Out of the Ashes

Prologue

“Prep the gear for landing and be prepared to strap yourself in,” James instructs. James was a lean man. 25, built thin but with plenty of authority. His dark hair streaked down the back of his head generally, however unable to now trapped in a space suit. He continued to perform final checks before the shuttle is prepared to land. He stares at the screen, on target for a small green landing zone in the Tasman sea. He nods to himself, “think everything is in check,” he turns around and stares down the hall. “You all good down there Lily?” Lily was an average girl, slightly younger than James and built in direct proportions. Her hair, much like James’, black and long and tucked up inside the helmet, sometimes even getting in her way. Lily was continuing packing her stuff into neat little boxes and tying them up so they wouldn’t fly everywhere during descent.

“I believe so, don’t think anything will-.” She’s cut off by a thump on the far side of the ship, gently rocking the ship from its generally flat state.

“Probably just a piece of debris,” James ensures Lily, “I’ll go check it out, you just check the landing system and make sure it isn’t off course.” Lily does as he says, and moves towards the system’s controls, but increases to a sprint as she watches a bright red light flash on screen. She freezes as she sees the projected movement, the line aiming hundreds of kilometres east of its original path. She tries to calm herself, but that is quickly thwarted as one engine suddenly registers as unresponsive in front of her. She tried to convert all movement to the second engine, but a few seconds later, that becomes cut off as well. They were on a direct collision path and there was nothing they could do to stop it.

“James! James!” There’s no response, she rushes toward the source of the noise to find James in a space walk cleaning debris off the side of the ship. She tries to signal to him to come quickly but he is unaware of the current state they are in.

Lily continues her ushering, but just as James is about to finally listen, he is snapped up by a dark black figure who escapes around to the other side of the ship. James’ space chord quickly snaps from the sudden jolt in location. He now has no guide and was now unable to make it back to the ship. Lily sprints toward the far side of the ship trying to see any view of James and the figure. BANG. The white wall right in front of her bursts open as James is smashed through, a large curved claw piercing his lower abdomen. James grasps the walls as the claw slowly moves itself out of James.

“Oh my god what is that thing?!” Lily panics but hears another crash toward the front end of the ship near the controls. She looks at James as he slowly collapses toward the ground. Before he can fall out the ship she grabs underneath his arms and drags him into the nearest room and shuts the door. She decided to continue back toward the controls. Unarmed, she just hopes to find herself able to recourse the ship somehow, but she already knows it is a lost cause. Slowly walking along the clunking metal floor she nearly reaches the controls, however as she reaches the loop in the ship just before the control room, she hears it. Tap. Tap. Tap. Four claws curve themselves around the edge of the wall in front of her. She freezes in place as it becomes the last bit of movement she ever makes.

INTERMISSION

Hello there, and welcome to my library. I am the statistician, and I am here to guide you through this forbidden story. You have decided to partake on this… particularly strange story. Two spaceship mates fallen to what seems to be something unnatural to our world... Anyways that is yours to decide. I am here to tell this story and you… are here… to participate. Throughout this… game you so choose to play, you will be given choices, choices that may lead to your success… or choices that may lead to your demise. Some choices may only play out much later than picked, so be wary throughout. Very well then, enough of me, I can only help you so much. I am not here to intervene, I am just here to clarify the rules and observe, though I may offer the occasional hint. I will be monitoring your progress and well… I hope you succeed.

Chapter 1 : Mistakes, 9:02pm

Samantha stared into the sunset as she waited for the others to arrive. Her blonde hair tied in a ponytail swayed slightly from side to side sometimes even falling over her shoulders. She was quite the pretty girl, liked by a lot of the boys and would generally get asked out quite a lot. However she preferred to stay single and continue working on herself, which definitely showed as she did rock climbing and was built thin. Her eyes glimmered blue as she looked at the sign in front of her, Rassasy, a bar joint which was about to be host to her and her friends first drink. They had all recently turned 18 and had promised each other to all try it together. The news was on the TV outside the bar, reading “quakes felt by those nearest the Volcano.” “Load of rubbish,” she thought. Those people always came up with stories, labelling themselves as so called experts. Two arms appeared around her, scaring her but also glad cause someone had arrived.

