“What did you do?!” I asked in shock at the sight of the two corpses before me.

  “What’s it look like?” She answered, completely unrepentant, and I was almost stunned all over again.

  “What do you mean ‘what’s it look like’?! Those poor people!” I yelled, pointing at the obvious murder victims, hoping for the captain to somehow give a reasonable explanation for what the hell had happened here.

  “’People’? Sarah, seriously, I need you to tell me what you’re seeing!” Was her response, dashing my hopes yet again.

  Between how she’d randomly attacked me while my back was turned, how she had almost cursed everyone out immediately after, then told us to separate, and how she now had straight up murdered two people who couldn’t have put up much of a fight even if they’d tried, my earlier suspicions of something being seriously wrong with her were all but confirmed, and I knew she couldn’t be allowed to just continue to do as she pleased, captain or no.

  Even still, I couldn’t think of a good way to deal with this situation, as for years I’d gotten front row seats to her ass-kicking sessions with the boys, so I genuinely doubted I could stop her without going the way of the old couple currently laying on the floor in front of me. Then again, that had always been a part of why I’d had nothing but respect for Chloe, always the reliable pillar of strength and direction for our group that somehow never failed to get everyone to do their proper jobs as a unit that was more than the sum of its parts.

  I decided to try and talk her down before things could get more out of control.

  “Paxton…” I spat, using her last name instead of her first name or rank as a show of my building annoyance and dwindling respect for her. “How could you?” I finished by accusing her.

  “How could I what? Sarah, I need you to answer that. Right. Now.” She spoke, a threatening edge to her words, and I almost lost it.

  “You broke into someone’s house and murdered them! This old couple were probably minding their own business and you just killed them!” I yelled.

  “’Broke into someone’s house’? ‘Old couple’? Sarah, these are pillslugs.” She tried to explain, although it was plain to see she was clearly lying.

  “Are you fucking with me right now?! Those are clearly people you just-!” I started screaming with all the force that my lungs could muster, but was abruptly stopped by her polymer stick being placed right back just a hair’s breadth away from my neck before I could even blink.

  “I need you to calm down, and think for a bit.” She said, only making me angrier.

  No way she thinks she can put me in time out right now!

  “Where do you think we are?” She asked, like it wasn’t the most obvious thing that could be inferred by looking at anything in our surroundings.

  “A two-bedroom apartment.” I said, and she just looked surprised. “That likely belonged to the people you just murdered.” I finished, an accusing venom coating my words.

  “…Okay?” She began hesitantly, before continuing with more certainty. “And where is this two-bedroom apartment?”

  Is she taking the piss right now?

  “What does that have to do with anything?!” I asked her, but she barely even reacted.

  “Answer.” She ordered with finality.

  I wanted to scream her head off, but the weapon that was almost pressed against my throat made me reconsider. Instead, I tried to think of a way to get her to step back, so I could then see what I could do to get this fucked up situation under control.

  As if this whole trip hadn’t been enough of a fuck-up, now I have to deal with this.

  There was some detail nagging me about that last thought, but I had to push it aside in favor of getting shit done.

  ‘Where is this two-bedroom apartment?’

  Obviously, the answer was in a little town where a nice ice cream seller had given me a free sample, although for the life of me I couldn’t remember its name. Weird, but I had other things to think about right then.

  “You mean the little town just outside?” I asked, hoping that that answer would be enough.

  “And where is this town?” She doubled down on asking stupid questions.

  Or at least, they seemed like stupid questions until I started actually thinking about them, as, much like had happened with the town before it, the name of the country we were in escaped me. Same thing happened with the name of the continent and even the planet…

  Wait, no…

  I could actually remember the planet we were in, or more accurately in orbit of. It was one that had been thought to have no sapient beings, until someone, suddenly and somehow launched a tree into orbit from it. And we’d been sent to explore that tree.

  I stumbled back as the events of the last few days came rushing back to the forefront of my mind. The captain allowed this and did not pursue.

