“Hi Captain.” It said with Sarah’s voice, but my mind was completely elsewhere, for while the center creature gave Chloe a little greeting, I was transfixed by the one to its right, which was, in turn, staring at me.

  I couldn’t believe my eyes. I didn’t want to believe them, yet at the same time I did. My mind raced as it processed which version of reality would be preferable, one where my gut feeling was proven correct or false, and came up far short of an answer. Eventually, however, the captive creature gave me a smile, and all my doubts were washed away.

  There it is, that is what I used to live for. That smile had never failed to give me the warm fuzzies.

  This time, however, for the first time ever, it did. In fact, it made my stomach twist in complete dread as my mind struggled to process how to handle this situation. So distracted was I that I didn’t notice the chimeric abomination slowly approaching the one that held my focus until it stuck one of its freaky arms near the back of her neck.

  “A-Ali-“ I tried to call out, but was interrupted.

  “Hmmm… Electromagnetic and atmospheric vibration sensitivity with alternative communication, relatively high muscle density and cognitive function, and a versatile body plan… Yes, you will be most useful.” The creature spoke in clear if somewhat garbled English after, presumably, having poked into Alice’s brain.

  This, after everything that we had recently been through, finally broke me. I tried to move, to push the monster away but my limbs failed me, tried to say something, but words escaped me. I couldn’t even find the words to describe such a profound violation as twisting a person’s body and probing their mind, only to call them ‘useful’ immediately after. The action was utterly repulsive, unspeakable… Hell, inconceivable-

  “That shit’s fucked.” Said the captain, pulling my mind back into reality.

  Ah… Fair enough, I guess she found the right words to describe it.

  “So you say, but in truth, this is a welcoming ceremony. A happy day.” The creature spoke, once again bringing my nightmares to life. The captain didn’t immediately respond, instead eyeing the creature warily. When she finally spoke, it was to try and gain information from our captors, as though our original mission in coming here wasn’t already fucked beyond belief.

  “So, I’m assuming this is where all your freaky Guardians come from. I’d be impressed if I wasn’t so disgusted. Anyway, since we can apparently speak, on whose orders are you acting? I believe they will be more than a little pissed when they see what you’ve done.” She asked, putting the weight of our people’s wrath behind her words. It was a bluff, naturally, nobody wanted an all-out war between societies capable of accelerating any object to relativistic speeds, and even then, there might be no undoing what’s been done to them.

  What’s been done to Alice…

  “Hhnngrh…” The creature made a noise like a thousand skittering bugs all grinding chalk on a blackboard at once. “The ignorance of the uninformed, always failing to appreciate the beauty of metamorphosis before their eyes. No matter, we’ll make a hero out of you yet. In the meantime…” It continued as it removed its appendage from the back of what might be Alice’s neck.

  Suddenly, with a slurping noise, the stringy material connecting the different, detached body parts on all three peop… beings, held by the giant pillslugs were pulled taut, as though they were strings being pulled by an invisible puppeteer, placing all of their limbs into their corresponding sockets. A second later, they were released from their bindings and fell to the floor, where they caught themselves with their hands and knees, which were apparently now properly attached.

  The abomination ignored this, however, as it slowly crept closer to us, stopping just out of arm’s reach.

  At this distance, I could see the viscous slime practically oozing off every surface of this thing. I expected to be assaulted by its smell, but anything coming off it was practically indistinguishable from what emanated from our surroundings.

  “…I’m curious to see what it was that you’ve been so careful to keep hidden since you were pulled from your cage.” The monster completely ignored the captain’s line of questioning with an accusatory inquiry of its own.

  The woman beside me barely managed to hide a smirk behind a grimace as she reached into one of her concealed pockets.

  “This.” She said, producing the detonator for the charges we had set up, and then the floor beneath us collapsed.

  “So, are we doing this, or…?” Asked the tiny woman sitting on my lap. At some point, Fae, being even smaller than the… Curt. Had managed to worm her way out of her cell and into mine, not wanting to be caught out in the open like everyone else. She had then got to work on fixing up my arm until it was mostly capable of moving and shooting, although true repairs would have to wait until we were safe.

