Chapter 6: Shepard

Bower climbed the ladder two decks up and continued aft. As he passed into the main corridor, he noticed a silent shadow following him. The shadow came up from the ladder well and slipped into the darkness and vanished. Nervously, he shined the flashlight around the area with his weapon raised but didn't see anything. If it had been one of the hunters, it probably would have attacked him by now. His eyes must be playing tricks on him. Maybe it was yet another side effect of cryogenic sleep. He clicked the flashlight off and waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, "I just got the shit scared out of me." Bower told Payton quietly.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, just seeing things." Bower laughed softly.

"Just take your time. Its a long way."

He was still trembling slightly. Bower grew alarmed at how he felt. He had just went through a memory torrent. Now, he had just spotted a shadow. Could he be hallucinating? Could he be suffering from some sort of psychotic episode like the officer aboard the Eden? Was he showing early signs of Extended Sleep Disorder?

The blond from his memories. Pretty. Smiling.

Bower continued on, his mind still alive with the recolletions of the beautiful blond that he had left behind. He wondered if she was still alive. He wondered if he would be able to speak to her ever again, to kiss her and hold her. "I feel terrible," he told Payton. "I'm such a shit."

"Why?"

"What if my girl's already been killed and eaten? My God, the thought of something happening to her hurts my heart but I can't even remember her name. I'm not even sure we were married or not. It all just makes me feel like an uncaring dick is all."

"Well we won't know until you get that reactor back online. I don't mean to be insensitive, but worrying about her when she might already be dead isn't going to help us. You know what I mean?"

"Yeah."

Payton was quiet for a few minutes then, "Now I feel like an uncaring dick."

"You should."

"Sorry. I just need you to be focused. If I thought I could navigate the maintenance shafts like you did, I would be out there helping instead of sitting here with my thumb up my ass."

Bower was still speaking in hushed tones, "I'm at the third marker. I'm taking a left."

Since he was moving in almost complete darkness, Bower was extra cautious. He was going slowly making as little noise as possible. He made his way around the corner away from the main corridor and froze. To his left, he saw the woman standing in the shadows of the hall.

Wait. What the hell?

There was a strange sensation that he had seen this before and he had. When he had first pursued the woman, she had lead him to a body. The familiarity of the scene caused him to pause and try to figure out what he was actually seeing. Was he losing control? Was he losing his mind? "This can't be right."

He had been speaking to himself but Payton answered him anyway, "What can't be right?"

"I don't know if I'm hallucinating." Bower struggled to separate the past from the present. The woman was in the shadows exactly as she had been before. Except it wasn't the woman. There had been a body, a dead man hanging by his neck. Not moving, still with death. This figure in the gloom was in the exact position in the exact spot as before. It was perfect mirror image of his past experience.

Lieutenant Payton sounded concerned, "What? Whats going on? You alright?"

"I've seen this before."

Bower doubted very much that it was the woman trying to ambush him again. Was it another body? He moved closer, watching the shadows around the form carefully. Damn it if he was going to get caught off-guard again.

Tentatively, Bower clicked the flashlight on and illuminated the hallway. He saw it was another hapless passenger that had been caught in a snare. He was hanging from the ceiling like the last one had been but his feet were still off the floor. Bower sighed in relief, "This—this is a different one. It's another booby trap; the ceiling's been rigged."

"Be careful," Payton warned.

As he was checking around with the flashlight Bower noticed that this corpse was in much better condition than the last one had been. This man must have just died a few hours beforehand. He got closer deciding he would check for vitals to make sure he was dead.

The man's eyes flew open.

Bower nearly cried out in fear but held himself together.

The guy flailed and lashed out at him hysterically screaming, "No, no!"

"Quiet!" Bower hissed. He stepped closer trying to gain control of the man's erratic thrashing. Since he was dangling, the guy's flailing limbs were striking at Bower from unusual angles.

"No!" the man was begging.

Bower got his arms locked around the man's waist and held him still. "Quiet! Shh. You have to shut the hell up. I'm not going to hurt you."

The guy stopped struggling but he was panting wildly.

Bower wasn't sure if the man was coherent so he continued to reason, "I'm going to get you out of this, but you have to be quiet. Do you understand?"

Finally, the man nodded and seemed relieved.

He slowly let the man go.

The man dangled, slowly spinning, his arms and legs loose at his sides. He was weeping quietly. "I thought for sure I was a dead man."

It took Bower a few minutes to find a small pair of wire-cutters to cut the line. As he cut it and the poor guy fell, Payton asked him, "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

The man, whose name tag said Shepard, crumpled to the floor in a heap. He was visibly exhausted and as he lay before him, Bower that he was wearing the dark brown flight suit from Flight Team Six.

