Alone (11 page)

'Is she okay.' I quietly asked. Anna continued to moan and sob as Mark, beginning to gently sob out too, continued to comfort her with all his love and warmth. Tears were streaming down his face as he turned to face me.

'Just go back to the computer David, okay! There's nothing you can do here... Please, just go.'

I continued to watch the bloodied Anna sobbing in a fit of hysterics. I glanced once more at the blood stains and smears upon the toilet bowl and seat, trying to fathom just what the hell had happened to her. Then I remembered the baby. Maybe this was something to do with the baby inside her.

'David please!' Screamed Mark in anger. 'Just go back to the fucking computer will you. NOW!' Mark's angry outburst brought me back to the reality of the present in an instant, jerking me out violently from my state of deep thoughts in a frightful jolt. Heeding Mark's angry pleas I turned slowly away from the doorway and made my way back down the corridor.

CHAPTER ten

Some time had passed since I witnessed the bloody event in the shower room. I had done as Mark had asked and made my way back to the control room to resume my duties with the recorded computer footage, but my mind was awash with the horrifying images of Anna all bloodied and freaking out like she had gone madly insane. When I saw the blood on her thighs and hands and all over the toilet. The way she was clutching at her stomach like she had lost something dear to her. I just knew right away what had happened. Her baby, the tiny little baby I had remembered she was carrying inside her belly. A baby that she probably knew absolutely nothing about until just a short while ago. I kind of knew instinctively how babies should come into this world, but not like that. Something bad had gone wrong inside her and now the baby was gone. I suddenly slammed down upon the small keyboard in front of me in a moment of anger and frustration over and over again. I wasn't really paying any great attention to the screen, my mind was still all over the place regarding Anna. But as I sighed out and held my head in my hands, the computer program must've skipped somehow to another part of the digital recorded footage caused by my random banging inputs, because when I glanced back at the screen, an out of place movement from the corner ceiling view of the control room camera, quickly came to my attention.

The lone figure of Steffi came to my sight as she eerily sat upon the flight deck seats, completely still and just staring out into space. I couldn't tell whether she was dead or alive as I stared in shock at this seemingly lifeless woman on my screen.

'Steffi!' I whispered as I reached out and touched the screen. I didn't feel much emotion to this woman at all anymore but it didn't stop an unexpected single tear spilling out from my eye and rolling gently down my cheek. It was such a sad, lonely and pitiful sight to see. I peeled my gaze from the flight deck seats upon the computer screen and glanced over towards the three real live flight deck chairs just a few yards away with the skeleton remains below them. I turned back to the screen and quickly cycled through more and more footage, trying desperately to find more live action images. I think I was scrolling far too fast in my anxious state of excitement, as various different and speedy images emerged onto the screen. I caught a quick glimpse of my old self occupying various camera screens, and then there were some horrendously violent images too, violent outbursts, screaming and face to face confrontations. I quickly stopped the footage and saw myself in the control room with Ian and Steffi and we were all talking with raised voices with one another. So I scrolled back further and began the playback just as my old self entered into the control room where both Steffi and Ian were working and the very start of the confrontation. I watched the screen with great fascination at seeing myself. This cold and sinister looking character was clearly an older version of me, but someone I did not recognise nor his actions in the slightest.

On the screen the old me was eerily standing at the doorway, just waiting and watching. It seemed like the old me had been standing out there for some time too. I scrolled forward a little touch on the computer, just as the man who looked like me finally stepped into the room where Steffi seemed to be running data through the main computer still. The very computer where I was seated right at this very second in the present. I watched now as something bad, something very, very bad indeed was about to unfold. Ian was sitting, working humbly away and with his back turned across from Steffi at another computer system across from her as this man who resembled me finally stepped into the control room.

'The perfect happy couple.' This man said with a chilling callousness. He seemed cold and upset. Steffi turned with a startled look to face him.

'Jesus Christ you scared me! What the hell are you doing here David? I thought you were in your pod with Anna and Mark.'

'Are you okay David?' Asked Ian concerned as he turned to face the man who looked like me. The man ignored Ian though and made his way smugly towards Steffi, slowly getting closer and closer towards her. I noticed that both his hands were strangely placed around his back. He was holding something underneath the back of his shirt, maybe something heavy or awkward of which he did not want the others to see.

