Alien: The Dark

Chapter 3 - Disappeared

Mark

"Pretty dark in here," Janice said, her voice echoed throughout the corridors of the ship.

Mason toggled his flashlight on, and suddenly a long, dark hallway that split off into two directions was illuminated to us. We walked down the corridor, our footsteps like drums pounding throughout the vessel. We turned right and we were greeted to a door that was deactivated.

"Got any ideas?" I asked.

Mason shone the flashlight down the other direction, and there was another door, just like this one.

"Janice, go check that door out," Mason ordered.

"Right," she said, then she toggled her flashlight on.

I started to realize how claustrophobic the freighter's corridors were. I toggled my flashlight on and looked at the ceiling, and noticed that there were two ventilation openings. But there was something blocking the vent closest to Janice, it was some kind of rounded, dome shape. It seemed to be like a pipe, maybe, but at the same time it looked odd.

"Mark, I need your help for a second," Mason said, and I walked over to him.

"With what?" I asked.

"Help me pry this door open, the power is completely out, and I can't seem to reroute it to the door from here."

"Alright," I sighed.

We both grabbed the edge of the door and pulled, it creaked and wheezed so loud that it startled me. It wasn't exactly easy to pull either. It took a good two minutes of us throwing all of our strength into it to get it to open just enough to squeeze through.

"Jesus, that more difficult than it needed to be," I sighed, already starting to sweat.

Mason rolled his eyes, and turned to Janice, "Jani-"

Mason stopped mid-sentence, and I turned to see why.

Janice had disappeared.

"What the hell?" I said, baffled, "Where the fuck did she go?"

Mason shone his flashlight down the hallway we came through, and there was no sign of Janice. The door she was trying to open was still closed.

I looked at the ceiling again, thinking she might have crawled through it for some, odd reason. Then I noticed, that that strange pipe-thing blocking the vent before was gone.

"Mason, I think I have an idea of where she went," I said, not taking my eyes off the vent.

"What do you mean?" He asked, confused as to why I was staring at the ceiling.

"There was something blocking this vent here," I pointed to it, "I can't really describe what it was, other than that it was some kind of pipe."

Mason's eyebrows raised, and he shone his flashlight up the vent, but there was nothing there.

"Why the hell would she have gone up it?" he asked, mostly to himself.

"Try the radio," I suggested.

Mason nodded, and tried to contact her, "Janice, do you copy, over?"

No response.

"Dammit... Why would she have just left without telling us?," He muttered.

"Well we can't just stay here, Mason," I said, "Maybe she found a way to the lights, but didn't get the chance to tell us while we were prying open that door."

"Where could there be a way?" I could tell by his tone that he was starting to get irritated, "The ceiling vents? Why would she climb up there?"

I sighed, and said, "Look, we can't stay here, maybe someone took her," Now I was just saying my thoughts out loud at this point, "We have to move on. the sooner we get this done, the sooner we can leave."

Mason sighed.

"Alright, alright, alright," He swallowed, "Let's go."