No reply.
Was she all alone on this shuttle?
Why am I not surprised?
She slumped forward onto her hands, gripping the metal grid as an uncontrollable coughing fit wracked her chest. Eyes streaming, CJ fell to her side, curling into a ball and hugging her knees to her chest.
So this is how I die.
Another blast shook the shuttle, the floor tilting underneath her. She rolled across the floor, slamming into the wall with enough force that she cried out. A sharp pain shot through her side as she took a breath. She clutched her rib cage, gasping acrid, smoky air.
A rib. I must have cracked a rib.
She forced herself to her knees, clutching her side with one hand and the wall with the other. There were eight escape pods. There was still a chance she could escape. Gritting her teeth, she braced herself against the wall. The floor of the shuttle tilted to one side in a way that suggested the artificial gravity was on its way out.
Slowly, she made her way back to the ladder that led up to the main floor of the shuttle, keeping low out of the billowing smoke. One shuffling step on her knees after another. Something sparked below her, sending a wave of heat from her feet, and still she pushed forward, teeth gritted against the pain of her smarting hands and the rib that pulsed pain through her chest with every breath.
Just as she spied the ladder through the haze of smoke, the emergency lighting went out, plunging her into darkness. Her breath sounded unnaturally loud as she blinked, trying desperately to see in the gloom.
Don’t panic. The ladder is just ahead. You saw it.
She pressed forward, fumbling in the dark with an outstretched hand until she reached the ladder, hissing as the torn skin of her palm contacted with the metal. She ground her teeth against the pain, gripping the rungs as she pulled herself upright.
A flood of relief washed over her when she took the first rung and moved upwards toward the main floor of the shuttle.
“Thank fuck for that,” she muttered, as she made her way, one slow rung after another to the hatch above.
She pushed against the hatch and, thankfully; it lifted easily, and she pulled herself up and onto the main floor. Legs still in the open hatchway, she flopped down on her back, breathing as heavily as her ribs would allow.
The emergency lighting on this level was still working, but flickering ominously. She would have to hurry.
She rolled to one side and pushed herself up onto her knees and then to her feet, each step like walking through mud. In a distant part of her brain, she knew it was from a lack of oxygen. One foot in front of the other. She made it the few steps toward the second ladder that led up to the upper level where the remaining escape pods were.
Placing one foot on the bottom rung, she climbed, the smoke quickly becoming so thick she couldn’t see her hands. She coughed, almost losing her grip on the ladder.
Clinging desperately with both hands, she frantically felt around for the latch that would release the hatch into the upper level.
Where was it?
She hadn’t made it this far to fail now. She banged against the hatch, knowing it was useless. Nobody was there. They’d all left. And now she would die.
She thumbed the comm on her wrist one last time. “Domik? Anyone? Help me!”