'Looks like we have the whole shuttle to ourselves now aeh Steff.' Said the man grinning wildly as he finally reached within inches of the startled Steffi. He leaned over her shoulder now, but with one hand still behind his back. On the other side of the room Ian remained seated watching this bizarre scene with great curiosity.

'Fancy a quick fuck then for old times sake?' Said David into Steffi's ear, but loud enough for Ian and the control room cameras to overhear. Steffi closed her eyes for a brief moment completely distraught. She looked like her whole world was just about to come crashing down upon her. The man who looked like me then began kissing and caressing at Steffi's neck. Across the room Ian stood abruptly to his feet.

'What the hell is wrong with you David? Take your bloody hands off my wife. What the hell has gotten into you man?' Said Ian in anger. Hearing Ian's voice Steffi opened her eyes and snapped out of her frozen and distraught state.

'What the hell are you doing David? The shuttle's shutting down in ten minutes and you do this now!' Said Steffi upset. The man continued to stare at Steffi with great intensity and cold eyes. Finally he spoke.

'How about it then sweetie? Time for one last quickie before we hit the pods.' The man grinned as Steffi shook her head in disgust. Ian continued to stand where he was confused and still clueless as to what was going on here.

'You stupid fuck. You are such a fucking asshole. Why are you doing this now? WHY.' Yelled Steffi.

'Steffi! What the hell's he talking about?' Said Ian firmly. 'What the hell's going on with you two? Is there something going on with you two? Tell me?'

The man who looked like me continued to stare hard and intensely at Steffi and without taking his eyes from her for a single second, he spoke.

'Me and your sexy little vixen wife here Ian, well, the short version is... we're in love.'

'Don't listen to a word of his shit Ian. He's a sex pest! Been coming onto me this whole trip, like my own personal spaceman stalker. Begging me to have sex with him every time we found ourselves alone together. He just won't take no for a goddamn answer. He's obsessed with me. Completely and utterly obsessed.'

'Is this true David?' Said Ian rather calmly. The man who looked like me ignored Ian though like he wasn't even there and began trying to tenderly kiss the left side of Steffi's neck again.

'Hmmmmm, you smell so fucking good Steff.' Continued the man. Steffi quickly tried to struggle out of her seat and away from him, desperately trying to push the man away, but he was doing a good job of holding her down with his free arm. Ian though was rushing towards him. Trying to stop him from touching and holding down his wife. Oddly though the man who looked like me still had his other hand firmly placed around his back and in a moment of utter insanity, of which I had to sit up right in my chair with eyes wide and hands to my face as I watched in horror. The man who looked like me suddenly pulled out an axe from underneath the back of his shirt and swiftly swung it straight into the top of Ian's skull as he rushed forward. It took a few eerie moments for Ian's lifeless body to fall back and hit the solid floor below, but he was most definitely dead. Killed outright from the brutal axe blow to his head. Some of Ian's blood had splattered over Steffi's face as all she could do was just watch the horrendous scene in absolute shock and speechless terror. The man who looked like me grinned out insanely at Ian's lifeless and bleeding body upon the floor. Steffi started shaking all over in shock and finally, after what seemed like an age, she let out the most harrowing and hysterical scream. Suddenly the man who looked like me came to his senses and turned his attention back to Steffi and away from the dead Ian. As he did so he pulled out a small but sharp looking needle syringe from his front pocket. Now he grabbed Steffi forcefully by her hair, holding the syringe close to her neck as she continued to scream out.

I continued to watch the action on the screen in a shocked awe of disbelief. Back on the screen the man continued to yank Steffi aggressively by her hair while holding the prick end of the needle syringe right up against her throat as her screams turned into desperate pleas and murmured moans of mercy.

'I'm so sorry it had to end like this my love.' Said the man coldly before injecting the needle end of the syringe deep and hard into Steffi's neck. She squealed out in pain before frantically trying to push David away from her, but he was just too damn strong in his maddened state.

'I'm sorry my love. But if I can't have you, then no one else will.' Said the man who looked like me as he hugged the groggy looking Steffi for the briefest of moments, tightly against his stomach. Finally he held her away from him and punched her hard in the face, knocking her from the chair and banging her head off the computer table as she fell semi conscious onto the floor.

