Dead Space: A Short Story Read Online Free PDF Page A

Avery. The thing that was once Willmore plunged itself, arms spread wide and clawing in midair. Avery stepped backwards and extended his crowbar forward, like a sword, the crowbar penetrated through Willmore’s stomach. Unbelievably, Willmore was still alive and biting the air close to Avery’s face. Avery then pushed Willmore off with his legs, while still holding on to the crowbar. He pulled it off from the Commander’s stomach, the crowbar covered in blood and vile. As Willmore fell backwards, he crashed into the incoming Ivanov.
     
    Both zombies recovered quicker than Ryder thought it was humanly possible, but again was there any part of these things that were still human? Avery swung the crowbar like a baseball bat, knocking Willmore down, shattering a few of his teeth, but Ivanov was still coming at him. Avery’s arm was already extended from the swing, so he wouldn’t be able to retrieve it. He was going to get bit.
     
    He was bracing himself, when he saw a giant hammer knock Ivanov down for good. The hammer hit him right across the head, crushing his skull and brain.
     
    It was Samantha.
     
    “You’re back!”
     
    She helped him up.
     
    “Why aren’t you getting the Soyuz ready?”
     
    “There’s a fire blocking the way. I can’t get through it. I didn’t even see any flames, but I still got burned somehow,” Samantha said. Her voice was trembling.
     
    Avery then remembered the odd behavior of combustion in a microgravity environment. Cool flames, as they became known after the FLEX experiment a few years back, were not visible to the naked eye. In fact, no one knows for sure if they are still present at all. All scientists know is that in space, a fire can still burn without flames. Even the chemical composition from “normal” flames in Earth differs completely than from those started in space.
     
    Avery examined Samantha’s injuries. Her right leg had at least second degree burns.
     
    “You’re gonna be okay, Sam,” Avery said.
     
    “I just want to get out of here,” she said. “I can’t believe I just killed a Russian flight engineer. I just killed someone.”
     
    “Sam, you just saved my life,” Avery said, reassuring.
     
    “I know, but I just killed another person. I killed a fellow astronaut.”
     
    “That thing was not Commander Ivanov. I don’t know exactly what it was or how this whole thing began, but that was not a person. You hear me?”
     
    Samantha nodded.
     
    “Could you make out what started the fire?” Avery asked.
     
    “No, I couldn’t get far enough. That’s how I got burned.”
     
    “That’s alright, we’ll figure something out,” Avery said. He still had his oxygen mask on, but took it off and gave it to Samantha.
     
    “Take it,” he told her and she did so. She had lost hers when running away from the invisible flames.
     
    “What about him?” She asked, pointing to Willmore.
     
    “I’ll take care of it,” Avery said.
     
    Avery then headed to the dazed Willmore, but before he could strike him on the head with the crowbar, he noticed something, or rather someone behind Samantha. It was the third and final Russian crew member. He was an imposing man, at least 6’7 and 280 pounds. But he wasn’t a man at all. He was one of them .
     
    “Sam, watch out!” Avery yelled.
     
    Samantha turned around, hammer in hand, but it was too late. The Russian giant, who Avery now remembered was named Alexei, took a chunk off of her right forearm. The hammer fell off her hands and floated idly. In a moment of pure instinct and rage, Avery picked up the hammer and jumped high enough to be at eye-level with Alexei. In one quick swing, he smashed it against the giant’s head. The impact sent Alexei flying backwards, but the giant was not dead, just momentarily incapacitated. This kind of guy would have been almost impossible to take out during a fight, but as a zombie, it made it even harder.
     
    Avery let go of the hammer, which floated away from