  It just didn’t make any sense, we had been in orbit of an alien planet that shouldn’t have any people to be murdered, let alone humans! Yet I was clearly looking at the deceased bodies of two of them.

  “But… How did they get… here?” I asked weakly in confusion.

  “They’ve been here the whole time.” She answered almost nonchalantly. “Like I said, they’re pillslugs.”

  “No, they’re not!” I said, her words clashing with the reality before me. Yet at the same time, I had to face the fact that it didn’t make sense for us to have spent weeks exploring this place finding nothing but the expected locals, and then suddenly we stumbled upon a whole town filled with nothing but humans, and none of them even commented about how they’d spent all this time in a space tree.

  Not even I did…

  In hindsight, it was weird how I didn’t think about this sooner, but that train of thought led in a direction that made me deeply uncomfortable.

  “Do they look like people to you?” Chloe asked and I reluctantly nodded in the affirmative.

  “Shit.” She said, eloquently as ever, but her meaning was clear.

  Shit…

  Yet, even as my thoughts echoed her, I still had to ask, for the sake of what was left of my sanity.

  “…what shit?” I asked weakly, and when she answered, I immediately wished I hadn’t.

  “I’m pretty sure they’re messing with your heads, literally changing the way you see things.” She answered, and a gaping pit of dread instantly formed in my stomach.

  How could I not notice this before? What’s been real this whole time? Did I do anything I’d wish I hadn’t because I literally couldn’t tell I was doing it? Worse yet, how will I be able to tell what’s what from now on?! Everything looks so normal I hadn’t even bothered to think it might not be! Is this gonna be my life from now on?

  “Hey! HEY! Look at me!” The captain said, getting her face right in front of mine, likely having noticed my spiraling thoughts written all over my face. The surprise would have made me jump had it not been for my shock that left me stunned. I also realized she had tossed her weapon some distance away and was now completely unarmed, this one action turning her intimidating presence from earlier into a comforting one.

  “What do I look like?” She asked. I had to quickly stop myself from complaining about her asking stupid questions again, her previous set having led to a world-shattering revelation for me, so I answered honestly.

  “Like… you? Captain Chloe.” I said, and she smiled.

  “And do you remember what I promised you?” She asked me, clearly referring to that moment right after our escape.

  “That you’d get us home?” I asked her.

  “Right, that I’d get you and everyone else in our little squad home, safe and sound! And does it look like this changes anything about this promise?” She asked me, rising up from where she’d sat with me at some point.

  “Yes?” I answered honestly. A frown formed on her face, but quickly eased into a sad smile.

  “No” she said with finality. “It most definitely does not.”

  “But how can we get back home safe if we can’t even tell what’s real from what’s not?” I pleaded before finishing in a much lower voice. “If we can’t even know if our minds are our own…”

  “Simple, despite what it looks like, do you really think I could just murder random people I run into?” She asked and I shook my head. “Do you really think this space tree could have randomly been colonized entirely by humans overnight?” I shook my head again. “And most importantly, who are you?” I shook my head on reflex before looking up in confusion.

  “I said: who are you?” She reiterated, as if trying to drive some point home.

  “Sarah Di Pietro?” I answered, unsure where she was going with this.

  “That’s right, you are one of the smartest people I know! Some vivid hallucination is definitely not enough to keep you down!” She told me, and despite how cheesy the comment had been, it did cheer me up. After all, with what she’d just said, she’d turned one of my fears into a strength… sort of.

  Maybe this is gonna be my life from now on, constantly seeing things for what they are not, but… these ‘hallucinations’ have stayed weirdly consistent, so much so that I didn’t even notice them until they were pointed out. That means that, if I always see the pillslugs and their structures as if they were human, then… As long as I have people I can trust and that are willing to work with me, then… I should be fine. Right?

  Although then again, this was definitely ignoring one huge elephant in the room.

