Among Us: Unearth the Deception

(8) An Act of Friendship

Chapter Eight
Words: 1344

Checking the clock, which is more of a reliable narrator than I am, I fastened my helmet as my shift starts in a couple of minutes. I got out of my bed and pulled the curtains to exit the room. Our "bedrooms" are just a line of beds only separated by black curtains, circling the small space of our beds and a small dresser.

Walking out, I quietly shut the door, though even at 10 pm, I don't think anyone has managed to sleep yet.
I slipped into the cafeteria where it's still empty with that camera still following me around as it's not even trying to hide itself anymore.

I took out my map and laid it flat on the table, figuring out the best route. I guess I should just make a big circle and go through all of the rooms until my hour is up. We all agreed that if we see anything, we will call an emergency meeting.
I went to the right, as I've never explored this before, and came into a place labeled "weapons". I walked out of weapons to the vacant hallway in front of me, feeling my palms sweating.

I stopped in my tracks as I heard the sound of the vents squeaking behind me. I forced myself to turn around to see nothing. I walked over and looked down the vent, seeing nothing but a void of darkness, similar to the space surrounding us.

It's just...noises, right? It's not necessarily a new ship so it's normal for ships to make noises.

Sighing, I turned back around and made it into the hallway near navigation. I quickly hid behind the wall as I heard the same sound of the vent, but much clearer, like it's being opened.

I felt a stinging feeling to run away—a natural flight or fight reaction. I stumbled back a little before running, taking a sharp turn in shields and running into Electrical, hiding near the back.

A bright red light came from my task card, which in bold red letters, it read "Reactor Meltdown".

"What the hell?" I whispered as it started counting down, the alarms starting to go off in the ship.

I cursed to myself and ran out of electrical up to the reactor. I scanned my hand, waiting for the others to wake up so they can scan their other hand.
"Come on...," I muttered, my foot tapping impatiently. I shut my eyes and crouched down the ground, my hand still pressing hard against the scan.

The alarms abruptly stopped as I assume someone else scanned their hand. I looked behind me to see White.

"How did you get here so fast?"

White was wearing her pajamas and walked over to me, smirking.
"The reactor was alarming everyone, I ran here, just like you," White says.

Soon, the rest of Unit Five came running in, seeing White and I. Black came over to me and helped me up from the ground.
"I see you've gotten it then," Orange says, "Pink, I can take over, I can't sleep anyways. I rather just guard."

I nodded and walked back with everyone, with White walking next to me.

Maybe she isn't the imposter but...two people are.

I still think whatever was in that vent was going to kill me. To think that my death was so close.
Once we got to our room, I sat on my bed and brought my knees to my chest after shutting the curtains.

After a few moments of me drawing maps in my head of who the imposters could be, my curtain opened a little.
"Can I come in?"

I cleared my throat: "Yeah, it's fine."

Black walked in with his suit still on but without his helmet. His black hair is pushed back with a couple of strands brushing over his eyes.

He leaned against the wall, folding his arms and staring up at the ceiling.
"You're going to tell me what happened, right?"

I lifted an eyebrow, twisting my face in confusion.

Black turned his face towards me, narrowing his eyes as he chuckles: "You looked like a mess when I came into the reactor. You didn't even make it through half of your shift, so somethin' must have happened."

"I was just being paranoid," I murmur, hoping he will just let this go.

Black moved toward me as I backed up a bit. His face became less than a couple of inches away from mine.
I could smell his distinct scent of mint from his toothpaste, his freshly washed hair which holds hints of lavender, and the slight scent of a subtle cologne. My face burned red as his was completely blank.

"W-What are you doing?"

"Close your eyes."

"What...?"

Black became impatient and put his hand over my eyes with my hand over his. I heard him laugh a bit from the size difference of our hands. I then felt something being placed on my head as I flinched a little.

He removed his hand and smirked, walking out. Before he did, he looked through the small crack of the curtains. "An act of friendship. Found it in storage."

Since when did he care about making friends? I took the object off of my head and saw it was a flower crown. It's simple as it just has one pink flower and a green attachment.

• • •

I felt myself being shaken awake gently. My tired eyes opened a little to see Black standing over me, him still in his suit.
"Just finished my shift," Black states, "Did you seriously wear that to bed?"

Right...I forgot I didn't take off his "act of friendship". I rolled my eyes and nudged him out of my room. I slipped on my suit and placed the flower crown on top of my helmet, walking out.

I then heard some footsteps walking behind me. Turning around, Black was catching up to me.
"I left my task card," he says.

"Where? I can get it for you?" I ask.

"I don't remember, I walked around a lot so I could have dropped it anywhere," Black explains.

I nod. "Well, you can come with me around the ship. You'll find it."

I couldn't see through his helmet, but I could feel his stupid smirk.

We then walked through the entire right side of the ship, ending up in storage. Nothing out of the ordinary and no task card to be seen. Walking through the left side of the ship, we walked up to the hallway between the reactor and security.
"Maybe it's here?" I questioned, going into security.

There, in front of me, is Orange draped unnaturally over the chair in front of the security screen, blood dripping to the ground.

I stumbled back and Black pulled me into his chest, blinding me from Orange as he carried me. Peeking out from his chest, I saw that we were headed to the emergency call button in the cafeteria.
"She's dead...," I whimper.

Black sat me down on the bench around the cafeteria table and pressed the emergency call button. Soon, everyone came to the table.

Before anyone could speak, a blue hologram appeared above us, showing an older man sitting in a leather chair with a wooden cane.

"Welcome to the next stage of your Game, Unit Five. As your adviser, I will explain what will happen. Vote out the imposter and they will be ejected from the game—quite literally. Don't you want to find justice for your fallen crewmate? Better hurry as you have a limited time to discuss and vote." The man says while the hologram shuts off.
In front of us are plaques with all of our faces as icons, assuming to which we click and vote. There's also a skip option at the bottom. My heart sunk as I saw Orange's face crossed off.

This is our adviser? I've only heard of him but it's always been forbidden to see him or speak to him.