Chapter 1: Where Will We Go Now?

Chapter 1: Where Will We Go Now?

Isaac’s muscles tensed up. His face had an expression of true worry. He hesitated, but then slowly began to turn his head to the right, expecting the worst. He starred at the women next to him and he suddenly felt a great feeling of relief.

“What?” replied Ellie.

“Uhh, It’s nothing. It’s just... you know what? Forget about it. Let’s just get the hell outta here.”

“Alright? Sounds good to me, but where will we go? Should we try to make it to Earth? Or do you think we should try and reach another station?”

“At this point, I don’t know what I want to do. Based on my track record, wherever I seem to go, things just go from bad to worse. Besides, I’m probably considered a criminal or some other bullshit. I wouldn’t be surprised if I get blamed for causing that outbreak.”

“Well, we can’t just stay in space for the rest of our lives? I know some people back on Earth who would be able to help us. In fact, my cousin’s a Therapist. You seem like you could use one.” Ellie said, with a chuckle.

“Ha Ha, very funny Ellie. I’m glad you think what we just went through is funny...”

“You’re right. I’m sorry, it’s just... I’m trying my hardest to keep myself from thinking about it, you know?. All of my friends... my fellow workers...” she paused for a brief moment," Kaleb... they’re all dead.” Ellie began to tear up at this realisation.

Isaac put his arm around her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. “Shh. It’s gonna be alright. I’m still here, I’ll always be here.” Isaac attempted to put a smile on his face, something he hasn’t done since these events began. Not too much to smile about when you see people get torn apart in front of your very eyes, their bodies then horribly mutated, and then those same “people” trying to kill you. Isaac had almost forgot how to smile.

“Thanks.” Ellie said, as a small smile began to appear on her face. “It’s good to know that you’re here, with me.” They stared into each others eyes, well, she stared into his eyes, he just stared into one eye and a bandage, but the feeling was the same. After looking at eachother for what seemed like forever, Isaac finally pulled away.

“Well,” he began. “Let’s make our way home then, shall we?”

“We are gonna be flying blind. The guidance system seems to have blown a fuse when I crashed through to save you. The only thing we have is the short range radar system, which won’t help us in finding our way to Earth.”

“Ummm, Ellie?”

“Yea?”

“I’m an engineer, remember? I should be able to fix the guidance system in ten seconds flat.”

“Yea, well, even an engineer can’t fix something without tools. And last time I checked, you left any “tools” you had back on the station,” Ellie replied, with a smug grin on her face.

“Not this one, baby,” Isaac patted the plasma cutter, still attached to the side of his thigh.

“And how is that supposed to help you fix the guidance system?” Ellie raised an eyebrow.

“You’d be surprised what I can do with this thing, but you’re right. I’ll check this ship and see if there is anything we can use.” Isaac stood up from his chair and made his way towards the back of their ship. He began rummaging through several of the compartments on the tiny vessel. Lucky for him and Ellie, there seemed to be enough food and water to last them for quite a while, and with a busted guidance system, they may need it. Also lucky for Isaac, it appeared that this ship also contained a large supply of pulse rounds, plasma rounds, several pulse rifles, one line gun, and one beam rifle. Isaac couldn’t contain his happiness. Sadly, however, there was nothing that would be able to fix the guidance system.

A sharp pain quickly removed the smile that had formed on his face. He had somehow managed to completely forget about the javelin that had pierced his left hand and left shoulder just moments before his rescue. He quickly fell to his knees at the pain coursing through him. Ellie sprung from her chair and rushed to his side.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, in a concerned tone.

Isaac raised his bloody hand and pointed to his left shoulder. There were large patches of blood on both his hand and his shoulder that clearly showed that he was in pain. “Heh,” he laughed. “It’s amazing how I somehow forgot that I was injured back there when Tiedemann shot me with a Javelin Launcher. It hurts like hell...ugh.”

“Here, let me help you,” Ellie began rummaging through the compartments looking for the medical supplies. She seemed to be having trouble finding them. After almost 5 minutes, Isaac had enough.

“Umm, Ellie.” He pointed to the compartment with the big red cross symbol on it. “Why don’t you check that one?”

“Oh... right.”

