Color - Mutant Among Us

Story by Leena

“I found Annie’s body!” Leena exclaimed. “It was outside Medbay and I think I know who it was.”

“Oooh, oooh, I know!” Annie chimed in. “It was-“

“Shhhh, sweetie, it’s a game. You have to play dead now.” Thea said gently.

“Oh… Okay! Bleeargh!” Annie said, hamming up her death performance and then going silent.

It was month seven of the lockdown and everyone at the lab still hasn’t been able to get back to work, so to keep up with each other, they decided to schedule an online game night. This week’s game was Among Us, since it had suddenly become so popular on Twitch, and since Thea was watching Annie that night, she invited her along too.

It was… an interesting experience to say the least.

“As I was saying,” continued Leena, “I had completed three tasks. I scanned my ID, I was doing wires in electrical, and I was going to medbay for the medbay scan when I found the body, and the whole time I saw Karin just wandering around and doing nothing.”

“What!?” shouted Karin. “I barely even know how to play this game! Besides why would I do tasks anyway? That’s your job.”

“We all have to do tasks, Karin” said Thea. “If we complete them all then we all win.”

“Yeah, and if we vote out the imposters we all win too, and we win faster, so just do that.” Karin said flippantly.

Thea sighed “OK, then who do you think it is?”

“I don’t know!” Karin said annoyed. “I wasn’t even at my computer for most of that round. I was getting a drink.”

“Why weren’t you at your computer!” Leena shouted.

“Because I was GETTING a DRINK!” Karin shouted back.

“Girls, girls, let’s just try to narrow it down. I’ve been with Lucy the whole time.” said Sophie.

“And I was with Sophie the whole time” replied Lucy. “And Carl knows I’m clean. He was following me and he saw me do the waste chute.”

“Can confirm, we were-” Carl said.

“That doesn’t mean anything!” Karin interjected. “I can never tell where Carl is or what he’s doing. He’s always slightly off screen.”

“Doesn’t that mean he never got close enough to someone to murder them?” said Sophie.

“Yeah, Carl seems safe,” said Lucy “and if he is clean and me and Sophie are clean, then it narrows it down to who was around the murder site. Who was near medbay? Weren’t you, Leena?”

“But I reported the body!” Leena shouted into her mic.

“Could be a self-report” Lucy said, “You could be lying like a dog right now!”

“I’m a dog!” Annie piped in.

“Shhhh!” corrected Thea.

Leena grumbled under her breath “OK Thea, what about you? I wasn’t seeing you doing any tasks.”

“I’m already done with my Tasks” replied Thea. “I was working on them when everyone else was trying to fix the lights.”

“Why weren’t you trying to fix the lights?”

“Because almost everyone on the ship was trying to fix them, and I wanted to get tasks done quickly. Besides, the imposter wanted everyone to go fix lights so that it took focus off medbay, where the body was.”

“Doesn’t that just make you more vulnerable to getting killed? Why would you go alone?”

“I would have run as soon as I saw anyone, and I did, and it was you Leena.”

“AHA!” said Karin. “See, Never trust a spider!”

“But I REPORTEDthe BODY” said Leena losing her patience.

“Could be a self-report” chimed in Lucy again.

“Why would I self-report so early in the game?” said Leena.

“To make us think you were safe,” said Sophie.

“What, NO! Access, come on, I saw you around Medbay earlier, you have to know I’m safe,” pleaded Leena.

“Me, oh yes I was there.” Access said.

“Wait” Karin interjected “I wasn’t doing much but I thought I saw you near the lights too.”

“Oh, that’s simple” Access explained, “I used the vents to quickly get from medbay to the lights.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Uhm Access?” Thea said softly, and a bit embarrassed.

“Yes?”

“Only… the imposter… can use vents…”

“O-oh…”

“…”

Access was ejected from the ship.

Access was the imposter.

One imposter remains.