  “But what if it gets worse? What if I suddenly can’t tell what’s real from what’s not and not even notice?” I asked her, but she just shrugged it off.

  “Don’t worry about that, I already took care of it.” She said, utterly unconcerned.

  Uuuuhm, what?

  “What?” I asked her. “How? When?!”

  “What’s my biggest talent?” She asked with a grin, and despite her being a woman of many talents, a certain one quickly came to mind.

  “Smacking the shit out of something until it stops being a problem?” I asked with a hint of a tease driven by my recovering mood.

  “That’s right! And do you think I would just randomly whack you in the back of the head hard enough to make you double over for no reason in particular?” She said, and it was all I could do to stop myself from going slack-jawed.

  Has she known since back then?

  “Right, so, I saw something weird on the back of your neck and then you started acting weird, so I smacked it, and you should be all good for now, I think!” She said with a smile and a thumbs up, but it didn’t take a doctor to point out her dubious reasoning.

  “You think or you know?” I asked her, and she quickly snapped an answer: “Look, nobody’s perfect.”

  At that, I couldn’t help myself, I just snorted.

  Her explanation wasn’t as reassuring as I’d like but I’d take what I could get, and it was nothing next to the reminder that her promise still stood even after all that had happened. So, with a heavy heart but comforted in the knowledge that I wasn’t alone, I turned to the future.

  “So, what now?” I asked her, to which she just shrugged.

  “Regroup and recover.” She answered simply, like it was the most obvious thing ever.

  “Yeah, but… How? The first one, I mean.” I asked and quickly clarified in case she decided to give me a smartass response that would make Curt proud. Of course, I was a fool for thinking that would be enough to stop her.

  “What did I tell you like two seconds ago?” She said, clearly referring to the ‘Nobody’s perfect’ comment. It took a conscious effort of will to maintain an unamused expression long enough to get a serious answer.

  “We have a decent vantage point from here, we can use it to spot anything that looks like it’s coming for us before the hour limit has passed, be that Curt or Alice or something else. If we see them, one of us can go get them, if we see something dangerous, we move out before it gets here. Otherwise, we rest until our agreed upon time and go find them at our rendezvous point.”

  “Okay, but why did we even get separated in the first place?” I pointed out. The plan seemed solid enough but clearly, we would have been better off sticking together, as evidenced by the current situation where we couldn’t know what half of our group was up to.

  “I… ‘m sorry.” The captain apologized instead of answering.

  “What for?” I wanted to say besides nearly knocking me out without warning earlier, but after our little heart-to-heart it seemed uncalled for.

  “Truth is… I was freaking out… when I saw the thing that I hit… on your neck.” She explained, and I frowned. At this point I was aware that we didn’t actually look like we thought we did, but did she really find us so disgusting as to drive her to freak out so much as to lash out and make bad decisions? I didn’t get to bring it up before she continued: “When I saw it and you started acting all weird, I was… Well, I already told you it freaked me out, but more than that, I was worried that there may still be something happening to you, and I started panicking because I didn’t know what to do about it. So… yeah… I didn’t want to tell you because I was trying to be all reassuring but, well, there you go.” She finished in an uncharacteristic moment of vulnerability.

  I was surprised that she would be so open, both about our situation as well as the things she was doing to deal with it, but more than that, I was surprised that I could get it. After all, I had been freaking out and about to make some bad decisions myself, and the despair I had almost fallen in immediately after had kept me from seeing that even people who weren’t in my situation could still be affected by it just as much, even if in a different way. It was a sobering realization but it also gave more meaning to her promise to stand by us in spite of everything.

  “Don’t be.” I told her.

  “What?” She asked, looking up at me from the spot on the floor she’d been staring at for the last five seconds.

  “Don’t be sorry.” I clarified. “You were doing the best you could in the situation. It just so happens that the situation was shit, but still, we’re alright, we’re all alive, as we always are in the end, and that’s in no small part because of you, so don’t be sorry.”

