2125 New beginnings.

Ensanguine

(To stain or cover with blood.)

The steel felt cold and unyielding under my palms. I didn't have the strength to push myself up so I lay there, surprised yet happy, to still be in the world of the living. The silence was almost deafening , still no calls for help or moans, just silence. Even the ship had stopped moaning, the cabin was dark, and stank of blood. My head was pounding, the gash had clotted and stopped bleeding but was still sore.

I looked up and saw I had fallen from the second deck to the first. The first floor was used as storage, the same storeroom I had sneaked into, the place was a wreck, random body parts littered the area and the coppery smell of blood was thick in the air. After minutes, which could have easily been hours in my dazed state of mind, I managed to stagger to my unsteady feet. I somehow got to one of the small safety windows and punched in the code to open it, it opened so slowly I expected it to give up, but it persisted and gave me the view outside.

The Arbiter had hit a mountain on re-entry and smashed into the ground, I saw it had skidded around a mile along the ground through a forest and was now resting in a desert plane. The console next to the window seemed functional, so I switched it on to get  information about the planet we had attempted to land on. Like the window it seemed unreliable but after sifting through error messages it allowed me to use voice commands to access the information.

Planet  name - Crey

Class -  B1 - Habitable       Danger level -  A1       Cause - Native life and population

Population 5Million..........ERROR ..........RESETTING .........4Million......ERROR ......A major error has occurred, Please Reset. I saw the screen flash red with an error message. The angry side of me almost took over, wanting to smash the unreliable machine and just set out on my own, but I battled him down and remained in control.

After resetting the machine again I realised the population sensor had to be broken, since the population was still falling, too rapidly then possible.

2Million........ 1Million........1000.......... 5 and 1/2. My head wound must be more serious then I had thought, how could there be half a person? I kicked the stupid machine and staggered over to a weapons crate. Most of the weapons were beyond help, but under a broken shotgun, there was a functioning Viperblade. The Viperblade was a machete with a difference, a tiny ridge of serrated teeth ran along one edge, these acted similar to most knives now used, by preventing clotting of wounds, however the Viperblade was banned by most of space due to it's other effect. The teeth had been coated with a poison that caused hallucinations, vivid ones that had caused many crimes and death, as a person cut with it would attack friend and foe alike.

I sheathed it and sat down in one of the less...gruesome areas of the hold. I need a plan ...plan plan.... Movement...A shadow of a figure ....I Sensed it out of the corner of my eye, I turned, slowly, not too fast, just a slow turn, .... nothing, a blank shadow of a wall, a wall with tears, strangely  shaped tears, I put my hand out and saw they were the same size, almost as though someone had clawed there way in. Impossible, ....My head hurt, the gash had started leaking blood again, must be seeing things, maybe the loss of blood, strange, the population of the planet, now this, I looked more closely at the bodies strewn around the ground, wrong, all wrong. The bodies wouldn't of been this badly...Cut, almost ripped apart by the crash. I had a sudden urge of wanting to leave this room before...before whatever this was repeated, all my pains seemed to vanish and I moved quicker then I had hoped. The hallway had a similar atmosphere as the hold, corpses everywhere, the light here however, was flickering red, the red emergency lighting was doing nothing to help my nerves which were currently shattered. I realised I had to leave the other part of me out the tough part of me, so I released him.

I felt better, taking a deep breath of the blood in the air I strode forward, unafraid, at that moment I could of fought a whole army of whatever had caused this mess to my crew, MY CREW. I strode forward and pushed open the door at the end,a sign told me canteen 2, I glanced inside and couldn't comprehend what I saw, A whole army, my false bravado died instantly.

I stood frozen on the spot.  There must of been hundreds of people, just sitting on the benches, laughing and joking with each other, a sea of people, surrounded by another sea of bodies, my crew were obviously all dead judging from the amount of them in this room. The people seemed at ease with the gore and guts around them. I backed out slowly, shutting the door, I grabbed a broken scrap of something of the ground and shoved it into the handle, hopefully blocking them forever, I doubted it . I backed away quickly....my back hit something soft, I went down, a hand grabbed my throat, I punched him back, hard, no reaction, I pulled out the blade and stabbed down, a good cut, still no reaction so I stabbed the hand and it instantly retracted. I rolled over and stabbed in the face, suddenly no movement, I saw the blade had gone right through his face.He ... It .....whatever it was was dead.

The face was slim, narrow and angular, piercing red eyes, my eyes were drawn to the mouth, teeth, no, fangs? that was stupid, vampires, seriously? vampires were make believe, a thing to make teenage girls dream about. Stupid, I must be dreaming, I stood up an pulled the blade out, and began walking away from the canteen. The vampire stood up behind me, a low growl erupted from his throat. Zombie vampires? This is stupid my brain thought, it sprinted up and I droped low, sweping the Viperblade along his chest, it opened him up but it was still going, alive still somehow. I turned and swung, chopping of its arm at the shoulder, it made a sound almost like a moan and dropped, I finished him, quickly, hoping he was finally dead. I quietly sprinted away and looked for a place to rest. As i was looking around I spotted a handheld tablet computer and scanner,since it was working I pocketed it. I ran to the stairs and cautiously crept up them, I was been guided my own senses, and i found myself back in my own room.

I sealed the door and lay on my bunk. The room was a wreck from the crash, my table had smahsed against the wall, which had revealed my secret cashe of weapons that I had borrowed, and stolen from the rest of the crew. A working rifle, flares and a pistol, with mags for each. The grim part of me delighted at this forgotten present.

Bing.... The computer I had picked up beeped with a new message.. weird, from who, everyone was dead

New message From .....?

Stay in your room, you will be safe there for now, the vampires are stupid creatures, little more then scavengers, they were not the ones who killed your crew. There are worse creatures here. I am on my way to you now. Stay in the room and don't leave, else I will kill you myself. Rest and gather your strength you will need it ....Scar.

Sleep well...The computer died again in my hands. How was I supposed to sleep...I got on my bunk and tried, just as the growls and scratching at my door began....