Murdoch and Faith; Just Another Day in Space

First topic message reminder :

-0200 Hours: We caught it; the ship drifting listlessly
-0300 Hours: We saw the first of It
-0400 Hours: We fought off the first few; there were few casualties
-1200 Hours: … No one left

Here we go.

System start...

Welcome.......

Daily logs....

Today at... 1200 hours

"Is it on? Alright... This is.... Doesn't matter... To any crew members... Still aboard... I'm at level 28... Near the kitchens... I'm not sure if there's anyone left... Power's not being supplied everywhere... Not all lifts are functioning... The trams are out too... I would leave if I could, but I can't leave here... We need Engineers to switch power on.

We have women and children on this level. We need power."

Today at... 1220 hours.

"I don't know what the fuck happened. The lockdown is everywhere now. They're saying it's some kind of alien life? Security is being dispatched to the lower levels, but comm with the bridge it out too. Anyone else on?"

Reply at 1225 hours

From Major Thomas Henry

"Get guns. Lots. Security's down, or scrambled. Get weapons, and get to the escape pods. It's some kind of infection. It kills us then... Fuckin' does something to the bodies... I don't know how so many got aboard. Get further away from cargo, we lost contact with the security teams there meet at the bridge."

Reply at 1245 hours from Level 28 Kitchens

"We've got basic power to trams, we're taking the children higher up to the higher levels."

Today at 1300 hours from Bridge.

"This is security team bravo, bridge is gone. The bodies are gone too... Just a bloody mess. To anyone aboard, get to escape pods."


System exit......

Have a nice day.


------------------------

This is the Ferry, a class B travel ship built for interplanetary colonization. Designed for decades of travel at a time. You were born here, your family joined here, in search of a safe haven from over populated and expensive Earth.

Enroute, the ship has found a small recon vessel.... Inside was a catalyst for an alien lifeform. Which has swiftly decimated the crew. You don't know what's happened, how much of the ship is gone, and whether anyone save yourselves are alive. This is your scramble for survival.

Jobs: Jobs on the ship range from something as mundane as waste disposal to something as vital as medical treatments... They define your skill set.
If possible try to choose a job which others haven't...

Some samples are

Security:
Technician/Engineer:
Forager/Scavenger (Someone who leaves the ship to scour planets encountered. Military/medical training is assured)
Physician:

Others are possible. It's a large ship after all, built for decades, many practical jobs are viable options.

The Bio of your character should be akin to a psych profile... Detailing personality, habits, and habits. Including dress is mandatory only for Security, doctors, and engineers. Casual wear can be included.

Aliens... These... Things can only be killed by shooting them in the limbs. They are grotesquely formed mutants of assembled body parts... Think Hellish-ramshackle beasts.

It was incredible. He was alive. I could tell by the griuffness of his voice that he was a living human being. I loloked over to him, still near the hatch. It had grown dark and I was having a hard time adjusting to it. I shook my heaed, looking to the man as he moved, a swift movement. His eyes had adjusted and he had seen the blood. He was pointing something at me. I grew stiff, pulling my left hand near my right arm. I was ready to use the Kenisis if I neeeded to.

I shook my head, trying to plead witht he dark figure to not begin a fight.
"It's not my blood. I was on call when Medical Deck was hit with the lower deck's passen-" I cut myself off. Why was I flowing from the mouth with so many words? This man could have been crazy, he could be out to get me, and I didn't even know. I watched in silence for a verdict on whetherhe believed me or not.

The girl stiffens, and reaches for something on her arm. He isn't too concerned about it; he can pull the trigger far faster than she can hit a button and point something at him, and besides...he has the element of surprise. If he decides that he doesn't believe her, he can just pull the trigger and be done with it, simple as that.
But it won't come to that; he can tell that she's telling the truth. There are no noticeable tears in her clothes, no slurring of her words, no leaning to one side or hanging limbs that would suggest an injury, so the chances that she's been infected are minimal. Besides, having a doctor along will almost certainly prove to be an important asset if he's going to get off of this ship and go for help.
He lowers the gun, nodding sharply. "Ok then," he says simply, "Do you have any idea what's going on here? What those things are?" It's a long shot, but she's a doctor...maybe she knows something about this thing that he doesn't.