  At the moment we were discussing whether we should override the detonator on the explosive charges set near the end of our prison cells, a task which would have been easy, if not for the fact that not knowing what the captain, who held the actual detonator, was going through, meant that at any moment an invisible signal could make them go off, likely catching whoever happened to be working on the bombs in the blast. Since that would have to be the little fairy, I was strongly against the idea.

  Or rather, I had been against it. As it stood, the longer we waited, the more likely it was that some creature would walk in and finish us off, so eventually I had to relent.

  “It’s been radio silent for a while. Longer than I’m comfortable with, so fine, blow the thing.” I said, but just as she got up to do just that, she was interrupted by our comms coming to life.

  “The hell are we?” Came Chloe’s voice through the device, and she was answered by Mike, whose voice was barely audible: “-bove the prison cells.”

  “They’re alive!” Fae said, her excitement coming just short of turning her words into a scream as hope returned to her eyes.

  “They are.” I agreed, a smile forming in my face at knowing that at least some of our colleagues were still around.

  “Do you think that means Alice and the rest are-?” She started saying, but stopped herself. Of all of us, Alice had been the one with the mildest temper; her eternally calm demeanor, which even in tough situations only ever escalated to worried or annoyed at most, was a soothing presence for all of us, and especially for the ever-excitable Mike, whose tendency to jump at every surprise was anchored by the woman’s down to earth personality. Watching her go had been especially heartbreaking.

  “That shit’s fucked.” Came the captain’s voice, and if we had hoped we might be able to glean information about their situation through this device, those hopes were immediately dashed by the captain’s sometimes surprisingly abysmal communication skills.

  “Do you think that means…?” Fae started again, but stopped herself as we both shared a look of confusion, and resigned ourselves to keep listening in on the situation until we could come up with a viable… Well, not plan, but at least a course of action.

  “So, I’m assuming this is where all your freaky Guardians come from. I’d be impressed if I wasn’t so disgusted. Anyway, since we can apparently speak, on whose orders are you acting? I believe they will be more than a little pissed when they see what you’ve done.” The captain’s voice came out of our communication devices, once again doing little to give us any idea what was going on on their end, other than that she was talking to somebody.

  Does that mean she found the one in charge? Not likely since she was asking for their superiors, but she might have found out who got these slugs into space.

  “This.” The captain said, a second before the charges went off and the entire ceiling caved in.

  On the one hand, our exit was clear, blocked only by a bunch of rubble that Chloe was slowly digging herself out of. On the other, it was suddenly pandemonium out there, with a mess of screeches and screams echoing through the halls and literally making the walls vibrate.

  “Orders?” I asked in as few words as possible while I helped the captain come free of her interment.

  “Fucking… To the pod, MOVE!” She said with a groan. I went to help her get up but she pushed me away.

  “Go! I’ll catch up, do NOT wait for me!” She said, frantically looking around, likely trying to find Mike who we thought had been next to her.

  I followed her orders, even though I didn’t like them, since this was most definitely not the time to question the chain of command, so I quickly placed a little Fae on my shoulder and booked it in the general direction of our pod, according to the barebones digital map Mike had provided.

  It didn’t take long before we encountered the first Guardians rushing in our direction.

  Well, shit. Here we go again.

  I sized up the creature rushing towards us without slowing down. Our previous encounter had told me a head-on collision wouldn’t work out as well for me as I would have normally expected, especially since I had a passenger this time. So, I aimed to charge at it and juke to the side at the last moment to slip past it, only when we finally reached each other…

  It juked to the side and slipped past me.

  Huh?

  It took a conscious effort not to stumble at how weirdly and quickly the situation was reversed, and, since apparently that thing hadn’t planned to stop me, I just kept going to our destination unimpeded.

  This chain of events repeated itself nearly every time we ran into and past one of the Guardians. Occasionally one would try to take a swing at me as it passed by but they were easily shrugged off and then we each were on our way.

  For the life of me, I could not figure out why these creatures that had chased us so relentlessly just yesterday were now letting us do as we pleased but I didn’t have time to think too deeply into it.

