Loyalties (an Among Us fanfic)

5. Friend

Even though the door to Green's bunk was open, I knocked on it anyways to let him know I was here. On any other day, I would've just barged in there to start harassing him like the good friend I was. But this wasn't any other day.

"Hey," said Green, who was organizing some stuff in a drawer.

I came and sat at the edge of his bed. "How are you?"

This was already awkward.

"I'm okay, I guess," he replied, closing the drawer. Then, he sat right beside me, our spacesuits grazing each other by the shoulders. "You?"

"Terrible."

"Because of ejecting Purple?"

Even though only about an hour had passed since that sickening ejection, I already knew that it would take forever for me to get over this. All that lingered in my mind was the sight of her pained and swelling face as she struggled and thrashed for oxygen she'd never get.

Most of the crew simply hung out in their own bunks, but when I walked past their doors, I could tell that none of them were happy about it.

Green shifted closer by a millimetre as we both kept staring at the door. "I know. I hate it too. If there was even a microscopic chance of resolving this without having to kill anybody, I would take that over winning the lottery. What just happened felt like organized murder."

Even though we were wearing thick spacesuits, I somehow felt his warmth. Then, I thought back to what White told me after we watched Purple die. "I guess we have no choice but to move on and trust that it was the right choice, huh . . ."

Because if it wasn't, then . . .

Green sighed and nodded. Being with somebody else who felt utterly terrible about what just happened was comforting, in a way. More comforting than reassuring each other with words, in fact.

After a few seconds, I looked at him from the corner of my eye and quietly asked, "Let me guess—you still don't trust me, right?"

He shook his head slowly. "I'm so sorry, Red. You know how paranoid I am. Unless we are absolutely one hundred percent sure that the impostor is gone, I can't trust anybody at all."

There was a very clear sadness in his voice. Somehow, it made me remember our childhood. Let me just say that Green didn't really have the best social life. Ever since then, I had been the only one he trusted, but now, that position was out of my reach.

I might've been acting without thinking, but I placed my hand on top of his. Even though we both had gloves on, the touch brought back even more memories of the old times. Next, I gently squeezed his fingers as my way of saying, You better not die out there.

He shifted his hand and made it so that he could squeeze mine back. That was his way of saying, You too.

***

Our pit stop in Mira HQ was going to be a short one, but I would cherish every minute of it.

If I had to be completely honest, Mira HQ was a pretty awesome place. I had been there before on a trip during astronaut training, and from the way I acted while walking through the structure, I may as well have just been a kid going to a parent's workplace. And whenever there was a window in sight, I found it impossible to take my eyes off the outside view.

The Skeld had landed at the great helipad at the top a few hours ago, and all eight of us roamed the floor at the top to determine our tasks. The workers of Mira HQ would properly inspect the Skeld to bring it back to peak condition so we wouldn't have to keep checking for faulty wires and dirty filters and whatnot. We decided to repay them by doing the same to the top floor of the HQ, and the tasks it provided were quite similar to the ones we'd been doing on the ship. To add to that, we had a few solid samples collected during our trip and already present on the Skeld, and we were going to leave them here for the Mira workers to inspect while we departed to the final destination of our voyage—Polus.