
Emmet kept on whispering words of reassurance and scientific blabberings - ones that were probably brought up after so many years of teaching chemistry class.
Meanwhile, Baby was coping with his mind much worse. As if in a panic, he rambled on about missing something and apologizing for being a burden. The poor guy couldn't catch a break. It was like he was trapped in a horrible nightmare.
Deedee couldn't help but slide over and try to snap him out of it. She shook him by the shoulders, "It's not real, it's not real, ok? You're safe with us, don't worry."
It was almost ironic that she had started this mess in the first place.
Regardless, her soothing actions to the man were successful, and he woke with a blink. The first thing he did was grab her and hold her close. Which was... unexpected.
But after the few awkward moments, she decided to role with it, softly patting his back. And soon, he fell lax back in his chair, staring past her once more and into - literal - space.
She couldn't help but wonder what could upset him so much. Sure, he was Baby Bronco, but there could be mysteries that he could be revealing in his unraveled mind.
...Maybe she wasn't the only one harboring a secret.
...
Night began to fall. Or at least, that's what ASTRO said was the approximate Earth time by now. The new world's light was still beaming strong.
And... Ellis was muttering to himself incoherently in a dark corner of the shuttle.
Dawkins vaguely decided he was having various mental fantasies like Bronco was earlier. With a suspenseful grimace, she walked up and tapped him on the shoulder.
Instantly, his eyes went wild, "The aesthetics of a certain dark nebulae are absolutely, naturally perfect." He said, donning a sneer. Before she could ask him to translate his words into understandable english, he began to frantically search the shuttle.
He then gobbled about "similiar evidence of universal perfection," which Dawkins could only guess meant a superior item to manage. She rocked on her heels, barely noticing the broken husk of an atomic battery at her feet.
The thing was done-for already, but she decided to give Ellis' brain a shot. "Hey," She piped to the former chemistry instructor. He spun around, carefully eying her before spotting the shell of a power cell in her hands.
He furrowed his eyebrows, then snatched it from her, "A universally superior contraption?" He pondered curiously, "It could be adapted. Aside from a few minor complications... into a more formidable state, I suppose..."
With all the big words the wimpy guy was pulling out of his head, the captain wouldn't be surprised if he had stashed a library's thousand page dictionary somewhere nearby. Insanity took no toll on his brilliant mind, however that worked.
He tinkered with the useless item for hours on end, before he inevitably tired himself out and fell asleep on the floor. When Dawkins peeped over, she saw a perfectly crafted atomic battery laying next to him.
Much later that night, Deedee lay crookedly in her seat, her head rested in a hand. Exhausted from all the mental stress and lack of caffiene.
A rough jab to her arm jolted her back to reality. She leapt up, startled, before she froze, seeing Baby's unusually intimidating gaze.
"Hey Cap, I've got a job coming up. A smash and grab gig." He spoke coldly, his eyes suspiciously darted to the lone soup can in the shelves, "Get some supplies. You in?"
The blonde looked him up and down uneasily, wondering what the hell was going on. Oh, She remembered tiredly, He's crazy...
He was speaking differently, his posture had changed, he had a different look in his eyes ... It was like he became a completely different person. The captain could only hope it was just a harmless hallucination.
'What would Maegan do?'
She looked over at the single soup and a shovel lying in the corner - where her odd friend was eying and not incospicuously feeling his pockets.
With a noticably concerned glare, the captain stood to her feet with a convincing grin, "Yes! These are..." She paused, "...These are real special supplies, right?" The man nodded eagerly.
"They're... Tom's precious supplies. But he's gone now... So you can have them all to yourself!"
The kleptomaniac-like giant rubbed his hands together, beaming. "We'll have to hurry." He breathed.
Deedee watched, astonished, as he skillfully plucked each item from it's place. Some things even seemed to appear out of thin air. He was almost like a human supply-detector. Too skilled for someone with no experience.
In the end, he stashed up three piles of resources, one soup can, five empty soup cans, a shovel, and a heap of crumbled up ASTRO prints under his chair.
He crossed his arms over his chest, smiling proudly. "Good job." The woman congratulated, surprised that they had actually benefitted from the insanity.
And with that, Baby collapsed back in his seat, snuggling the cushion as if it were a luxury bed, "Thanks Cap," He somewhat bumbled, "You're the best."