  Eventually we made it to the pod, and I quickly threw Fae in there, and then… I waited. Even though I had specifically been told not to. I had already lost enough people for one day, so even though standard protocol was to seal the hatch and only open it in the event that it is safe to do so and there is one or more friendlies on the other side, or jettison the pod into space to be picked up by a shuttle or fall into the planet in the event that that doesn’t happen, I instead sat in front of the closed but unlocked hatch and took it upon myself to keep the few creatures that cared about us away.

  At the very least, I had some shit to work through, and more than enough helpful volunteers.

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  Everything hurt, everything itched, everything spun around me, everything was dark, but above all, everything was wrong.

  “Mike! Sarah! Anyone, come out fast, we’ve got incoming!” I could vaguely hear the muted calls of our captain on the other side of the rubble that surrounded me. I tried to clear it, to emerge from my underground prison like some weird giant cicada, but every movement just felt wrong. My arms were too long, and so were my feet, and something weird kept getting caught in my back.

  “Curt! Sarah! There you are! Have any of you seen Alice?!” She said, although I couldn’t hear a response to her question. They must have been further away.

  “Here…” I weakly called out, grabbing Chloe’s attention, who noticed me not far from where she was standing, and after a quick curse started digging me out.

  I don’t think I’ve ever been as happy to simply be able to breathe properly, but when the air that entered my lungs came without dirt or slime, it was like my body was instantly revitalized, and with some help I quickly finished digging myself out of my hole. Finally free, I took a look at the people around me. It was not a pretty sight.

  The captain was covered in cuts and scrapes, moved favoring her right leg and despite the tension in her posture, her arms hung limply by her side when not in active use, and behind her, although a good distance away were… Guardians. Two of them. I almost jumped in surprise, but a closer look showed one of them struggling to find its balance while helping the other –who was doing much worse, with its limbs getting tangled as it moved and those writhing, flailing things at her back getting in her own way when she tried to move– was leaning on the first as she tried desperately to stay upright.

  I guess those must be Sarah and Curt, but then…

  “Where’s Mike?” I asked the question that was on my mind and the captain visibly deflated. “Haven’t found him yet,” She said “but he can’t have ended up too far from where I landed, keep looking.” She finished with an order, and after about a minute of searching, I found him, half buried with a bloody forehead but blissfully unconscious and still breathing. Normally, I wouldn’t want to move him but this wasn’t exactly a normal situation, so I started by calling out my finding and beginning the process of digging him out.

  “Here!” I yelled, and the captain quickly came in and checked his pulse and breathing. When she was satisfied and he had been extracted from the rubble, she made to pull him over her shoulder and get going away from the wreckage, but quickly stumbled and fell to her knees, being careful not to hurt Mike any more than he already was in the process, and getting some more scrapes for her trouble.

  “Fuck! My leg… Anyone else feel up to carrying him?” She asked, and was met with silence, as Curt was still busy helping Sarah amble along, and I was still coming to grips with this entire situation.

  “Right now, people! we’re getting surrounded by the minute!” She said, and I looked around. It was true. Everywhere I looked, I could see more and more Guardians coming in, but instead of charging us, they immediately got to work on digging holes into the rubble coating the floor. A welcome distraction from us, but there was no telling how long it would last.

  “I can try…” I said, and as the captain made room, I went to grab Mike and place him over my shoulders and along my back. It was surprisingly easy, and once he was on, he felt strangely secure, but now was no time to question why that was, as Chloe quickly reminded us.

  “Everybody good? Then move it! We have a home to get to, there will be time to panic later!” She said, looking at Sarah, who was still trying to get her breathing under control and failing to stand by herself. She quickly got a hold of herself as best she could, and then we were off, still being largely ignored by the many Guardians that surrounded us.

  This wouldn’t last, however, as what started with them giving us a side-eye before moving on to whatever more important things they had to deal with eventually evolved into attempting to tug us back towards the site where the bombs had gone off, and making dangerous swipes at an unarmed and injured captain. What’s more, it became clear that she and Sarah, who still struggled to move properly, were holding us back, and we were moving much slower than we normally would have. As more and more of the creatures surrounding us started to take exception to our presence, the captain pulled me aside.

