Randoms, Posts 4 - 5

Previous: Randoms, Posts 1 - 3

(Content Warning: Language, Violence, Corpse Mutilation, Murder, Psychotic Behavior)

Post 4, August 2017

Xelsea snapped her head up to give us a sharp, dangerous look. Her eyes were filled with cold venom. We stood there for a moment, staring at one another in silence, and then the moment shook loose as the ship shuddered and groaned all around us. Without looking, her eyes locked firmly on us, our engineer lifted her spanner and began making adjustments. The shuddering eased. I grabbed the kid by the back of his coat and dragged him backward out of the room.

As soon as the door was shut, I wheeled him around. “Christ, kid, you trying to get us killed?”

“I just asked--”

“No,” I cut him off, “you don't 'just ask' the engineer if her math is right, okay? These brainy types? They don't like it when you question their math. Some things out here in the Black, you gotta take on faith. You got yourself, your god, and your engineer's math. Got it?”

He nodded dumbly. The ship was about to be torn to pieces and we were all about to die horrible, frozen deaths in the depths of space but I really felt like we had just barely avoided the real disaster.

---

Post 5, August, 2017

“I'm in,” the hacker said gleefully.

My eyes narrowed, I raised my Predator smoothly, and I shot her in the head. “Hacker's dead, folks. Mission's scrubbed, wash out.”

I doused the body in gasoline, splashed her comp, and dumped my gloves on the pile before lighting a match and sending the whole mess up in flames. I was just about to pull my earpiece and make for the exit when the chatter rolled in.

“What the fuck?!”

“How the hell?!”

“Was that a gunshot I heard?”

I rolled my eyes and tapped back in. “Yes, Susan,” I drawled, taking special sardonic care with her name, “it was a bloody gunshot. That's how the hacker died. You ever think about becoming a detective?”

“Did you shoot our fucking hacker, you fucking psycho?” she returned.

Fair question. “So what if I did. She said the thing. I'm not having it.”

“What thing?” Susan was really beside herself now, I could tell.

“You know...'I'm in.' Every fucking hacker has got to say it for some reason. Like, there's no other way to let us know the job's done?”

“You shot her for that?”

“Ready to go...we're a go even...maybe a little alright guys, do your thing...”

“Sammy?”

“But no, it's fucking I'm in every goddamn time, like a tv show or a movie...”

“Sammy!”

“Fuck! What, Susan?”

“You fucked this up bad for us. I'm coming for you. You know that, right?”

“Oh, right, I'm the psycho. Lot of rage I see you have over that hacker's death. What was her name again?”

“I swear to God Above--”

“Whatever, Soo-Saan. Good luck escaping the guards. And the microbomb I planted in your earpiece.” I took mine off and crushed it in my fist. I heard the satisfying bass of a nearby explosion reverberate through the walls. Opening the door, I made my way out.