I leaned back in my chair, shocked at watching this insane drama unfold in front of me and ran my fingers through my hair. I just could not believe what I was seeing. It just didn't make any sense that I would ever be capable of doing anything like this, especially to someone whom I loved and cared dearly for. Back on the screen and the man who looked like me stood over the seemingly unconscious Steffi, glancing down at her as she laid morbidly still upon the floor. Suddenly the man who looked like me began freaking out all over the place in a maddening and insane rage, smashing most of the surrounding computers and screens around him with his clenched fists and forearms.

'Why, why, why!' He screamed and raged while on the floor Steffi flinched and groaned out for the first time since she fell too the floor. The man snarled at her movements and turned towards Steffi's body. He took a sickly running kick straight into her stomach. Steffi cradled the blow with her arms while coughing and spewing and gasping for air at the same time. The man then took back his axe from Ian's head with a pop and began going to work on the control room computer screens and hard drives again. This time with his axe in another bout of angry insanity. Finally, exhausted, he finished vandalising what he could of the control room and threw the axe hard down upon the floor before falling down onto his knees and sobbing.

'All I wanted was just to be with you Steffi.' The man continued to sob. 'For us to just be together. I loved you so fucking much. Why couldn't you just love me back. WHY?' After a few seconds the man composed himself and began wiping away his tears as he leaned back onto his knees, gradually controlling himself and his breathing.

On the floor beside him, Steffi glanced over at Ian and wearily reached out.

'Ian...' She sobbed. '...My husband.'

The man who looked like me finally controlled his own sobbing and started breathing more calmly as he watched Steffi glancing, reaching and calling out to Ian. He let out a deep sigh of frustration and ran his fingers through his hair looking even more annoyed.

'Shit! shit! shit!' He shouted out in anger as he looked anxiously all around and at the chaos and destruction he had caused. 'What to do! What to do!' He seemed to be thinking wildly out loud about what to do next. Quickly he gazed over at both Steffi and Ian.

'I guess it's just going to have to be the Airlock for both of you then.'

Quickly the man sprung back into action and climbing back onto his feet he grabbed a firm hold of Ian by his ankles, dragging him out of the control room to Steffi's weak and weary protests. The blood from Ian's gapping head wound smeared out from behind him as he was dragged and pulled out and along the main row of corridors.

Still watching the computer screen with a great intensity I quickly changed the option for the camera view on the screen to the corridor cameras and followed the man who looked like me as he dragged Ian's dead body out into the main corridor and up towards the lift beside the kitchen and dining area. From the control room camera's point of view I could also make out the semi conscious Steffi, still struggling to breath, but rolling herself over now onto her front side and trying desperately to drag, crawl and haul herself over towards a nearby working computer situated close to the row of flight deck chairs. Finally she dragged herself up onto the seat of the nearby computer and began to groggily and wearily operate it, tapping away at the keyboard as best she could. From the other camera footage on the screen out in the main corridor, I watched as the man who looked like me double tapped at the lift doors, but nothing was happening. Suddenly all the lights went dark and there seemed to be no power any longer. This must've been Steffi's doing I thought as she accessed the computer in the control room. The man who looked like me continued to drag Ian's dead body down to where the emergency laddered hole was situated in the corner of the next corridor which led down into the cargo bay below. The man quickly opened the tiled trap door and awkwardly bundled Ian's body deep down inside laddered black hole, but as he struggled to do this the man who looked like me began holding his chest, seemingly struggling more and more for his breath for some reason. He was just about to climb down after Ian's body when a beeping noise sounded out from back along the corridor in the direction of the hibernation pod room. The man who looked like me struggled to glance down the corridor through the darkness and towards the pod room where, when I changed the camera view to the pod room, lots of red flashing could be seen coming from one of the pods. The man who looked like me quickly clambered up onto his feet, closed the tiled trap door firmly shut and wearily made his way over towards the hibernation room as fast as he could manage, still clutching at his chest as he struggled to breath. From the camera view of the control room, Steffi continued to groggily operate the computer she was seated at. It seemed obvious now that not only had she done something to the main power, but she had done something to one of the hibernation pods while seemingly cutting the oxygen levels onboard the shuttle, which would account for the man who looked like me's struggles to breath. The man entered the room and approached the bleeping and red flashing pods, but as he glanced around he soon realised that only one pod was flashing red and bleeping out wildly.