Post by Scott Gallo on May 12, 2010 0:11:22 GMT -5
This post is rated R for strong language and violence.
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-SCOTT GALLO-
It Starts With A Shiver
.::.
He was breathing hard. His heart was pounding. His chest burned. It felt like he’d just run a three-minute mile, except he hadn’t.‘Fuck fuck fuck. It’s all fucked. It’s all fucked…’
His head was spinning. His hands were shaking. The gun he held felt unbelievably heavy. He raised the heavy hand to place the palm to his forehead as he sucked air through his teeth, making his breathing sound more like snarling. The metal of the gun’s body wasn’t cold as it touched his forehead. That was strange. He’d expected it to be cold, but it was warm.
He closed his eyes tight. His vision had begun to blur and dark shadows had started closing in at the edges of his sight. There was a strange noise coming from somewhere, like a wounded animal. What was that? It was a crying, moaning noise. It didn’t even sound human.
It wasn’t until the sound formed into words that he realized it was coming from his own vocal cords.“Ohmygod… Ohmygod… Ohmygod… Ohhh myyyy godddd…”
He heard a clatter and then his ass hit the ground hard. His legs had completely given out and he’d dropped his gun. He cradled his head in his hands as his shoulders shook with sobs. He was vaguely aware that his hands and hair were wet. It was odd, and he had a feeling it was important, but he shoved it to the back of his mind.
Two bodies were lying on the floor a few feet away from where he sat. His crew members. The Captain’s body sat on the other side of the room, still slumped in the chair of the Captain’s Nest. Blood was splattered along the walls and some of the equipment. Red puddles had begun to form beneath them. The red grew as Gallo sat rocking and sobbing.‘It’s gone. It’s all gone. Fucking gone…’-+-
An hour ago, he’d been fine. He’d been on edge and nervous, but he’d still had his reason and his mind had still been functioning relatively normally. He had been on the Engineering Deck performing routine maintenance on the ship. He was this group’s Technical Engineer, which was just a more professional way of saying “Jack of all trades” in his opinion. His job seemed to be to do whatever his crewmates didn’t do. Which was a lot.
Lieutenant Jenkins intercepted Gallo on his way to one of the ship’s storage rooms and instructed him to wake the Captain. Gallo’s entire body tensed. The whole purpose of the flight crew was to maintain the ship and make sure it stayed on course. The Captain was only to be brought out of suspended animation in the case of an emergency.
The Lieutenant had been called to the Bridge by the other Corporal, Addison – their navigator. They’d received a priority transmission from Earth. Addison was working on decoding and translating the message while Lieutenant Jenkins accompanied Gallo so they could brief the Captain. The process had taken just under an hour – waking Captain Willis, checking his vitals, orienting him – and then they had proceeded to the Bridge.
None of them had expected the message that awaited them.“You are all that’s left of us. Good luck… God bless… and Godspeed.”
Silence. For what seemed like a long time there was silence. Gallo stood stunned, dumbfounded. What the hell did they mean they were all that was left? Of humanity? What did that mean?‘They’re gone. Everyone on Earth. Gone…’
Addison spoke first, and her voice was louder than it should have been. Gallo thought she was screaming, but maybe she wasn’t. Maybe his perception was off – another symptom. He was still puzzling out the transmission.“What?”
Addison looked around, her brown eyes wide.“We… We’re it? All of humanity, an entire planet… And we’re all that’s left?”
The Lieutenant spoke next.“Remain calm, Corporal.”
The Captain spoke, but Gallo’s hearing had gone fuzzy. It had been gradual so he hadn’t even noticed it. Everything was muffled, like he was underwater. His hands were shaking as he stared down at them. His heart rate had begun to rise steadily and his breathing was quickening, but he didn’t notice these things either. Only one thought kept going through his mind.‘They’re gone. They’re gone. All fucking gone…’
He moved without realizing it. Everything seemed to be in slow motion as he approached the Lieutenant.‘Everything. Everyone. Gone. We’re it. We’re fucking it…’
The Lieutenant was speaking to him. Gallo heard the words, but wouldn’t process them until later.“Stand down, Corporal. I said stand down!”
Pain shot through Gallo’s right hand as his fist slammed into the Lieutenant’s face. His left hand gripped the handle of the man’s pistol. The weapon slid easily from the holster at the Lieutenant’s waist.
He heard the first shot – a loud bang echoing through the room. And then there was a ringing in his ears as the other two shots rang out. Bang. Bang.-+-
Gallo sat there for a long time. The weight of the message and his actions sat heavily on him as he tried to recover. He opened his eyes and sniffed, wiping tears and snot from his face and trying to blink his vision clear.‘Fuckfuckfuckfuck…’“Oh FUCK!”
