The Among Us Story

Part II: Casualties

Emergency Meeting

"An imposter Captain?" White asked, "What do you mean by imposter?"

"What I mean is that the creature in the camera had on the same space suits as us," Red explained.

"But the color was missing from the cameras, so we don't know which one of us it is," Black elaborated.

"That's right Black," said Red, "Someone in this room is not human. I believe that whatever this creature is, I think it killed one of our crewmates and disguised himself as said crewmate."

"I swear to you Captain, we will catch this imposter and slit his goddamn throat!" Green yelled.

"I appreciate the enthusiasm Green," Red congratulated, "Now, we need to discuss where we all were before we left."

"Do you think it killed our crewmate recently?" asked Orange. Red nodded.

"Will this creature kill all of us, Captain?" asked White, his voice slightly breaking.

"No," Red answered, "There's still eight of us and only one of it." Red looked around the table, each one looked equally as nervous, but he had his suspicion on one already.

"Yellow, did anything happen in the cave that I should know about?" Red questioned. Yellow looked up in surprise, the others took a slight step back from Yellow.

"What? No Captain," Yellow answered, "Cyan and I made our final rotation in the cave without any incident."

"Is this true Cyan, nothing happened during your rotation?" Red asked.

"Yes Captain," Cyan answered.

"Were you ever separated during your rotation Cyan?" Red probed.

"No Captain, we were together the entire rotation," Cyan answered.

"Okay," Red accepted, "I believe you Cyan, you've always been the most trustworthy crewmate in my opinion."

"Thank you Captain," said Cyan.

Red continued to question the crew of their whereabouts during the day. Orange and Purple had been busy all day preparing The Skeld for takeoff. They were fueling, inspecting, and testing the thrusters together. Blue had spent all day with Red. Blue was the quartermaster and they had all been taking inventory to ensure nothing would be left behind on Polus. They had also helped Green to pack up the supplies like tents, food, shipping crates, everything that didn't require being on the ship 24/7. Pink had been on the ship all day making sure all the electrical systems were functioning properly. However, some issues arose when he questioned White and Black.

"Black and White, you were together the entire day right?" Red questioned, "If I remember right, you wanted to study a bit more on the Haroh Frogs, correct?"

"Yes Captain, we were together for most of the day, yes," Black answered.

Red looked towards Black, "Most?"

Black made a quick head jerk toward Red, realizing what he'd said. "Yes, Captain, there was a point where we got separated."

"Explain," Red inquired.

Black took a deep breath, "While we were studying the Haroh Frogs in the river, White wanted to go and check the nearby pond for any tadpoles."

"So there was a time you two were separated?" Red probed.

"Yes Captain there was," White explained, "But the pond I was at wasn't too far from the river where Black was. We could still see each other, just not as well."

"It's true Captain," Black agreed, "We could still see each other from a distance."

"Black, did you hear or see anything happen to White?" Red asked.

"No Captain, I didn't," Black answered.

"Were you watching him the entire time?" Red asked.

"Well, no, I couldn't," Black stuttered, "I was busy studying the Haroh Frogs, but I'm sure I would've noticed something."

"How long were you guys separated?" Red asked.

"Maybe about two and a half hours," White answered, "But Captain, I assure you nothing happened to me or Black."

The other crewmates were beginning to eyeball White and Black, including Red. I'm still not sure if I believe White and Black. He thought. They both claim nothing happened to them, but they were away from the main group for a long time. I know how focused they get in their work, either one of them could've been attacked and the other may not have noticed. Red looked back towards Yellow and Cyan. Those two were also gone for a long time, even longer than what was initially planned. But I know Cyan wouldn't lie and I also know he wouldn't let Yellow leave his sight on a cave run. I doubt it's them, but I'll keep an eye on them. White and Black on the other hand, I'm keeping a closer eye on you two.

CRASH!

Something hit the upper part of The Skeld, causing the ship to shake. For a moment, the crew didn't understand what was happening, until another crash hit, and another, and another.

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

One after another, something was hitting the ship and causing it to shake violently.

"Goddamnit, it's meteors!" Green yelled.

"Meteors?" White yelled, "Shouldn't we have gotten a proximity alert?"

"It may have been damaged when electrical was attacked!" Orange announced.

