Chapter 1: Awakening Nightmare

I slowly opened my eyes, groggily taking in my surroundings. The dimly lit room was a blur, and my head throbbed with a dull, persistent ache. I tried to sit up, but a wave of nausea washed over me, forcing me back onto the cold, metallic floor.

As I struggled to clear my foggy mind, fragmented memories began to resurface. I recalled being part of a rescue team on the USG Ishimura, a massive mining ship that had gone dark. Our mission was to investigate the distress signal and rescue any survivors.

But something had gone horribly wrong.

I remembered the eerie, abandoned corridors, the mangled bodies, and the...the things. Grotesque, humanoid creatures with twisted, elongated limbs and bulbous, pulsing growths. They had been everywhere, their screams echoing through the ship's intercom.

And then...nothing.

I must have blacked out. But how did I end up here? Where was "here," anyway?

With a Herculean effort, I pushed myself up to a sitting position, surveying my surroundings more carefully. I was in some kind of cramped, makeshift medical bay. The walls were lined with rusty medical equipment, and a lone, flickering light overhead cast eerie shadows.

A figure lay on a nearby stretcher, covered in a bloodstained sheet. I hesitated for a moment before slowly getting to my feet and approaching the stretcher.

As I pulled back the sheet, a jolt of adrenaline coursed through my veins. It was my teammate, Jennifer. Her eyes were frozen in a permanent stare, her skin gray and cold to the touch.

A cold realization crept over me: I was alone. And I had no idea how I was going to survive.

Suddenly, the intercom crackled to life, spewing forth a frantic, distorted voice: "This is... Engineering... We...have...breach...in...sector...four... Repeat, sector four..."

My heart sank. The creatures. They were still out there.

And I was running out of time.

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