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A sudden flash of red caused him to look up from the colourful wires in his hands. An automated feminine voice came over the P.A system telling everyone to report to the cafeteria immediately.
Red looked around and noticed Purple peeking out of the administration room. He got up and dusted off his gloves on his red pants and walked through the hallway to the cafeteria.
Orange looked around frantically and Red thought he saw a splatter of blood on her hands. Must have been a trick of the light.
“Pink, she…” Orange trailed off sombrely. “In the navigation room. I can’t bear to look…”
Everyone looked at each other in confusion. Red noticed that Pink wasn’t present, as Orange had implied. What was she talking about?
Black, who was their makeshift leader for this mission, motioned for them to follow him into navigation. Red noticed that the blaring sirens and flashing red lights had stopped.
As they all turned the corner, some of them noticed an odd metallic smell. The whole spaceship is made of metal, but this was more… pungent.
The room suddenly felt as if it had gotten colder. Sitting there, laying on the floor, was Pink. There was a pool of blood underneath her, with drag marks almost as if her killer had tried to drag her towards the wall.
Red wasn’t all that close with Pink, but it still hurt to see one of his fellow crewmates die. She was bright, bubbly, a great person to be around. How could someone take away that light?
This wasn’t supposed to happen. They weren’t supposed to die, not because of each other. Because that was the only explanation, wasn’t it? There’s no way this happened due to natural causes. This was a deliberate murder done by one of them, and they had to figure out who.
Red heard someone mutter a curse behind him and push through the small crowd. It was White, who they all knew was closer to Pink than the rest of them.
“Who the hell did this?! We had one mission! Get on this spaceship and survive! Why would… who…” White sobbed silently next to Pink’s body, scarlet blood coating his suit.
Everyone looked at White solemnly. They didn’t know who did this, with the exception of one person.
Black sighed from the doorway. “White, I need you to move her to the infirmary. I think that’s the best place to keep her until we get back to Earth. Red, can you go to communications and contact HQ? We need to let them know what’s happened.”
Red nodded and left the room, sparing a glance back at White gripping onto Pink’s lifeless body. He had removed her helmet, her once neat, tied up hair loose and messy.
HQ hadn’t expected them to get so close, what with them being in fully coloured spacesuits most of the time. They also weren’t allowed to know each other’s names; they were only allowed to call others by the colour of their spacesuit. But still, some of them had become best friends over the few weeks they were up in space.
Red trudged his way over to communications and dialled in the phone number of HQ.
Ring, ring. Ring, ring. There was no answer. Red frowned and tried again.
Ring, ring. Ring, ring. BEEP! “You have reached AU Space Exploration Headquarters. We are unable to take messages at this time. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
Not able to take messages? What? That can’t be right. Red jogged back to navigation to tell Black what had happened. Pink’s body was gone, as was White. He also noticed that Purple had left, probably to console Orange back in the cafeteria.
“Hey, I can’t reach HQ. It said that they couldn’t take any messages right now? It was working fine last Friday for the weekly check-up, so I’m not sure why it’s acting up now?” Red informed Black.
Black sighed, looking at the group of young adults nervously whispering in small clusters. “Alright, thank you. We’ll… figure it out. Hopefully this doesn’t happen again.” They all knew it was wishful thinking.
The next one happened a week later. It was Yellow, found in the reactor room. The next was only a few days later, White in administration. They held meetings to try and figure out who, but they usually ended in a stalemate. They didn’t want to convict one of their fellow crewmates as a murderer, but it was the only option.
The next to die was Blue, who Red was close to. After the second murder, Red started closing himself off from everyone else, only focusing on his tasks to keep the ship running and watching his back for the killer. Blue was his roommate, the only one he still talked to on a regular basis. She was so nice and caring towards him, and her dying? It broke him.
Their numbers were dwindling, and Red shut himself in his room the day after Blue’s death. He didn’t care about the tasks anymore, he just wanted to get off this stupid ship.
At what would’ve been midday if they on Earth, he heard murmuring outside his door. He strained his ears to listen better.
“Purple, I think you should go check on him. I know you two aren’t the closest, but he needs someone right now.” It was Black.
“Are you sure?” A silence, where he assumed Black nodded at them. “Alright…”
There was a soft click as Purple opened his door. They looked at where he was curled up on his bed, fiddling with a bracelet Blue always wore underneath her suit. He heard Black’s footsteps trail down the hallway.
Purple sat down next to him on the bed, smiling at him sadly.
“You wanna know why I did it?” They said, soft voice betraying their words. Red’s eyes widened and he scrambled to sit up, staring at them incredulously. “Because it’s fun. Watching people beg for their lives, watching the life drain from their eyes. They’re absolutely hopeless! I have so much power. Now—” They looked at their wrist where there was no watch “—I’d best get to killing you! Gotta get Black too if I don’t want to be found out. It’s always funny when I’m so happy and upbeat about it… they think I’m crazy, and like, duh! I’m killing you!”
Red stared at them. What is wrong with them? Well, it doesn’t matter now, he thinks.
“I… just do it. I don’t care anymore. Just kill me.” Red’s voice was lifeless as he looked into the distance.
Purple frowned. “Well, that’s no fun. But you already know, so I guess I must,” they sigh. They pull a knife out of one of their pockets and point it at him.
Their face suddenly goes soft. “I’m sorry to do this to you, y’know. But it must be done. HQ’s orders,” they whisper.
It burns when the knife is thrusted into his gut. It burns so bad and his vision swirls and spots dot his vision. He looks over at Purple, carefully removing the grate from the air vent in his room and climbing inside. They notice him watching and do a mock salute before replacing the grate. Of course. Of course that’s how they got out, he thinks to himself.
I’m sorry, Blue. I’m sorry we didn’t get out like I promised. I’m so sorry.
And his vision fades to black.