"Shit," Red yelled, "Green, get on weapons and keep those meteors off of us! Orange, see if you can fix the proximity sensors in electrical! Purple, make sure we haven't been hit off course! Everyone else, inspect the ship for damage, make emergency repairs if you have to!"

"Yes Captain!" Everyone yelled in unison.

Meteors

As the crew left the cafeteria to man their stations, Red stopped Green, "I need you to come with me, I want to give you some weapons."

Green straightened up, "Weapons," he said with excitement.

"Yes, but we gotta hurry," Red said while running to storage, "I want to give you one of the net guns."

"To catch the imposter?" Green asked.

"Yes, exactly," Red answered.

Red and Green made it to storage and pulled out the only two net guns on The Skeld. The net guns were small, but they were designed to capture large predatory alien animals. Red trusted Green to hand him a net gun because he had been with him almost all day and he was acting the most like himself. He also trusted Green to shoot on a moment's notice.

While pulling the net guns, Red saw the electric batons. He had forgotten that they'd brought those for self defense as well. The AOSC gave them no lethal weapons like guns or explosives. This was the best defense they had against the imposter. He gave a baton to Green and went to grab a net gun and baton for himself. However, Green stopped him.

"Hold on there rambo, I'm not sure I want you to have any weapons," Green said.

Red was baffled at what he just heard. "What are you talking about Green?" Red asked, "I am your Captain, I have to be able to defend the crew."

"I understand that Captain, but there was a point in the day that I didn't know where you were. I don't know for sure if you're the imposter. And frankly, the fact you were so quick to the conclusion of a creature impersonating us so fast has made me a little suspicious of you," Green argued.

As angry as it made Red not being able to defend himself or the crew against the imposter, he understood that the rest of the crew could be suspicious of him as well. He understood they were just as scared as he was and to their point of view, anybody including him, could be the imposter. However, he trusted Green's judgment.

"I understand Green, just remember, if something goes down, I'm counting on you to stop it," Red explained.

"Yes Captain," said Green.

"Now get to the guns and take out those meteors," Red ordered.

Green hopped onto the guns, the net gun and baton hanging from his waist. The guns were a single seat with a green targeting screen. The two levers in front of the seat controlled the double barrel type 94 naval gun mounted on the top of the ship. The 76 mm shells were more than enough to take out the meteors currently bombarding the ship. Green looked through the green targeting computer and aimed the gun at the first meteor.

BOOM! From the targeting screen, Green could see a dust cloud where the meteor once was, it was a direct hit. He aimed at another BOOM! He aimed at another. BOOM! Another. BOOM!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The sounds of gunfire was deafening to Purple as the naval gun was mounted right above weapons which was right next to navigation. The Skeld had been thrown off course by the meteors and thanks to the damage in electrical. The auto-pilot wasn't functioning at full capacity. It was still on, but it was struggling to readjust the ship.

Purple switched the manual pilot and began to steer the ship through the asteroid belt. They had known about the asteroid belt around Polus, but after what happened to Pink, they weren't paying attention and didn't properly prepare to fly through. Plus, they were all still a little drunk from the party.

Purple carefully guided the ship through the belt, doing his best to avoid all the meteors. It was difficult, considering how big the ship was, but he trusted Green to shoot any meteors that got near. And to his credit, the number of meteor collisions had certainly died down. At first, Purple had heard a lot of crewmates pass by navigation while searching for damage. However, the past ten minutes had been silent of footsteps. He figured they had found a damaged area and were attempting to fix it.

Purple had gotten used to the constant sound of gunfire, but a new sound caught his attention. He couldn't quite pin down what it was, but it almost sounded like a vent opening.

Reactor

Blue and Black were hard at work trying to fix the reactor. A large meteor had managed to hit the reactor and it was heavily damaged. Blue and Black had some experience with electrical engineering, but Pink was chosen specifically for his particular expertise in the field. Now with Pink gone, they relied on a hasty quick fix.

Many of the other crewmates were gathered around Blue and Black doing what they could to help. It took about thirty minutes, but they managed to get the reactor stabilized again. It wasn't a solution that would last for the three month journey ahead, but it solved the problem for the time. Green had returned from weapons and announced they were all clear, however, he had some bad news. Purple had been killed.

