Nyx (Complete✅)

Chapter 3

       

   After a night of dreamless sleep, Beth woke up with a jolt. "Ugh, not another safety drill," she thought sleepily. Hurriedly throwing on some clothes, she was out the door within seconds.

   "Why does the alarm have to be so dang loud!" She heard someone complain.

   Red LED arrow-shaped lights flashed on the walls and beneath her feet, directing passengers where to go. Rushing through the halls with hordes of others, mostly young people, she made her way to Deck E where the escape pods were located. The ones in stasis were lucky, they didn't have to participate in the drills, but in the case of a real emergency, they would be awakened. The drills were completely random and happened about every few months. The escape pods were designed to hold 12 passengers each. Twelve stasis chambers were arranged in a circle inside of each pod. In the event of an emergency, where the ship could not be saved, the pods would eject and the survivors would rush towards earth. In a pod, it would take 5x longer to reach earth, as opposed to the capabilities of a starship. The escaped passengers would be in stasis from the time they entered the pod, to the opening of the pod when it reached earth's Pod Collection Station, which is in orbit around the earth. For instance, if this was a real emergency, the escapees would reach earth in around ten years.

   Upon reaching the pods, people began to enter each one, twelve at a time. By now everyone knew what to do, having gone through drills before. The lights were still flashing red and the alarm was blaring. When everybody was situated in their pods, each was checked for proper functionality. When the ship's engineers gave the "all clear," the lights turned green and the alarm ceased.

   "Well done everyone, that was your best time yet." The captain's voice said over the ship-wide intercom. There were some smiles at this, but most were still a little grumpy about having to wake up so abruptly.

   Later, at the mess hall, Beth sat down to eat her breakfast. After the excitement this morning, she was quite hungry.

   "Hey"

   Beth looked up from her food. "Oh, hey Liam."

   "May I join you," he said, already starting to sit.

   "Yeah, sure." Said Beth.

   "You've seemed a little quiet lately," Liam stated.

   "I've had a lot on my mind." Answered Beth bringing a bite of food to her mouth.

   They silently finished their food. When both dishes were empty, they awkwardly looked at each other.

   "Well, if you need someone to talk to, I'm here for you," Liam said getting up. "See you later."

   Beth looked at Liam as he walked away. He had wavy brown hair and a strong athletic build. They had gone to the same high school together back on earth but had never said a word to each other.

   On the way back to her quarters, Beth thought of the first time they had met. It was a few weeks into the voyage and he had come up to her and said. "Don't I know you from somewhere?"

   She'd replied," I don't know. Do you?" She then had walked away and their conversation had ended.

   About a week later, Liam found her in the starship's gym. "Hey, I remembered where I'd seen you." He told her as she briskly walked on the treadmill.

   She'd slowed down. "Oh yeah?"

   "Oakland High, right?"

   "That's correct," Beth stated.

   "I'm Liam by the way," He'd said." What's your name?"

   "Beth Fields." She'd replied.

   After that, they hung out quite a bit and got to know each other. Just as friends though.

   Beth didn't know if she would ever have a relationship with someone that was something more intimate. Having grown up in an emotionally unstable and abusive home just made that harder.

   Beth was suddenly pulled back into the now when she reached her door and saw an envelope pinned there. She took it from the door and went inside. Sitting on her bed, she opened the envelope and looked at the small slip of paper inside. There was one word scrawled there, "Death."

   She felt a chill rush along her spine. Fear soon became anger and her first thought was, " Is this some sort of sick joke?"

   Beth threw the note away and decided not to give it any more thought.