Chapter 26: Unknown
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“Mu… Mu… Are you alright? Respond to me! Mu…” The interior of the cabin had turned into a vacuum as Ye Chong’s sinister foreboding grew stronger and stronger. It was pitch-black in the helmet and he could not see a thing! He tried calling Mu in his mind desperately, but there was no response from Mu!
Ye Chong panicked in cold sweat. He had always been connected to Mu via brainwaves so how was it even possible to lose contact? Did anything bad happen to Mu?
Ye Chong hurriedly removed the helmet on his head. A glance through the transparent protective shield, he was astonished by the sight before him.
The cabin was messy and the batteries were floating randomly in the air. The iron lizard on the indentation was gone as well while the former hole with size of a palm had become large enough to fit a man by then. Every ounce of air in the cabin had leaked out while the rolling peels of walls of the interior were a horror. The cabin was dead silent with the lights blinking weakly.
What… What actually happened?
Ye Chong tried inhibiting the fear in him. Despite that, he could not help but shriek at the sight of Mu, “Mu…Mu… What happened to you? Come on! Reply me! Stop messing with me! Come… Come out al…already… I know you would be fine… you would surely be okay… You are so strong… who could defeat you… Mu… please… stop hiding… power on… power on…” Ye Chong let out hysteric screams.
His coarse voice bounced violently in the protective field yet there was no response; Ye Chong yelped in fatigue was as if the aged wolf howling in desperation.
He finally exhausted his stamina and slowly lost his consciousness, falling asleep in the shield.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. A blaring alarm surprised Ye Chong from his sleep as he jumped from his laying posture seeing a peculiar button beneath his seat flashing frantically.
With a closer look, it struck Ye Chong like lightning. He cursed at the misfortunes that tended to come all at once; catastrophes never come alone. The air supply in the shield is reaching its limit, and by then, the system would open up the shield automatically to prevent pilots from being suffocated to death.
Beep… The alarm stopped abruptly and the shield unlocked immediately. Ye Chong, unguarded, was blown up by the airflow from all sides. Without anything to hold on to, he was thrown brutally to the wall on his back. He looked around quickly and reacted quickly; he grabbed a hook on the wall of the cabin and stabilized his position. The sequence of the actions caused major discomfort in Ye Chong who was holding his breath the whole time who felt as if his lungs were burnt. He swallowed his saliva a few times while his left hand searched at his waist as he pulled a soft tube with a nozzle which he instantly stuffed into his mouth. Finally regaining his breath, Ye Chong’s pale face finally had a tinge of color.
This precious emergency kit was kept carefully. Never knew it would be needed today! This is an antique kit sculptured gorgeously which attracted Ye Chong to take it home back then; he thought it would be a pretty good decoration, but he never expected his papa to identify its actual purpose right away. It was formerly an emergency supply kit produced by the famous Undine Corp 50 years ago. Nonetheless, Ye Chong did not recognize such kit as he tossed it right to his papa. Unexpectedly, there was once papa became extremely ill and Trash Planet-12 never had any form of medication. If you were sick, you had to bear with it. Endure sickness to survive or not death comes knocking at your door. Beyond Ye Chong’s expectation, this very tiny kit eased papa’s illness and he lived through it! That was when Ye Chong finally learned the value of his little kit.
Papa stated that this kit contains pure oxygen and is enough to supply an adult for 20 hours!
Ye Chong treasured this tiny case ever since which he never knew could save him at a time like this!
Ye Chong couldn’t be bothered of how clumsily he acted. This emergency called for the right solution in split seconds! The kit could only supply two hours of oxygen since papa had already used it once; if carefully used, it could last 3 hours at most by estimation.
In other words, if he failed to find a solution to remedy the issue within 3 hours, then death by suffocation awaits!
He glanced at his surrounding and captured the entire situation in the cabin. Standing between life and death, Ye Chong was actually much calmer than he should be. Mu could be in danger and he could barely do a thing to help out. The in-built ventilation system has been damaged and the oxygen supply had fully depleted by leakage.
Am I really going to die here today? He laughed bitterly.
Such a huge indentation, was it caused by the crash?
Ye Chong stepped gently on the wall and propelled to the toolkit at the corner sluggishly. It felt awkward to be in zero-gravity. Ye Chong sensed uneasiness for he couldn’t control his body strength freely like he was on the land which was a demanding requirement.
Ye Chong brushed off the thoughts because it was pointless.
He opened up the toolkit and found a durable fabric rope. He tied one end at the bottom of the driving seat and the other around himself. Due to the lack of gravity in space, if you were to float in the air without anything to hold onto, you should be expecting death anytime soon!
The idea of being dead in Mu’s embrace doesn’t seem too bad. Ye Chong forced a smile, trying to be optimistic in order to boost his will to survive so, he would be likelier to survive. Ye Chong continued to encourage himself.
Ye Chong thought of dispersing the fear towards the unknown deep in him; maybe this was the strong need of survival coming from inside of him.
He hovered over the indentation with caution.
The outside was dark like an abyss in the jaw of a gigantic monster; bottomless enough to engulf everything.
Ye Chong switched on the light tied to his wrist and took a deep breath from the oxygen supply of the kit and mustered his courage as he pressed at the edge of the crater and propelled out of the cabin.
The tightened nerves caused the muscles on Ye Chong’s face to lose senses. It was this slight paralysis which Ye Chong was certain that this moment was the only time he could be this nervous his whole life.
What awaited him on the outside? Meteors? Mutated life forms or some other strange apparitions? To human beings, the unknown instilled the most fear.
The powerful light coming from his wrist shone everything around him!
He flinched at the sight before him and was at loss for words!
He gathered his thoughts and started to ponder on chain of events that led to this damage. A guess would be that Mu, at his intense velocity somehow crashed into a spaceship at its vertical orbit which it didn’t dodge for some reason. In the end, Mu viciously thrust into the abdomen of the ship. The heavy crash was probably the cause of Mu’s injury. Ye Chong speculated.
Half of Mu’s body was still embedded inside the body of this spacecraft.
Exiting from Mu’s cabin led him to a long and narrow corridor with debris floating in the air. Horrible wreckage was seen around the corridor. There were signs of scorches too. It seemed like there was a major explosion!
The lighting system of the spaceship appeared to have been completely obliterated. The darkness of the corridor sent chills to his spine. It exudes undefined creepiness. Ye Chong was aware of the situation but remained calm. He was encouraged at the thought of his chance for survival!
He scanned all corners of the corridor aided by the light on his arm as he cautiously drifted to the deepest side of the path.