On the noon of the 2nd days.

  "A wall!" Rob pointed.

  Sebastian checked his map, they finally arrived.

  "Finally.." Enid stared at Rob "if only yesterday we didn't stop to checked that building, we could arrive sooner."

  He waved his hand "Yeah, yeah."

  "Rob, stop here," said Sebastian "We might scares them."

  They walked to the settlement, hoping to finally meet someone. They found the entrance, but it was already destroyed. Sebastian stared at his friends before they went inside.

  It was small village, most of the buildings were burned to the ground. Sebastian tried calling for anyone, but no one answered.

  "What happened here?" He stared at the charred houses.

  "There's no way a signal coming from here," muttered Rob.

  He saw something on the wall, it was a strange looking symbol of a plus sign with wings and star on the back painted with dark red color.

  "Sebas.." Enid grabbed his hand.

  "Hey!" Rob pointed at the center of the village "What is that?"

  He saw several poles at the center of the settlement.

  "Fences?"

  He told Enid to stay behind while he and Rob went to checked the weird structure. They walked closer and were quickly taken aback the sight they saw.

  "What the-" Rob groaned.

  Sebastian covered his mouth. Severed head, lots of severed head impaled on top of the poles.

  "Shit!" Rob yelled "What the heck!"

  "What is it?" they heard Enid asked, she was approaching them.

  "Don't! stay back!"

  He tried to warned her, but it was too late, she saw the impaled heads and screamed loudly. They tried calming her down but she kept screaming. They brought her aside, away from the gruesome sight.

  After she finally calmed down. He told her to get the transmitter from their vehicle. She nodded and left. They went back to examined the impaled heads, all of them had white hairs, even the children.

  "Their eyes.." Sebastian shook his head "It's gone.."

  "Urgh.." Rob groaned seeing one of the head had it scalp pried open on the altar "her brain was gone too.."

  "Where are their bodies.."

  "This is nuts!" Rob growled "what kind of-"

  They heard footsteps, Enid has returned with the transmitter. He waved at her to stay there before they approached her. He connected the transmitter to his wristband and called Sannekth, informing him what they found. He shown him the impaled heads; Ammaurith gasped seeing it.

  "This concerns me kids," said Sannekth.

  "Let's head back and pick them up, Ampr! ready our ship!!" Ammaurith growled.

  "Calms down Rith. Kids, you want to leave?"

  Sebastian was conflicted but looked at his friends "I want to continue investigating, if you both want to leave then i'll-"

  "Nah! i want to find the bastard who did those to even children!" Rob clenched his fist "I'm staying!"

  Enid was terrified, but she also chose to stay.

  "Hmm.." Sannekth smirked.

  Ammaurith interjected "At least! send Gersoth to accompany them.. No! I'll accompany them myself!"

  "Ammaurith.. we'll be fine," said Sebastian.

  "We'll- we'll be fine here, Ammaurith.." Enid assured her.

  "You heard them Rith," said Sannekth.

  It seemed Ammaurith about to protested.

  "I will protect Enid," Sebastian declared "i promised.."

  "Not just her-" Ammaurith shook her head. She sighed “Be careful..”

  “Sannekth said "Proceed cautiously kids, we'll-"

  "Uhmm.. about the structure?" asked Sebastian.

  "It is a space station. Noth still fixing the reactor."

  Sannekth wristband was buzzing, he opened the comm and Sebastian could heard Gersoth's voice.

  "The core busted. Noth suggests drawing power from our ship, it will takes time-"

  "Hurry up, the sooner we finished here, the sooner we get back to earth!" shouted Ammaurith.

  "What was that about?" asked Gersoth.

  "We got a situation. I’ll tell you later. Kids, i authorize you to do whatever it takes to survive, i'll contact you again later, after we find out more about this station. Good luck kids," he ended the transmission.

  Sebastian put the transmitter inside his bag.

  "So.. what we're gonna do now?" asked Rob.

  "Bring the rai'cawl here.. We'll camp here for the night.."

  "Here? With the heads?" Rob glanced at Enid.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  "Don't worry.. I’ll be fine.."

  "Okay then.."

  Rob arrived with their vehicle and parked beside a house. Sebastian took a shovel from the back compartment, and handed another to Rob.

  "Let's give them a proper burial."

  "I- Let me help!" Enid stammered, she also took a shovel.

  "You sure?" asked Sebastian, her hands was trembling but she nodded.

  Rob smashed the altar into smithereens with his shovel. They dug several graves for each of the heads at the corner of the village. They also built a large gravestone made from the wall; Sebastian drew a Garbitian's symbol on it.

  They went back to their vehicle. Sebastian took the outdoor stove from the back compartment and they began setting up their camp.

  "Where should i put the stove?" asked Rob.

  "Just put it here.." pointing beside him.

  “Okay.”

