The Vet's Life After...

The Next Journey - Part Two

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Alex walked through the halls, ignoring the people who are sticking their heads out of their pods; no one quite sure why the alarms are going off.

"Is there a fire?"

"Do you think it's pirates?"

"Hey, kids, back in the pod!"

"What's going on!?"

"Just go back in the pod and hide, I'll go look."

"We're all going to die!"

The vast number of pods occupied meant Alex was stuck hearing many inexperienced or ignorant people freak out. Not everyone here was used to the "Edge" as it was called by some, the far reaches of the Outer Colonies. Attacks from the remnants of the Covenant and Human pirates are common here where the U.N.S.C. has less power and authority.

Of course, without the U.N.S.C.'s direct influence, or O.N.I. as of yet, humans have had less stressful encounters with the Sangheili and Unggoy who reach out to them in peace. Finding a Human and Sangheili traveling together is still unusual here, but not unexpected.

"It's the Covenant! I knew they were still around!"

"I knew we should have just killed all of them! If I ever get my hands on one of those alien bastards, I'll-"

"Hey, they aren't all bad!"

Alexander could feel the tension growing as people became more frantic, meaning less thought would be put behind their actions soon enough. He started pushing his way through the crowd at a faster pace, making his way to the closest security hub.

As he continued walking, he heard people getting louder and more hysterical; suddenly the ship rocked violently. Alex was thrown into the wall on his right, followed by a young boy who he caught to prevent any injuries. "Are you alright?" He looked down at the boy to glance over for any injuries, quickly looking up to see if anyone appeared to be looking for someone.

"I'm okay.... thanks." The boy lightly pushed away from Alex, the brunette hair and hazel eyes smiling at him before running off into the crowd.

Alex simply sighed and continued towards the security hub, finally seeing it at the end of the hall. He had to push his way past a crowd to reach the now chaotic hub; the security personnel were busy preventing a riot in the halls of the ship, people were already starting to get physical with one another.

"Shit, I need to get Suso off this ship before people start accusing her of being a saboteur." Alex quickly turned around, but was pushed towards the hub by a crowd he didn't realize had formed behind him. "Fuck!"

Alex tried to squeeze past people, going through whatever cracks he could find in the crowd. Eventually, he noticed a small gap that lead to a ladder; Alex quickly ran for it before his opening disappeared. Alex looked up the ladder and realized it lead to the catwalks, unfortunately it was for crew and security personnel only. He quickly started climbing the ladder, reaching halfway without being caught.

"Hey! Hey, Mister!" Alex could barely hear the voice above the crowd behind him, especially now that people were starting to scream constantly. He turned to see the same young boy trying to run towards him, but the crowd of adults quickly caused the boy to fall under everyone's feet.