  “Right.” She spoke. “I guess our best is all we can do. Thank you, Sarah.”

  And with that, we settled to wait while keeping an eye on the streets below, even if I had to remind myself they weren’t actually streets.

  ‘Approaching intersect point in fifty meters, confirm.’ Came the voice of Billy Carter, our crew’s other navigator alongside Mike, and sub-captain like Curt. We’d left the pod after the swarm of Guardians had cleared out and were on our way through the tree’s labyrinthine tunnels to meet the rescue team halfway between our pod and their shuttle.

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  Given his rank, Billy had naturally been assigned to lead the rescue effort, aided by the maps that Mike had crafted along the way and beamed to our ship, as well as our Nav-Beacons they could use to track our locations. We might have had our differences with him and ‘his side’ of the crew, but we all understood that this was no time for petty personal conflicts, and any one of us would put our life on the line if it was needed to help any other.

  “Approaching intersect, seventy meters away and past a bend on our end.” I spoke into my communicator. The signal was choppy at best, the weirdly conductive slime coating everything everywhere wreaking havoc on the signal’s quality, but I didn’t let any of this get me down. Just a few more minutes and we’d get to the spot where the tunnel we were walking down merged with theirs, and then we could regroup and figure out a way to reunite with the captain.

  Or just escape with our lives…

  I quickly banished the completely unacceptable thought, no way in hell we were leaving someone behind.

  ‘How are you holding up?’ Carter asked through our comms, apparently not in a mood to give us shit, right now. I, however, was, if only to take the edge off the minds of the pair behind me.

  “Doing great, man. Everything is totally tubular!” I spoke with a forced grin.

  “Fuck you.”

  That last was said both by the man I was talking to through my comms, as well as the pair following behind me, but I could still spot the slight upturning of the edges of Fae’s mouth and Mike’s expression betrayed the slightest unclenching of his sphincter, so I’d call that a success.

  ‘Twenty meters to the rendezvous point.’ Carter said, sounding ever so slightly more tired than before, another reason to call that previous joke a success. If he could sigh at my cringeworthy attempts at humor, then his surroundings can’t have been too interesting beyond the ubiquitous, cavernous, slime-coated tunnels that made up the vast majority of this space tree. At least I hoped.

  “Reaching the bend no-” I tried to say as we got to the bend in our path that would lead to a straight shot to where our tunnel connected with the rescue group’s, but was interrupted by hissed words coming from my communicator.

  ‘Nobody fucking move.’ Were Billy’s words, and a quick glance towards the device attached to my hip showed a blinking light that indicated my outgoing audio had been muted.

  I hurried around the bend in the tunnel to get a look at what had spooked him like that, but by the time I’d made the turn, I could already hear the gunshots.

  Rounding a corner, I saw, some fifty meters ahead of me, a trio of people, presumably with three more behind them, having walked out of a connected tunnel to my right and shooting at something further down the tunnel to my left.

  Not even a second later, a massive ape-like creature with slimy green skin and a pair of tentacles protruding from its back leapt from the tunnel to the left, catching one of the gunmen’s heads in its hand as it fell and instantly crushing it against the floor. Flowing from its landing position, one of its tentacles shot forward and impaled another gunman, lifting them off the ground in time with the creature’s bone-rattling, echoing roar.

  What?

  How?

  When?

  Why?

  Unimportant, do something!

  My brain quickly crashed and rebooted from having had to take in the scene before me. The creature, not content with having instantly killed two people, had already started chasing after the others. If I wanted to do anything, I had to do it before it was too late, so I quickly barked out a set of orders for those behind me and got to it.

  “Get behind me and stay there!” I yelled, hoping they’d hear me as I ran forwards.

  The creature was no longer visible, having moved further down the other tunnel while chasing down our would-be saviors, but the panicked screams were easy to follow, not to mention the trail of… stuff… that littered the floor of the tunnel in its wake.