Was he trapped in some semi-present version of the past? A movie? A dream? Dawkins felt the guilt of letting the madness get to him, as well as Emmet. She could only gaze at the crafting module, cautiously waiting for the sock to complete.
...
The captain awoke to a beeping sound clucking from the communication console. Instinctively, she flew to it and smashed the 'receive' button. It rewarded her with harsh static of someone - or something's - voice from the other side.
Remembering that it was still broken, she spun in her chair to see if the smaller one picked up similiar sounds. ...But it was no where to be found.
She furrowed her brow, trying to recall if she had seen it after Tom left...
...That sly bastard. The blue eyed blonde realized, cursing herself for not noticing it until now.
But if Tom was dead, the console wouldn't work... since it was directly connected to the communicator... She jumped up in realization, quickly checking it's fire-hazard-like wires, head swarming in desperation.
If he was still alive, however he could be, he was their only chance for getting supplies. If only they could communicate-
Her eyes fell on Emmet, who, despite being in a sane-stricken haze, was peering back at her. As if trying to tell her he knew. Taking advantage of the broken game mechanics, she ripped the halfway crafted sock out of the machine.
She carefully fixed her grown-out hair back in her tattered bandanna, then wore the sock on a hand, balled it into a fist, and whacked her comrade upside the head with it. His glasses flew off from the impact.
He yelped as he fell to the floor, coming back to his senses. "What the-"He stammered, confused, "What-"
"You and Baby went insane from inhaling the smoke." Deedee began, sputtering, "The game logic idea failed, the stupid author made the scenario too realistic. Now it's been three days. The communication system has a signal from the communicator but it needs to be fixed. I need you to fix it."
It took a moment of readjusting his glasses and peering over at Bronco's creepily smiling form before he nodded, "I'm finally needed for once." He stated half heartfully, "You might want to use that sock on him too. Just so he doesn't accidentally kill one of us."
"Good point." Dawkins replied. Without warning, she struck her arm out and smacked the unsuspecting lunatic in the face. Baby recoiled, making a high pitched squeal that almost sounded like an abused child.
Then he cleared his throat, seeing the underwear dangling off his head, "Eeeer... what did I miss?"
"Alot." The captain answered with a sigh. "We'll...uh, have to talk about it later. But for now, we need to fix the communicator. ASAP."
Emmet stood upright with a salute. Weither sarcastic or not, she couldn't tell. But immediately, his fingers went to work on the shredded wires. At that point, they all prayed for a miracle.
Again, time ticked by, but no signal returned. It maybe had something to do with the tattered wires being tied together hazardously. Some were still snapped apart and sparking. But still, the crew refused to give up hope.
Deedee tapped a foot impatiently, slurping down the last bit of soup in her can. Then, she continued staring down the console as if her life depended on it.
Emmet studied her blankly, wistfully rubbing his chin, "Is now a bad time to bring up what happened after that game logic idea?" He questioned just to change the subject.
The limber young woman peeped up, as if struck from her uncaffeinated haze, "Oh...right..." She trailed, looking at him and Baby uncomfortably.
"Well... you helped fix the battery, however that happened. But that was after all of your monologuing about... finding universal perfection...?"
The black man blinked in confusion, awkwardly fixing his glasses, "Huh. I don't know where that came from..." He crinkled his nose, "What about Bronco?"
The redhead visably shook as his name was mentioned. "...He was almost like in a heist fantasy," Deedee claimed as he avoided her eyes, "I had to pretend to steal our own supplies to get him to calm down."
She pointed at all the random supplies scattered around his feet. Her muscley crewmate seemed even more anxious than usual, fingers intertwined so tight his knuckles were turning white beneathe his gloves.
Dawkins would've resisted asking, but her curiousity got the better of her, "Is... there a reason?"
The male gulped down his guilt, knowing he couldn't hide his secret forever. He finally made eye contact.
"I thought you were ma." He admitted guiltily, "...Her and Papa Bronco always made me do bad things to people. I-I didn't want to - but if I didn't they..." He paused. The captain and Emmet both exchanged glances.
"So instead, I pretended I was an all-American hero. But that was all until I... messed up. They threw me in jail, said I wasn't even theirs'. That they found me hidin' in the woods and brought me there to turn me in."
