An Imposter Among Us

16: The Day Enemies Become Friends and Friends Become Enemies

Genesis (1st-person POV)

As soon as the door hissed shut behind Ceres, I knew something was wrong. Seriously wrong.

I only spent a second letting out my frustration before backing off and bolting towards the cafeteria, aiming to get to weapons and find something to defend ourselves with.

Zaniah, only a few feet behind me, looked over her shoulder and slid to a stop. "The door opened again. I'll go that way."

Before she could run off to her doom, I grabbed her arm. She promptly flinched, and I realized I had pressed my hand on her chemical burn.

"Are you crazy? The last thing we should be doing is splitting up."

"It's the only way we have a chance of cornering him. And I'll be fine. Just as I know you'll be."

I willed myself to believe her. That we would catch Ceres, eject him without hesitation, and peacefully work out who his accomplice was and eject them, too. That everything would be alright. That no one else would die. That we would make it to Polus.

She took my releasing her arm as an answer. She sprinted back into storage and turned towards comms.

"Be safe," I said. Then I ran through the cafeteria to weapons. In there, I found Elara poking around, searching the walls for...well, probably the same thing I was. Anything.

Upon hearing my footsteps, she whipped around, cane ready to whack.

"Just me," I told her quickly, my hands raised. She kept her guard up.

"How do I know you're not his accomplice?" she asked.

"How do I know you're not?" I retorted.

We circled the central chair for a long moment, my eyes trained on her, and hers darting around my general direction. She kept her cane at the ready, reacting to every step of mine she heard.

"What if we called, like, a truce or something?" I suggested. "We can't be like this when we need to focus on catching Ceres."

"But you could be his ally!" she spat. "And so could I. How can we just let each other go knowing the other could just run off and help him?"

"We don't have time to discuss this," I said. "Whether you're on his side or not, can we just...focus on cornering him? Us being at odds will help neither of our cases, and we're the only two everyone's still unsure about. Though Astrid is still a bit sus."

Elara huffed. "I don't know. This is a terrible idea."

"It's the best we got right now. Do we want to call a cease-fire, just between the two of us, until we know for sure who's working with Ceres and the Conclave?"

The tumbling of plastic crates drew both our gazes down the hall towards shields.

"Fine," she said. "But if you go back on it my ghost will haunt you."

"Deal." Then we both bolted down the hall, side by side, her hand trailing to my arm to keep up. As we passed by the hallway that led to navigation and oxygen, a tower of crates tumbled over on our right. I dove forward, taking Elara down with me, and the crates rolled past our feet towards navigation. I scrambled up, guessing—knowing—it was the work of Ceres. I leapt over the crates and burst into oxygen to find him wearing the orange suit.

Or was it not really him? What was the point of him wearing the suit if he'd already been found out?

Oh, right. He knew we would dump him down the trash chute the first chance we got, and if we had weapons, the suit would serve as a protective layer.

By the time I had maneuvered around the first two crates, the killer was already lifting the vent grid and dropping inside the shaft. Before I could leap over the final obstacle and reach them, the lid slammed shut, and the killer tightened a clamp before crawling away.

"Elara! Find a vent! Trap them!"

When I came back into the hallway, Elara was vaulting over the other crates towards weapons. I went across to navigation, found the vent in the corner in the room and waited. Wondered if the killer was planning on staying there indefinitely instead of coming right back out not a hundred feet away.

For good measure, I pulled on the vent lid. Stuck.

Footsteps, drumming outside, down the hall. I pressed my back against the wall and quieted my breathing.

Whoever it was slowed down. Stopped at the junction. Turned in my direction.

My eyes darted desperately around navigation, looking for anything that could serve as a weapon. Nothing. Nothing at all.

A gun slid into view next to me, level with my shoulder, pointing at the central console. Without thinking twice, I grabbed it by the barrel and pushed it away and up, then drove my knee into a surprised Ceres's side. As he staggered away, I tried to wrench the pistol out of his hands, but his grip was strong. He fired, the blast ringing in my left ear. The bullet ricocheted off the ceiling and embedded itself in one of the monitors. As it flashed, covering the room in blue and white, I elbowed his temple and braced my foot against his torso, using the leverage to try and pry his weapon away once again. With a grunt, Ceres grabbed my ankle and shoved it away. Before I could stop myself from spinning to the side, he stepped back, swung his leg up, and kicked my face. My face.

I only allowed myself a second to hurt, to get blasted back until I stumbled into the table. And then, as he stalked toward me—now realizing he was definitely not the one in the suit—I launched myself off the table and tackled him by the waist, sending both of us to the ground.

The second we landed, I searched his hands for the gun. I found it in his left, still held tight. He struggled against me, taking my shoulders and trying to shove me off. I pressed all my weight on him and more, at the same time reaching for his pistol, only a couple inches from my fingers...

He leaned back, and rammed his head into mine. Pain flared between my eyes, and my hands instinctively rushed to cover the throbbing spot. He rolled me over without much resistance, scrambled up and, before I could get back on my knees, kicked me in the side and pressed the barrel against my cheek.

Before I could shut my eyes and never wake up, a voice, faint but hissy, bit through Ceres's earpiece, hanging crooked in his ear.

"Not her."

My entire body shuddered. That voice. I knew it, even through the distortions, because I'd been hearing it hissing in my own ear from the day I entered the launch pod.

It belonged to Nareem.