  Hundreds of spent bullet casings strewn about everywhere, along with splashes of dark greenish possibly-blood painted a clear path to follow on the floor of the tunnel that was only a slightly different shade of dark green from the liquid that had been splashed on it, and as we followed the trail further, we started seeing the bodies. Human Bodies.

  I wanted to throw up, but that would have to wait, for I had shit to do, so instead I called out behind me so the others wouldn’t succumb to that same impulse.

  “Eyes on me! I need you to watch my back!” I ordered, hoping it would be enough. A quick glance behind me showed that Mike and Fae had stuck behind me and were beginning to pale at the sight at their feet, but my cry had apparently brought them back to reality, at least somewhat. I didn’t give them time to refocus on the grizzly sight and ran ahead, turning back for a fraction of a second to ensure they were still on my tail. They were.

  The first two bodies had been the two that got instantly taken out in the intersection of the two tunnels, and a third could be found not too far ahead. Some distance later, three became four, and when we reached a fifth, I was beginning to lose hope. That was until I noticed a metallic protrusion on the slimy, organic looking walls, its contrast to the surrounding architecture clearly indicating something out of place. It took me a second to note its similarity to the door to our pod and recognize it as the airlock to the shuttle that would get us out of this God forsaken space-tree, with no hulking monstrosity or sixth dead body in sight.

  My rising hopes were quickly dashed as, slowly emerging from the airlock came a clawed, slimy green hand, followed shortly by its owner that had presumably wiped out our rescuers. It didn’t even take a full step outside before turning to me and charging with another roar.

  Well, shit.

  I had once again failed at my job of keeping our expedition safe, costing the lives of yet more people.

  And here I’d thought I’d get the chance to play the hero by at least saving the captain.

  I thought ruefully, but caught myself before I could spiral further.

  Sure, we might be royally fucked, but there’s still two people I can save right now and a monster coming to get them, now is not the time to doubt myself, depression can come later, now’s the time for action!

  With newfound resolve, I quickly entered a stance. From what little I had seen, that thing’s movements had been pretty much linear, and that made them predictable.

  With my left foot back and my right foot forward, I crouched slightly and various mechanisms around my body sprang into action, locking my legs and spine in place before coiling tightly, the pressure almost painful as most of my body was compressed as though by ridiculously heavy gravity before executing a predetermined series of motions. I literally couldn’t mess this up even if I tried, the reason why I’d chosen to go with this seemingly barbaric strategy.

  Twisting as much as I could through my limited range of motion, I looked behind me over my coiled, metallic left arm with a smile that I hoped would be reassuring.

  “Hey babe?” I asked Fae who looked like she’d been paralyzed until I called to her.

  “Yeah?” She asked, dumbfounded.

  “You’re the best!” I said, and all of the force that I’d built up throughout my body released at once, making my left foot push hard off the ground, my right shift to catch my weight and my spine remain ramrod straight while my metallic left fist shot forwards at a speed that would have been impossible for a person lacking any technological augmentations.

  With a resounding CLANG! the creature’s face was met with an unstoppable rocket moving in its opposite direction and was promptly and comically toppled over, where I held it by placing a foot on what would pass for its chest. While some deep part of me found that whole process entertaining, my eyes immediately went to see the effects of that move, not on its victim, but on those it was meant to help protect.

  Fae was closest to me, her mouth some strange combination of a smile and a grimace, while her eyes were still terrified but not to the point of zoning out in a panic. She was still with us, even if barely so, and could likely be trusted not to freak out and do something stupid, at least for now

  Speaking of freaking out, the one most likely to do that, Mike, was simply staring in stunned silence, mouth agape, at everything in front of him.

  Fuck it, I’ll take it.

  Satisfied at having prevented a total and irreversible collapse of morale in spite of what we’d just seen, I turned to finish off the monster that had almost taken away our chance at going home in the worst way possible, only to find it attempting to get up and, as soon as it noticed my line of sight, it let out a new roar.

