Part 8

     Kevin walked down the steps onto the bridge, keeping an eye out for more of the monstrosities. He was sure he had cleared the floor, he could even see the corpse of the alpha creature, but he couldn't be too careful while these things were on the ship.

    He took stock of his knowledge of the situation: aliens of an unknown origin had gotten on the ship, and they seemed to be able to reproduce quickly; the engines were offline, and the previous person that was sent to bring them back online hadn't been heard from in some time; the communications array was also malfunctioning, possibly irreparably; and he was very, very claustrophobic. The last one didn't really matter in the long run, but since it was one of the few things he knew about himself, it mattered to him. Small bits of information were important when you couldn't remember anything else.

    Kevin moved into the hallway, thankfully the door opened from this side, and thankfully seemed to be able to open from the hall again. He followed followed the blue line that led to engineering down the hall, once again skirting around clusters of spores. As he passed a particularly large group of mushrooms, he noticed a pulsing in one of the larger spores. He leaned in closer as it pulsed. Curious that these are even growing in the ship, he thought to himself.

    And then from behind him came a squelching pop sound. He turned to see what fresh hell had unleashed on him now. In front of him stood another beast, smaller than the others he had seen until this point. The thing snarled and another squelching pop sounded from the spore he had just been staring at.

    The second monster latched its jaw onto his shoulder as it leapt from the fungus patch. Kevin let out a yelp of pain as the first one started running at him, surprisingly quickly. The pain was searing, what seemed like a thousand needles on fire were digging into his shoulder. And unlike the previous monster, this one stayed latched as he flailed.

    As the first beast left at him from its run down the hall, he rolled away and attempted to detach his hanger-on. He pulled and pulled with all his might, both of his hands clasped in a vice-like grip around the squishy, orbish, slightly slippery body of the fungal freak latched onto him. The pain intensified as he pulled, warm gushes of blood pouring down his chest and arm. The release was quick and the relief of its detachment was palpable, if short lived.

    He tossed the beast across the hall and grabbed his firemans axe right as the other creature attached to his leg. He yelled out again and swung his axe down at the toothy thing. It screamed and unclenched as the axe blade dug deep into its flesh. Its green blood stained the deck as well as his clothes and a mushroom nearby as the thing went limp and died.

    The other mobile mushroom monster started at him again after finally gaining its composure after it's head-first meeting with the wall. It started to run toward him, and Kevin lined himself up like a batter in the major leagues. The creature screeched and snarled as it ran, then leapt. Kevin swung his axe, caught the creature with the blade and sent it flying, once again spraying the viridescent gore across the hall. The creature hit the floor hard, stood up, then snarled. He moved towards it, intending to finish it off, when it suddenly turned tail and ran, limping from its wounded right leg, and it disappeared into a vent.

    "Well now I'm definitely not going back into the vents," he said as he scanned the area for more creatures. When he was sure he was safe and none of the spores by him looked ready to pop, he retrieved his medkit. His shoulder wound would be harder to patch than the last wounds, and his arm was going to be stiff regardless, but he had to close his wounds.