Isaac would’ve facepalmed, had he not been in extreme pain. Ellie quickly removed the medical supplies from the compartment and set to work healing Isaac's wounds.

“I’m gonna need you to remove your armor, Isaac.” came Ellie’s voice.

“Oh, of course. Give me a sec.” Isaac slowly began to remove his armor. He thanked god that he still had the straight jacket on. He didn’t want to make this situation anymore awkward. Just being out of his armor made him feel naked.

Ellie began to bandage Isaac’s wounds, wrapping his hand and shoulder in gause. She then proceeded to remove some health packs from the medical compartment and inject them into Isaac. He almost instantly began to feel better. Those health packs really get the job done. I really need to figure out how they heal so quickly. Isaac thought.

“You’re gonna need to rest for a while, but you’ll be fine.” Ellie told Isaac.

“Thanks. Now then, you fly us outta here and I’m gonna get some much needed rest.”

“Hey! I should be the one resting! If you haven’t noticed, I’m missing my one eye.” she pointed to the bandage, that covered her eye socket.

“And if you haven’t noticed, I just single handedly destroyed another marker. Remember I did this twice now?”

“Yea, yea. Just go to sleep so I can stop listening to you talk.”

“Love you too.” replied Isaac.

Ellie rolled her eye, causing Isaac to let out a quiet laugh, and then returned to the front of the ship and sat back down in her chair. Isaac, on the other hand, pressed a button on the one wall revealing a large cot. He then proceeded to lie down and drift off to sleep.

“Isaac......” came a low voice. “Oh Isaac...”

“Huh? Who’s there?” Isaac darted his eyes back and forth, looking for the mysterious voice.

“You thought you could kill me, didn’t you Isaac?” replied the voice.

“Ni-Nicole? But, you’re dead! I destroyed the marker!”

“And you think that will stop me? Poor, naive Isaac. I can’t be destroyed. I’ll never leave you, Isaac. Not until you make us whole...”

Suddenly, Isaac found himself surrounded by necromorphs. He reached for his plasma cutter, but to his dismay, it was nowhere to be found. Then, another figure took shape next to him. This other figure seemed scared and looked into Isaac’s eyes, begging him to do something.

“Ellie!” Isaac screamed at the figure. “We’ve gotta get outta here!”

“But where will we go, Isaac? There’s nowhere left for us.” Ellie hung her head, as tears began to fall from her one eye.

“Get up Ellie! We have to leave! NOW!” ,but she wouldn’t budge.

“What’s wrong Isaac? Why do you want to save her? I thought you only cared for yourself?” came the voice.

“I won’t let you hurt her! I may have lost you, but I’m not going to lose her!” Isaac yelled.

“Oh my, you must really like her, don’t you? You best let her go before she ends up like me.”

“I’ll never let her go! I’ll die before I let anyone harm her again!” Isaac looked around for any sort of weapon, but all he saw was a wall of necromorphs that were now rushing at him and Ellie. He jumped in front of Ellie and held his fists up.

“You think you can stop the inevitable? The Isaac I knew was much smarter than that.”

The first necromorph came at Isaac. Isaac dodged its attack and slammed his fist into the jaw of the attacker. The necromorphs head flew off its shoulders sending a torrent of blood spraying over Isaac’s body.

Damn. He thought to himself. I guess I don’t know my own strength. Several others then began their assault on Isaac. Isaac dodged their attacks and threw back some of his own.

“I could use some help, Ellie!” pleaded Isaac.

“What’s the point? Why should we keep fighting? It’s hopeless.” Ellie remained, in a kneeling position, as a necromorph targeted her.

“NOO!” Isaac wailed as the necromorph began its attack on Ellie. Ellie screamed in agony as she was impaled by the blades of the slasher. The slasher then lifted Ellie into the air, and ripped her literally in half, tossing both halves in opposite directions as Ellie’s insides poured onto the floor in a pool of blood.

“She was right Isaac, it is hopeless. You can’t escape. You’ll never escape. Make us whole, Isaac.”

“I’LL KILL YOU!” Isaac screamed, in anger and sadness, as he rushed towards Nicole who was in the center of the “room” they were in.