  This roar, however, was not like the others. The thing certainly had a powerful set of lungs that it had used liberally throughout its chase of the rescue team, but while many of its previous roars could be felt in our bones, this one shook the very walls of the tunnel we were in, bringing up an unpleasant set of memories that I’d hoped I wouldn’t be reminded of. However as the walls continued and even intensified their shaking after the thing was done screaming, I was forced to face reality.

  That thing just called for help, and we’re about to get swarmed like we were when we got captured.

  Cursing under my breath, I made a split-second decision to run away back to our pod, leaving the lifesaving shuttle behind. I could see from here the damage done to the airlock that prevented it from closing, meaning the release and take off process would have to take much longer than normal, and that’s time we didn’t have with a horde of monsters inbound.

  So, after quickly shooting the fucker at my feet in the face, I threw Fae onto my left shoulder and scooped up Mike under my right arm before booking it in the direction we’d come from.

  It wasn’t long before more of these ‘Guardians’ started coming out of everywhere. Luckily, the ones that popped up ahead of my path were relatively few and quickly scattered when faced with some machine gun fire from my left arm.

  It felt like we were making good distance, until I heard Fae call out form my shoulder.

  “Shit! It’s back! Six o’clock!” I heard her say, and spared just a glance to look back.

  That piece of shit’s still alive?!

  I thought as I saw the same monster as before, its head battered and bloodied, chasing after me with murder in its eyes. That had almost been shocking enough to make me stumble and fall, but I simply could not afford to do that at that moment.

  The reason for my shock was that during our time stuck in the pod I had swapped out my space rated ammunition for the kind that was commonly used on Earth. Sure, according to the Feddies, use of higher caliber kinetics while on a vessel outside a breathable atmosphere was, technically, a war crime but honestly, at this point, the risk of a hull breach venting atmosphere was the least of our worries. Case in point, our current situation.

  That piece of shit took high impact rounds to the face at point blank range and it’s still chasing us?! It’s even gaining on us!

  Barely able to believe my eyes but recognizing that a straightforward escape would be impossible with that thing still kicking, I skidded to a stop and opened fire on it before it could get close, the deafening scream of the bullets being shot out of my left arm almost being enough to cover up Mike’s undignified yelling and thrashing from my right.

  I, naturally, had expected the thing to finally accept its fate and become swiss cheese, but, for the second time in this bullshit expedition, I was disappointed, as it covered its head and torso with its arms and tentacles and kept running towards us unimpeded, shrugging off ammunition, which using would likely get me jailed for years and grounded for life like it was nothing. I was about to join Mike in his panicked screaming when Fae called out from my shoulder.

  “Arm forward, don’t move!” She yelled while quickly clambering over my shoulder and coming to land just barely a step ahead of me. She fiddled with my arm for a second and it fell limply on her shoulder, with me having lost all control of it and a fairly large lever now protruding from its side.

  “Get fisted, idiot!” She screamed at the charging abomination. I was halfway through doing a double take at her truly terrible one-liner when feeling returned to my arm, only for it to behave in a way it hadn’t ever before, the sensation almost alien and indescribable, and then something large shot out of where my hand had once been at such speeds that it was made invisible.

  Its effects, however, were anything but invisible.

  Within the same second as when the thing was shot off, it had already reached its destination: The big monstrosity that seemed hell-bent on wiping out every last human on this tree, and the following second… There was no such monstrosity charging us, as instead it lay in a smoking heap on the ground, completely dead to the world, and several other Guardians that had apparently been behind it had suffered from the blast as well, outlining a path of destruction that went well past the weapon’s initial target.

  “The fuck?” I eloquently asked.

  “Happy birthday?” Fae squeaked as feeling and control fully returned to my arm.

  “But that’s a month from now?” I said, and she didn’t answer with words, instead holding that same half-terrified-half-proud-all-wide-eyed expression she’d had when she squeaked out her previous words.

