Chapter 3: Rapture of sanity

It's been a few hours ever since the crash and Vincent and her team only found one survivor among the wreckage. It was a teen with blond hair and tattered clothing that they had never seen before. He didn't have a rig on him, so deciding how badly his injuries were was out of the question.

Vincent had Shen do what she could to stabilize him as he had a pretty bad puncture wound on him. After Shen was able to stop the bleeding, Pendleton picked him up carefully.

"Alright." Vincent started as she looked at the blond one last time. "Pendleton, take this guy to medical, make sure he gets a rig."

"You got it." Pendleton started as he was about to head out.

"Hey Pendleton." Vincent stopped him. "Make sure the captain doesn't hear about him."

Pendleton nodded before heading out to medical.

Vincent sighed as she knew she would get her ass chewed out by Mathius, but that wasn't a priority right now. "Alright, we find any other survivors and bring them in." The rest of the team nodded and proceeded inside of the wrecked ship, disturbed by what they were seeing. "What the fuck?"

All around the walls, the ship was covered from the floor to the ceiling in blood and entrails. The ship looked like a slaughterhouse involving many carcasses, and that was just the start of it all. There was an odd, bloody mass all around a wall. The plating on it looked scrapped off, like someone was trying to claw their way out of the ship.

"This is fucked up." Dobbs spoke up as he tried not to vomit right there.

"Okay." Vincent started as she held her sidearm a little tighter. "Let's get the fuck outta here and regroup at the bridge."

"Right." Dobbs, Hanson and Ramirez answered.

"Hey boss." Shen spoke while kneeling to the control seat.

"You got something for me Shen?" She walked over.

"If this bird crashed, then where's the one who flew it?" Shen used the side of her pistol to poke at some intestines that were in a position that seemed to imply that something was moving through the ship.

Vincent narrowed her eyes, disturbed by the fact that something must've been here earlier. She sighed before speaking once more. "Right now, if there was someone here, they're long gone now. Let's move!"

The team left the shuttle, shaken by what they had seen but moving forward nonetheless, completely unaware of something moving into a vent not too far off from the shuttle.

Medical

Pendleton had dropped off the blond kid to medical where senior medical officer, Nicole Brennan, did a check-up on him. She was surprised when she had seen one of the security officers bring in a survivor from the crash from earlier. Well, more like the fact that there was only one patient that she received from the crash. She questioned who the young adult was but only got a shrug from the tall man. She had Pendleton set him on the table so she could work on him. Pendleton did tell her what Vincent told him about a rig and not informing the captain. Nicole was taken aback by that as she didn't even know the kid didn't have a rig at first, but on a closer inspection saw that indeed, he had none. The second part about not informing the captain was also strange. Why would this be something the captain shouldn't know? Scratch that; why wouldn't the head of security not want the captain to know in general? It didn't make much sense to Nicole, but she had a patient that was slightly patched up from a puncture wound to his side and need to be treated.

"First things first," she started as she looked to her patient. The first thing she noticed aside from the bloody side was the clothes, or more precisely the tattered orange/black jumpsuit he had on. "Best to get you into something comfortable and get a rig onto you soon. And then-"

"YOU NEED TO LET ME OUT OF HERE!" A man screamed out from another side of the room.

Nicole sighed. "Get him sedated! NOW!" She yelled out as the man got out of his restraints and began punching himself in the temple hard enough to bleed.

The bridge

Mathius was not happy right now. Not in the slightest.

He has just received a report from Vincent on what they found in the ship that crashed in the hanger and it was not pretty. He looked to Vincent as she stood her ground and at attention along with her crew and couldn't tell what she was thinking right now. Whatever it was, he didn't like it. He was a devoted Unitologist and this was the first time he had recovered a holy Marker. There was no way he would allow anyone to stop him from bringing this to the Church, not even her.

"Is that all you found Vincent?" Mathius asked her once more as he turned around to look to the rest of the bridge.

The crew was doing their usual jobs. Scanning for anomalies within the void of space heading their way. Monitoring communication traffic. Keeping tabs on crew rigs and vitals. Everything seemed normal right now, so there was no need for Mathius to worry.

"Yes sir. That's all we found." She answered him with narrowed eyes. She had hoped that when that blond was able, she could get answers from him. For one, why didn't he have a rig, and just where the hell had he come from in general? There may have been a metric shit-ton of people on the Ishimura to attempt to keep track of, but this guy had very distinct features. The hair was a dead giveaway along with those whiskers of sorts.

"Alright." Mathius continued as he turned back around to her and her crew. "Continue your search for anyone who shouldn't be here, Vincent. We will be departing in one hour and I would hate to see some stowaway aboard my ship." The tone in his voice changed and he narrowed his eyes towards her when he talked about stowaways.

"Yes sir." Vincent answered and left the bridge with her team. As she left, there was a sinking feeling in her gut that the captain knew something. What it was, she wasn't so sure.

"Boss?" Shen started as they made their way towards the trams to reach the medical ward.

"What is it Shen?"

"You don't really think that somethin' is really on this ship, do you?" She asked, a bit hesitant at first.

"I got no fuckin' idea." Vincent started as they entered the tram. "But I think there's someone who just might."

Whew. It's been a good minute since I updated this story. My apologies for that.

The next chapter will have Naruto waking up and speaking to Vincent. Maybe even the real start of the infestation.

Anyway, stay awesome, stay safe, and as always,

Wash your hands, and

PEACE!