A Crash

      Kevin stared at the ceiling a minute or two longer, letting himself calm down from his panic attack. The thought came to him about how incredibly lucky he was that none of the fungus monsters were in theis room. He made an attempt to figure out what this room was through his shoddy memory and clues in the room itself.     As far as he could tell it was a closet of some sort, either maintenance or storage. Possibly both, that was always an option. As he got to his feet, he noticed a small medical pack stuffed behind a box of... something that looked like pens, but didn't write when he tried them on his arm. He grabbed the medpak from behind the not pens and pocketed one of those as well, perhaps they would reveal a use in the future. He thought about using the medpack now, looked at his bleeding arm and weighed how hurt he was against how long he guessed it might be until he may find another one. Ultimately he decided to hold onto it for later. He could fin...

      Kevin moved through the halls, heading towards the bridge of the ship. As he went he avoided large clumps of mushroom spores that had some connection tot he creatures as well as sections of the hall where fire had burst through the floor. He passed a few partially eaten corpses of other crew members, some were armored like Fulsom had been, a few were wearing lab coats, and one was wearing a space suit, like she had been trying to protect herself from the spores. That plan had seemingly failed, since the glass on her helmet was closed, and there were mushrooms growing from her mouth. He gathered ammo where he could and thanked each of them for their contribution.     A vague memory popped through: a voice telling him that the oxygen rich atmosphere would allow the fire to burn almost indefinitely. He wondered why the fire suppression system hadn't kicked in. He wondered who had told him this fact about the air.     He saw only two more of the fung...

      As the creature leapt at him, Kevin instinctively put his arm up to protect his face. This proved to be a mistake. The creature's massive sharp teeth drilled themselves into his shielding arm. The pain shot up his arm making him cry out once again. Kevin kicked at the beast to no avail. He kicked and kicked again, connecting with soft tissue under the beasts gnashing teeth.     The creature fell away from Kevin, releasing his arm. It backed away a few steps, turning to re-analyze its potential victim. The pain pulsed through Kevin's arm, blood dotted the floor around the gun that he had dropped.     The gun!     Kevin reached down and fumbled for the weapon he had foolishly dropped when the thing had lunged at him. As he searched for the weapon, he made sure not to take his eyes off of the creature. Finally his fingers touched the cold steel of the pistol. As he hefted the weapon, the beast started to charge again. Kevin fired as he lev...

      Kevin let out a frightened sound and moved away from the corpse as quick as he could. A quick scan of the hall showed only darkness. As he calmed down and the adrenaline spkie in his blood started to wane, he noticed a weapon next to the corpse.     "Well, he wasn't defenseless," he muttered to himself as he moved up tot he body. "J Fulsom" was the name he read on the corpse's uniform. "thank you for your sidearm, sir, but I think I need it more."     Kevin picked up the pistol, taking note that there only a few rounds in the magazine. But more importantly, there was a light attached under the barrel, which he flicked on. Peering back up and down the hall, he saw what was surely a once-pristine hallway, now pocked with bullet holes, splattered with blood, and with missing panels. There was a strange haze in the air, and an odor he couldn't place.     He started moving up the hall, toward the natural light attempting to cut through the d...

      The man awoke to a flashing light. Each time the light flashed his head pulsed, as though the light was tapped into his very mind. He sat up, turning away from the light. He looked around, not recognizing the dirty, white room. There was debris strewn across the floor, most of which looked to be sheets and medical equipment.     "Where am I?" Rang out a voice in the eerie silence. It shocked him to realize the voice was his own. It sounded very different from his inner monologue.     The man saw a clipboard attached to the bed he was in, and gathered it up. The clipboard had a small picture of him on it and beside that, a slew of information, most of it smudged. Along the top of the page read "Operation: Tycho - A317 MedBay" with a symbol of a planet to either side. The form had a space for his name, age, and gender, with all the answers mostly illegible. There was also an incident report, but that was also entirely unreadable. The only informati...