Among Us: Hosts

Ch. 19

Assisi blinked a couple of times before letting go of Chantelle briefly. She was practically sitting on the latter's lap to hold her down.
Chantelle opened her eyes when she heard the announcement, which were previously squeezed shut in fear.

Assisi looked up at the interior of the cabin and crossed her arms. With a quick flick, she tore Chantelle's suit pocket to grab her Vice Captain patch from her.

"We are arriving to Earth a little earlier than expected, aren't we?" She remarked.

Chantelle quickly put a hand under the table to grab the emergency supply box, and ripped it from the table. In a flash, she used the element of surprise to throw Assisi off her and leap away. Before Assisi could react, Chantelle pulled the bag apart to see what defense tool would be in there. She saw the gun and sighed in relief.

With some new determination in her eyes, she pointed the gun at Assisi, who stared at her for a moment before laughing incredulously.

"I hate to burst your bubble, Chantelle, but that thing can't hurt me. Now tell me, why is the ship landing so quickly?"

Chantelle swallowed and stepped back, "There's nothing you can do, you'll never get to Earth."

The red creature's smug look faltered, and it got up, looming large in the middle of the cafeteria.
"What do you mean?"

Chantelle's lip quirked up, and she cocked the gun, "Gan had you beat from the start. He realized how dangerous you were, and he trusted Prem. He set up a change of trajectory that very first night. To a small, dead planet no one cares about. You killed him before he could confirm it, but Prem did it in his place when he realized what was happening... he knew this would likely be a suicide mission."
Chantelle felt hot tears run down her cheeks.
"That's why he was acting... so different. Prem, Gan..."

The red creature looked enraged, and took two steps towards Chantelle. Chantelle fired her gun at it, making it stumble back as it hit its shoulder and went right through. The flesh around the hole simply crawled over rapidly to form new tissue, and the wound was gone in a moment.

"Ten minutes to final destination. Prepare for landing."

The creature clenched its hand and screeched at a high frequency, a guttural declaration of anger. It then paused and opened its eyes wide.
"Hah. I can just override this. Or start a new trajectory. I have both of these."

It pulled out the Captain patch from its pocket, with some blue fabric on it.

Chantelle's hands trembled, but her laugh grew heartier, "Yeah, you could probably do that, if Chiedza hadn't wisened up to the plan before she died. She saw the change. She locked the system; those patches are both pretty much useless now."

The creature's demeanor changed, its skin turning greenish and its features contorted to show a caricature of strong anger.
"Ship! Open the system. Change trajectory," it yelled, in a perfect imitation of Chiedza's voice.

There was no response, so it yelled again in Assisi's voice, "Ship!"

"This is your Vice Captain, Ganbaatar. Gan. Things don't seem... very hopeful right now. There's an intruder onboard. I'm afraid it has the ability to kill. As per protocol, it's likely best if I reroute the ship; we cannot risk getting this ship to Earth. I need to do this while I'm still Vice Captain. And for the record... I don't think it's Prem. It's... it's not him. I doubt it's the Captain either; if it is, we're in bigger trouble than we could ever imagine— hold on, I hear something."

The voice cut out abruptly.

"It's killed so many of us. It's going to kill us all. I don't know who to trust, and who not to trust. There is no hope; I fear they will vote me out next, even though I am their captain. I'm locking in our altered trajectory. This enemy is too dangerous to risk bringing to earth, ever. My son... if you're listening to this, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry and I love you. But this must be done."

The AI spoke clearly this time, "The system has been locked. Access denied permanently."

The creature paused for a moment before it started growing in size. It morphed into something a lot less humanoid than before, and its eyes turned red and yellow, clearly brimming with rage. It let out a guttural screech once more, louder than before, and stared at Chantelle. She gulped and took a few steps back, cocking her gun again.

She shot at it a couple of times, leaving no visible effect on the creature, which now slowly made its way towards Chantelle.

"You little—!"
It took a lunge at Chantelle, who quickly dropped and rolled away to the medbay hallway.

"Yea, little human, you better run. I won't be easy on you when I get you. And apparently, I have all day!"
It bellowed again in rage, and knocked the cafeteria tables out of the way. The AI detected that change in the cabin and started off another emergency. Chantelle ran and found herself trying to hide in the corner of the reactor room.

The creature took only a moment as it caught up to look around and spot Chantelle.
"Well well well, would you look at who I found!"

Chantelle cocked her gun again and aimed at the creature.

"Five minutes till landing."

The creature laughed, "You better get ready for some fun, Chantelle! You'll pay for this!"

Chantelle shot at the creature blindly, her panic overtaking her ability to hold the gun straight. The creature just tsk'd and stood still as it regrew the patches she blew holes in. She took a second to slowly walk towards Chantelle.

Chantelle reloaded and shot a round at the creature, her heart hammering against her chest as hopelessness took over.

"Fuck! You!" She screamed, shooting at its eyes as it got closer, which made it reel back and flinch in pain. It faltered and put its hands on its eyes to let them regrow, and Chantelle reloaded the gun one last time.

This time she took a deep breath before cocking it and pressing it to her temple. Closing her eyes to the creature, she took a moment to recall the precious things she had left behind on Earth. She pulled the trigger; her body fell to the floor like a rag doll.

The creature recovered in moments and swatted at Chantelle, only to realize that her body lay limp and dead on the floor, a pool of blood forming at its feet. In anger, it screeched bloody murder and ripped apart the body completely, taking out its anger on the fresh carcass. By the time there was nothing left of the body, the creature was drenched in red blood, as were the walls around it.

"Landing commencing. Landing failures detected. Relaunch third generator to safely land."

The creature listened and felt a sharp jolt as the cabin shook everything in it, rattling like a marble in a can. It shifted its shape again to slink into the vents, resigned to its failure, unaware that the vents would close and exhaust the fumes from the engine jets because of their scorching heat.

_______________________

The wreck of the ship lay on the ground on the barren planet, small fires and smoke filling the cabin, or what was left of it, at least. With the last bit of charge left in the AI processor, it made its last announcement.

"Warning cleared: No additional foreign organic matter was detected. No further action is needed at this time."