Monaco turned into the right corridor of the Third Horizon. He managed to reload his pistol while running from the unknown creatures behind him. In the darkness, the blue fangs of the Somra glowed and growls stalked him. Monaco began running faster, but hid under an overturned desk to catch his breath and to check his dwindling ammunition.
Suddenly, a door opened next to him. He aimed his pistol at the door. “Whoa! Calm down, Brendan!” A figure emerged from the doorway. “It’s me, Matt!” Matt Duncan was carrying a pouch full of medical syringes, numerous jars of medicine, and assorted bottles of pills.
Monaco sighed. “Don’t call me Brendan,” he said. “Get down! The Somra are in the corridor!” He whispered urgently. “I can feel them waiting for us. We need to make a break for it!” He began to climb up a ladder, with Duncan behind him and the large, bear-like, dark-furred creatures called the Somra trailing them. Monaco reached the top of the ladder and opened the trapdoor. Duncan struggled to get through the door. “Hurry up! I’m going to leave you here!” Monaco threatened Duncan. Monaco was torn between saving his own life, or helping Duncan, whose mind had deteriorated over the past weeks they were trapped in the floating coffin in space. He chose the latter option, and helped him out of the narrow trapdoor. “Let’s GO!” He yelled behind him as Duncan quickly locked the door behind him. Monaco punched numbers into a door, which opened up almost as soon as Duncan caught up.
Inside, the three other shipmates, Kud, John, and Fawkes got up from their seats and raised their guns. “Are any of you hurt?” Kud yelled. His worried expression gave off the sign he was a rookie. Fawkes, behind him, gave the two who had entered suspicious looks.
“Put your guns down! They’re obviously not harmed,” John shouted. “We have more pressing matters, anyway, given that the Somra have discovered our hideout!” He cautiously walked out of the room and told the rest of them to hold their positions. The trapdoor began to bang loudly. Kud winced at every noise, closing his eyes. John was prepared for what was going to appear. Fawkes stood in front of the door, ready to use his shotgun on the ugly creatures. Monaco was ready to run, if any of his crew mates were killed. Duncan, however, was crouched in a corner, trying to shut out the world.
Then, the door burst open. Three Somra emerged from the hole they made, and attacked. Fawkes shot one of them in the chest, and it flew backwards. Its teeth’s color faded, going from aqua green to translucent. Its corpse lay still. The remaining two jumped onto John and began dragging him into the hole. John reached out to Monaco as he leaped to grab his hand. “Help…me…” John whispered as he was pulled into the pit of darkness. Monaco fell backwards. Fawkes helped him regain his footing, but Monaco was overtaken by the wave of fatigue. He fell unconscious.
When he awoke, he overheard Kud say something about the oxygen pipes being shredded by a stray bullet. Fawkes sighed. Then, he told Kud about trying to fix it. Monaco got up and began talking. “How are we going to save John? He’s probably holed up in the Meeting Room, where the aliens got in.”
“We can’t. As far as I know, there are more than two Somra on this ship,” Kud said. “Anyway, three people trying to fight off Somra on an enclosed space? Forget it. Somra are one of the deadliest alien species in the galaxy. We need superior firepower, and an insane man and busted oxygen pipes don’t help. Judging by the shape of the ship, we have about nine hours to escape.”
The truth struck Monaco. “I…guess you’re right. But we could at least try-” Suddenly, Duncan jumped onto Kud with a knife.
“We’re all going to die here, no matter what we do, aren’t we?” He began saying. His knife gleamed, and a fire in his eyes burned. Duncan suddenly stabbed Kud in the abdomen. Fawkes gasped, and Monaco tackled Duncan. Kud screamed in terror and began to look away from his wound. Monaco began punching Duncan in anger and fury. When Fawkes finally pried Monaco from Duncan’s body, they bound him with ropes and locked him inside of a room.
“Put Kud in a RHT pod,” Monaco told Fawkes. The RHT pod, or Rapid Healing and Transport pod, was a pod used to heal whoever was in it. It also doubled as an escape pod. “We can’t take any more risks.”
“No. We’re going to find John, and find a way off of this miserable ship!” Fawkes said, grabbing his shotgun and a bundle of grenades.
Monaco looked in surprise at Fawkes. “But that’s suicide! We’ll never be able to find him, and we’re not even sure he’s alive! By now, the aliens probably have-“

Fawkes gripped Monaco by his shirt and lifted him up, then threw him to the ground. “If you don’t go, I’ll give you a fate worse than death,” He threatened him. “Let’s go. We have about seven hours and thirty minutes to find him, and leave in the RHT pods. We’ll find a way to get off. All of us.”

The two poorly-equipped and tired men made their way through the maze of corridors. “Do you hear that? Growls…they can sense us,” Monaco said. “We can probably get to the Meeting Room taking a side corridor, but…” Monaco was interrupted by a snarl and snap of teeth behind them. “Fawkes, run! Follow me!”
Monaco began to run as fast as he could up a row of stairs and turned to the left. Fawkes was having trouble catching up, being the slowest out of the crew. “Monaco!” Fawkes called. Monaco looked back. “I’m not going to make it! Get John without me!” Fawkes began to run down another hall.