He lowers his gun. I don't take my hand away from the button though. He can bring it up but I can disarm faster. At least I think I can. I take in a deep breath, watching him as he questions me. Do I know anything about this? Really? I don't know whether to trust him or not. I'll feed him small bits of information.

"it's not a virus like everyone thinks it is... This isn't something that's transferred by blood or cuts...." I had already said more than I wanted to. This wasn't a virus, it was something we haven't contacted before on the journey. At least that's how we were taught in 'ishimora 101'

I took a step back, my eyes wide, I looked toward the blood on the walls.
"so, you the engineer here to fix the damn door?" I was trying to lighten the mood, it was simple, with a smile.

He lowers his gun. I don't take my hand away from the button though. He can bring it up but I can disarm faster. At least I think I can. I take in a deep breath, watching him as he questions me. Do I know anything about this? Really? I don't know whether to trust him or not. I'll feed him small bits of information.

"it's not a virus like everyone thinks it is... This isn't something that's transferred by blood or cuts...." I had already said more than I wanted to. This wasn't a virus, it was something we haven't contacted before on the journey. At least that's how we were taught in 'ishimora 101'

I took a step back, my eyes wide, I looked toward the blood on the walls.
"so, you the engineer here to fix the damn door?" I was trying to lighten the mood, it was simple, with a smile.

ooc; Double post for the win

IC:

She's still suspicious...wise girl. He lowered his gun simply because she is no threat to him. Even should she manage to disarm him, unless she has some kind of ultra strength or is a black belt in something, he should be able to overpower her...but it won't come to that. He isn't here to kill survivors...quite the opposite, in fact. But he needs to get her to believe that. Some other time, though, when they aren't surrounded by blood and could be leapt out on at any moment; it's a conversation for later, certainly.
But the fact that the virus isn't spread through blood or getting cut or anything like that...that is, hopefully, good news. It means that he can afford to get cut...he would prefer not to, but it gives him some leeway.

"We can't use the doors," he says simply, "These things are savage, not stupid." He continues, not allowing that to sink in too much, "I'm taking this hatch up to medical to get supplies for the trip to the escape pods. You can come with me, or take your chances in the corridors. Your choice." And with that, he ducks back into the hatch, and reaches out for the handle. If she turns away, he shuts the door...if she starts towards him, he keeps it open.

Ooc- sorry, I'm on my phone. Didn't even tell me I had.

bic

He didn't even give me a chance to respond. He didn't let me warn him. The medical decks were shit. I needed to warn him that. I shook my head, forcing closer to the hatch.

"Wait." My voice was soft and I didn't know exactly what I was going to say. I didn't have the chance to think about this being a bad idea. I had to leap, maybe I would catch the figurative ledge. I took in a deep breath, shaking my head.

I pushed my head through the hole in the wall, unsure where this person was. I looked through the darkness, trying to let my eyes adjust.

"The medical wards are going to be hell, at least I know that the lower ones are...Maybe you could use a little help? " My voice seemed weak. it was as if my body was naturally portraying me as weak and innocent as if I was. I needed to hide the snap, the flame, I needed to be able to produce when needed. I needed my normal personality hidden until I had to show it to the male.

He could be crazy, trying to get me off my guard where he could overpower me. In instances like this, I wasn't even sure what the crazed might do. Rape then kill?

ooc: Don't have time to post ATM, but there are a couple of probs with your post; 1) The hatch is a small hatch. There's room for a ladder, a climber and not much else. I did say that XD
2) My character is still holding the doorway open...you would have headbutted him if you had stuck your head through the hatch. XD

ooc- Okay,
A) The 'Leap' was figurative; the taking of a risk sort of thing, not a physical Leap. If you weren't speaking said leap then I see nothing in my post that indicates that it wasn't a small hatch. Which has confused Faithy and her simple mind
B) I did such a thing on purpose. I wanted to add a bit of 'Comic Relief' that could either take pressure off the situation, or add more tension to the situation from reaction from the characters. I didn't add that my character responded [Ex: The pain when our heads struck was intensive] because I didn't want to Make their heads collide without your approval first. If it wasn't a physical contact your character wanted, he could easily duck out of the way, you see?