Gallo scrambled to get to his feet as the blood that had been spreading across the floor crept toward him. His shoes slid in the liquid and it took a clumsy effort for him to stand. And then he looked down and saw blood on his hands.‘Blood. There’s blood on me…’
He felt a wave of nausea hit him and started running toward the corridor in an attempt to make it to the bathroom. He stopped and vomited just to the right of the doorway.‘Their blood’s on me. All over me. Oh my god, what did I do?’-+-
An hour later he was standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom. He’d slipped out of the Bridge and closed the door. No one who wasn’t on the Flight Crew would have any reason to go in there, but he’d used the computers to jam the door’s mechanism just in case. He’d gotten a clean pair of pants from his Quarters and headed to the bathroom to shower. He hadn’t passed anyone on the way. No one but the Flight Crew roamed this part of the ship, and it was so massive that the sound of the gunshots hadn’t carried, as he’d feared it had.
He stood in front of the mirror in a clean pair of pants, his blood-stained clothes sitting in a pile in the corner of the room. He’d had a lot of time to think while he’d gone through this odd cleansing ritual. His thoughts had gone from being nonsensical and chaotic to step-by-step and methodical. And then they’d taken on a duality, becoming a mixture of the two. As he looked at himself in the mirror, he calmly thought through everything again.‘What did I do?’‘I killed my captain and my crew.’
‘Why did I do that?’‘You panicked.’
‘Why?’‘Pandorum.’
‘What is Pandorum?’‘Orbital Dysfunctional Syndrome. Pandorum is a psychological condition that can develop as a result of extended deep space travel.’
‘What are the symptoms of Pandorum?’‘It starts with a twitch. And then a tremor. Claustrophobia. Isolation. Paranoia. Delusions. Hostility. An emotional or psychological trauma can trigger a psychotic break.’
‘I killed my Captain and my crew.’‘It was Pandorum. There was nothing that could be done.’
‘What’s going to happen to me?’‘Nothing.’
‘Nothing? How is that possible?’‘There’s no one left to judge. Who’s to say what you did was wrong?’-+-
Gallo had cleaned his shoes. He didn’t bother trying to salvage the shirt, the jacket, or the pants. His socks were free of blood, so he pulled those on, using the wall to balance himself. He pulled on his boots and tied them.‘You’re the only one who knows what you did.’
‘People are going to ask questions. Where’s the Lieutenant? Where’s Addison? What do I tell them?’‘Nothing. You know nothing. Get rid of your clothes. Get rid of the evidence. Once that's gone, there’s nothing anyone can tie to you.’
He picked up the pile of clothes from the floor, balling them up in his hands.‘It’ll never work. They’ll get suspicious, they’ll figure it out.’‘Then tell them it was Pandorum.’
He opened the door carefully, taking care to glance down the long corridor. It was empty, so he stepped out.‘It was Pandorum.’‘You had no choice. You had to defend yourself.’
His boots thudded rhythmically on the floor as he walked to his quarters. The sound echoed through the lonely corridor.‘Both of them? Two people exhibiting symptoms of ODS? That doesn’t happen.’‘The odds are insurmountable, but it could happen.’
He slid his keycard into the lock and the door slid open. A blue-tinged light flickered and brightened, illuminating the small room. The door slid shut efficiently behind him. The room was small and sparsely furnished, but it was adequate. A small bed sat against the wall to his left. There was a dresser across from it. A small table and a single chair stood in the center. He gripped the gun that sat on top of it and it made a swift scraping sound as he slid it off the table. It didn’t feel so heavy anymore.
His bed was neatly made and a book sat on top of it: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. He had no idea where he’d gotten it. Printed books were obsolete and it must have been difficult to find it on Earth. He’d found it in his locker after he awoke from hypersleep. He’d read it six times since he’d been awake.
Gallo sat on the edge of his bed and picked up the book, flipping through its pages. He held the book in one hand and the gun in the other.‘I killed my crewmates and my Captain.’‘It was Pandorum. You had to defend yourself.’
‘I did what I had to. I did nothing wrong.’‘The Earth was just obliterated. There is no right and wrong anymore.’
Gallo felt light-headed, tingly all over. He stood and felt dizzy, so he sat again.‘Is this Pandorum?’
He felt an intense pulling sensation, like he was being sucked into a vacuum.‘A breach. A breach in the ship…’
As he felt an overwhelming wave of dizziness and disorientation, he thought something had damaged the ship somehow, and he was being sucked into space.