“Wait, Fawkes!” Monaco urgently called. He began to run towards Fawkes, but was cut off by a Somra following Fawkes. “Don’t do this!”

“Just go!” Fawkes’ deep voice echoed down the corridor. “It’s fine! Get Kud and John out of here!” Monaco ran back up the stairs, reassuring himself that most of the aliens had followed Fawkes away.

Fawkes began to call out the aliens. “Hey ugly! Follow me!” he shouted, firing back at them as he began walking toward the airlock. “Get over here!” About a group of ten Somra had followed him into the airlock and began to stalk him slowly. He walked into the airlock. Fawkes pressed a button to release the door holding him and the aliens from freezing cold space.

“Opening airlock in fifteen seconds,” an automated voice rang out. “Fourteen,” Fawkes yelled a battle cry of pure rage and hate, and pulled the pin of all the grenades on his belt. “Seven, six, five,” His shotgun fired out as the Somra began to close in on him. They all tacked him and began ripping him apart. “Four,” the door began to unlock itself. “Three,” Fawkes breathed in, and breathed out. “Two,” He took his final breath. The world began to fade to black.

“One,” The grenades exploded as the airlock opened, killing the Somra surrounding him and pulling the bodies into infinite space. Fawkes’ corpse flew haphazardly, and eventually, Fawkes’ eyes closed, never to be opened again.

Monaco found his way to the Meeting Room, where five aliens saw him in surprise and bounded toward him. He ran past them and started to look for John in the shadows. Monaco decided to stay in the dark and take out the Somra as they tried to find him. One of them looked directly at him, and Monaco took out his rifle. He aimed as it tried to engage him.

“This one’s for Fawkes,” Monaco said to himself as he pulled the trigger. The bullet tore through the skull of the creature as it collapsed onto the hard metal floor. Its body twitched once, then stopped altogether. Monaco heard a voice call his name. It belonged to John.

Monaco made his way to where the voice came from. “John? Are you here?” he called as he cautiously walked through the meeting room. “John?”

Suddenly, a Somra attacked Monaco. His gun slid away from him into the dark. “No! No, no, no!” Monaco yelled. He tried to kick the alien off of him as its glowing teeth snapped at him. It raked its claws across Monaco’s face as he slipped his knife out of his pocket. He stabbed the alien in the side, and it screamed in pain. The Somra, in anger, pulled its head back and opened its jaws.

A gunshot rang out, and the Somra slumped down off of Monaco. “John!” He yelled. John was in bad shape. His ribs appeared to be broken, and he was missing a finger. He was very much alive, however.

“I never thought you would have come after me,” he said. “Get me to an RHT pod, quick,” Monaco nodded, and, carrying the captain of the Third Horizon with the Somra tailing them, ran through the ship to get back to the cockpit, where the RHT pods were located, and where Kud was still resting.

Back at the cockpit, Monaco quickly laid John into an RHT pod. “Monaco… get out of here!” John urged. “Put the coordinates in, get inside a pod, and leave with us!”

“No. There’s something I have to do,” Monaco said. “Duncan went insane… the first thing I noticed as I got here is that he’s gone, and I need to find him. I’ll meet up with you soon, so don’t worry!” Monaco put the matching coordinates into the pod and packed a few guns with Kud and John. He hastily applied at cloth to his bleeding cheek as he paced around the room, searching for Duncan.

Monaco felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his back. Duncan stood behind him, holding a knife which he shoved into Monaco. Duncan began to twist the knife. “Auuggghh!” Monaco screamed. He dropped to the floor, and began to drag his body towards the RHT pods.

“Monaco, you can’t escape me,” Duncan whispered to Monaco, as he slowly walked over to him. Monaco pressed the button to release the pods into space. The pods were ejected, and their engines fired up. They began to navigate towards an unknown planet. “You may have saved your friends, but not yourself. Prepare to DIE!” Duncan brought the knife over his head.

Everything happened in one swift motion. Monaco saw the door burst open behind Duncan as he turned around in alarm. The three remaining Somra filled the room, and leaped onto Duncan. He screamed as the fangs sunk into his body and claws ripped him apart. Monaco found his chance to navigate the ship into the nearest sun. He slipped into an RHT pod with the coordinates put in. The pod filled with a clear liquid, and Monaco was at ease. The last thing Monaco remembered seeing was Duncan being shredded to pieces as the Third Horizon flew into a sun, being obliterated from memory forever. The wave of sleep crashed down onto Monaco moments later.


On a distant planet, John came out of his pod. He looked up into the sky to see another pod fall about a mile away. “Monaco,” he whispered. He found the weapons in his pod, and walked to find where Monaco and Kud were. John found where Kud had landed, but he was still in his pod.

John opened the pod, and Kud began to wake up. “Where… am I?” Kud asked. He struggled to get up, but John handed him a rifle.

“It’s okay, you’re safe. We need to find Monaco before-”John stopped.

In the darkness, John heard a lone growl and a single row of blue teeth glowed. Then, hundreds of turquoise fangs illuminated the night, revealing the Somra waiting for them. “Oh god,” John murmured.

Gunfire and smoke ignited the night, as occasional screams where heard. After one more gunshot was heard, all was quiet.