Red braced himself for another grizzly scene just like eclectic. However, navigation was surprisingly clean. Purple lay near the ship controls. The only injury on him was a slit throat. The wound immediately reminded Red of what Green had said. He remembered Green saying he would slit the imposter's throat. This attack confirmed Red's suspicions of this not being an animal acting on instinct. Animals don't mock their victims. This was completely intentional and the imposter's message was clear. It was killing them one by one and asking them what they were going to do about it.

Red tried to assess the situation and determine who might have been the one to kill Purple. He had been busy repairing the reactor, but he knew most of the crew had been nearby. The only crewmate he knew was near navigation was Green.

"Green," Red addressed, "I would like you to return your net gun and baton please."

Green slightly tilted his head, "Captain?"

"You were the only one close enough to do this," Red explained, "I'm not accusing you, but I'd rather you not be armed while I question you."

"Captain, with all due respect, I don't know for certain this wasn't you," Green argued, "Everyone was running around trying to inspect the ship, anyone one of them could've killed Purple, including you."

What the hell are you doing Green? Red thought. At first, I could understand not trusting anyone. But it's obvious you would be the biggest suspect with your proximity to Purple. Maybe I was wrong to trust him. If he's so hesitant to give up his weapons, he could be the imposter.

"I will not entertain the idea that I could've been responsible for Purple's murder," Red retorted, his voice getting more frustrated, "I order you to relinquish your weapons and deposit them on the large table in the cafeteria. That way, nobody can be armed."

Green was hesitant at the idea, however, he was willing to place them in an open location. "Yes Captain," Green began walking to the cafeteria. The others followed.

"Captain," White called out. Red turned to face White, "I would like to bring Purple's body to the cafeteria, and Pink's. I'll cover them in a bed sheet. It doesn't feel right just leaving them on the floor where they died."

"I understand, you have my permission," Red replied, "Take Cyan with you."

"Yes Captain," said White.

As White retrieved Cyan, Red couldn't help but beat himself up. What was I thinking? Red thought. Why did I let everyone run around freely? I should've ordered them to travel in groups of two, but the situation was so out of control, I didn't think about it. Shit. Red continued walking to the cafeteria. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Purple. Your death is on my hands because of my negligence. But I swear to you and Pink, when I find this monster, I will kill him.

Green and the other crewmates had arrived in the cafeteria. Green had already placed his net gun down when the lights suddenly shut off.

Darkness

Panic engulfed the room. Every single light, including the emergency lights had all been shut off. And with no light in space, they were in total darkness. Sirens began to blare again. Red put up his hands, fearing an attack at any moment. It has to be them. He thought. What else could cause this?

"Come out you goddamn alien!" Green screamed, "I'll kill you where you stand!"

"What the hell happened to the lights?" Orange yelled.

"Be one guard," Red ordered, "They could attack at any moment!"

"I can't do this, I'm getting out of here!" Yellow yelled as footsteps rapidly began to leave the room.

"No, stick together, don't run off goddamnit!" Red tried to yell for Yellow, but no response came.

Everyone in the room was screaming, trying to figure out where everyone was and if anyone could see the imposter. Red could hardly hear himself think through the yelling and sirens.

"Everyone shut up!" Black suddenly yelled, "The sirens are going off, I don't think the imposter did this, it must be a problem with the reactor! If we can get there, Blue and I should be able to restore the lights!"

"Holy crap, he's right, Captain!" Blue agreed, "We just need to make it there!"

"Okay, everybody try to meet at the center table," Red ordered, much more calm now. Everyone had to feel around a bit, but soon, they found the table. Red also noticed his eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness. "Alright, now our eyes should be starting to adjust to the dark, can everyone see at least a little bit?" The other crewmates said yes to being adjusted. "I know this ship, I will guide us. What I want you all to do is form a line, grab onto the person's shoulders in front of you and we'll slowly make our way to the reactor. I'll be at the front."

The crewmates followed Red's command and formed a line. They moved slowly through the dark corridors. Red could see the darkness of the medbay. His mind filled with thoughts of a creature lunging out at them, but nothing happened as they passed it. Nothing happened all the way to the reactor. Once they were in the reactor, Blue and Black went to work. It was dark, but they could see just enough to bring the lights back on. It took a couple minutes to bring the lights back. However, in the last few seconds before the lights came on, Red heard a noise from behind him.

