Expedition Among Us (English)

Due to inactivity

Among Us. I start my laptop. An interesting group is playing the game today: Caspian, Jordi, Jeremy, Bernard, Don, Eva, Nathan, Sofia, and Lucia. The ten of us are going to play a game of Among Us today, and we can communicate through Discord. When I open my Discord, almost the entire group is already in a waiting room. I quickly join because we're already a few minutes late. "Hey, Lily!" I'm immediately greeted by the people. "Who are we waiting for?" I ask, going through all the names. "Caspian is still missing," Jeremy says. "Can't we just start playing?" Eva sighs. Caspian is often late, I know that very well, but start without him? "No, we just have to wait. He'll come eventually," I say. Just at that moment, I hear the sound that says someone has joined the call. Everyone starts laughing. "Speaking of the devil!", Lucia laughs. Now we can finally start.

Imposter, imposter, echoes in my mind as the little astronaut appears on the screen, finger on the lips. A few seconds later, that hope is shattered. The word 'Crewmate' appears in big blue letters on the screen. Playing detective is also fun, I reassure myself. As soon as I'm in the game, I immediately start my first task. Cardswipe!

I know I'm a very competitive person. I'm alert and prepared for everything. On my screen, there's a black little figure, myself, and three others doing a cardswipe in admin. I keep staring at my screen. Could there be an imposter nearby?

Suddenly, I feel everything around me starting to spin. Intense beams of light shoot around me as if I have a terrible migraine attack. But I don't feel any headache; it's more like being caught in a whirlpool. Dizziness rushes through my head. The whole world is spinning, and I close my eyes. Everything turns black.

Dumbfounded, I find myself in an unknown room. Still dizzy from the spinning, I try to regain my balance on the gray floor. I look around. This seems most like a time capsule. The round windows with thick glass, or whatever it may be, the equipment along the walls... This must be a dream. I'll wake up soon, and everything will be fine. I walk along the drab walls. The equipment doesn't mean anything to me. I dare to take a quick look through one of the windows... Nothing. Infinite emptiness. White fireballs grin at me. Stars? Where am I? What happened? I stand there feeling a little lost.

Suddenly, a hand is placed on my shoulder. I look around. Jordi! "Do you know what happened?" he looks at me, somewhat lost, as if I might know where we are. "How did you get here? Where are we?" I stammer back. We look at each other. Then the terrible reality hits me. The stars, the equipment, the thick, gray walls... We're on a spaceship. On one of the devices, I read: 'gravity activated.' Ah, that's why we can walk here. What now? Feeling a bit awkward, we head towards the only direction we can go. The door.

Skeld! This is Skeld, the Among Us map I was playing on just a few seconds ago. Or a few minutes. I've lost all sense of time. Carefully, we take some steps into the space we have arrived in. We find ourselves in a large cafeteria with tables and chairs. There's a red button on the central table. On the left wall, there's a line with the label 'Upper Engine.' On the right: 'Weapons.' Together, we walk towards Upper Engine.
"Um..." Jordi hesitates, his expression showing that he now realizes where we are. "Do you... have a task here?" what a silly question if he had asked it at any other time. But nothing is normal. This is reality now. It's becoming clearer to me that this bizarre situation is happening to us, Among Us, once a great game. But now?
Suddenly, it flashes through my mind: what if Jordi is an imposter? I turn around. I look at Jordi. He recoils. He's as scared of me as I am of him, I realize. But he couldn't be an imposter, could he? Or maybe he could? This would be the moment to kill... He doesn't kill me. He keeps staring at me. "Let's go," I say. Did my voice always sound this hoarse?

PEEEPPP!! I jolt back into reality as the button sounds. Jordi and I rush to the button. Everyone else is already there. 10 people. Two of them are impostors. My breath catches in my throat. I look around and see that everyone is wearing black training pants and a coloured hoodie. I have a black hoodie myself. Jordi has a blue one, Caspian has a cyan one, Eva has a pink one... it doesn't really matter. Yet, I keep looking. The situation is so bizarre... we look at each other a bit lost. The game is on. I have to play along. "Um... who pressed the button?" I speak. "I did!" Lucia says. "What happened? Where are we? I know this must be an Among Us map. The Skeld, if I'm not mistaken. But how did we get here? How did we end up in the actual game?"
Silence follows. No one can come up with an answer. Just as I'm about to say something, Barend asks, "Where is everyone, actually?" "I'm in Upper Engine with Jordi," I say. "He could have easily killed me, but he didn't." I hear myself talking again. It sounds so strange. Jordi would never kill me... but this is Among Us. This is different. This is the new reality now. And no one can be trusted.
It feels like my words reverberate in the space, and suddenly, everyone realizes that there are indeed two impostors. Two murderers. Two people who want to plunge a knife into someone else's body.
"I was in Electrical," Sofia says. I look at my task list. Hey, that's medscan. Just as I'm about to say it, Don says, "This is real, right? Shouldn't the impostors just reveal themselves so we can figure this out together?" I know this would be the most sensible choice. But... the game has already captured us. We can't escape anymore. "I think we can't get out of here without finishing the game..." Nathan's face carries a subtle smile as he says this, but I can see it.