I apologize that the post seems to show my ignorance of that. I do realized that the characters heads would collide, I just wanted such a physical contact so abrupt to be either allowed or not by you first. ^_^

ooc: Ok, no worries...it just looked like you had misinterpreted the space my character was in. XD

Sam recoils suddenly as she thrusts her head into the small space, almost smashing him in the nose. She still deals a glancing blow, which he winces at, but it isn't enough to elicit a groan or a grunt. It's just a slight twinge, and he looks at her, annoyance painted on his face. "Girl, this whole ship has gone to hell, in case you hadn't noticed," he says irritably. True, the Medical Decks might be particularly bad, but they can't be any worse than the cargo bay, where this thing started. And no matter what this girl says, he has to get the medical supplies if he is going to treat any wounds he may suffer on his way to the pods. It is that simple.

He climbs up a few rungs, then looks back over his shoulder. "I'm going to the medical decks. Hell or not, it's where all the medical supplies are. If you want to come, come on. Safety in numbers and all that."

I grumbled quietly, pulling from the hole a moment. I rubbed my nose slightly. I hadn’t realized exactly how small the shaft was, and where exactly the man was in the shaft. I assumed he had leaned back slightly, and it seemed like he tried, but he apparently wasn’t fast enough. I muttered an apology as he disappeared again. He was annoyed, you could tell by the snap in his voice. I was only trying to help, though, and any normal person knew that I was awkward at times. Nothing was normal anymore. That was the problem. I wasn’t going to stay in this dead-end hallway and die with the children. I hoisted my foot over to the other side, inside the shaft. He had climbed up, and I only hoped he knew exactly what he was doing. I kept silent as I grasp a rung with my hand, using the other to close the hatch. I looked up being able to see the bottom of feet.
“You’ll need someone to piece you together when you get impaled by one of them.” I muttered the words quietly, a whisper, but it seemed to turn out louder than I expected in the small shaft.

She yanks herself in, and Sam pulls himself up a few more rungs. He pauses when he hears her muttered, snarky comment, and sighs quietly. His mind flashes back to the first time he saw those things, down in the cargo bay, feasting on the remains of the first security team to go and investigate...the security team that they had been sent to retrieve...the security team that his friend, Jake, had been on. Jake wasn't even supposed to have been there; had Sam been on time when the alarm went off, he would have gone instead of Jake. He can still remember the creatures tearing at the dead flesh, the faces on the bodies too battered and scratched and bitten to be recognisable, and yet he had recognised Jake. He didn't know how, but he knew it was Jake. He had almost thrown up right there and then.
And things had only gotten worse from there. Once they had dispatched those two things- after a lot of firing until one of their weapons happened, by chance, to hit their limbs- they came upon even more grisly sights, and were attacked more and more often in their search for the rest of the team and other survivors. They had a medic with them...he was taken when trying to patch somebody up. Once those things get you, you're dead. Slow down for an instant, and they kill you.

"You're dead if they catch you," he murmurs quietly, "No exceptions..." his voice is sad and a little scared, a far cry from his gruff manner a moment before. He shakes his head and begins to climb again; he can't dwell on that right now. "Close the hatch, girl, we don't need them following us."

I slammed the hatch shut; partly to make sure it closed and partly to show my annoyance at his orders. Damn security teams. He was probably a leader, that’s why he survived; Holding back while his friends were slaughtered. It wasn’t his problem that they were at the bottom of the rung and he wasn’t. I took in a deep breath as I looked to the feet that were disappearing. I watched silently a moment before beginning the rise through the shaft. It wasn’t really small to me, since I was small and short, but for the male above me I would imagine it was very tight.

I paused slightly as I heard soft words. I pondered his words a moment before continuing. I shook my head.
“As long as your heart doesn’t stop beating you are fine. It’s the surviving that’s hard. Look at the bright side of nothing; you’ve got the armor. It’ll be harder for you to get punctured by those things. All I’ve got are these scrubs… You’ve got a better chance than I do. They’re aliens anyway. They use your dead body as a sort of ship to kill others. At least, that’s what the others said before… Well, you know” I took in a deep breath, closing my eyes. My foot slipped on a rung, making a loud echo of rubber hitting the metal move throughout the shaft.

