Ch.204Prequel Chapter 9. In the Darkness

“Ah. This cool, heavy sensation. It’s been two years.”

I closed my eyes and savored the cool metal wrapped around my hand.

It was a sensation I hadn’t felt in almost two years.

Back in the day, I used this to…

“Jin. What are you doing?”

“Just lost in memories.”

“You have memories with a crowbar…?”

“Of course. I must have broken into at least twenty houses with this during the San Francisco riots.”

“Uh… right…”

It had been so long that I got momentarily lost in nostalgia.

There were plenty of skulls that got cracked open when idiots tried to rob houses I’d already broken into.

After I took down a guy charging at me with a shotgun using just this crowbar, I earned the nickname “Sword Saint Jin.”

Anyway, the reason I’m suddenly holding a crowbar is because there’s an emergency on the ship.

Waaang! Waaang!

“Allen! Can’t you turn that alarm off?”

“It’s coming from the cargo hold, so we need to go there to shut it off.”

“Damn it…”

The intruder alarm kept blaring as red lights flashed.

It’s called an intruder alarm, but it actually detects moving objects, which essentially means it detected a living creature.

Something alive was in our cargo hold.

“Allen. Can’t you just give us guns?”

“Nobody knows the password to the gun safe.”

“Ah…”

And that’s why we were armed like cavemen.

The alarm was only annoying at first, but I’d gotten used to it. Ash and Gus, however, seemed to be suffering quite a bit.

They kept twitching as if someone was pressing their seizure button.

Allen seemed fine, which made me think it must be one of those alarms that sound worse the older you get.

“I’m the type who lets my morning alarm ring until it turns itself off, so I’m fine…”

“Well, I’m not fine. Let’s go turn it off quickly.”

“Let’s go.”

Ash took the lead with a field shovel, and Gustav followed with a metal pipe.

I exchanged glances with Allen and followed them with my crowbar.

Allen hesitated for a moment, then sighed deeply and followed behind me.

In my opinion, this guy was probably the second biggest coward after Ranger.

“What do you think it could be?”

“Who knows. Could be one of the creatures that was left on the ship from the OK mission.”

“Maybe it’s some man-eating monster that starts small and grows enormous?”

“Please stop saying ominous things…”

I remembered an old movie we all watched together once.

It featured an ugly alien that burst out of people’s stomachs and slaughtered all the crew members.

Our situation wasn’t that different, but at least we wouldn’t have to face that ugly mug—that was one advantage over the movie.

“Wait. Let’s establish some rules before we go in.”

At the cargo hold door, Allen muttered while holding his space helmet under his arm.

“Whatever comes out, we all leave together. No one gets left behind.”

“Why are you being so dramatic? Do you have some idea what’s in there?”

“…”

Allen’s expression hardened at Ash’s joking comment.

The atmosphere suddenly became tense.

Allen seemed to have some suspicion about what was inside.

“Allen. What is it? Tell us.”

“…”

Allen ignored the questioning and moved forward, putting on his helmet.

His voice came through the spacesuit’s intercom.

-We’ll go in, turn off the alarm, identify the intruder, capture it, and all four of us will come out safely. Now opening the hatch.

“Hey, Allen! What is it?!”

As we were shouting, Allen grabbed the hatch handle and yanked it open, forcing us to quickly put on our helmets.

After all four of us entered, the door closed behind us with a hiss, cutting off our escape route.

Just in case one of us might sneak back to the navigation room and lock the rest of us in the cargo hold…

“Wow. Was it always this big?”

The cargo hold I hadn’t visited in a while was incredibly spacious.

After more than a year of voyaging and collecting valuable and worthless items alike, the vast cargo hold was packed full.

The lights seemed to be broken, as flipping the switches did nothing.

We had to rely on the flashlights attached to our space helmets.

We advanced slowly in single file down the central corridor, each holding our weapons at the ready.

-It’s quiet.

-Yeah.

The radio crackled with static as the transmission came through.

It was definitely too quiet.

So quiet that it was hard to believe the intruder alarm had gone off.

-Could it be a false alarm?

-That would be nice.

“The creature is probably holding its breath. Staying still and quiet until its prey arrives.”

-Please stop saying creepy things, Jin…

There was definitely a life form here.

And it was quietly hiding somewhere.

That was my conclusion.

The question was where…

“Should we split up to search?”

-What are you talking about?!

“If the four of us stick together, it’ll take over an hour to search this place.”

-Then let’s spend over an hour going in circles! Haven’t you watched horror movies? People who go off alone always end up dead!

“Ha, what’s wrong with you old men? Why are you all such cowards? I’m going this way.”

-Hey! Jin! Where are you going?!

Gustav and Ash, who had been so brave when we first set out to turn off the alarm, had suddenly become complete cowards.

Finally, unable to stand it anymore, I went off alone into the narrow passages between cargo.

“Ugh. This will never end at this rate.”

It was pitch black everywhere, and the storage area was so tall that it was incredibly difficult to search every nook and cranny.

