He hit me first, burning the back of my shoulder before I hit the deck. The creature was still bearing down on us when Spencer hit it with the laser. He had, by accident, blasted the hinge joints in it’s arms. It went down and didn’t get back up. Franklin caught on too, but Spencer was still in a panic. Since I was on the floor, I swept Spencer’s legs from under him. Franklin took the clue and restrained him. He was frenzied. If we left him, he was dead. If we took him so were we. Franklin couldn’t just leave him so he gave him a good punch and knocked him out. Hefting him over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry we were off again.

I had Spencer’s saw now. We were so alert, every sound made us jump. We were afraid to make any noises ourselves. “Franklin, the escape pods were probably overrun. We have to get to the maintenance deck, there’s a separate shuttle there.” While security on doors was no problem for us, if the doors were barricaded or disabled we didn’t want to waste the time on them. Eventually we left the corridor and made for maintenance shafts. They were darker still and it never occurred to us they maybe more dangerous until we heard the skittering noises. Franklin was winded with the effort of carrying Spencer. We were nowhere near the maintenance bay at this point. “Franklin, you sit tight. I’m going to check a ways ahead, make sure it’s clear. Maintenance room 12 is where we’re going. It’s a shuttle bay. Only the 5 people on the Ishimura know that, so it’s our best bet.” He nodded, and I went to scout the area. I had the saw, but I didn’t leave them defenseless. Franklin had a resourceful eye and had picked up several items along the way, for all the good it did him. When I came back neither man was anywhere in sight. It wasn’t the bloodbath that the corridors had been so I silently wished them luck and moved on.

I hadn’t encountered anyone or anything for a while, though I was still hearing screams and explosions from all directions. Regular crew and residents have no knowledge and no way to access these shafts, so I felt insulated, safer. I hadn’t noticed the temperature start to rise. What I did notice is the humidity increase. It was getting stiflingly muggy. Then I saw some fungus like growths coming out from the walls ahead of me. They looked like tiny volcanoes. I threw a wrench at one and as they collided the thing on the wall shot out some kind of seed or something that exploded on impact with the other wall. This started a chain reaction with the others in the area and suddenly I didn’t feel so insulted anymore.

Thinking for a moment, I shot the top of one with the laser saw. Nothing seemed to happen. I shot it over and over again and all it did was wobble like a gelatin dessert. I groaned in disgust until I aimed again, this time for the bottom, where roots would be. This time it shriveled and dropped with what could only be described as a scream. I took out about a half dozen others before moving forward only to find myself face to face with 3 of the long armed creatures that my trio had met before. I knew how to defeat them from the previous encounter. That’s the only reason I’m here to recount this tail. It wasn’t an easy battle though, they were already on top of me before I knew they were there. I fired awkwardly at them as I felt stabbing pains from the talon-like fingers. Limping from the battle scene, I was so close to maintenance now.