I cursed quietly, pulling myself up as I continued to climb. I watched a moment before pushing forward. I didn’t know how I was going to get out of this without armor, but I was going to. I would find some or something. I didn’t know if I could, but I would just have to deal. I needed to find new clothes too, but that wasn’t a big deal. I could deal if I couldn’t find any on the way. Staying alive was the problem right now.

Sam snorts derisively. Is she honestly so naive that she thinks that the crappy security armour will protect him? Against projectiles, they're fine...but against these things? Their claws go through the armour like tissue paper. If they catch him, he's as dead as she is. The chances of surviving after being impaled by one of their claws is minimal, and once you're dead, they'll find you and eat you...or turn you. "Have you seen these things work, girl? Armour won't stop them. The best defence is not to get cornered by them..." He pauses, and checks the map. They aren't far now; maybe three more decks of climbing, and then they'll be at the top medical deck, right below the bridge. If they're lucky, there may be survivors in the bridge or holed up in the medical decks. If they can get a sizeable party together, maybe they can fight their way through...but no. A large group draws the creatures attention, and if they know you're there, they pick you off one by one, then surround and swarm the survivors. A simple tactic, but effective.
"We're almost at the Top Medical Deck. Do you know if there are any other survivors up there?" he asks.

He seemed to think I was stupid. I was trying to be positive in a completely negative situation. It was called being positive.

"Negative Nancy" I interjected in between his sentences. Even if we were pretty much dead I could try and lighten the mood. It was normal to be tense, but this dude was being an utter asshole and there was no better way to put it. I sighed quietly, loosing the feeling in my arms.

" In reality, we don't have communications from deck to deck. Medical decks are 15 levels apart. I came rom the bottom wards." I hoped that would answer his questions. I jumped as I heard it. The sound of something down metal. It was loud and it somewhat resembled dogs nails on linoleum. I looked up before looking down.

"You hear that to,right?" my voice was quieted once again. Was it one of those things? Were we safe?

Sam ignores her remark. Negative? More like realistic. What good is being positive when they are in a situation where the worst is likely to happen? Positivity in this situation is foolish. Plan for the worst, and all your surprises will be pleasant; he isn't giving up, he isn't saying that it's all over...he's just being realistic. The best way not to get killed is not to get caught. If you think your armour can stop them, you will be more careless than if you know that they will kill you if they catch you, and easily.

The sound cuts off his thoughts. It wasn't the sound of something opening; rather, something scratching on something, trying to open it. "It appears that they've found the hatch," Sam observes flatly, "Come on. We need to get moving." With that, he increases the rate of his climb massively, practically taking two rungs at a time. They need to get up to Medical, and quickly.

He rushes me along, telling me to hurry. I do, as fast as I can pull myself up. If it came from the bottom, I had no chance of getting out if I didn’t take the order. I would be taken apart while the man above me ran; Of course, if it came from the top of the shaft then neither of us had a chance. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from; the echoes of the scratching threw me off. I couldn’t tell. I knew we were close, but I didn’t know how close.

He was a few rungs above me, and I just kept moving. It was growing louder. You could hear it as something seemed to give way and a loud crash rang out from someplace. There was a shriek before there was silence. I waited a moment, at least in my mind; still traveling up the rungs to what I hoped was safety. Then if began again, the scratching, but it was louder this time, and faster like a few of them might have gotten into the shaft or something.
At one point I was at his feet again. I was actually eyes at his heels. It wasn’t fun, for I took the risk of getting kicked if he swung his leg out the get to the next rung, but I was keeping up. I knew we had made it though; the three decks had to have been climbed by now. At least, that’s what my arms and legs were screaming.

Another resounding crash sounds a few minutes later, and Sam slows slightly to look over his shoulder. The girl is on his heels, fleeing from the sound...even though the sound is echoing, they would both prefer to believe that the sound is coming from below them. Then, at least, they are running away from the creatures. He soon picks up his speed again, though, despite his protesting muscles. They aren't hurting, but they are certainly beginning to complain, and he is starting to feel very claustrophobic in this enclosed space...if those creatures catch them in here, it's game over.
They've only climbed up two decks; they have a way to go to the third deck, but they don't have a choice; they have to get out now, or not at all.

