diff --git a/src/ikarus-runtime.c b/src/ikarus-runtime.c
index 15535b3..b6b9456 100644
--- a/src/ikarus-runtime.c
+++ b/src/ikarus-runtime.c
@@ -978,7 +978,11 @@ ikp
 ikrt_exit(ikp status, ikpcb* pcb){
   ik_delete_pcb(pcb);
   assert(total_allocated_pages == 0);
-  exit((int)status);
+  if(is_fixnum(status)){
+    exit(unfix(status));
+  } else {
+    exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
+  }
 }
 
 ikp