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HMSS Pangolin Prime Chapter 7

Chapter 7
It was surrounded by bodies and entrails of the old crew, the walls were painted with blood, as well as large floating orbs of it around the room. The creature resembled a hole in the wall, filled with teeth and surrounded by tentacles, all of which was a dark pink colour, whether that was a natural colour or if it was stained with blood I did not know. My fellow crewmates that I had arrived with, floated motionless in the room, attached to the walls by some sort of umbilical cord, their helmets had fogged up indicating that they were still breathing. I darted back around the corner and prayed that it hadn't seen me, let alone smelt me. I backed away from the corner trying to not draw attention to myself, and yet one of those tentacles followed me round and slowly came towards me. I span around and pushed my way down the corridor, attempting to put as much distance between myself and the incoming tentacle. No matter what I did, the tentacle continued towards me, I could tell it was following my scent as it just bumped off of the floating debris. I kept moving away until I came to a door which was stuck shut. “Shit” I said under my breath, I tried forcing the door open, but to no avail. I turned around to see the tentacle coming towards me. Damn, I felt like a redshirt in a movie, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, all I can do was wait for the tentacle. I started to think about what it was going to do, I guessed it would drag me to the mouth in the wall, but any more than that I had no idea. The thought of the slimy red thing touching me gave me shivers, I just had to hope it wouldn't try and get into my suit...bleugh…
I was too occupied with the thought, that I didn’t notice how close it had gotten. I got as close to the wall as possible and when it got to me, I pushed off and tried to get back around it. Unfortunately with a sudden burst of speed, the tentacle made a u-turn and wrapped around my ankle. “NO!” I shouted to no-one in particular as it started to drag me down the way we came, I tried to grab onto anything I could, but nothing gave me enough purchase to stop. As I flailed hopelessly the tentacle dragged me through the corridors, every so often I would bounce off one of the walls, definitely giving me some bruises, and cakeing me in the slime that coated them. There was a slight pause while it adjusted its grip on me, the tentacle wrapping further up my leg, now it had a grip to above my knee, I tried to free myself, but it gripped tighter. It dragged me all the way back down the way I had came, back to the blood filled room and back to the mouth in the wall. All I could think about was that this was just like a horror movie, and how everyone was going to die, until the saviour ex machina arrived. But no-one was coming, so this meant I had to be the hero, great. I decided enough was enough and pulled the knife from its sheath, and plunged it into the tentacle, a light blue goo spouting from the wound, I pulled the knife from the tentacle and it coiled away, leaving me floating. The mouth opened and closed and I guessed that it would have been roaring if there were any air. The little joy I felt with being freed from the grasp of the tentacle, quickly vanished as five or so tentacles shot at me and grabbed me on each limb and around my middle, I couldn't move to get at any of the tentacles off me and it slowly moved me towards the mouth. As I got closer I could see that the creature had breached through the wall, and must extend out beyond the wall, as the area behind its mouth was at least a metre in depth. There was jagged metal from the bulkhead around the mouth but it had sealed the hole with its mass, the tentacles came from small holes dotted around its mouth, the one I had injured had returned within the creature, leaving the five remaining tentacles to hold onto me. It tried to eat me feet first, but when it let go of my legs to avoid eating itself, I just straddled the hole, pressing against the force of the tentacles with my legs, I was not going to be space monster food today! The tentacles let go of me for a moment, and I pushed off the mouth, but they quickly grabbed me again, goddamn thing won't give up! It had me by the middle, all the tentacles pushing my from my back into the mouth front first, I was pushing myself away with both my hands and feet, but the slime was making me slip. It pulled me from the mouth and I lost my grip, now being at the mercy of the tentacles again. They wrapped around me, all around pinning my arms to my sides, preventing any movement and shoved me head first into the mouth. The last thing I thought before I entered its teeth rimmed domain, was that I really hoped I wasn't supposed to be the hero.

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