"This is our stop," he says gruffly, grabbing hold of the handle to the hatch and swinging it open with a violent shove. He draws and levels his gun at the opening, scanning the room, before practically diving out. He takes another look at the room. It's very dark, and he can't see many of the details, but it appears that they're in one of the operating theatres that they have in the second Medical Deck. The tables and operating beds are tipped over, shattered and bent and broken, and there is no sign of life, human or creature. The door to the observation room is open, and Sam smiles grimly. Maybe they could slow these things down a little by sealing off the operating room...there will be controls in the observation room to completely quarantine the operation theatre, so the creatures would at least have to find another way round. He looks behind him, into the hatch, and calls to the girl. "Get out of there, quickly, so I can seal it up!" He says urgently, holding his hand out for her to take.

Something that brings people together seemed to be death. I watched as his head turned, looking back from above. I couldn't tell his emotions in the darkness. I shook as I continued, my arms beginning to shake as he haulted quickly, pushing another hatch open onto one of the decks. It wasn't a surprise when it wasn't deck three. Even though we had been climbing for what seemed like forever, it wasn't enough. It was life and sometimes it sucked. Right now, it seemed like the environment around us was just creating a huge vacume in everyone's lives.

He called to me just as I made it to the last rung. I took his tight grip, hoisting myself up and through the hatch. I handed, hard on one knee. I didn't seem to have time to react, I knew those things would be pouring through the hatch. I bolted up, not giving the male time to do as he said. I slammed the door shut, rotating the lock down. I heard the first shriek of what seemed to be announce as they got to the hatch.

"Come. They'll be in the air vents before we even know it." I turned, walking quickly from the room. My eyes darted left to right as I walked to the next door.

"you'll need my passcode to get these door shut I'm assuming. Never bothered about asking if security was allowed to quarantine and operating room in med school"

My stride was strong as I hurridley passed through the doorway toward the monitor's room.

Sam lingers for a moment to watch the hatch; it's shaking as the creatures hurl themselves against it with all the force that they can muster, but it holds fast. It should delay them just enough to give them time to enact the quarantine emergency procedures. Turning, he he jogs across the room and into the Monitoring Room. He shuts the door, and it makes a slight wooshing noise as it locks itself; not the most effective barrier, but it will buy them precious seconds if they get through the hatch.
He moves over to the computer, praying fervently that it's already turned on...well, he'd settle for working at this point in time. He's in luck; nobody got the chance to turn it off before this thing hit the deck, and these creatures don't appear to have managed to cut off all power to the ship as of yet. It's only a matter of time, but the quarantine doesn't require power once switched on. He stands aside, allowing the girl access to the computer.
"Quickly now," he says, hurrying her along, "We have to get this quarantine down." The Qurantine for the individual rooms is actually rather thorough; from what he can remember about this particular type of room, the quarantine has three layers:
The first is the most obvious; Heavy blast doors slide down over every possible entrance to the room, forming an airtight container around the room.
The second is that all air ducts, service hatches and any other possible route a pathogen or virus could take is sealed at the borders of the room...that means that the creatures trapped in the hatch that they just left will be stuck there if they don't move, and any that try to escape through the airducts will A) be faced with a blast door, and B) have to negotiate a very, very fast, very sharp fan. The thought of those creatures being splashed across the insides of the airducts fills him with a macabre glee.
Finally, the room is sprayed with disinfectants and antibiotics, but that is about as much use in this situation as a chocolate kettle.

"Only medical personnel have the authority to enforce a full quarantine lock-down...Security can issue a temporary lockdown, but a Quarantine lockdown is far more effective...besides," he gives her a grim half-smile, a twisting of half of his mouth, "I'm not high up enough in the pecking order to issue a lockdown. You need to be a captain for that...I'm barely a Private First Class..." he lets out a dark laugh, then; it's quite possible that without her, he could have a horde of these things pursuing him across the ship. Of course, it's debatable whether they would be following him at all if it weren't for her, but that's something he would prefer not to think about right now.

He stays near the hatch a little longer than expected. Eventually, I see him turn to follow me into the small room that bridged us with and the rest of the ship. I was silent as I heard the latch close and he entered. He pushed past me, inspecting the computer before I could get to it. After a moment he stands aside, letting me get through.

