Emma's Secret Box

Later in the lab, Tucker stood on the table, wrench in hand, struggling with the pipe. The damn thing wouldn’t move the way he needed it to. Jack’s head really dented it.

Below him, Victor wasn’t even watching.

His eyes were on Dr. Martinez’s dead body.

“Wrench.” Tucker grunted.

Victor is still distracted.

“Wrench!”

Victor blinked, snapping out of it. He handed the tool over.

“Can you feel it?” Victor asked.

“What?”

“Two down.” Victor’s voice was cool. “Five to go.”

Tucker paused. Only for a second. Then he went back to work.

He shoved the wrench toward Victor. “This isn’t working.”

“No,” Victor murmured. “It’s not.”

“Will you wake up and hand me the blowtorch?”

SMACK!

Victor knocked the wrench clean out of his hand. Tucker froze, stunned at his outburst.

“No.” His voice was firm now, edged with something darker. “You’re the one who needs to get with the program! And fast. Our captain is dead! The only question is: who’s next?”

Tucker climbed down, walking past him. He grabbed the blowtorch off the floor and turned back.

“So what do you want to do about it?”

“An alliance. You and me.”

Tucker laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Victor asked, “I’m being serious!”

“And there’s no way you proposed this to anyone else?”

Victor’s expression flickered. Confusion? Amusement?

“I’m not stupid.” Tucker said as he walked by him. “You make a deal with everyone here individually. Then when the time comes, you get to pick and choose, right?”

“I haven’t offered it to anyone else. It has to be you.”

“Because we’re roommates?”

“Because you’re American. My country could always make an exception for you. That, and… you don’t have any real attachments to anyone else on this ship.”

Tucker swallowed hard. Obviously that wasn’t true but he and Lien haven’t told anyone about their relationship as far as he knew. Especially not now that Lien is pregnant.

Tucker’s eyes drifted to Martinez’s body.

The blood around it had started to dry, darkening to a deep, lifeless red.

“So we’ve already decided on Russia?” asked Tucker.

“I have to go back home." said Victor, “I can’t leave empty-handed.”

Tucker scoffed. “And I can?”

“My family…my younger siblings…” His voice cracked slightly. “They have them. Hostage.”

Tucker’s stomach dropped. He’d never imagined that a government would do that. Then again, they all do a lot of terrible things, so it was a believable situation.

“I told them no. I refused.” Victor continued. Victor tried to speak without getting too upset but his eyes already started to mist. “So they made me a different offer.”

Tucker thought for a second. Then, slowly, he extended his hand.

Victor smiled. Shook it.

The way Tucker saw it, Lien would follow him anywhere and Russia borders China. He had long since given up his family in America. He could use a chance to start fresh to make his own.

Tucker climbed onto the table and finished the job.

***

After they fixed the pipe and were stratified, Tucker and Victor walked side by side down the passage to the central computer.

Victor stopped by the window.

Tucker stopped, too.

They stared.

Earth.

Hanging in the black, endless void.

So close it felt like they could reach out and grab it.

Tucker took a slow breath.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s see if the others—”

GGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!

A scream. Female. Ripping through the silence like a blade.

Tucker and Victor sprinted down the hall in a flash.

***

Tucker and Victor burst through the door to the computer room.

They froze.

Emma was trapped.

The heavy computer towers had collapsed on top of her, crushing her from the waist down.

Akira and Lien were struggling to lift it off of her.

When he saw them, Akira’s voice shredded through the room.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? HELP ME!!” he cried.

They snapped out of it and ran forward to help.

Tucker and Victor positioned themselves beside Akira and Lien.

Akira’s voice was urgent. “On three! One, two, three!”

They heaved.

Emma screamed.

She arched back, her body writhing beneath the weight.

"AAHH! Arschgesicht!" she yelled in German. Then, in English—“STOP! STOP!”

They dropped the towers.

Emma gasped, her head rolling back.

“I know it hurts, but we have to get this off you!” said Akira.

Emma coughed, a thick spray of blood hitting the floor.

She stared at it.

“…That’s not good.” Emma said sarcastically.

Tucker wiped sweat from his forehead. “We gotta try again! Fast!”

“No!” Emma’s voice was sharp, panicked. “Don’t do it again, bastards!”

They ignored her. Grabbed a side.

“On my count!”

“If it didn’t work last time,” Emma wheezed, “what makes you think—”

“One, two, THREE!”

They lifted.

Emma screamed.

A deep, guttural wail ripped through the room.

She pounded the floor with her fists, crying. The intensity of her pain froze them all.

They dropped it again.

“What are we gonna do?” asked Lien.

“There’s some stuff in the med bay,” said Akira. “Maybe if I numb her up, we can get her out!”

“I’ll go with you!” said Lien.

“Ok! You two stay here!”

Then they sprinted off.