The thought of four people lumbering around together to search this place…

As I quickly examined various areas while moving forward—

Creeak…

A faint sound came from behind me.

It was a familiar sound.

The same sound the metal beam made when I stepped on it earlier.

Something was following me.

I gulped once and quickly turned around—

-Ahhh! My eyes!

-Get that flashlight out of my face!

“Oh, come on…”

I discovered the three cowards huddled together.

Unbelievable.

I went off on my own, and they followed me.

“Come on, guys. Let’s use our brains, okay? You didn’t bring those things just for show.”

-What if there really is a man-eating monster? How are we supposed to fight it with these?

“What’s so difficult about it?”

Aren’t a crowbar and a field shovel excellent close-combat weapons?

I don’t understand what they’re so afraid of when holding such deadly tools.

“Damn. This is suffocating.”

“Hey! What are you doing?!”

Feeling suffocated, I took off my helmet completely.

The limited field of vision and muffled outside sounds were too much of a hindrance for searching.

The oxygen levels in the cargo hold were normal anyway, so there was no problem.

In fact, wearing a helmet might be more dangerous—if something attacked my head, glass shards could embed in my face.

From the beginning, just being able to hear well would prevent getting hit by surprise.

“Come on, spread out! What are you doing? Do you want to spend all day stuck in the cargo hold? I’ll assign areas. Allen takes the east sector. Gustav takes the west, and Ash takes the south. I’ll take the north.”

“Jin. That’s the south…”

“I knew that! Let’s switch!”

I didn’t know.

I almost exposed my ignorance.

Everyone seemed to feel suffocated too, as they began twisting off their helmets one by one.

“But there’s really nothing here…”

Ten minutes into the search.

I was getting tired.

Unless the creature was slipping into our blind spots, we should have found it by now.

After proceeding all the way north, I finally found the alarm deactivation switch.

When I pulled the lever and the alarm stopped—

-Eek?!

-Hiiik!

“Damn. These cowards, seriously.”

Startled cries came through the radio.

Just by their voices, they sounded like delicious shotas…

It was disgusting to think these voices came from gruff middle-aged men’s faces.

The northern sector was mostly clear.

Throughout my thorough search, I hadn’t heard anything moving or seen any living creatures.

If the others hadn’t been slacking off in their search, this really was a false alarm…

Ah. Captain, seriously.

He never maintains the spaceship properly.

“Sniff, sniff.”

Damn it.

I thought I smelled cigarettes, and sure enough, I found cigarette butts in the corner.

The cargo hold is a no-smoking area—who the hell smoked here?

There are always some rebellious idiots.

Ignoring the designated smoking areas to smoke in a cargo hold full of explosives…

“What’s this now?”

I also found a spacesuit.

Who the hell is it?

Who would take off their spacesuit and leave it in the cargo hold instead of the storage area?

-Kyaaaah!

Just then, a shrill scream that sounded like a country girl being assaulted by bandits erupted from the radio.

It took me a moment to realize it was Allen’s voice.

What now?

He probably just got caught on something and was freaking out, but I decided to go check anyway.

-Something! Something just brushed past me!

“Stop exaggerating.”

-No, really! My spacesuit is torn!

I quickly headed toward the source of the sound.

Allen was continuously shrieking and updating his location in real-time, so it wasn’t difficult to find him in this vast and complex cargo hold.

“Stop lying… Huh?”

“Jin… there’s something in the cargo hold!”

I was stunned to see Allen flipped over, checking his own butt like an idiot.

But the tear in his spacesuit wasn’t a lie.

I could see a hole in his backside as if something had clawed him as it passed by.

“We need to stick together. Everyone gather at the central corridor!”

-Okay. Got it.

Gustav’s response came through.

But no matter how long we waited, there was no answer from Ash.

“Damn it. Why isn’t he responding?”

“Respond, Ash. Hurry!”

When we reached the central corridor, Gustav rushed out to join us.

The cargo in the southern section was particularly dense, with narrow spaces to enter.

We shined our helmets like flashlights, searching every corner thoroughly.

And in a dark corner…

“Oh, jeez.”

“Huk?!”

We discovered the back of a pale spacesuit floating quietly.

“Ash?”

But no matter how much we called, Ash didn’t respond at all.

Everyone was too scared to move, so I positioned a helmet to illuminate the corner and slowly approached Ash.

Then I grabbed his shoulder and pulled…

“Ahhh! What’s that on his face?!”

“It’s a face hugger! Damn it, a face hugger!”

“Who moved the helmet?!”

I could vaguely see something attached to his face.

At that moment, Gustav and Allen stumbled away, knocking the helmets and plunging us into darkness.

But if it’s a face hugger, we should be safe right now anyway, so why are they freaking out?

I pulled a helmet over to illuminate Ash’s face.

And on Ash’s face was a black furry thing…

“Meow.”

“…”

It was a cat.

A jet-black cat that would be practically invisible in the dark if it closed its eyes.

“Ash, you cowardly bastard…!”