  “It’s a straight shot to the pod from here, get him to safety and get him treated! Now!” She told me. “But-” I wanted to argue, but with an intensely yelled “NOW!” any thought of resistance vanished and I was dashing ahead of the group with a speed that surprised even myself. A few Guardians tried to pull me back the way I had come but I shook them off, not even slowing down until I heard the sounds of gunfire and came across Alex going on a rampage.

  Happy to see a familiar face but not wanting to step into his line of fire, I circled around and towards our pod’s hatch, catching sight of Fae inside. I smiled and gestured to the unconscious man on my shoulders as I went to open the hatch, but found it locked, and another look at Fae revealed an expression of utter terror.

  I was confused for a second, but only that long as the next thing I knew I had been smacked on the head hard enough to throw me off my feet, and Mike had been ripped off my back.

  “FUCK! What-?” I said as I looked up and saw Alex.

  He opened fire.

  At me.

  The world seemed to slow down as the life ending lead screamed through the air towards me, coming from a man who had saved all of our lives many times before. The jolt of panic that went through me shocked me to my core, and before I knew it, I was dashing away, unaware and uncaring of any hits I might have taken.

  As I rounded the last corner, I had to pause and take stock of the situation, so I quickly signaled the duo behind me to wait while I investigated.

  Ahead of me was our pod, its hatch sealed and being defended by a screaming Alexander, his gun arm repaired and firing into the approaching creatures, while on his other arm, draped over his shoulder, was the still unconscious Mike. Alice was nowhere to be seen.

  “Hey!” I yelled once I’d gotten close enough and come out of hiding. He quickly turned his gun to me, but didn’t fire.

  Thank God trigger discipline is still a thing… Even now.

  “Captain! Quick! Into the pod! We need to seal ourselves in!” He said, moving towards the pod and I followed, but when he stepped halfway into it, I didn’t.

  “Where’s Alice?!” I asked over the continued sound of gunfire, noticing her conspicuous absence. The answer I got made my heart sink. “Dead! Let’s go!”

  In less than a second, my mind went through a million different scenarios that could have led to this situation, since I knew she had been alive and… not well, but alive, and Mike’s presence had to mean she’d been here. All I could think of mostly boiled down to two simple possibilities:

  Either he doesn’t know she survived after they took her… Or he’s done the deed himself without realizing it.

  After everything we’ve been through in this clusterfuck of a mission, the last thing we need is panic-fueled friendly fire, not to mention how any of us is gonna deal with this going forward.

  Problems for later! Right now, I’ve gotta ensure everyone gets home as safe as I can get them, which means going out to find her… and the other two… by myself since there’s no way in hell I’m giving a convincing explanation right now… Fuck.

  Another second went by as I went through my options, and eventually started stepping away from the life-saving pod.

  “I’m going out scouting, stay safe and wait for evac! That’s an order!” I strained my voice to be heard over the snarling and gunfire. “Captain! That’s insan-!” Alex tried to question me but I just booted him into the pod with an “I said that’s an order!”

  Having lost Alex’s covering fire, I quickly turned away and made to leave before being overrun, but my attention was grabbed at the last second by a call from Fae, who had tossed me my backup spikes. Barely managing to catch the bundle of half-meter, sharp tipped polymer sticks, I turned to move away from safety to find the rest of my crew.

  When I was some distance away, I turned back and saw hundreds of monsters of all kinds, throwing themselves at the pod’s sealed hatch. The sight was unnerving, but I knew the trio inside of it was safe, the hatch would hold. Or it wouldn’t and the pod would be sent off into space, along with however many creatures managed to dislodge it. Either way, Alex, Fae and Mike would be fine.

  I, on the other hand, still had to reunite with the remaining crew and find our missing scientist.

  Left, right, left, right, don’t forget to breathe, left, right…

  I walked along with some difficulty, being helped by Curt who had also been tasked with following some faint trail on the ground that only he could make out in hopes that it would lead to our missing friend. The captain, who walked just slightly ahead of us, had explained her side of what had happened, letting us know that everyone else was safe, but that a reunion would be… difficult.

  I stumbled, getting distracted by that errant thought, but with some help I managed to stop myself from falling to the ground by catching myself with my right hand and my -Don’t think about those now!-. I caught a worried look from Curt but I motioned for him to focus on the task that only he could do.