It sounded like struggling and a quick, "Hel-" could be heard over the sirens for a second. Red rushed over, trying to figure out what was going on. That's when the lights came on. Orange had been decapitated. His body lay motionless in front of Red. He saw that Green was also searching for the perpetrator.

"Look, his head!" Green yelled while pointing to the right of Red. He looked over and saw Orange's helmet rolled over toward the wall. Suddenly, Red heard the sound of a vent opening and looked up to see a Yellow space suit squeezing its way into the vent on the wall.

"YELLOW!" Red screamed, "IT'S YELLOW, HE'S THE IMPOSTER!"

Yellow

"You goddamn son of a bitch!" Green screamed, "We need to get the net gun before he gets there!" Everyone sprinted for the cafeteria. The sirens had stopped and they could hear Yellow banging through the air vents. From the sound of it, he was also running to the cafeteria.

They rounded the corner at the upper engine and sprinted through the hallway past medbay. However, when they entered the cafeteria, Yellow burst from the vent and ran with lightning speed toward the table, grabbing the net gun. Yellow had removed his helmet and they could see the distorted face of their crewmate. His smile stretched from ear to ear as he pointed the net gun at them. Everyone dived out of the way, except for Green, who kept sprinting for Yellow. Yellow pulled the trigger, but nothing happened except for a small click.

Green laughed, "The safety's on you goddamn alien!" Green tackled Yellow to the ground, his smile had vanished. An inhuman scream erupted from Yellow as Green electrocuted him with the baton and threw the net gun out of his hands. Green continued to electrocute Yellow, until he noticed Yellow's stomach opening.

Green dodged the tongue only by a hair and was thrown off of Yellow with a tentacle.

"You think you can kill you cocksucker!" Green yelled.

White and Cyan ran into the cafeteria, "Holy shit, it was Yellow!" White yelled.

"Grab the net gun!" Red ordered.

Yellow began to morph. What was once the body of a normal human transformed into a giant blob of black matter that stood eight feet tall. Tentacles and spikes protruded out of the beast. It tried to swing at Green, but he electrocuted the tentacle with his baton again.

"White and Cyan!" Red yelled, "Grab the eclectic batons and the other net gun from storage, hurry!"

Blue had managed to pick up the net gun, but once again, nothing happened when he fired it. He forgot to turn the safety off. Blue fumbled around, trying to find the safety. Green ran over to help him, but he turned his back to Yellow and was thrown by a tentacle into Blue, dropping the net gun. Red grabbed a chair and threw it at Yellow and began to run the opposite direction of where Blue and Green lay.

"COME ON! FIGHT ME!" Red screamed while throwing another chair. Red only had a moment to see the tentacle swing at him in a whip like fashion. It wrapped around the neck of his space suit and carried him into the air. It brought him face level with Yellow and he could see its disgusting multi-colored eyes. A giant mouth began to open up and Yellow began to gently lower Red into its mouth.

No! Red thought. I still have to save them! I can't die like this!

Suddenly, Yellow roared in pain and looked down at its side. Red looked down to see Black stabbing Yellow with a steak knife leftover from dinner. A spike popped out of Yellow and stabbed Black in his shoulder. He fell to the ground screaming in pain. Yellow looked back to Red. He could see pure amusement in Yellow's eyes. He was enjoying everything. Just as Yellow was about to lower Red again, a large net sent Yellow flying to the side and he dropped Red. He landed on his butt and looked to where this hail mary had come from. Green was standing there with an empty net gun.

"Call me Ripley bitch!" Green laughed.

Yellow was struggling in the net. It screamed and trashed. Red knew they had to deal with Yellow now before it broke out. Luckily, White and Cyan ran in with the eclectic batons and the other net gun.

"Everyone grab a baton and electrocute him!" Red ordered. Everyone obeyed and they went in to electrocute Yellow. However, tentacles were slipping out of the holes in the net due to all the thrashing. Everyone was hesitant, except Green. He ran in and the screaming that accompanied the electrocution was deafening.

"We can do this!" Red yelled, "Let's go!" Everyone began to electrocute Yellow. However, while they were electrocuting Yellow, they were repeatedly hit by the tentacles and knocked away. Still, they persisted. Yellow was still thrashing when Red noticed White and Cyan were hesitating. White appeared to be standing back in fear, but Cyan was just watching, unmoving.