“Hiiiii how we doing?” It was Ashley.

Sam, 18

Adventurous, Confident

Healthy

Unarmed

Ashley, 18

Unfit, Nervous

Healthy

Unarmed

“I’m doing fine, very excited,”

“Well I don’t know about you but I’m terrified. Like sure it’s exciting but I’ve heard so many stories.”

“Don’t worry about them,” Sam reassured her, “you’ve got us here.” Sam surveyed Ashley’s outfit. Small red and white jumper, skinny jeans and boots and a beanie with her straight brunette hair sticking out the back.

“What about those quakes?” Ash asked, “probably not a night for a drink.” However before Sam could answer, the two boys, Josh and Sean, sprinted around the corner. “Damn we wanted to be the first here.” Sean was out of breath.

Josh, 18

Sporty, Observant

Uninjured

Unarmed

Sean, 18

Leader, Trustworthy

Uninjured

Unarmed

“Well guess we are all ready then?” Sean asked, his blonde combover hair being ruined by the sweat rolling down his face from running with Josh. Josh looked unphased by the run, his short back and sides brunette hair the same as always, a professional look sat on his face. Everyone nodded and laughed. They were excited but nerves sat in the air. Opening the door they were greeted to a burst of blinding yellow lights and a wave of heat as opposed to the winter outside. Ash surveyed the room as she normally does. She was nervous so she didn’t want many people seeing her reactions. She didn’t take notice of anyone particular, all seeming to mind their business, except for one guy. A dude sat in a booth on his own and with nothing in front of him. His black hoodie hung over his head and his black glasses hid his eyes fixed on the group of 4. Ash was wary but still thought she was okay. The others didn’t seem to notice this guy so she didn’t take him as a threat, instead she just walked like the rest of them. Sean quickly took charge, as he does,

“What do you guys want?” They all looked at each other unsure, but came to a conclusion of just a glass of beer to start with. Together they exchanged glances and counted down and took a gulp. Ash gagged much like Sean, Josh seemed unphased and Sam seemed to like it. They sat and talked about it while finishing up the glass.

“I’m gonna go to the toilet quickly,” Sam said. Ash agreed with her and off they went. Sean decided to go to, leaving just Josh. Josh looked around the bar watching as the bartender poured their next round of drinks, when suddenly a man in a black hoodie and glasses appeared at the counter, seeming to whisper something and slip him a note. Josh continued to watch intrigued by this, however the man then slipped the bartender a packet of something which was then poured into their drinks.

CONFRONT THE MAN

IGNORE

Choice: Confront

Josh scurried over to the bar quickly, and put some authority about himself

“Hey hey what was that about? These are our drinks you know!” The man laughed,

“I saw you and your friends for your first drink and you know I’ve found it only ever goes downhill from there. So I thought I’d spice it up and just add a bit of fun that would stop you guys from drinking again. I am sick of people coming in this bar for a first. Just come sit down with me.” Josh grabs his drink and follows the man ushering him toward the booth.

“I’ve seen you here before buddy.” Josh became nervous. “And you’re friends are quickly going to think it was you who ruined them because I very much can prove your lies.” The man slipped out a photo of Josh in the bar. Josh was startled. “So it’s up to you,” Josh heard a gun cock underneath the table and felt it press against his stomach, “you either act normal with your friends and take the blame, or I blast you right now outside.” Josh thought he could take this guy, however unarmed he was unsure, but this man was offering death for either 3 of them, or him, and Josh couldn’t risk it. He told the man that he was gonna take his bullet and get them out quickly. However unsure of that plan, the man pushed him outside into a bush round the side of the building. Josh needed to recover quickly,

“You know there’s some good HELP for your sort of stuff around here,”

“Oh I’m going to enjoy killing you,” the man grinned, “I killed hundreds in this alley. They never found out it was me and now I’m going to add to tha-“

SMACK. The man collapsed to the ground as Ashley stood there with a large branch now broken from the impact with his head. She smiled.

“He’s knocked out right?” She asked happily.

“No idea,” he smiled amusingly, “but I’m about to piss myself so you just meet up with the others and then we’ll head home.” Ash turned and left. Josh knew this guy was a threat still with the gun, so Josh decided to arm himself in keeping the gun away from this guy and kept i