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so-tired-already · 1 year

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The Virus

This is a piece I wrote for a writing contest. I don't know how good it is, but I hope you all enjoy it. Sorry if the formatting is a little wonky.

TW: Body horror, violence (not much of it.)

She hated it.

She didn’t understand it.

It made her feel sick.

Like her insides were about to be thrown up, like she’d faint any minute now that it's happened. Her entire life was flipped upside down and hit with a baseball bat multiple times. She’d never see her friends again, she’d never see the captain smile when someone told a joke, she’d never hear the engineer say another random fact that weirded everyone out, she’d never see the newbie smile when they did something correctly on their first try.

She’d never see her family again.

She trembled as reality hit her full-force. As the true meaning of the situation weighed down on her. She cried, not knowing what else to do. It’s not like she can leave the room, like she can go see a crewmate for comfort, for help. She’d kill them all if she stepped a millimeter outside the door leading into the hallway. Why was the world so cruel? Why were humans so cruel? Why would anyone, anything create such a dangerous creature? Something that actively makes you aggressive, violent, crazy?

It didn’t make sense.

She hated it.

It made her angry, made her want to lash out, to break something. Suddenly, images of dead crewmates, with visibly broken bones, bleeding over the living room floor flooded her eyesight, making her gasp and stumble backwards into the bed, which snapped her out of it.

No.

NO!

She will not break under pressure. She will not harm her friends, her family. She can’t. She can't lose them, she’d never survive space without them. The loneliness, the quiet, the isolation, would kill her before the creature would. It’s not like they have contact with home base to figure out a solution, or send her back to Earth, or get help.

Help.

They don’t have access to help. If she ever went out of the room, the others would never make it out alive. The escape pods don’t detach without home bases’ approval, the weapons room is the same, and the systems take too long to get taken down in a room. If she thought the situation was horrible, it just got worse with that realization. She really needs to stay in this room, but she’s getting cabin fever, she’s itchy to move, to do things around the ship. She’s also hungry, but with another blow to her hope that she’ll get through this, she finds that she’s hungry for humans.

Dang.

The monster has more control over her than she thought. If she’s thinking of what she’s thinking, if she’s thinking of doing what the monster is making her think of doing, she has little chance. And she knows this. Her crewmates knew it too, apparently, if what the speaker in her room said was true.

“Head Engineer, we’ve seen the test results. The creature emits a sort of chemical that affects your behavior in an aggressive manner. You’ll lose control of yourself quickly, in about 10 hours. We’re trying to find a way to remove and contain the being, so sit tight. The newbie is bringing you food.”

The speaker crackles as it gets turned off. The head engineer is frozen, terrified because of what she heard. The test was taken yesterday. How she managed this far, she didn’t know, but she won’t make it far enough. And the newbie is coming to her room. The creature inside her feels giddy at the thought, making her more sick.

It’s going to kill them, she thought. They’re going to die and I can do nothing about it.

And there’s nothing they can do about it too! Thought the creature.

Oh god.

They’re all going to die. And it’d be all her fault.

Why?

Why’d she decide to go into that room? Why’d she ignore the warnings on the door and from her friends? Because of a stupid little mistake, everyone was gonna suffer. Whoever decided that that's how life works sometimes is going to get punched if she ever meets them.

As the engineer started to spiral, a strange smell entered the room.

“Hey, miss. I have your food! How are you doing?”

Oh no.

Oh no, no, no, no, NO.

Dang it.

Panicking, trying to get away from the smell, the Head Engineer backs away from the door, bumping into the wall when there’s nowhere to go.

“Miss, are you alright?”

She looks up, schooling her face so as to not alarm the newbie. They can’t know They can’t know that they have less time then they thought.

“Yeah, fine. Just a little freaked out. Tired.”

But she’s not fine, because the smell is getting more and more appetizing, and the creature is getting more and more hungry.

“Understandable. Getting that type of news, I’d crumble apart. I’m kinda surprised that you’re even standing right now, no offense.”

Me too, kid. Me too, she thought.

“None taken. Thanks for the food. “

“No problem. By the way,” the person says as they walk further into the room. “I was wondering if you could help me. Have you seen the manual for the engine anywhere?”

The engineer made a strangled grunt, walking away from the newbie, away from what the monster craved.

“I-I think it was somewhere in the Captain's office.” she stammered.

Oh no.

“Are you okay? You don’t sound alright.” They’re concerned

Good, they’ll come closer and then I can multiply!

Frozen, she felt sick to her stomach. Her vision was getting wobblier, a headache forming.

Oh yes, oh yes! He’s near my grasp! The creature rejoiced. Vision going dark, all she could think of was I hope they get rid of me.

Oh yes! Sweet, sweet control over this stupid bag of human flesh and bones. Oh, how have I craved it ever since I was introduced to her body systems. Oh, and how could I forget that with this access, I may add humans to my control, like that lily-livered idiot who tried to fight me! That fool, how could he defeat a being as great and powerful as I? I cannot wait to feast

upon the other human beings that live on this space station. All of them smell so sweet, so delectable. Tasting them will be a wonderful experience, and so will infecting and controlling them. Making them lose control, panic. Oh, it will be so wonderful. Speaking of wonderful, there’s a human right there, the monster thinks. “Why, hello there, human.”

They turn around, the light reflecting off of their helmet.

“Head Engineer? Why the hell are you out of your room, especially without your helmet? You’re going to infect somebody!” they exclaimed. With a smile on their face, the creature said

“Too late.”

As horror showed on the human’s face, the monster attacked. They grabbed a pipe that was on the ground and ran towards him. The human tried to dodge, but got clipped on the head with the edge on the pipe instead.

“Sorry, but I need to take over this station now.”

Laughing, the monster opens the mouth of the human they’re in and allows its tentacles to bite the unconscious person.

“Oh, how your flesh and blood taste so good!”

The creature opened the security system and watched the cameras, seeing that the other infected human had bitten three more people in the cafeteria. Switching between the other cameras, it found four more people scattered in the station, in the engine room, the cockpit, and the electrical room, respectively. Smiling to itself, the monster silently locked the humans into the rooms, and sent out an announcement to the infected ones telling them where to find the rest of the other humans.

Smiling maniacally, the monster, the virus, whatever it was, went to the cockpit, walking past the unconscious, but newly infected humans being dragged out by their attackers before closing the doors to it with a flourish. Its plan nearly complete, the creature goes to check if there are any ships coming soon to the station. And there was, the Noxus, and even better? The ship was international. The inhabitants would get infected and then they would go back home, spreading the monster's virus to a greater extent than it ever thought.

Oh ho ho, the monster smirked.

This will be more fun than I thought.

#science fiction #short story #fiction #original character #original story

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