Several necromorphs attempted to stop him, but to no avail. Isaac even managed to rip off a slasher’s blades and proceeded to cut his way through the thick crowd of necromorphs, slicing what seemed to be hundreds of them into pieces. Isaac noticed a number of Lurkers begin to run at him, tentacles at the ready. His response was to impale two of them with the blades in his hands, and smash the others faces with his boots. He was invincible. Nothing would stop him from reaching his target. He was finally just a few feet from Nicole, he raised the blades and charged at her.

“Make us whole, Isaac. You have to make us whole. It’s the only way to stop this.”

“Shut up!” Isaac rammed the blades deep into Nicole. He then ripped them out and slashed her head off. Blood exploded out of the hole, where Nicole’s head once laid. Her lifeless body fell to the ground.

Isaac felt tears running down his face. He dropped the blades and feel to his knees. “I’m sorry Ellie...” he said, through his tears, “And I’m sorry...Nicole.”

A voice was heard through the silence. “Isaac!”

Isaac remained on the ground, crying.

“Isaac!”

He stared at his bloodied hands in horror. “I’m so sorry.”

“ISAAC!” The tone of the voice made Isaac spring up.

“I’m sorry Nicole!” Isaac looked around. He was back on the ship. He looked over to Ellie, who was obviously worried about him. He had been sweating profusely and a large puddle of sweat had formed on the bed along with some of the blood from his wounds.

“It’s ok Isaac. You were dreaming, and who’s Nicole?”

“Long story,” Isaac sighed. “I’ll tell you another time. Thanks for waking me up, though.”

“No problem. You looked like you were having one hell of a dream. Wanna tell me about it?”

“Well you see I-... actually, I’ll tell you that another time too.”

“Well we’re gonna have a lot of time to kill, we won’t be reaching Earth for at least a week.”

“You managed to find Earth?” asked Isaac.

“Hopefully. If not, and we end up going in the wrong direction, then...well.”

“We’re screwed?”

“Took the words right outta my mouth.”

“Well then, lets hope you’re right about this. It would sure suck if we went through all that shit, just to die in space.”

“Tell me about it...”

“Anyways, I’m kinda hungry. Care to make me something to eat?” Isaac asked.

“What do i look like? Your slave? You look healthy enough to make your own food.”

Isaac sighed. “Fine. I guess I’ll get myself something to eat. But, I’ll remember this when you ask me to do you a favor.”

“And what would I ever need you to do for me? I can handle myself, can’t I?”

“Sure you can...” Isaac said, in a sarcastic tone, as he began to rummage through the containers of food, looking for something that would satisfy his hunger.

Ellie rolled her eye for the second time. “This is gonna be a fun week.” she said, with feigned enthusiasm.

“You know it, babe. It’s gonna be like one big party!”

“Isaac! Come check this out!” Ellie yelled from her chair in the cockpit of the ship.

Isaac hoped outta his bed and walked up to her side. They had been travelling for what seemed to be days. Kinda hard to tell how much time has passed when you’re in space. If it weren’t for the ship’s clock, they would have no idea how long they’d been aboard that ship.

“What’s up, Ellie?” asked, a much healed Isaac.

“Look at the short ranged radar.” she pointed to the radar screen, which showed a very large object, not too far from their position. “The radar has found a nearby planet!”

“Is it Earth?” Isaac asked, as a surge of anticipation began to flood him.

“According to the readings...ummm...yes. I believe it’s Earth. It seems to meet all of the conditions necessary to sustain human life. It appears to be the same size and it also has a single moon that matches the moon of Earth.”

“Well, let’s hope it is Earth. We don’t have enough fuel to keep going much farther.”

“Of course it’s Earth! What other planet could match the description so perfectly? I knew I was right! Just like how I knew I was right to save you.” They stared at eachother, before looking back through the window of the ship.

“Yea, about that, I never got to thank you for saving me back there,” Isaac said, in the most sincere way he could.

“You’re welcome. It’s the least I could do. I mean, if we hadn’t run into each other, I wouldn’t have made it off the Sprawl. Though, I’d still have my other eye, though.” Ellie began to laugh, and Isaac joined in.

