The Hunter or the Prey?

A man awakes on his ship to find the entire crew is missing or dismembered. He soon finds there's something else aboard the ship. Something inhuman, something large, something... hungry.

I awoke from hypersleep in total darkness, retching from the after effects of the long journey. I immediately fell to the ground that was usually cold, but the ground felt warm and wet. I should have taken that as my first warning that something was happening that I wasn’t prepared for, but I didn’t. Instead, I crawled on the floor, inching forward, not quite sure what was ahead until I heard the hiss of a door opening. From the new opening I could see a red glow, helping me find my way through the door and down one of the ship’s halls.

The ship’s halls were like any of the ones you would find on your standard cargo ship. The pentagonal walls made it hard for me to keep my balance. The low glow of the red light I was heading toward felt like someone was shining an L.E.D light into my eyes, causing me to spit up bile twice before finally making it to the source of the light. The light was built into a storage locker, I opened the locker slowly, inside was a flashlight, a flare, and a small first aid kit. I grabbed the contents of the locker, took out the flashlight, and then flipped the switch to see if it was charged. Light flooded the end of the hallway. There were thick gashes in the walls, revealing the intricate wiring and pipes behind the walls. I then saw drops of red falling from the ceiling. I pointed my flashlight up and saw a hole no bigger than 3 feet in width and length. I slowly walked toward the hole when I heard the sound of glass shattering and metal crunching coming from the sleep room. I moved my way towards the door of the room. I pointed the flashlight in.

The room was torn to shreds. there were tables flipped, all the glass in the sleep pods was shattered, and there was crimson in all of the pods except for two. Then there was movement near one of the pods.

“Hello? I-is someone there?” I said, hoping it was one of my crewmembers.

The movement stopped.

“Hello? It’s me, Stevenson. The ship’s pilot?” I say, starting to walk inside of the room, though every part of me had told me to stop, to shut up.

As I stepped in there was a low clicking noise coming from where the movement was, which caused me to jump and drop the light. A large silhouette started to rise. Larger than anything I had seen, but its movement was silent. I started walking back towards the door and tripped. I continued to crawl backwards as the hunched shadow moved towards me, climbing over the pod it had been behind. I noticed something to my right, a long tail with a row of what seemed like feathers. I started to turn around to try and crawl faster when the tail wrapped around me and dragged me closer to the lurking silhouette. I tried pulling the medkit out of the small pocket I managed to fit it into but it had no effect. I just began to give up when I remembered that I had the flare. I started to pat myself down searching for the pocket I had put in. The shadow was right on top of me, the only visible things were teeth catching the dim light from the flash light. There was a smell of blood and decay coming from the creature. I finally felt the flare and popped the cap off of it starting the small red fire.

The fire welcomed two large black soulless eyes that sent shivers down my spine. I screamed forcing the flare into one of the eyes of the beast. It let out a screeching howl and its grip on my legs loosened. I forced my legs out of the creature's grip, and then I ran towards the flashlight and picked it up and attempted to get a good look at what ever I was stuck on the ship with, but the only thing left was a flare covered in black blood. I scanned the room, looking for anything that might help me. I took a closer look at the pods, 6 of the 8 were shattered or ripped open. I looked to see if their users were in the room, one was. What was left of him was anyway.

Their face was fine, all the parts intact, and I knew who it was instantly. Ricardo, the engineer of the ship, and the only one that I liked. Recognizing who it was had made me wonder why I was trying. I sat down near the door and waited for that thing to return for what felt like an hour.

“Hello?” A voice from overhead said.

I jumped up and looked around the room for the source of the sound.

“Hey! Good! You’re not dead yet Stevenson, so you need to listen to me very carefully. You nee-”

“Who are you?” I questioned.

“It’s Thomson, you don't know the sound of your own captain's voice? Listen you need to get out of there and head towards me. I’m in the security room, so I should be able to direct you over here. I’ve got a visual on Subject 002. He’s recovering inside the ventilation system, you should be able to make it outside my door.”

“It’s name is 002? Does that mean there’s more on the ship?”

“There was one other, but once 002 broke out he killed the other.”

“So what’s outside your door that you need so badly?”

“A flamethrower. You’re the one that's going to need it to cook him, I can’t get to it because he caved in the door and it won’t open.”

I went through the door of the sleep room and went through the hallway. There was a metal door at the end of the hallway. I tried to open the door but it wouldn’t budge.

“Thomson! The door won’t budge, I think it’s been welded shut from the other side!” I said in a hushed tone.

“Well,” he had paused, “I’m sorry but you’re going to have to go go through the vents, there should be a smaller ventilation system that he can’t fit inside. It’s right under you, you’re going to need that flashlight.”

I picked up the light like he told me and checked the power on it, it was half full and would probably only last another hour. I shined the light underneath myself and found the entrance of the vent. I tried to lift the vent and with great effort I had managed to move it. I crawled inside it and noticed how narrow it was. It was only about 2 feet tall and 4 feet wide. I began to slowly inch my way through the system of vents. I took the first left towards the security room that Thompson was in. It had taken almost 45 minutes to get halfway to the exit vent, I began to crawl faster down the vent, causing my movement to echo through the system.

