The Soul Eaters (The Thin Hex Line Book 1) by Gwyndolyn Russell (e reader txt) 📕

out, went for the door. He looked around the frame for a service panel.

Jackal, Reaper, and Sparrow followed. Mjolnir placed a hand to the door, his other gripping the handle of his war hammer.

Every single hair upon his body stood. His tail flicked side to side.

Ruby opened the service panel. Snipped some wires and touched them together. It took a few tries before the lights flashed. Air rushed out from the vents around the door.

Mjolnir pulled his hammer free from its straps.

The door split in half horizontally, both sections peeling away to reveal the interior of the airlock. The interior was lit up red with a single light. A bell was supposed to be ringing, but it came out like a whine.

The team stepped in slowly, rifles against their chests. Ruby messed with the console for a short time. The door shut behind them. Air rushed in.

Mjolnir touched the wall, his head nearly pressed to it. He walked, hand sliding across the cool metal. He could hear breathing on the other side. He followed it to the door, put the side of his helmet right up against it.

The light turned green.

CRACK!

The light shattered. Glass rained down over their heads.

Sparrow yelped, slipping her fingers around Ruby's arm.

The door's seal broke, but did not split open. Ruby hit the button again. Nothing. Again. Still nothing.

With a grumble, Ruby slammed his hand into the console. Hit the button several times.

The door opened.

Despite being in their suits, they were hit with a wall of something foul. It had been a long time since a door had been opened. Mothballs and sour garlic flooded into the airlock.

Ruby gagged.

"Jesus Christ, what the fucking hell is that smell?!" He choked.

"How long you reckon this ship has been here?" Jackal stepped out, peering down one end of the blackened corridor.

Mjolnir followed, looking down the opposite end.

"A lot longer than a couple days." Reaper guessed.

The flashlights on their rifles, and helmets sent concentrated beams of light a few meters ahead. Each beam only spread a few feet apart, with helmets double that with less intensity. Everything else was pitch black around the lights.

All they could see were the walls unscathed. Somewhere down the end of the corridor wires sparked, hanging from the ceiling.

"Take a left," Reaper ordered, "let's head to the ecosphere. We can figure out where to go from there."

Jackal took the lead, headed down the middle. Mjolnir was right behind him.

"Where is everybody?" Sparrow asked after a couple of minutes.

It was as if everyone on board disappeared without a trace. Nothing was out of the ordinary beyond the lack of power.

“Mjolnir, what’s on your mind?” Reaper stepped up closer to the ardrizi.

“I swear, by Azotl’s strength, I can hear something inside the walls.”

“The only life the scans have picked up are the survivors in the bridge.” Reaper reassured him.

“I can’t be going crazy. It’s so loud, can you not hear it?”

Everyone stopped. Reaper put the side of his helmet to the wall. They were silent for a moment. He focused as hard as he could. He listened for any sound.

“There’s nothing there.” He straightened himself.

Mjolnir’s face dropped. How could no one else hear it? He pointed at the wall, eyes narrowed. His finger trailed across until it stopped at a hole. A vent grating had been ripped off halfway, leaving a gap of blackness.

Jackal and Reaper joined the ardrizi, staring into the darkness. They leaned in close, their headlamps shining against the white panels around the hole. Two red sparks broke through the darkness. Swayed side to side.

Jackal lifted his rifle, letting its light shine into the hole.

The red sparks disappeared.

An empty air vent.

Reaper looked up to Mjolnir, who looked absolutely dumbfounded. He heard it.

“Maybe you need a with the doctor.” Ruby suggested.

“My hearing is fine!” Mjolnir insisted.

“You may be picking up the electricity.” Jackal added.

“No.” Mjolnir shook his head. “I can hear breathing.”

“Let’s move on.” Reaper started back down the hall. He did not want to suggest hallucinations. They were in near pitch black, on a foreign ship that had suffered a catastrophic fate. They were all freaked out.

They did not make it much further before Sparrow pointed out a strange set of lights just out of range of their flashlights.

Vermillion insufflated upwards, short strips lightly spaced apart. She could have sworn it outlined a figure.

"What is that?"

Jackal and Reaper stepped closer. The lights continued in their strange pattern.

They all continued down the hall slowly. Rifles shouldered.

The lights never got closer, no matter how far they walked.

Instead, the lights disappeared. They were left with a door and a turn. Black smoke hugged the floors, not even knee high. The ship was cold as is, but that smoke was even colder. Frost fractured into place on the metal surface.

"Where did they go…." Ruby looked down the hall.

There were no matching lights to the red ones they thought they were approaching.

"Maybe we shouldn't be here." Sparrow backed away from the door. She shivered, hugging that rifle to her chest.

"You can wait in the shuttle if you want." Reaper squeezed her shoulder. "Can we get through this door?"

"Yeah, sure, if anything fucking worked!" Ruby grumbled. Hitting the button did nothing.

"Make it work."

Ruby shut up. The last thing he wanted was for Reaper to kick his ass. He heard about the last guy that defied his orders and Ruby was not willing to suffer the same fate.

He knelt at the door console to pull open its casing.

"What do you think happened?" Jackal watched down the hall.

"I couldn't imagine it was a fight. This is a fleebeeron ship. Who would want to attack them?" Mjolnir watched their rear.

"Without weapons, they wouldn't stand a chance. They would have ran from any threat." Reaper added.

"What about that... stuff on the outside?" Sparrow chimed in.

"Don't think I'm qualified to answer that." Reaper shook his head.

The door opened.

A brief hall opened wide at the other end. A check-in desk on one side. Benches and plants on the other. They made it to the lobby of