Apparently, there wasn’t anyone in particular using the room today. The powers to these stations are on a clock. At 0600 Hours they turn on, providing the computers a chance to turn on and get booted before anyone may use the room. Of course, they turn off when night crew hits, and usually the only way to get power is to manually flip the switch in the Main Ward, which is supposed to have power 24/7.

Welcome…

Username:***********
Password:**********

Welcome…User…Faith Wynters…

Please wait while the system Loads….

I looked over as he spoke. He was only a Private First Class? I have him a harsh look. Something about the system made me angry.

“So you’ve only been on security for a year or so? How old are you kid?” I had to hold my tongue one a regular basis. He was PVC and ordering me around? I snorted, shaking my head as I looked back to the screen.

Is there a procedure scheduled in this room that is not on file?
Yes...No…


Yes. Please wait…

Enact Quarantine?
Yes…No…

Yes. Please Wait…


Complete Quarantine or Temporary Quarantine?

Complete Quarantine. Please Wait….

Please Type in your Username and Password once More…

Username: ***********
Password:**********


Thank you…Faith Wynters


Please Type in your Active Security-Cleared Code or Swipe your card.

I silently pulled the card through the small pad. I was wishing this would hurry up. It was taking too long. Then there was a sound that seemed to be a grace from god. I looked over to the male as I heard the sound of the first part of lockdown commencing. I nodded quietly, looking to the screen to see that it had been accepted.

“That might slow them down for a little while at least” I muttered quietly as I waited for it to allow me to sign off. The lockdown would stay in effect until I signed in once more and told it to unlock the doors. That was the flaw in these things. Only the person creating the lockdown and engineers could stop the quarantine.

Ooc: I'm sorry about this...I'll be posting ASAP, I'm just slightly busy...

Ooc- It's fine. I believe I've done the same a few days ago ^^

Sam has to stop himself from giving her an angry reply. Kid? He can't be more than five years her junior and has probably seen a lot more in terms of combat than she has, and she calls him a kid? She was the one who was helplessly buzzing on a door when he showed up and got her out of there, and it's very likely that, had he not stopped, those creatures would not be after him right now...he bailed her out, putting his life at risk, and she calls him a kid? Blasted civilians...they complain and curse security and its members all day every day, either mocking the lower ranks for following power hungry commanders and being useless, as they see it or cursing the commanders for making the difficult decisions that they don't want to make...but as soon as anything dangerous or threatening appears, who do they expect to save them? Those power hungry, brutal, bull-headed savages that they all complain about. And when it's over, do they thank them? Does anything change? No. She's just another ungrateful civilian who thinks she's better than him.

Fine. He's only a private first class, but that is not on account of lack of ability. He has been with the Security Teams since he was sixteen- five years ago- and was in the upper percentile of marksmanship and combat training in his class. The only reason he hasn't risen through the ranks is because he and his immediate CO do not see eye to eye. His CO always had a heavy-handed approach when it came to operations, and it got to the point where Sam openly argued with the CO about his methods. It ended when the CO quite simply stated that Sam would never get past Private First Class under his command. That was four years ago, and Sam has paid for it since. The CO- then a sergeant- rose to be one of the main Captains in the Security Forces, and whenever he was out forward for promotion, he was rejected due to the Captains sour and despairing reports on him. He wrote that Sam was disobedient, insubordinate and got too aggressive at times, which to a certain extent is true...it's the rest that he made up and exaggerated, which did little to improve Sams temper.
And now he's being criticised for his ideals- albeit indirectly- by this arrogant, holier-than-thou doctor who can't see further than her own prejudices. Whatever. He really doesn't have to listen to her...all he has to do is keep her alive, and hope that she doesn't push the buttons that makes him want to shoot her himself.

The doors slide down, and the room is completely sealed. They've bought themselves some time, at least.
"Come on," he says brusquely, turning around sharply and heading towards the entrance to the corridor, "this 'kid' still has to get to the medical decks..." he says 'kid' with a certain amount of sarcastic bitterness; he said he'd do his best to ignore her comment, not that it didn't bother him. "...Who knows?" he adds in a mutter as he hits the button to open the door, "We might find some more ungrateful civilians..." he finishes, before stepping out into the dim, slightly battered corridor.