  Sebastian turned on the stove before checking the map and discussed with Rob their next objective.

  "There are other settlement nearby, the closest one is.. this one,"

  "How about that one?" Rob pointed at the furthest settlement "it's the largest one."

  "Hmm.. it will take about a half of plink to reach there," Sebastian calculating the distance.

  "If only we have the landing craft.." Rob sighed "We'll reach there in no time."

  Enid came with the a pot of stew and sat beside them, looking at the map "What are we going to do tomorrow?" she asked.

  "He suggests we go check this ruin," said Sebastian.

  "Isn't that too far.." Enid looking at Rob.

  "We ought to find clues in larger city," he stated.

  "He's right. When the star rises, we depart," said Sebastian.

  They both nodded.

  Enid went back to their vehicle to get more food. The star almost set, They began placing the lamp on the ground. He accidentally set it too bright causing him and Rob to yelped loudly; Enid giggled at them.

  While waiting for her to finished cooking, Sebastian and Rob went to checked a nearby house which was still largely intact. They spotted an air filtration device on the side of the house, the other houses also had the same device.

  They went inside, a small chamber was separating the entrance to the interior, it was like the airlock chamber back at their old ship. He pressed the button beside the door, but it didn't work. He tried pushing the door, still it won’t budge. Apparently the door wasn't locked when Rob tried pulling the handle.

  “Hahah.. my bad..”

  They looked around the room, the windows were tightly sealed. He tried to opening the door nearby, but it was locked. Rob suggested to break it down.

  "On 3," said Sebastian.

  "3!"

  They kicked the door as hard as they could. It flew from the hinges, crashing on the ground and making a loud thud. They heard the front door barged open and Enid stormed inside with terrified expression, asking them about the loud noise. Sebastian apologized to her and explained they just trying to opened a door. She fumed and quickly left. He sighed seeing Rob smirked.

  They went inside the room, it was a bedroom. They went to check a bookcase beside the small bed.

  He took one of the book. "Cinderella?" flipping the pages. It's a bit different from the movie he watched when he was little.

  They went to the other rooms. They found a large round locket inside a drawer. He opened it and was confused of what it was supposed to be, inside there was no picture, it just arrows pointing at numbers.

  "What's that?" asked Rob.

  "A clock? maybe?" Sebastian stated "yeah, it must be. It's like the one back on our old ship but an older model.. i think.."

  Rob found another large round locket, but this only had NESW written on it instead of numbers and the needle kept pointing in the same direction each time he rotated it.

  "What's this? a clock too?" he gave it to Sebastian.

  He examined it, "I have no idea."

  They heard Enid calling for them, the dinner was ready. They gathered everything they found and went outside. She was surprised seeing them brought back a pile of items.

  While eating, they examined all the items they found. Enid was particularly fascinated with the books. Aside from more story books like the Cinderella, there were also book about cooking recipes.

  "Ammaurith will love this," she hugged the cooking book.

  After finished eating, they stored all the items they found inside the compartment.

  When the skies was completely dark. He told Rob to activates some drones to guard the surrounding area. They went inside their vehicle to get some rest for the night.

  Loud alarms awakened him. He peeked outside, it was coming from their drones, alarming them of intruders. Enid stared at him with terrified looks. He told them to get their corinths before they stepped outside.

  The intruder was surrounded by their drones. It tried to swatting their drones with a pole. Sebastian motioned at them to followed behind him.

  "Let me go!" the intruder shouted as one of the drone lifted them up "let me go- Wait! my-".

  Sebastian saw something fell from the intruder's face. He heard a choking sound coming from the intruder. He told them to hurried. Rob ordered the drones to ceased and to lowers the intruder.

  The intruder was gasping for air and convulsed violently. They have a hard time to tried holding them down. Rob removed the intruder's hoodie, revealing a really pale girl with shiny white hair. She tried to clawed her neck and chest as soon as they released her hands; her eyes redden and her lips began turning blue.

  Sebastian noticed a mask on the ground near him. A realization dawned upon him, he quickly picked her up and ran to their vehicle; Rob and Enid followed behind him.

  He told Rob to opened the door. He went inside and laid the girl on the seat before telling the others to closed all doors. He activated the air purifier and the heater. The girl stopped convulsing, but she still gasping for air and shivering.

  "What happened to her?" asked Rob.

  "I think.. she can't breathe without her mask.. quick! get the med kit and blanket!"

  Enid returned with the med kit. She took a sedative from the bag and injected the girl with it. After the girl fallen asleep, Sebastian wrapped her with a blanket and put a breathing mask on her face.

  Enid scanned the girl with the med device and administering the cure suggested by it. "She should be fine now.." she sat down, putting aside the med device.

  She then told Sebastian and Rob to sleep outside.

  "huh?" Rob looking confused "why?"

  "Just sleep outside!" she yelled.

  Rob grumbled as they head out and sat near the stove.