  “Oh my god, I love you!” I said, once again throwing her over my shoulder and quickly bolting out of there.

  Satisfied that we’d gone far enough away, a panting Alex put me and Fae down before collapsing on the spot, the exhaustion of having to run for I don’t even know how long clearly getting to him.

  I wanted to thank him, for saving our lives yet again, but I was, to put it mildly, having some trouble moving, my entire body utterly paralyzed from shock and exhaustion, both mental, for obvious reasons, and physical, from all that flailing around I’d done while held under his armpit.

  “Hhhthanbk…” I rasped out; my voice hoarse from the many unintelligible noises I’d been forced to make in the last two days.

  “No problem, man, ‘s what I’m here for.” Alex panted, apparently getting my meaning.

  “So… gonna tell me what that was?” He posed the question to Fae in between heavy breaths, while pointing at his metal arm. In response, she just pouted.

  “It was supposed to be my secret project that I’d get to show you on your birthday when it’s completed next month, but I guess the cat’s out of the bag.” She spoke with an exaggerated cutesy pout that was giving me trouble believing my eyes. She had always been one for jokes and whimsy, much like her namesake, but given what had happened not twenty minutes ago, this just felt like a bit much. Apparently, I was wrong, however, as she continued.

  “So, yeah! It shoots a projectile with a mass of one kilogram in Earth’s gravity that holds two shaped charges, one detonating forward along the path of the projectile and the other radially outwards, so even if you miss, its proximity detonation will ensure you still probably ruin somebody’s day. Now, if you manage to hit something… well, there won’t be much of anything left to ruin” She spoke in a jarringly chipper tone.

  “Shaped charges? Aren’t those supposed to be seriously dangerous armor piercing ammo?” Alex asked incredulously, to which Fae just beamed.

  “Yup! And you can hold two in the chamber plus the three more I have with me in my bag! I call it the Compressed-High-Explosive-Kilogram-Ordinance-Thrower!”

  “That’s a dumb name.” I pointed out from where I was still lying face down on the gross, damp tunnel floor.

  “C-H-… Did you just give me Chekhov’s Rocket Launcher?!” Alex asked, excitement in his voice and his exhaustion seemingly forgotten.

  “It’s not even spelled right.” I grumbled, sitting up.

  “That’s right! So you’d better keep us safe with it!” Fae chirped happily once again.

  “Our entire rescue team is dead! We’re stuck here with nowhere to go!” I finally snapped, pointing out what I’d thought would be obvious.

  “Look, buddy…” Alex almost wheezed out, his exhaustion apparently coming back to him all at once. “I’m gonna need you to calm the hell down so we can figure out what to do.” He finished weakly, but I was having none of it.

  “CALM DOWN?! HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO CALM DOWN?! DID YOU EVEN SEE WHAT JUST HAPPE-” I started my rant, but was interrupted halfway by a tired comment from Alex.

  “I saw, I was there, what do you want me to do about it?” He asked, and my brain practically short-circuited.

  “Fucking… I don’t know! Shoot them till they die!” I yelled, completely freaking out, but I knew as soon as I’d said those words what the answer would be.

  “Tried it. Twice. Didn’t work.” He said, and I could only sit there, defeated.

  “So, plans?” Alex asked the two of us, evidently done with this discussion. I wanted to be angry at him, I really did, but at the same time, I had to recognize he was right, there was only so much any of us could do right now, and asking us to do more would only end up hurting us in the not-so-distant future.

  “Pod?” I begrudgingly offered, and Alex just closed his eyes while Fae considered the option.

  “It’s probably the safest place to be right now, since the entrance to the shuttle is gonna be crawling with them for a while, at least.” She spoke before a frustrated groan emerged from her throat. “Ugh! I wish we hadn’t even left the pod if we’re just gonna have to go back to it!”