  Eventually we found our mark. Alice was just sitting up against a wall of a random corridor with her knees tightly held in her arms, her face downcast and slightly sobbing, while her tentacles -and oh my god why does she have tentacles?!- wrapped around her legs and met back near their source on her back, completing the self-hug.

  It was a sight that was simultaneously unnerving, weirdly adorable and completely heartbreaking, instantly creating in everyone a need to reach out and help even despite everything that had just happened.

  “Hey…” I said softly, kneeling in front of her. If she wanted to talk to me, she would, otherwise I would sit with her for as long as she or the situation allowed.

  After what felt like forever, she spoke: “He shot me.” She said, and I could see a few small, circular wounds on her body leaking some brown liquid on the floor.

  “What was that?” I asked, already not wanting an answer, but of course, I would get one.

  “Alex. He shot me. Didn’t even hesitate. Didn’t even think about who I was, he just shot me.” I caught a wince from the captain in the background, but if Alice noticed it, she didn’t let it stop her. “And Fae. I barely caught a glimpse of her, but she looked… Terrified. Not like she just didn’t want to see me, but like she didn’t want me anywhere near her.”

  After that, she sat in silence for a few seconds, before finishing: “I’ve been trying not to think about… This.” She said, motioning towards her body with her eyes. “But is that how it’s gonna be from now on? With everyone? With all our friends and family?” She asked, and I had no answer I could give her. I had been grappling with the same kinds of thoughts myself, after all.

  Luckily for both of us, the captain chose that moment to intervene.

  “Hey. Hey! None of that! I’m still here! I’m not giving up on you and I’ll be damned if I let anyone else do the same, yourself included.” She said, crouching down to meet Alice’s gaze at eye level. “I promise to you that I will get you home, safe, sound, surrounded by friends, and I’ll find a way to undo what’s been done to you. To all of you!”

  She finished her speech, her voice radiating confidence. And yet, even to me, her promise felt… Empty. I didn’t doubt her ability but what she had just promised seemed completely impossible after what we had been through, and I could tell I wasn’t the only one who thought that, with Curt sighing behind us and Alice looking especially unconvinced.

  Chloe met the biologist’s sad, resigned eyes and sighed, reaching into one of her pockets and pulling out a small copper star shaped pin.

  “I want you to have this.” She said, handing it to Alice, who hadn’t moved from her spot since we found her. “It belonged to my father. Old Army engineer for the UN, I pulled it from his ceremonial uniform when I was 11 and he was never the wiser.” She chuckled slightly at the start of her story, before continuing. “That old bastard, it was like there was nothing he couldn’t do. Every time I would need something, break something and need it fixed, or whenever I straight up wanted something, as long as it wasn’t too outrageous for the child that I was, he would get it, no matter what it was.

  “Need help with some homework? He was there and knew exactly what to do. One of my toys broke? He would have it fixed by the end of the day. Program glitching out my computer? Before I knew it, it would be banished to the digital shadow realm without losing even a single byte of data on it. Hell, to this day, I still think if I had just rolled up to him on a busted tank, he would have it pulling 120 kph by the end of the week.

  “And every time he finished helping me with anything I asked, he would say ‘Have I ever failed you?’ and the answer would always be ‘No’. So now I ask you, Alice Lane: Have I ever failed you?”

  At hearing her name called, Alice looked up at the captain’s eyes with her own, tear-filled ones.

  “No.” she said softly, and the captain rallied at her words. “Have I ever failed any of you?” She asked everyone present, and was met with another, firmer, “No.”

  “So, I want you to have this pin, my memory of my father, and be reassured that the promise I made to you, I intend to keep. Only when I have done that, and you are safe and sound, will I allow you to give it back to me.” She finished, handing over the tiny pin to Alice, who now had tears flowing freely from her eyes, yet also had a small smile on her face.

  “So!” She said, standing up with a quick clap that put an end to the introspective mood. “We can’t just sit here forever. Curt, think you can find us a decently safe spot to rest?”

  “Uhm… I think so? Like the ones we’ve been pitching our tents in?” He asked, and the captain nodded. A little while later, we were off.

  Chapter 7: Picking up the pieces.