I hit a nerve somewhere under that hard exterior. I could tell. The inquiry goes unanswered. Whether he is angry or annoyed at my comment fazes me nonetheless. Let him be angry. We have no problems unless he tries to shoot me. If he ever thought about it; who is that whom out of a doctor to fix him when a miracle happens and he’s not completely ripped to shreds? This makes me almost invincible in terms of what I say. Yes, he can let me die, and yes, he could yell and not speak to me. However, leaving a doctor behind because of anger isn’t really something that seems Security-ish.

His words hit me hard, but not in the way that it might others. It makes me want to giggle, just to annoy him more. I don’t even though I want to. He makes a point of noting a tone with the word. Why is that such a bad word: ‘Kid’? Youth isn’t always a bad thing. There’s something there that pinches a spot under his skin that makes the word such an annoyance.

“I believe the Medical Decks that might still have first-aid are through the Infant ward and past a recovery ward or two. I’m on this deck more than the other, but it’s a big ship with a lot of places that I’ve never been even in the Medical Ward.”

I nodded a half sigh passing through my lips. I began walking after him, out of the room and into the darkness. I yawned quietly, something that wasn’t like me. The adrenaline pumping through my veins wouldn’t last for much longer.

There were three stages of Panic:

1. Panic (Fight or Flight which we all had been doing much of today)
2. Resistance
3. Exhaustion

Right now I was probably on stage two. I had been hyped up for so long I feared that Adrenal Fatigue for the both of us. Of course, some doctors didn’t believe in such a term, but I did. We would have to find a place to sit and rest sometime or we wouldn’t be able to go one. It would cause our demise before these monsters would.

She doesn't answer his rather grumpy mutterings, but he does not take that as a sign of guilt; in fact, when he glanced behind to see if she was following, she looked momentarily confused, as if she honestly doesn't understand what she did wrong. Fine, she may have hit a nerve- his lack of progression does annoy him, a lot, and even more so when it is pointed out in such a disparaging manner- but it's also the connotations of the word 'kid'. It is true that youth may not be a bad thing all of the time, but when said in the way she said it, it has connotations of inexperience, naivety and inferiority; that the speaker views him or herself as above or superior to the addressee. And that is something he dislikes, especially considering how they met. And yes, he will be riding that horse until he gets at least some glimmer of gratitude from her for that.

She yawns, then, and that rings alarm bells in his head. The last thing they need is to get tired; when you get tired, you get clumsy. When you get clumsy in a situation like this, you die. It is as simple as that, against these kind of things. The last thing he needs is a tired, slow civilian to drag around, as well as himself; he won't lie, he is exhausted...but that isn't a physical exhaustion. Security Teams are trained to go a lot longer than civilians, after all, and really he hasn't done much fighting since the Cargo Bay...just a whole lot of climbing. He has no illusions that he will start feeling fatigued eventually- possibly quite soon- but he himself can, physically at least, keep going for a short while yet. It's the mental exhaustion that he's worried about. His brains are fried. He's been climbing and running for what feels like hours, after having watched his friends die and transform into those things...he's been stumbling down darkened corridors, jumping at every little sound...he's almost been killed three times, and saved by flukey million to one chances. His luck will run out, and he has a feeling that it will happen about the time that his mind gives up the ghost and snaps. He needs a rest, and soon...but he needs to wait until he gets to the medical labs. There, at least, they may be safe for a time...
The fact that the infant wing could have been hit doesn't occur to him...not because he doesn't think of it, but because he doesn't want it to occur to him. He's had to face his old friends, face passengers...he doesn't think he could handle the stress of gunning down what once were children.

He simply grunts in response to her- still not overly happy, and certainly not feeling appreciated; a tantrum, perhaps, but the last thing he needs on top of everything else is a difficult 'partner'- and turns down the corridor towards the Infants Wing. It's eerily quiet...no scuttling, no clicking, no vents blowing off, no distant sounds of glass breaking...it's almost as bad as when he was being chased. At least then, he knew where they were. Now? They could be anywhere, lying in wait...they could be watching them right now...he shudders a little at the thought.