Life in Red... • RED DWARF • Arnold Rimmer x OC story

9. Waking up

Oh...

When I blinked, the door opened again. Half facing the exit, I glanced up to the green 'Exit Now' sign that flashed on and off silently.

"Oh." I said absently, checking the shallow field outside the pod from where I stood.

'Exit Now'. It was as if the sign increased in intensity for every second longer I lingered. The two words obviously held some sort of importance as to whether or not I actually chose to leave the Stasis booth. They were doing their job.

"It is now safe for you to emerge from stasis." I heard Holly's digitalized voice from outside.

I hesitantly stepped forward. Definitely 'emerging' as some might say. I hesitant to leave. I'd only just gotten comfortable, and yet now I was being ungraciously kicked out by large green signs demanding that I exit.

The door glided shut behind me and I glanced around. "No Tod Hunter?"

I peered down the cool, dank hallway and saw Holly's head animate on one of the smooth, untarnished surfaces on the wall.

"Holly?" It was surprising that he was there. For a computer that had to man a ship over ten kilometers long and answer to a thousand passengers, he didn't often put an effort to interject himself on little one-off visits like this.

"Holly, isn't someone supposed to take me somewhere?" I looked around for the officer again, or any officer really. I had my doubts they'd let me roam around free on the ship if I was due for attending court under their watch.

Not that I planned on running away... Unless?

"Please proceed to the drive room for debriefing." Holly said and just as suddenly, the computer disappeared from sight, his face melding into the blackness of an empty screen.

I knew the way to the drive room. Straight, to the left, another left... I took a sharp right and walked the opposite direction.

My nose crinkled as I began to pace forward. I could smell mildew. A sort of abrasive, antique odour. It was much worse than usual. It was an unnerving smell. The engine of the ship was especially loud and the hallway especially silent. I turned the corner in the hallway and noticed a man walking in my direction. He gave me a little nod as we passed my each other.

I recognized him, with his casual clothing and ill-fitting stride. He was the man walking with Rimmer before I went into stasis. What a coincidence, that I run into him before and after stasis.

As I continued walking, I saw more of the pods. A few of them lined up, stuck into the wall. One of them was opened and swung freely on it's hinges. I nudged it shut and continued alone down the hall.

"Edith, Please proceed to the drive room for debriefing." Holly popped up a few moments later on a screen above me.

"Which way?" I glanced up at him.

"Take a left." Holly replied as I passed by him.

I took a right.

Nobody was around. Strange. I kicked a small pile of white cleaning starch with my heel that was sat next to the wall. There were a few more white mounds up ahead.

"What a mess..." I muttered. If I was still enlisted as third technician, it'd be my duty to clean it up. That and a hundred other meaningless tasks that were too unimportant to bother the Skutters with.

It was possible that we were already above the loading docks on Mimas. Not that I entirely enjoyed the prospect of returning, but maybe I could sneak back down and disappear for good.

I'd never been to earth. Maybe I would try to get to earth next.

"-Gordon Bennett! I know you're running off." Holly propped back up on the screen, catching me off guard.

"I'm just lost, Holly." I stammered.

"Turn around and go back where you came. It won't do you any good to wander around, you just wait and see."

I jolted to a stop, staring at the computer blankly. I was never expressly fond of the computer. "Holly, where the hell is everyone?" I grumbled.

"They're dead." Holly replied gravely.

"What?... Who?"

"Everyone."

"Y-You can't mean everyone." I scoffed, edging the boundaries of irritation.

Everyone was a lot of people. Especially the amount of what 'everyone' was on RedDwarf. That was tens of hundreds of people. As I tried to imagine the numbers in my head, it slowly melted into something intangible and incalculable. Probably for the better, my smile faded.

"You're telling me everyone's dead?" I lightly scoffed, too quietly to be heard by anything other than me.

I rubbed my eyes tiredly and looked to the floor. The sides of my shoes were smudged with a fine layer of powder. I observed them absently, noticing that I was leaving clear white footprints behind me. As I allowed my curiosity to take hold, I finally took a better view of my surroundings.

Little albino ant-hills in the middle of the corridor. Flour, starch, salt? I saw two more piles the bizarre compound.

"Holly, what is this stuff?"

"Its the crew."

"No, I'm talking about this powder on the ground." I started walking again and gestured to another white mound. "Like that one there, what is that?"

"That's head of maintenance, Jacob Oswald." Holly's voice followed me.

"Uh huh." I began towards the second corridor leading to the drive room. "He's looking pretty pale, isn't he? Alright, who's this then?" I brushed another pile with my foot.

"That's executive officer, Carol Brown." Holly replied.

My brows furrowed and I looked a little closer to the trace the powder left on my shoe. "Carol Brown?" I'd met Carol before and I remembered her being a bit taller... a bit more talkative too.

Maybe I wasn't being clear with my questions. Hell, maybe I wasn't even speaking English.

"Edith, you're in shock."

"I'm perfectly fine." I'd made a wide circle and began for the drive room.

It sure is quiet down here.

Because everyone's dead.

I halted suddenly and looked down at the dirty floor.

Everyone's dead. They're all dead.

I felt unsteady on my feet as I slowly came to the daunting conclusion.

"...They're all dead?" The words were distant and soundless. A black sort of screen washed over my eyes and I blinked as my vision grew wary.

Holly's muffled voice said something in the background and I tried to pick out his location.

One step forward; vertigo... Another; pain.

"Hey H-Holly?" I felt like I was about to pass out. I questioned the reality of the ground and the borders of them around me. The walls grew thick and sloppy with grey. My clammy skin burned and a pain, sharp and grating, pulled me from my body.

Silence. I couldn't even hear the engine anymore. The next step I took was my last and I began to float.
...Nothing.