The Impostor Among Us - an "Among Us" story

Chapter 5

Back on Proxima B, the two stubby scientists looked at Al's progress through a blue hologram.

"Disabled the connection between the human spaceship and Earth. That's smart." The first scientist beamed.

"So when he kills an astronaut, the rest of the astronauts can't notify Earth about the murder." The same scientist who injected Al with the serum said.

"Except the old-looking astronaut saw him."

"Who?"

"The one in black."

The two scientists glanced at each other. "Shit," they said in unison.

"Al has to kill the astronaut in black first. We have to let him know that he's in huge trouble" The first scientist trembled.

"What are you waiting for, stupid! Go notify him immediately!"

"He doesn't have his gear with him!"

"I told you we should have given him a clear plan on what to do!"

"The government said to let him figure it out! It's clear that they overestimated his abilities!"

"THEN WHAT DO WE DO?"

"WE DON'T DO ANYTHING," The first scientist boomed. "The old-looking astronaut might confront him, and he'll know. The worst thing that can happen is Al getting ejected out in space. By then, he'll have 3 minutes to live, which is enough time for us to send a rescue team."

"Honestly, if that's the case, why doesn't he blow up the ship? Or kill everyone right now? It's effective, his mission will be completed in a matter of seconds, and we won't have to sit around monitoring that idiot, and I can go back home with my wife and kids! Why doesn't he just kill all the stupid astronauts right now?!" The second scientist protested.

The first scientist groaned. "Don't you get it? If Al kills all the astronauts immediately, Proxima B will have beef with Earth! The Earthlings will be more determined to send more Earthlings to dominate our planet and kill us all! He's going to kill them one by one. Al has to make it look like their astronaut did the killing, not a Proximean, so the astronauts can't trust each other. Why do you think you injected the Earthling serum into him? Even Al knows that!"

"That still doesn't make sense. He already disabled the communication center, why is he not taking the chance to kill everyone now? Why is he not killing the pink-haired human?"

The first scientist looked at the second, wondering how his birdbrained partner suddenly grew a brain.

Slowly, the two scientists looked at Al and the pink astronaut. Putting the clues together like a puzzle, the clever scientists figured out exactly what is going on.

As Al walked back to Medbay with Finn, he felt accomplished. He was just starting to complete his mission. Now he gets to spend time with Finn. I'm befriending an attractive, witty astronaut and planning to kill him afterwards. Lovely.

Finn and William conversed with each other, talking about food and hobbies.

"I've never met anyone who loved to eat sweet foods for dinner," Finn remarked. It was true, Al did like eating sweet foods for dinner back on his planet. "What's wrong with that? It's like a reward for working for hours and hours." William laughed. Finn clicked his tongue. "Good point," the pink astronaut replied. "When I was younger, my dad would always say, 'No desserts allowed in this household!'" Finn said, mimicking a British accent. His smile faded. "He never really accepted me for who I am, and I hope that I can prove to him that I'm more than that," Finn told William. He didn't elaborate on his sentence. William didn't know what to say, his parents died when he was a baby, and he lived in an orphanage ever since. "When I come back to Earth, I can show him that I have the strength to survive outer space."

Al tensed. The word "survive" hit him like a stone. He suddenly remembered his deadly mission.

Finn glanced at William's worried face and tried to change the topic. "Anyway, we should give you a room. I share a room with Ethan, and we have two spare beds. We put some of your stuff in the storage when you blacked out." Al relaxed a bit, but he couldn't stop thinking about his mission. "Yeah, sounds good."

The astronaut and the "astronaut" silently walked back to Medbay. As they both arrived, Finn left.

He turned around, his sea-green eye making contact with William's hazel-brown eyes.

"So... I guess I'll see you soon?"

William smiled, a bit of blush appearing on his cheeks.

"Yeah, see ya."

Alone in Medbay, William picked up his blue helmet.

"Hello, 'William.'" a deep, male voice said.

Al recognized that voice.

"Hi Commander," William said, faking composure. "What are you doing here?"

SHIT. HE PROBABLY SAW ME SABOTAGE THE COMMS MACHINE.

The Commander raised an eyebrow as if he read through Al's thoughts. "I think you and I both know exactly what's going on." the Commander concluded.

YUP. HE KNOWS.

"What do you mean?" William lied.

The Commander scanned around, only to see bald Luke running by, dropping his tablet and files ("Stupid, crummy files!" Luke fumed, bending over to pick them up). "Let's go somewhere more...private to discuss, 'William.'"

WHY IS HE SAYING MY NAME LIKE THAT? I'M SO SCREWED.

William and the Commander walked to the Admin room. Instead of feeling comfortable and relaxed like the way he walked with Finn, he felt uncertain and nervous. When they arrived, the Commander grabbed one of the red velvet chairs and sat down.

"You know, you aren't as sneaky as you think," the Commander began. "I saw you do something to the main comms machine with my very own eyes." He toyed with his eyepatch and spun around. "I don't understand your intentions, but I can tell they aren't good at all." The Commander got up and walked towards William, his one eye glaring at him. Al could feel his heart racing as the Commander got closer to him.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," William replied calmly.

"Really." The Commander said, getting uncomfortably close to him.

"You see, there is no such thing a 'Planet Tarpan,' not one that I have heard of... So who are you? Shadow government?"

Terrible guesser.

"A spy working for shadow government?"

William continued to stay calm.

The Commander eyed his stomach, hinting that he knows that William's "injury" wasn't an injury at all. "I think the question is... what are you?"

Al froze.

I can't let the other humans know.

Kill him.

Kill him now.

The last thing the Commander saw was an astronaut in blue with scared eyes, holding an alien gun-like weapon pointed to his head.

Al did have his gear with him, after all.