“You only need one eye, Ellie. But, once we land, I’ll make it my job to get you a brand new eye!”

“Can’t wait!”

The ship began to approach what they hoped was Earth. The large sphere began to come into view of their ship. It did look an awful lot like Earth, but something seemed...off.

“Why do the continents and oceans seem to be wrong? I mean, I haven’t seen Earth in forever, but I don’t remember it looking like that.”

“I know. It seems odd to me too, but we don’t have much of a choice. This planet is capable of supporting life. That’s good enough for me.”

“Couldn’t agree more. Now, let’s land this thing. It’ll be good to feel the ground beneath my feet, but just to be safe, I’ll go get my armor on and grab my plasma cutter and a pulse rifle. I recommend you do the same.” Isaac walked to the back of the and began putting on his armor and grabbing his weapons of choice.

“Already have it with me,” Ellie patted the cutter at her side, before turning the auto-pilot off and taking manual control of the ship.

The ship began its steady descend to the surface of “Earth.” Several towns and cities began to appear across the surface of the planet, as well as a multitude of forests, mountains, hills and valleys.

“Ellie. Look at those cities.” He pointed to one that resembled an ancient New York City. “Don’t these cities seem...dated to you?”

“I see what you mean and I don’t see any space ports or runways for us to land at. The only good place I see for us to bring this ship down is that open field near that one town.” Ellie pointed to her intended landing site and Isaac turned his head to check it out.

The town seemed rather small compared to the ones Isaac was used to, and it seemed like the buildings were made out of wood. This confused Isaac. We stopped using wood as a building material decades ago. Why is it that this town has so many wooden buildings?, Isaac thought.

“I don’t think this is Earth. but whatever it is, people are living here. It almost seems to resemble old human architecture.” Isaac noted.

“Well let’s hope whatever lives here is friendly. Well, more friendly than those things on the Sprawl were.”

Isaac hoped that what Ellie said was correct. His last encounter with aliens didn’t work out so well for him and Ellie.

“Ok. I’m bringing ‘er in. Strap yourself in, Isaac!”

Isaac sat down in the neighboring chair and strapped himself in. He was beginning to worry. What if he had left one mess and was about to be forced into another one?

“Hey Twilight! Come check this out!” Spike called, from the upstairs of the library.

“What is it Spike? Can’t you see I’m busy organising these books?” came the voice of a lavender unicorn, who had a large number of books hovering around her that she was attempting to put away.

“Put those books down and get up here!” snapped the baby purple dragon. “Some weird thing is flying around outside! It looks to be as big as a house! It’s really cool looking!”

“WHAT?!” Twilight yelled, as she let the many books plummet to the ground. She rushed upstairs, pushed Spike out of the way of the window he had been looking through and stared into the sky.

Spike was right. There was some large object flying near the town. It appeared to be coming in for a landing in the fields near Sweet Apple Acres. Twilight gasped. “What is that thing?” she wondered.

“How am I supposed to know?” responded the tiny dragon. “Now can you move over? I want to watch too!”

Twilight moved away from the window and began to pack a pair of saddlebags.

“Where are you planning on going, Twi?” Spike raised one eyebrow.

“I’m going to investigate what’s going on. Don’t wait up!” She then made a dash for the door.

“Can I come?” Before Spike could get a response, the door slammed shut behind her, as she walked out into the town.

Spike shrugged and then looked out the window again. “Huh? Where’d it go?” his eyes scanned the sky, but found no trace of the strange object.

Isaac and Ellie landed the ship in the field. Isaac got up from his chair, as his helmet built itself around his face. He grabbed the pulse rifle he had recovered from the one compartment and made his way to the ship’s exit. “You stay here.” he ordered. “I’ll go see if it’s safe.” He loaded his pulse rifle and pressed the button that began opening the door.

“Don’t do anything stupid.” came Ellie’s voice.

“Come on, Ellie. When haven’t I done something stupid?”

“Just don’t get yourself killed, alright?”

“Don’t worry. I can take care of myself. Plus, I’ve got this baby.” Isaac waved his pulse rifle in the air, before returning it to its ready position. The door slowly opened and Isaac was blinded with the light of the outside. He stepped outside, ready to take on whatever was waiting for him.