"Watch yourself, Bower. We don't know how others are going to react to being trapped on board," Payton warned.

"He's flight team six," Bower said, "Isn't that the unit that was supposed to follow us?"

"Yeah."

Shepard was watching him closely as Bower studied him. His eyes were still wild and he held his hands up in a defensive posture.

"Just calm down," Bower told him, "You're safe now and we need to stay quiet, okay? Do you hear me?"

Shepard stared at him and began to relax again. "Shepard, sir, Team Six. I thought you'd never get here." He was smiling at Bower but near tears, "I think I'm the only one from my team left."

"Do you have any idea what's going on with the ship, Private Shepard?" Bower asked him.

Shepard was still talking, "I knew you'd come back. I just knew it."

"You knew I'd come back?"

Shepard looked around, his voice was hushed, "So. Where's your squad?"

"Squad? This is my Lieutenant on the comm."

"Where's your shuttle?"

"Shuttle? What are you talking about?"

Shepard was getting annoyed. The volume of his voice rose, "You're the extraction crew, right?"

"No, no. I'm Team Five." Bower was concerned by how quickly this stranger's emotions had shifted from gratitude to impatience.

Shepard's face contorted from relief to anger, "You mean you're not the rescue team? We're still stuck here?"

"Shh, keep it down," Bower said, "I need to know what has happened. If you know anything, you need to tell me."

Shepard laughed bitterly. "You mean you just woke up?"

"Four or five hours ago."

"So you don't know what the fuck's going on?" He was nearly shouting now.

Bower kept his voice low, "That's what I'm saying."

"So you know even less than I do. Great."

Bower admitted, "I don't know anything."

Shepard's laugh was even more bitter but now it was spiked with sarcasm, "Well you're going to fit in perfectly around here." He went towards a wall and pulled the ball valve open. Thick grease slowly seeped out into his cupped hands. He swiftly rubbed the grease all over himself like suntan lotion.

Bower frowned, "What are you doing?"

"Getting the scent off."

"Scent?" If too much cryogenic sleep was at the root of delusional behavior, this guy had slept a few hundred years too long.

Shepard's tone was cold, "They can find you in different ways. Scent is one of them."

Bower remembered how grimy the strong woman had been. She had been coated with a thin layer of grease as well. He remembered her smelling like oil, "Yeah I ran into the hunters once already. They were using sound waves to look for me I think."

Shepard told him, "They're fast and stronger than you can imagine. If they come after you, you run. Just run and don't fucking look back," He stooped and retrieved a long makeshift knife from the floor. He wound the clipped wire tightly around it and his fist perhaps so he wouldn't drop it again. He was muttering to himself. "I can't wait for you. I can't help you."

"Who are they? The hunters, I mean."

"I can't help you."

Bower was incredulous, "You can't help me? I just saved your ass."

Payton's voice crackled over the com, "Bower, you tell that asshole the chain of command and a direct order is being given."

"Listen, Private Shepard, you're still a member of this crew and your CO is ordering you-"

Shepard interrupted, "Ordering me? That's funny."

Bower was insistent, "He's the only officer we know of right now, that puts him in charge."

Shepard shook his head, "You're late to the party, pal. You don't have a damn clue. There's no fucking CO on this ship and there's no one in charge. Its every man for himself out here so you'd better finish waking up." Shepard turned and started moving away from him.

"Wait a minute!" Bower hurried after him.

Tat, tat, tat, tat, tat.

Bower froze.

Shepard began to whimper backing away from the sound.

The hunters' screams and hideous growls accompanied the echolocation.

Bower faced the unseen attackers and raised the riot gun.

"That's not going to save you." Shepard told him. He ran away, swiftly swallowed up by the shadows.

Shepard's matter of fact statement was enough to place some doubt towards Bower's plan. The snarls and roars filling the hall around him did their fair share of discouragement as well. The fear that gripped him was so profound that even if he tried to flee, he felt as though his legs would fail him. They felt wooden as he waited for the hunter's arrival.

Apparently, Payton could hear the screams and shrieks too because there was fear in his voice, "Get out of there, Corporal!"

Bower stood his ground. He wanted to see if he could take one of them out or at least try and get a look at them before he ran. There was a hollow feeling in his stomach, a sensation of having the butterfly's that was so strong it nearly doubled him over. His legs itched to flee.

Bower could hear the growling, the exciting screaming. They were calling to one another, signaling that they had found prey. They sounded ravenous.

Tat, tat, tat, tat, tat.

Lieutenant Payton yelled at him, "Get the hell out of there!"

Bower turned and ran after Shepard.