Emma’s trembling hand reached out. “Victor!” she said, “Victor, come here!”

Victor knelt beside her, gripping her hand.

Emma’s voice was urgent, desperate. “You have to do something for me! Quickly! Before they get back. Under my locker—there’s a black box.”

“You’re worried about your stuff in a time like this?” he asked, “What’s in it?”

“Please.” said Emma, tightening her grip, “Just go.”

Victor looked at Tucker and they nodded. Tucker tried to leave with him but Emma called out-

“NO!” Emma’s hand shot out. Her eyes wild. “Don’t leave me alone! Please.”

They froze.

Tucker swallowed, nodded and Victor disappeared down the hall.

Tucker’s breath started to become heavy again. It was happening again. The stench of death. His mind kept flashing back. In and out. In and out.

For a second, Emma wasn’t Emma.

She was the boy from the farmhouse.

Wide, terrified eyes.

Crushed under something too heavy to move.

Tucker sat down beside her.

“Damn it… never thought I’d die sober.” Emma let out a broken chuckle. “ This is just fucked up.”

“You’ll be fine… just hold on a little longer.” said Tucker

Emma laughed.

A weak, rasping sound.

“You’re a terrible liar.”

She coughed again. More blood.

Tucker clenched his fists.

Emma’s voice dropped. “Tucker… listen to me. This wasn’t an accident.”

His eyes snapped to hers.

“…What?”

“You think computer towers just fall by themselves?”

Tucker didn’t answer. He already knew the answer.

“As soon as I was done downloading the files… they fell.” Emma coughed. Winced. “Here.”

She pressed a flash drive into his palm.

Akira unlocked the door and shoved it open. He and Lien rushed inside.

“What am I looking for?” asked Lien.

Akira pointed toward a row of cabinets. “There should be morphine and stuff over there!”

Lien sprinted to the drawers, yanking them open, hands shaking as she rummaged through vials and syringes.

Akira grabbed supplies off the shelves—gauze, antiseptics, anything that might help.

They dumped everything onto a stretcher.

Then they ran.

Behind them, on the medical bed, Jack’s fingers twitched.

Emma’s breaths were shallow now.

Her voice was barely above a whisper. “I don’t know who, but it had to be one of them.” she said. “It’s only a matter of time before one of them comes for you too. Don’t be a loser like me. Don’t die.”

“You’re not dead.” He forced a smile. “And I still owe you fifty bucks.”

Emma laughed weakly. “It was Euros, you asshole. Don’t cheat me now.”

The door burst open.

Victor. Out of breath. A small black box clutched in his hands.

“I’m here!” he said. “I have the box!”

Emma’s eyes lit up. “Good!” She coughed—more blood on her lips. “Open it.”

Victor gulped, then flipped the lid. His expression changed instantly. Worry. Then shock.

The lid slipped from his hands.

Akira and Lien sprinted down the hallway, the stretcher wobbling between them.

A few supplies tumbled off.

Lien cursed, stopped to grab them, then kept moving.

“Come on!” said Akira. “We have to make it!

“I’m coming!” she cried.

Tucker looked into the box.

Then at Emma.

His voice was tight. “Why… why do you have that?”

Emma’s breathing hitched.

“Have you had it this whole time?” asked Victor.

She nodded. “Yep. Standard issue.”

Victor reached inside—his fingers wrapped around the gun.

Cold. Heavy.

Beside it, a row of bullets.

“I was told to take it for protection.” she said.

Then her gaze locked onto Tucker.

Her next words hit harder than any bullet.

“Tucker, I need you to do something for me…” she started

Tucker’s breath caught.

His head shook. He knew what she wanted. But he couldn’t. Not here not now!

“…No… I can’t!” he said. “Emma, how could I?”

“If you don’t do it before they get back, we won’t have a chance.” said Emma. “It has to be you.”

Her voice was steady now. Certain.

“I’m not going through any more ‘saving.’” she said with a light chuckle.

Victor shifted. “Maybe we can still just—”

“I CAN’T FEEL FUCKING MY LEGS, VIC!” Emma snapped. Then she exhaled. Quieter. “I want Tucker to do it. Please.” She turned back to Tucker. “One drinking buddy to another?”

Victor hesitated.

Then slowly, he handed Tucker the box and gun.

The gun.

Tucker’s chest tightened.

His eyes burned.

His fingers shook as he loaded the magazine. It was happening again. All over again. Why didn’t his body stop? Why didn’t something stop this madness?

Then he saw a look in Emma’s eye. The same look of a dying deer that was struck by a truck and can no longer move. The suffering. The pleading to release her from pain. By any means.

He took a breath. Deep. Controlled.

He raised the gun.

Emma smiled.

Her voice was light. Almost playful. “You better put my money in the grave.” She winked. “I’m not letting you go that easy!”

TUCKER FIRED.