Among Us: Unearth the Deception

(7) The Game With No Winners

Chapter Seven
Words: 994

I parted my face from my hands, my eyes darting around the cafeteria to find the source of that voice. My eyes settled on a black camera that moved ever so slightly to the left as if it were focusing on me. It isn't like the security cameras, as they are in plain sight, but this is a circled camera meant to be hidden. I gasped as I saw a slight red dot—are we being recorded?

"Who's there?" I demanded, putting on my helmet, staring down the camera.

That voice...it sounded as if it were coming from the speakers, where only the computer announcements are. That voice sounded human—like a man, which means either Brown or Black finds this note funny enough to freak me out at the worst time possible.
Black had already scared me in Admin by joking that he could be the imposter—who else? God, he's such a jerk, he probably wrote that note too.

"Who are you talking to?" A voice came from behind me.
It's him, isn't it? I bit my lip and tensed up.

As I looked behind me, I sighed as I pivoted to face him, fiddling with my fingers: "Nobody, I just...thought I heard something..."

He must know what I heard.

"All of Unit One's uniforms were in storage and we didn't find anything else but extra parts for the ship," Black explained.

My face softened: "I'm sorry...about your dad, I mean. Unit One didn't deserve any of this."

"I knew they were dead as soon as they were declared 'missing', so I've had time to bitch and whine about it. Don't apologize," Black sighed, "Now we're the replacements, right?"

Replacements...that's how Earth sees us, anyways. Just the replacements of the best scientists that they could assemble. We've been training under Roscosmos as soon as we were able to understand basic English and Russian—we were just children. Now we have to carry out Unit One's research to Mira HQ.

"Black, I don't want to accuse you, or anything but—."

Before I could say anything else, White came into the cafeteria, linking arms with Black as he stood still. Her slender fingers tapped against his arm, entrancing me for a moment before she started to speak.
She laughs. "Am I interrupting something?"

"No...we weren't talking about anything important. Have you finished your tasks?" I asked.
White sat on the chair next to the table next to us, propping her boot up on the table.

"Yeah, all of us finished except for Orange since you made her do yours," White remarks slyly.

"She offered—...I'll go find her," I quietly say, walking out of the cafeteria to a hallway I've never been in before.

"Orange?" I call out, my hesitant voice echoing back to me.

I slipped into another room labeled "Medbay" on the map clenched in my hands, which has four beds, medical supplies, and a body scan near the back.

As I walked further into the room, Orange was there with her suit laying on the ground and wrapping bandages around her shoulder.
Looking closer, I can see blood dripping down her arm with an outline of a gash through the bandages.

"Orange, what happened?" I gasp, running towards her.

"I'm fine...I was attacked by someone on this ship. It was someone that I heard on the speaker in Medbay, saying that this is a warning to play the game 'correctly'," Orange says.

"Was it Black?"

Orange just lifted an eyebrow. "Black? Why would it be Black?"

"Just a theory...but it wasn't, right?"

"No, it wasn't him. It wasn't any of us, I meant that there is some hidden person here, the author of that note."

So, this note isn't a joke? The speaker reminding me to "play the game" and now Orange being attacked all because I allowed her to take my task card?

"I'm so sorry, Orange...I should have taken this more seriously," I say.

Orange shook her head, dismissing it, and handed me back my task card, which has one more task left.
"I'm done," Orange starts, "I'll see you soon but be careful..."

She didn't want to say it but I know what she meant: imposters. Glancing at my task card, it looks like I need to complete garbage in storage.
I decided to take the long way as I didn't want to pass everyone in the cafeteria and went down the hallway and made a turn into storage.

I cringed as the lingering smell of dried blood still tainted the room. I went to the garbage shoot near the back and peaked in, covering my mouth as the Unit One suits were inside along with general trash.
I pulled the lever, watching the trash float through the endless void of space. I looked down to see my task card glow green in completion, gazing back out the window of the ship.

I put a hand on the glass and walked out of storage to the cafeteria where the others are mingling together.
"Pink, we're talking gameplan—like the practice simulations we did back in Roscosmos," Brown said, chuckling at the memories of us as children.

"Alright, what do you got?" I asked, standing next to Brown. He rested an arm around my shoulder and showed me a piece of paper, scribbled with times and color names, seemingly in a schedule-like form.
We all have hour-long shifts to guard the ship for the duration of 10 hours, as we will get a total of eight hours of rest. I guard the first hour and sixth hour. Orange guards the second and seventh hour. White guards the third and eight hour. Brown guards the fourth and ninth hour. And Black guards the fifth and tenth hour.

Everyone else walked off to their rooms, which connects to where our capsules are, with me following slowly behind.