Among Us: Hosts

Ch. 15

Assisi muttered, "This is useless," before tapping the screen on her wrist. Everyone else followed suit right away, except Chantelle, who refused to touch her device.

Everybody stared at her, but she just stood there by the table quietly, not bothering to look up.
The time to vote ticked away, but rather than get impatient, everybody took the chance to breathe.

Finally, the AI made a beeping sound to indicate the end of the voting period.

A screen displayed on top of the table again.

Assisi: 0 votes
Kandor: 0 votes
Chantelle: Matias
Matias: Assisi, Jessica, Kandor
Jessica: 0 votes
Skipped: Chantelle

It took a second for the results to register in everyone's heads, before the AI announced again.

"Brown was chosen to be ejected. Please step into the ejection pod."

The emotion on Matias' face drained. He stood up suddenly, "Wait."

Jessica jumped and scrambled away from the table. Assisi and Chantelle whipped around to face Kandor.

Matias looked at Kandor with pure rage. "Kandor? How could you! We're friends! It's you, isn't it?! You're the one killing everyone off!"

"It's pointless now, I know it's you. I know you're not Matias." Kandor said through gritted teeth and emotion in his averted eyes.

A shock went through Matias' body, and he lunged towards Kandor. Chantelle grabbed him from the back, and pulled him away before he could reach Kandor. Jessica and Assisi shared a glance before jumping in to hold him back as well.

Another shock went through his body, making him fall to the floor. As he tried to get up, yet another shock made him unable to move. Kandor stood up and pulled Matias to towards the center of the cafeteria.
He stopped and looked to the others for help.

Matias still struggled to crawl away, but in a moment, Assisi dragged him by his feet to the pod and stepped away. The glass dropped down to create a tube. The pain from the shocks immediately subsided as the system recognized that he was in the tube, and Matias stood up. He banged on the glass, and as the chamber filled with gas, he didn't put his helmet on. A long tongue flicked out to bang the glass hard, and everyone jumped back. But in a moment, the tube became fully opaque, and a whooshing sound went through the cabin.

Everybody stared at the tube with bated breath. As the glass cleared up, everyone saw that it was empty.

"Ejection complete."

The four of them waited for a moment before bursting into a cheer and yelling and crying from relief and happiness.
"Kandor how did you-!" Assisi asked cheerily.

"I saw him, for a split second, go into a vent."
"And Jessica! You challenged him!" Chantelle exclaimed.

"Well... he was getting on my nerves," Jessica laughed, her eyes brimming with tears.
"Mine too," Assisi said, wiping her own eyes.

"Warning. Status change."

The AI's voice boomed through the cafeteria. It seemed to bounce of the walls in a tinny dissonance because of the emptiness of the place.

Jessica's smile faltered, and she spoke, "Ship, uh, what's the status change?"

"The foreign organic matter on the ship has decreased by around 50%. Warning: Foreign organic matter has been detected on the ship. Please address this immediately."

As the AI finished speaking, a thud went through the cafeteria. Everybody paused and realized that all they could hear was the hammering of their heartbeats.
Slowly, ever so slowly, the four of them started looking around, and they took steps back until they turned to face each other in a circle.

Assisi started crying, but no one ventured to move or say a word. Finally, Kandor spoke, "Everyone, can we move closer?"

Assisi was about to say something to challenge his 'authority', but she held it back when she realized it'd be inappropriate in this moment. With a sigh, she decided to drop it, and moved to sit by him.

Chantelle followed next, and sat across Assisi; Jessica filled the empty spot in their little circle. The four of them looked down into their laps, into which the answer definitely did not magically fall.

Kandor spoke first, "Are the tasks finished?"
Jessica checked her wrist monitor and shook her head.
"Are we screwed if we don't finish them?"

"It could be a rough landing. We'd know who the imposter is for sure if we finished them, though."
"Okay..." Kandor crossed his arms. "We will sit here until we can figure it out. Whoever gets up first, we have to vote them."

"But..." Chantelle paused, before shaking her head. "Alright."

"And what if we all just stay here? What, we wait till we land?" Assisi asked.
"It probably wouldn't survive a landing at this rate. The imposter needs us gone before we enter Earth's atmosphere, so it can make the appropriate adjustments for its body. It'll be different from ours."  Jessica stated plainly.

"Ok, so it makes sense. We vote for the first person to get up," Assisi nodded, looking very reluctant.

The four of them sat perfectly still, looking at each other, wondering if they could figure something out.

Jessica sighed and looked up. "I want to go see my mom. She's expecting me back. We're the only family we have."

"It's a dangerous expedition," Assisi said, "She knows that."
Jessica smiled wryly and looked aside, "I suppose she does."

"I want to go see my parents too. And my fiancé," Chantelle said.

Assisi looked at them and shook her head, "This might be selfish but... I don't know if I want to see Tina."
The three of them looked at her, and she laughed sadly.

"She was always her daddy's precious little girl. Simi was always better at talking to her, too. I don't know... what I'm supposed to say. How I'm supposed to tell her about... Simi."

Jessica patted her on her shoulder, and Assisi closed her eyes. They all looked at Kandor, who looked around and shrugged.

"I don't have anyone waiting back home. I just... don't want to die at the hands of those... disgusting creatures." For the first time during the flight, Kandor's eyes filled with tears.
Everyone stared at him, struggling with frustration and sympathy.