He paused again, buliding more curiousity from his two crewmates. "...But if you were in jail..." Ellis pondered, "How did you end up at the Astrocitizen Program?"
"I had a friend. My only friend - the old man. He was the only one who liked me, who talked and called me 'kid.' One day, some men started pickin' on him. I tried to stop them, told them to leave him alone - but then a riot broke out. I didn't think. I ran to the front gates while the guards were distracted."
"And with pure luck, i made it out of the can. ...That's how I ended up here."
Silence rose between the three, Baby didn't respond to it well. He was iternally panicking, wondering if his crew would kick him out or kill him for admitting his past.
Thankfully, Deedee noticed his body language and spoke up, "Wow. That's... That's horrible." Suddenly, his child like nature finally made sense, she couldn't imagine what kind of emotional trauma he went through during his childhood, "I had no idea."
The startled expression of Bronco appeared in Emmet's mind again, it was then he realized, "It was you. I remember you were all over the news. There was footage and everything. Sentanced to 20 years in prison for burglary, vandalism, grand theft auto and... involuntary manslaughter and murder?"
The last bit made them all freeze. Baby laid his face in his hands shamefully, "I screwed up. I didn't want to do it, I swear, but ma and pa gave me no choice."
Dawkins slowly set a hand on his back, like she had earlier. "It's ok, don't worry. That was all in the past. It's not your fault anymore. It was your parents, and they're most likely dead and gone by now because of what they did." She almost couldn't think of what to say.
"At least, now you have the chance to be a better person."
The redhead sniffled, clearly trying to hold back tears, "Thanks Cap, I... guess you're right." Unexpectedly, he sweeped both of his companions in a heart warming bear hug. "You all are the best."
Even as the air was squeezed out of them, they both smiled. "No problem."
...
A loud "BANG" was heard, making Baby jerk from his snores and fall out of his seat. His eyes darted around the room, heart pounding out of his chest. But it was silent. Nothing in the shuttle had changed and everyone else was still asleep.
Deciding that it was just his paranoid mind playing tricks on him, he tried to lull himself back to sleep. But a ear-wrenching scraping noise popped by the airlock, this time startling everyone.
"...Is that Tom?" He heard Deedee chirp beside him. The "BAM"s started again, appearing demanding. But before any of them could answer, the shuttle door flew open, revealing the face of a... human?
They could only stare it, not believing their eyes.
The awe didn't last long, because the person cocked the head of a gun at Emmet, who leaped out of it's path right in time to avoid a gunshot. The bullet whizzed past him and tore through the rubber of his seat. The crew screamed in terror.
The captain scrambled towards the newly upgraded power cell to use for defense. Baby watched in horror as the communist's aim settled near her form, he reacted fast, hurling a fist towards the person's determined face. (And forgetting that it had a mask for protection.)
The glass shattered from the impact, and the being lurched back in surprise. Bronco grinned, seeing that he had caught it off guard, whamming it again before seeing the several other communists waiting outside.
His smile faded right as a barrel of a gun came into contact with his nose. With a quick snapping noise, he fell to the floor with a grunt.
The captain lifted the battery over her head with a newfound strength. She grit her teeth at the intruders, flinging the object forward and... watching as it shattered to pieces on the ground.
Her jaw dropped in horror, her last bit of hope crushed. The communists merely bursted out in laughter. It didn't last long, however, because Baby shot back up with a bloody nose and a shovel vice-gripped in his hands.
He shouted a battle cry, swinging the weapon back and forth like a makeshift sword. Multiple gunshots cracked through the air, but no one could tell if it was the communists or not. Mainly because other bullets zapped into the doorframe from outside.
The attackers looked towards where it came from, puzzled. Then more blasts thundered by, forcing them all to stampede back in the direction they came.
Footsteps crunched in the sand nearby, suspensefully approaching the doorway.
Deedee bit her tongue anxiously, Emmet peeked up from his hiding spot behind the console, while Baby stood stiff, breathing languidly with his shovel held at the ready. A figure emerged from the smoke of the sandstorm...
...and casually dropped a functional communicator, brand new battery, upgraded gun, artifact, tape, lighter, gas mask, manuel, medkit, and eight cans of soup to the floor. Slicking his greying brown hair back with a smirk, he slipped inside:
"Did you miss me?"