There was a loud crash, and then a thump. 002 had heard me and began to hunt me down. I froze and began to break into a cold sweat. My heart was beating so loudly that I thought the beast would hear. I turned slowly onto my back, and turned the flashlight off. I looked through the slits on top of the vents. standing overhead of me was 002, he didn’t move at all, was just standing there frozen. I could only see the shadow of its body. It seemed to be almost 8 feet tall, and had batlike ears. He slowly started to bend over to peer through the vents. I began to start crawling slowly on my back trying to get away from the beast. Something then started to move out of the creatures mouth, a tongue. It liked the metal grating above the vents, it was hunting, and I was the prey.

I had began to turn on my belly to try and move faster but dropped down another vent, sending the impact throughout the entire ship. 002 screeched and then there was the sound of metal being crushed. There was then a noise that sounded like bones cracking.  Large vibrations had been sent through the system. I had thought that there was no way that it could have gotten inside the vents with me. I looked forward and began to crawl, the source of the vibrations were coming closer.

There’s no way that it managed to get in the vents, there’s no way that it got in the vents.

I continued to push myself forward. I had needed to fall down this way, I could see a low red glow at the end of the tunnel, I started to crawl faster, I needed to get out of the vents. I started to hyperventilate but kept moving. A loud thump sounded above me, the sound of metal being ripped had screeched into my ears. I tried to crawl even faster, my fingernails digging into the segments of metal. Another thump had happened right behind me, and then the metal ripping. I shined my light behind me and revealed the sharp toothed grin of 002, its black eyes reflected the light back at me. Its body seemed to be contorted and twisted, its body pulsated and moved closer to me. I looked back forward and saw the exit, I spun around inside the vent and kicked behind me at the vent. I looked in front of me and 002 looked back at me. I kicked again and the vent’s exit opened. I crawled out and shined my light around the room I was in. I had crawled into the generator room. I scanned for the transformer inside that would turn the power on. I found it in the corner of the room, I looked back at the vent and 002 had started to crawl out, the bone cracking sound echoed through the room. I opened up the transformer and looked inside, the lights had been shut off by someone, but who had done it? I flipped the switch and light flooded through the room.

002 screeched at the sudden light and squeezed back through the vent and left me standing alone in the room. I slowly reached for the door at the other end of the room and opened it. The door had opened up into the lounge, which was still mostly intact, there were a few scrapes along the walls though. I saw a camera in the corner of the room, stood in front of it, and waited for Thompson to respond. I sat there for almost half an hour, and there was never an answer. I felt that something was wrong and began to go towards the security room.

I saw the caved in door of the security room and stepped closer to it, the door had a small hole inside it. I looked through the gap and saw blood staining the walls. The lights then all went out, which left me in the darkness. I grabbed my flashlight and flipped the switch, but no light shined out of it. I heard heavy breathing enter the room. I began to feel around the room for the flamethrower that had been promised to be outside the door. I heard the footsteps coming closer and closer to me. I knew it could see me in the darkness, the breathing kept getting closer and closer. I continued to grasp and feel around the room when I started to feel 002’s tail twisting around my leg again. I was in the same situation, alone in the dark with nothing to help but a flare, but this time around I had no flare to help. I began desperately feeling around, 002’s tail now fully wrapped around my leg, then at last I found the handle of the flamethrower. I grasped the handle as I began to be pulled towards my demise. I squeezed the spark trigger, beginning a small flame that helped reveal my path, I squeezed the trigger again sending a large glowing wave of orange heat towards the tail of my hunter. It’s tail lit a flame and fell apart, releasing my leg from it’s grasp. The flames had begun to run up the creatures tail fully revealing it to my eye for the first time. It was hunched over like a gorilla, it’s skin leathery, yet shiny, and was colored like a dark red wine. It screeched at me as I sent another burst of flames toward it, which made it scramble back like a spider fearing for it’s life. I had become the hunter, and it was the prey. I stepped forward holding down the trigger sending more fire at the beast. The flames at first only licked it, then they began to engulf the beast in a matter of seconds. It began to screech and wail, flailing about, making it’s way towards me. I jumped out of the way of 002, it then turned around facing me and began to start charging at me again. I tried to dodge again but it landed on top of me, reared it’s head back and then fell on top of me. It had been killed, but it’s burning corpse was now on top of me, stopping me from being able to leave. I pushed, and squeezed until finally my perseverance got me out from under it. My shirt had caught on fire and I teared it off.

I had done it, I had freed myself from being hunted by the beast. But what was I going to do now? Everyone on the ship was dead. I traveled through the ship, looking for anyone, just to be sure, and found no one on the ship besides myself. I went to the flight deck and checked the autopilot settings. The ship had been heading towards a colony on Mars, we were going to trade with the colonists for some supplies, I changed it to start heading towards Earth. There was no reason to go to Mars now. I went back into the sleep pod area, and began to set up my settings. I went to sleep, and enjoyed the 4 month long journey.

Author's Note

I'd like to know what you all think since this was my first "serious" effort in writing I'd say. I'm making this into a longer story that will be part of a short story collection book once it and it's companions are finished.
Thank you for your time.