Alien Isolation: Sevastopol Invaded

Chapter 17

As we walked down a long corridor I listened carefully to the scraping and squeaking of our sneakers against the hard metal floor. I heard a strange clicking sound echoing along with our walking. I told the group to stop and we halted, the clicking disappeared. There was a small jingle sound, almost like a little bell. I motioned for everyone to keep going and watched as they all walked past me. I saw a couple of them glance nervously at me, and Kathy whispered something to Houston, but I couldn't hear it. They probably thought I was going crazy. I took a deep breath and whipped around. Sitting about five feet away from me was a dog. A blue heeler to be exact.
"Jemma, you okay?" I heard Storm call from behind me.
"I'm better than great." I replied, crouching down and holding my hand out to the dog. She moved towards me and sniffed my hand, giving it a gentle lick. I heard the footsteps of one of my companions jogging over.
"A dog? What's that doing here?" Hope gasped, looking over me at the dog. The dog moved forward and looped past me, standing between the two of us. She let out a low growl.
"Let her sniff your hand." I told Hope. She reached out her hand and allowed the blue heeler to smell her. It let out a small bark and sat down, its tail was wagging. The clicking sound was her claws gently hitting the floor and the little jingle had been the chain collar around its neck tapping against the tag. I sat on the floor and took the tag in my fingers.
"Her name is Evelyn, that's what the tag says." I told Hope. Evelyn had mostly white fur with black speckles and one large black patch around her left eye and pure black ears. Her eyes were a dark brown, nearly black, color. I stroked her head, her fur felt soft and warm. She moved closer to me, placing a paw on my leg. I pulled her even closer, hugging her gently.
"Hope, Jemma! Why'd you stop? Are you alr–" Houston stopped mid-sentence when he saw the dog that I was holding onto. I felt hot tears falling down my face and felt Evelyn gently lick them away.
"How is there a dog on Sevastopol?" Houston gasped. Dogs weren't allowed, only cats and birds, not rodents or reptiles.
"I don't know, but I'm damn glad this dog showed up. Jemma needs a support animal." Kathy said, coming up beside Houston.
"I can hear you, you know." I sighed over my shoulder.
"There's a dog?" I saw Storm staring at it sadly, probably remembering his childhood dog, Lily. Lily was a pit bull who had died the week before we all headed into space and Sevastopol Station.
"Her name is Evelyn and she's coming with us." I told them.
"What makes you think she'll follow us?" Faith asked.
"I just know it, trust me. Let's go." I said, feeling certain. We moved on, and as I thought, Evelyn walked alongside me. I felt my hand brush against one of her velvety soft ears.
"We'll collect the supplies in pairs. Faith and Hope, Storm and Kathy, and Jemma and I." Houston said, splitting our group into pairs. He told each group what to collect. We were on food duty. Once the others had walked away, I turned to Houston.
"Evelyn can find food, right girl?" I looked down at the blue heeler, she looked like she nodded, but I could just be crazy. She put her nose close to the ground.
"This dog, why is she here? How is she here?" Houston stared at her as she walked around looking for a trail.
"I don't know. Maybe she–" I stopped as Evelyn's head snapped up, her ears back and tail tucked in between her legs. She took off running down a corridor, the way the twins had gone. Houston and I looked at each other and took off after her. At the end of the hall we saw Faith and Hope rummaging through some boxes, a ceiling vent was just above them.
"Hope! Faith! Move!" I cried out. Evelyn let out a loud bark. In a split second one of the twins was grabbed into the vent, her screams echoing. When her screams died off, blood dripped from the vent. I grabbed the remaining twin, unsure of who had been killed and who was paralyzed by fear beside me. Houston and I dragged her back to the meeting place, where we luckily found Storm and Kathy who had been drawn by the screams. I quickly realized that the twin I had grabbed was Faith. Hope had been killed by the monster.
"What happened?!" Storm asked.
"Hope. She's dead!" Faith cried.
"We need to leave!" Houston started ushering everyone into the elevator. Evelyn followed swiftly. The doors shut and I listened to the quiet sobbing of Faith and Kathy's soothing words. I had shut my eyes but opened them when I felt Evelyn lick my hand. She rested her head on one of my knees and whimpered.
"You tried to help, girl. Good girl..." I whispered, breaking into tears. This shouldn't have happened, nobody should be dead. Hope was gone, now we were crumbling.