  “If we’d done that we’d still be in the same situation, except we wouldn’t know what happened to the rescue party. We wouldn’t be any better off and have less information to work with.” Alex commented softly from where he sat with his back up against a tunnel wall and not even opening his tired eyes.

  “I don’t like it when you make sense… Hurry up and rest faster so you can stop making sense!” She grumbled good naturedly, but his comment about having information gave me an idea.

  “Actually,” I started. “Since both the pod and the shuttle are docked to the tree, the pod should have enough fuel to hop from one to the other, so maybe we could sit tight in the pod while they get bored of guarding the shuttle and then get in it from space.”

  “That’s genius!” Fae exclaimed, while Alex just gave me a thumbs up and a smile form where he sat. “D’you think it will take longer for them to clear out from that shuttle than it took the pod?” She asked.

  “I mean… I can only assume… but in any case, we need to get back to the pod first!” I said, that small glimmer of hope blooming in my soul once more.

  “Rest now, pod later.” Alex muttered sleepily and, with him being the one doing most of the literal heavy lifting, I couldn’t argue with that.

  A warm summer sun shone down through the rustling leaves of the trees that lined the streets of this idyllic little town we’d found.

  The place was honestly a bit of a dream, with pleasant weather, people and children going about their lives with happy expressions, clean streets decorated with greenery, and an all-around relaxed atmosphere that had led to plenty of friendly interactions with the locals. They had proven themselves to be some truly kind folks, always willing to help each other and myself whenever asked, whether it be with directions or simply a friendly comment.

  As I was musing on my surroundings, however, I once again noticed the one thing that had been annoying me for a little while when I suddenly felt like my entire focus was yanked in a particular direction back the way I’d come.

  Okay, that needs to stop.

  I thought that as I started making my way to wherever that had happened so I could figure out what it was and hopefully put an end to it.

  It had happened twice before, this being the third time. The first time, it had felt distant enough that it had been easy enough to ignore, the second had been a bit more intense and pulled my attention in a completely different direction, and now this had felt like it’d come from the same spot as the first, but was quite a bit more intense.

  If this is gonna keep happening constantly, it might just be enough to drive me insane.

  I thought as I walked.

  Eventually, I reached the spot where I felt that feeling had originated from. It was the base of an apartment building where I could see Sarah chatting with, of all things, a police officer.

  “Is… Everything alright?” I asked the pair hesitantly once I’d gotten close enough.

  “Oh, Alice! Hey, I was just waiting for you! We’re all good! My friend here just wanted to see if we needed anything.” Sarah said and the police officer glanced at me before turning back to her.

  “Is she the friend you’d told me about?” He asked, and Sarah responded with a cheery “Yup!”

  “Did something happen?” I asked and I could swear I almost saw Sarah flinch before answering in the same happy fashion like it was the most normal thing.

  “No! Why would you think that? We’re all friends here!” She said, making me think something had definitely happened.

  “Right. Well, I’ll leave you two to it. If, for whatever reason, you need anything just give me a call.” The police officer said before walking off.

  “Will do! It was nice meeting you!” Sarah called out with a wave and the officer turned back just long enough to respond in kind.

  “Seriously, is something wrong?” I asked her once he was out of earshot and she just deflated with a sigh.

  “No… Yes. I’m kinda freaking out, honestly. Look, just, come with me, and I’ll explain once we’re inside.” With that, we walked into the building.

  After one quick elevator ride, we entered one of the apartments in this building. It was kinda weird how she would just walk into somebody’s home like she owned the place but I assumed she would explain it soon.

  “Captain! We’re back!” She called into one of the rooms.

  “Oh, nice. You found- HOLY SHIT!” I started, but then stopped as I was greeted by a terrifying sight.

  “What? What’s wrong?!” Sarah asked, completely turning her back to the danger.

  “Get away!” I shouted at the monster that was almost within striking distance.

  Looming right behind Sarah was one of the Guardians that had captured us just two days prior.

  Chapter 9: Piecing things together