A Small Glitch

Hour 0:17 [Item Missing]

"The thing stopped moving when you crushed its chest, so I guess maybe aim for the heart." Latrina guessed, tossing aside a tentacle.

"Guardian, how many other lifeforms are on this ship?" I asked expecting a response, but nothing came.

"Guardian AI is temporarily offline. UI back up is now online. Hello and Welcome." A female voice answered.

"UI, where is Guardian?" I asked, waiting for a response from the system.

"Processing..." Several moments passed of silence before it responded with an answer. "Guardian AI is located in the CI Reactor room: Restricted from unauthorized personnel."

"Latrina and Sectir, you two go retrieve Guardian from the CI Reactor. Dyce, we're heading to the control room." Arsen ordered once again. "Jokir and Rositta you two lockdown this area, it's our only way home." He added.

"UI, download the ship's map for all of us," Arsen commanded.

"Installing... Process complete. Enjoy your stay." It said in a warm voice.

"I don't think we're going to be enjoying our stay," I remarked. Especially with these things onboard.

Spinning my barrel, electricity, and steam flowed from the top two barrels.

Arsen held open his hand and a three-dimensional map appeared above it. "Looks like we need to head this way to get to the Control room." A red line forming the path we had to take.

"Then let's go," I said, walking down the hallway, my rifle ready to put down anything in my path.

"Guardian AI functional. UI back up off-l-line..." The intercoms echoed.

Arriving at a T section, a howl sounded in the distance, followed by a scream from the path forward.

Arsen looked at me, his face asking a single question. Shaking my head 'no' we turned right instead of heading straight, another scream sounded before being cut off completely.

Arsen looked at me as the screams were replaced by the sound of flesh ripping. A person stood in front of us, banging their head against a door. Blood spilling from his face onto the door, his right arm appeared to be missing but was replaced by some sort sack attached to his shoulder, his left arm was cut off and laying on the floor, its hand a mace.

Pointing my rifle at his chest he turned to me to reveal spikes all over his chest, his jaw completely missing and replaced by some sort of tongue that hung to the floor.

Twisting his head he flung his the tongue at and wrapped it around my neck, firing my weapon at his chest, a spike of ice appeared in it, where his heart should be. But he still held on and pulled back as the weight of the ice knocked him over, tightening around my neck in the process.

Arsen pulled out a knife and began cutting the tongue, as a circle of darkness formed around me. Grabbing my knife, I raised it to cut the tongue, slamming down on it with little to no force as my strength was sapped from me. My hand falling to the ground, letting go of the knife.

The darkness creeping up on me even faster as the tongue tightened around my neck. It took no time at all till everything went silent.

Reawaking in what felt like a chair, darkness still remained, the sound of voices talking could be heard.

"What happened?" A voice asked.

"He's still alive, but he woke up." A different voice responded.

"Just send him back in." The first voice commanded.

"Wait, what? What's going on?" I shouted, struggling to get up.

Blood spattered walls moved past me, my feet dragging along the floor in front of me, a mass of shadows stumbling toward me, my rifle laid on the floor, moving away farther as I tried to reach for it.

Turning around I saw Arsen's hand gripping tightly onto the collar of my suit. Dragging me across the floor toward a door, sliding it open he dragged me into a room, placing me in the middle of the room, he quickly ran to the door, closing and locking it.

Backing away from the door, he pointed his rifle at the door firing a shot off as a tendril spike split a hole in the door. Blood leaking from the tendril and onto the door, the tip of it on the floor, still worming around and alive.

The barrel of his rifle flipping toward him, revealing another barrel ready to fire on the back end of it, a beam of light quickly firing from it and into the door again.