What are they doing? Red thought. Could they be afraid or could they also…no, don't think about that.

"Don't be afraid!" Red yelled, "Just take him out! Think about all our friends he's killed! Do it now!"

Cyan looked up at Red and then back down at Yellow. Cyan could see his eyes, begging him to do something. He gripped the baton tight and began to electrocute Yellow. The screams were even louder than before, but it wasn't completely out of pain.

White slowly inched toward Yellow, his hands shaking. He was afraid of this monster, this monster who killed his friends. Suddenly, flashbacks of his friends come flooding to him. He remembered Pink teaching him the ins and outs of the ship electrical workings. White was one of the scientists on the trip, but he found engineering the humanities only galaxy traveling ship fascinating. He remembered Purple telling stories of his childhood in Puerto Rico. Stories of playing baseball with his friends, something White had always wanted as a kid. White even remembered Yellow. All the jokes he would tell and if the crew had ever felt down, he would always lighten the mood. And this monster had killed all of them. White stabbed the electric baton into the creature, over and over and over again.

After five minutes of nothing but electrocution, Yellow's screams finally went silent. He was knocked out cold. Wet and heavy breathing could be heard from Yellow.

"What do we do now?" Blue asked while panting.

"I'll tell you what we do!" Green yelled, "We slit his goddamn throat!"

"I don't think this thing has a throat," Red argued.

"What if we throw him out the airlock?" Cyan asked.

Red looked toward the airlock inside the cafeteria. The giant box appeared to be big enough to fit Yellow into.

"Hm, why not?" Red laughed, "We've always thrown our trash out that way, I don't see how this monster is any different."

It took all their man power to drag Yellow into the airlock. He had to weigh almost six hundred pounds in this form. When they finally set him in the airlock, they noticed him moving around slightly.

"Oh crap, he's waking up," said White. Everyone ran out of the airlock and shut the door which had a giant window on it.

Red couldn't stop thinking about Cyan's reaction to Yellow being electrocuted. The image of Cyan just standing there played over and over in Red's mind. He also couldn't stop thinking about White hesitating. He decided to test Cyan.

"Cyan, push the button," Red ordered. Cyan gave a quick look at Red and walked over to the controls, silently. Cyan held his finger over the button that would shoot Yellow out into the void of space. But before he pushed the button, he looked inside to see Yellow staring at him, his eyes full of betrayal and pleading. He didn't have time to give it a second thought.

Upon pushing the button, a large metallic door opened with a screech and Yellow was violently pulled backward. Yellow desperately tried to hold onto the walls of the airlock, but the vacuum was too strong. Yellow was thrust into space. He thrashed around for a second, but quickly, he became still as a statue as his body began to freeze. Yellow was dead. Cyan closed the outside door and heard everyone breathe a sigh of relief.

"Thank god it's over," said Blue.

"That thing is lucky I couldn't get my hands on it," Green said in frustration.

"Where's Black and Orange?" White asked.

Red suddenly remembered White never saw what happened at the reactor. "Orange is dead, he was killed by Yellow right behind us. That's how we found out Yellow was the imposter." Red explained.

White looked down at the ground and then quickly back up at Red, "Wait, what about Black, was he killed too?"

"No I do-," Red stopped himself, remembering Black was stabbed. Red ran to where Black still lay. His shoulder was bleeding profusely. "Black, Black! Are you okay?" Red shook Black. There was no response.

No no no no no no no! Red thought. Why didn't I say something quicker, we could've saved him.

Suddenly, a weak voice whispered from Black, "I could be better, captain." He was alive.

"He's alive, everyone get him to the medbay," Red ordered, "Blue, I'm putting you in charge of helping him."

"Yes Captain," said Blue.

As Red carried Black to the medbay, he still couldn't stop thinking about White and Cyan. They were hesitant to kill that monster. He thought. I just don't understand how you can look at a creature like that, a creature that killed your friends and not want to tear it to pieces. Maybe they are-stop it! You're just being paranoid. They were probably just afraid of being hit by the tentacles. There's no way they could both be imposters too.

Cyan watched as they carried Black to the medbay. Anger swelled inside of him. He envisioned killing all of them right there. But where was the fun in that?

To Be Continued…