Ultima

Chapter 31

October 18, 2172

I was running down a long corridor. The sound of my boots hitting the ground drowned out by the sound of laughter that echoed everywhere around me. The faster I pushed myself, the further away the end seemed to be. If there was even an end to the corridor.

When my legs collapsed under me for exhaustion, I felt to the ground in slow motion. The laughter stopped echoing around me and concentrated itself to the ceiling. I seemed to stop falling and, instead, hovered above the ground. I spun around slowly to confront the laughter.

The ceiling had been replaced with a black abyss. All around me the corridor faded away until the black nothingness surrounded me. Directly above, a large set of eyes slowly appeared. The laughter stopped and the eyes grew sad for a moment before a fire lit inside them.

"I'll be waiting for you," a whispered voice said in my ears.

The eyes filled with red and a liquid started streaming out of them onto me. I raised my hands to cover my face and the red liquid covered my hands. It felt warm and sticky like blood and it kept pouring down on my hands until they were covered.

It stopped and I stared at my blood covered hands in horror. Around me, screams slowly started to grow louder and I covered my ears to try and block out the sound but the screams were coming from inside my head. I pounded on my head to make it stop but it just grew louder and louder until I finally shouted with everything I had.

* * *

I shot up in my bed but immediately groaned and fell back down. The muscles in my chest were still tight and the scorch marks from the electrical prod felt like a really bad sun burn. I breathed heavily a couple of times and reassured myself of my surroundings. I was in the hospital room aboard Princess Voltess' Research Station.

For the second night in a row, the same nightmare had plagued me. I could felt this was going to be a reoccurring thing and I was already trying to think up some excuses to not see a therapist. Time would be all I needed to move past this event.

"Hey, you ok?' Amber asked softly.

I sighed. "Bad dream."

I turned to look at her and saw her staring back, half asleep and smiling weakly. By the time we had gotten her to the medical facility on the station, she had lost a lot of blood and an infection had started to set in. Because she had spent most of her time on Earth and never had to fight off a disease from a different planet, she was at high risk for the infection to get worst. The kept her on heavy antibiotics and so far she had been getting better.

"Was I thrashing in my sleep?" I asked.

"Yes," she answered. "It didn't sound pleasant."

"It'll be ok," I said. "How are you?"

"So very tired," she answered. "And thirsty."

I chuckled and climbed out of the bed. "I bet. You've been asleep for a day."

"Then why am I still tired?" she asked.

I crossed the room to the sink and filled up a paper cup with water. "Because you're sick. They're just taking some precautions."

"I have an alien virus?" she asked.

"Yes," I answered, bringing the cup of water back to her.

"If an alien is going to shoot out of my stomach I want to know now," she joked.

I laughed. "Nothing that cinematic. Here."

I helped her with the water and she took small sips of it. "Thanks," she said.