Chapter 5

Iko

The captain's bloody face stared deep into Iko's soul, the terror and adrenaline were coursing through every single one of Iko's veins as she sat on the cold floor staring into the bloody holes that once held the captain's eyes. Iko felt like she couldn't breathe as if somebody had shoved her out of the ship into space without a suit. She stared at Jaxon and suddenly the instinct to survive kicked in again. Iko rammed her freeboot into the captain's face and kept kicking until a loud snap echoed down the corridors.

Jaxon's head fell to the side, his vertebra that had been cracked into two parts was sticking out of torn flesh on his neck like the first flower of spring, but with more blood splatters than delicate petals. Along with all of the blood, there was a long black slick-looking tentacle that was coming out of the captain's lower neck. It looked like it was the only thing holding his head to his body.

The tentacle slowly started to spin in a circle with the Captain's head still hanging on. Slowly it got faster and faster until all Iko could see was a black blur with the captain's head still staring at her... hungry for her blood it seemed. The head suddenly launched at Iko at lighting speed, Iko gasped and rolled out of the way but not before the head could grab some of her flesh from right above her right ear and rip it off as it was pulled back to the Captain's body. Iko's and immediately went to her new wound she could feel the blood oozing through her fingers and down her face. Iko brought her hand back down to her face and felt anger bubbling up inside of her. Iko looked up and clenched her hand into a fist.

"Listen here you fucking dickwad. My face is the only good feature that I have and you can't fuck it up!" Growled out Iko as she stood up and watched as Jaxon's head began to chew on the flesh and then suddenly spit it out.

"Gee, thank you for biting off some of my skin and spitting it out. Do I not taste good?" said Iko sarcastically.

Without averting her gaze from the "captain" Iko slowly reached down and pulled out her Kin-Blaster and pointed it at the tentacle that had stopped spinning to enjoy eating her flesh... The head of Captain Jaxon launched at Iko again but this time Iko rolled out of the way and shot five times hoping to hit whatever that thing was. Suddenly the tentacle-like thing fell to the ground and began shaking rapidly, the head doing the same.

Iko aimed her Kin-Blaster and shot the tentacle three times directly. The shaking abruptly stopped and Iko stood there for a moment before collapsing to her knees. Iko dropped her Kin-Blaster and began shaking, she hugged herself tightly. So many questions going through her mind that didn't have any answers. Suddenly Iko heard a very familiar sound.

"Iko? Hunny? Are you good?" called out Erma.

"Hey, Erma," Iko said as she tilted her head and smiled sweetly at Erma. Iko felt a wave of relief wash over her body, Erma was ok and not dead somewhere on the ship.

"Oh, my stars Iko what happened to you?! Why are you covered in so much blood, whose blood is it, and last question... What the bloody fuck happened to the Captain?" cried out Erma as she rushed over to Iko's side. Erma crouched down and began using the end of her shirt to wipe the blood off of Iko's face, Erma's usually playful eyes were filled with worry and a bit of confusion.

"Erma I'm ok I promise," said Iko.

She felt really bad for making Erma worry but at the same time, her heart was beating quickly in her chest because Erma's face had never been this close to hers. Iko's cheeks slowly turned a light pink as she averted her gaze from Erma's face and focused her attention on the Captain's corpse.

"I-I killed Jaxon... Oh, fuck." Whispered Iko.

Erma looked at the captain's body, and she just stared at it wondering what the hell she had just missed.

"Well shit. This is not good." Stated Erma.

"You think?" Snorted Iko.

Erma stood up and extended her free hand to help get Iko up, Iko smiled and took her hand. Once Iko was on her feet she noticed the black blob in Erma's other hand. Iko tilted her head and slowly pointed at the blob.

"Umm... Erma, what is that?" Questioned Iko.

"Oh! This is my new pet Gluttony! I found him when I was looking for you." Erma called out as she began to walk back the way she had come.

"O-oh you were looking for me? T-that was sweet of you." stuttered out Iko, she could feel her face heat up as she quickly walked behind Erma. She noticed how confident Erma seemed even though she had just found her friend covered in blood next to the Captain's body.

"So Iko what's the plan here?" asked Erma as she stopped and turned around to face Iko, Iko didn't have any time to react before she slammed into Erma. Iko's face went beet red as she took a step back and rubbed her neck while looking away.

"Well, we need to figure out if anyone else is like the Captain then from there we need to protect the crew. And of course, kill off any other monsters on the ship." Stated Iko.

Erma tilted her head to the left gently, and then smiled "Sounds like a plan!"

Erma took a step towards Iko and extended her hand out to her and she smiled. Iko's heartbeat increased as she took hold of Erma's hand and began walking the way that Erma had come. Iko smiled a little and thought in her head,

"This can only get better I hope."