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A screaming sound was the first thing she heard.

Pain was the next sensation, her entire body feeling like a mass of pain, and the screaming continued.

Only it wasn’t screaming, because it was still going on, a constant droning that no living being could have kept up without pausing for breath.

Everything was a blur; dark red lighting dominated, and as she sat upright she joined the strange endless scream as she felt the pain in her side.

It only got worse as something grabbed her, yanking her to her feet.

Davyyd’s face was there, in front of hers.  She could barely see him through the darkness and her own tears, but she recognized something about him.

“Can you move?” he was shouting.

She nodded or must have said something to that effect, because suddenly they were moving.  She had no idea if she could really move, the pain in her side was almost blinding.

Adrenaline was helping, as she stumbled along with him.  The lights were out; even most of the emergency lights were out, and the reddish glow she was seeing were from fires.

Black smoke poured from an open door as they stumbled past, and she wondered why the bulkhead had not automatically shut if there was a fire.  As she glanced in, saw the raging inferno, with a handful of drones and Response Officers battling it, she realized that the bulkhead door had been completely torn off.

“What happened?” she yelled.

“Don’t know!” Davyyd yelled back.  “We’re hit, that’s all I know.”

“How bad?” she asked.  It seemed a dumb question, really, given what she was seeing.  But the Maria’s Cog was a big ship.

“Bad,” he said.

“What’s that noise?” she yelled.

“Fusion reactor warning,” he yelled back.

That wasn’t a fusion reactor warning sound, she thought.  Fusion reactor warnings weren’t continuous-

The sound was growing.

“Faster!” Davyyd cried.  They were running now, she was panting for breath and crying out with each step, pain shooting through her that even the adrenaline couldn’t fully cover.

The screaming sound reached a crescendo – and kept rising.  She could practically feel it now, and she saw that a bulkhead door ahead was closing.

The air was growing hot.

“Through!” Davyyd yelled, throwing her – and himself – through.

She looked back, down the long hall, and saw a light glowing.  It was not directly in sight, but down along the hall as it curved, so bright that all simply seemed to be turning white.

She saw other people down the hall, she couldn’t tell who.  They were running towards the door, but then they were simply gone.

“Don’t look!” Davyyd yelled, pulling her away.

The security hatch closed, sealing.

And she realized that it was the light of a fusion reactor breach.

The transparent titanium window was nearby, and she staggered over, looking out into space.

A loop of pure white light ripped out of the ship, and the block dimmed.  For a moment she thought it was the interior dimming to protect her eyes.

But no; it was the outside darkening as it began to burn.

“What are you thinking?” Davyyd cried.  “Get away from there, we have to keep going!”

She looked back at him, and saw that the heavy door was already warping, the air near it distorting from the heat contained behind it.

They ran.

It was only snippets, moments after that.

She staggered, falling, but Davyyd dragged her back to her feet.

Another door shutting behind them, held until the last moment by another Response Officer who was burned over half his body, but still doing his job.

Davyyd tried to help him, but he waved them on, yelling something.  Lily did not catch what, but she understood the gist.

With his rad exposure, he was dead already.

The escape pod area was rumbling by the time they got there, and Davyyd kept shoving her onward, though she was gasping.  The air was too hot; something else terrible was happening, but she did not even know what.

“Get in!” he yelled, opening the pod bay door and shoving her inside.

“You too!” she cried.

He shook his head.  “I have to help others!”

She grabbed his arm, but he pulled it away.  “There’s another reactor, it’s going critical!  They need-“

Something behind him exploded, staggering him forward into the pod.

She grabbed his arm, pulling him out of the way of the sealing door.

The pod was screeching an alert about a high-g maneuver, and she wasn’t even sure if she was fully strapped in before it crescendoed.

Everything jerked, and she lost consciousness once again.

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