Friday - October 26th, 2121:

'stay safe— stay alive.'

'stay safe— stay alive.'

'stay safe— stay alive.'

You're not going to stay alive sitting around replaying the message.

"Yeah, yeah, you're right."

I've lost count of how many times I listened to the correspondence and how many times I've tried to pry Vlad off the wall to no avail. It got to the point where I returned to rummaging through the space station, throwing whatever tools and devices I could at the spikes.

Right as I was about to give up, I threw a bottle at the wall, causing it to shatter as liquid sprayed all over Vlad and the spikes that impaled his corpse. I didn't even know what was in the bottle. It was a spur of frustration more than anything, and yet—

The creatures began to hiss and squeal as their forms began to smoke with a putrid green. It took moments before they silenced and turned into a rotted brown dried husk. Its weakened form caused Vlad's body to collapse onto the floor.

You shouldn't be so disrespectful to those who passed.

I went to Vlad and turned his body over onto its back. My hand caressed his desiccated face, no matter how peaceful his expression was— I couldn't believe that he passed comfortably. I ruffled through the pockets of Vlad's standby gear, checking for anything that might shed some light on his final negligence.

Are you trying to blame a dead man now?

"There's got to be something. Vlad's never been late to a briefing in his life."

Empty pockets kept on disappointing my expectations. There was nothing and for a moment I truly believed that, but I remembered a conversation I had with Vlad a long time ago.

"The best way to hide something is to leave it in plain sight. Everyone will be so busy searching the usual hiding spots that they'll camouflage the item, believing they had searched there already."

The realization forced my hands into his chest pocket, which hung loose against his flesh. It looked so thin and empty that I skipped it— just like Vlad expected. Inside was a flattened piece of paper— a negligent scrap that blended with the shirt fabric to the absolute.

'I'm not insane. Something keeps following me. I feel its gaze breathing down my neck. I swear— something is hiding aboard the space station.

The past three nights I've done my rounds, I could hear it— crying in the halls. I asked Jefferson, Riley, Samuel, Antonia, Fernando, and Victoria. I asked them all if they could hear it— but they all questioned if I was drinking on duty.

I don't know who I can trust. Even Mission Command messaged recently to be careful of sleeper agents— what did they mean by that? No matter how much I demanded an answer, there was only radio silence.

I'm mentally and physically exhausted. I want to go home. Can this mission end already?

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I knnawh'

His writing panned out into incomprehensible letters, and at the bottom of the paper, it was scratched out completely. Whatever he wanted to conclude the message with— he changed his mind.

Imagine losing your mind days before the whole world went to shit.

"He must have heard the plant life forms. Somehow, before the conflict on Earth spread, they must have been aboard the O.S.S."

Is that really what he heard, though?

"Is that the case, though? It wouldn't line up with the timeline of the creature's emergence that the book mentioned. Unless the plants and the parasites are not the same?"

Suddenly, the space station shook as alarms blared within it. My legs gave out as I slammed into the wall, rolling repeatedly across the floor. The magnitude of the shaking increased with every passing breath. I clawed desperately toward the door, pulling my body against the force that pushed back.

'Pressure Surge Detected - Emergency Protocols Engaged -'

'Emergency - Equip Bio-Suits - Equip Bio-Suits -'

The central console warned of a threat, and it didn't take long for the same to make itself known as I felt the O.S.S. lift. The metal exterior tore and crumbled as a forceful shove sent the space station flying. My body slammed against the wall, feeling the embrace of death encroaching upon me.

'O.S.S. Emergency Detected - Activating Emergency Evacuation Procedure Delta-'

'Anomaly Detected - Anomaly - Evacuation Failed-'

'Emergency Detected - Evacuate Immediately - Restart Procedure'

'Evacuation in 5-4-3-2-1—'

Wrathful rejection possessed my body as the evacuation procedure started. The control interface removed my presence from the station in the only way it knew how. Forcefully. My body rolled against the ground as the force of ejection propelled me. It caused my head to spin as I stumbled to lift myself.

Vomit slid down my throat as I forced it down the moment my gaze settled on the O.S.S.

A dozen monstrously large creatures battled with the O.S.S., lifting it and carving their marks into it. One was a headless arachnid the size of a mountain with two jutting stalagmites outstretching from its back. It lifted its front legs, stabbing into the metal. And then I saw terror— an incomprehensibly large human head that grew from the arachnid's abdomen. Its eyes remained closed with only a wide grin spreading across the human face, revealing pristine white teeth, unmarred by the grime of living.

Seeing it alone was enough to bring tears to my eyes, but the other creatures were no better. There was a primate with a scruffy face and grimaced expression, violently pounding on the metal exterior with bulging, veinous human arms as massive as a giant sequoia. Another was longer than tall, yet its scaled tail barbed with a thorny ball at the tip slammed into the O.S.S., battering it to pieces.

It whipped its armored head toward the silvery exterior, snapping its massive maw shut around it. At that moment, green tendrils writhed inside its mouth, with rolling eyeballs lining them.

I was nothing but an ant in comparison.

You are an insignificant ant.

I dropped to my knees, head still whirring from the evacuation. The creatures continued battering the station, demolishing it into pieces. I saw Vlad's body.

It flew out of the O.S.S. straight into the scaled beast's tendril-infested maw. The tendrils wrapped around Vlad, absorbing him into themselves. The surface of his flesh slit open as the countless eyeballs emerged from it. The tendrils merged with his limbs, enlarging them and turning them into a hulking green that brimmed with power. For a moment, I thought I saw Vlad's eyes open as the scaled beast shut its maw.

I could neither hear nor see nor feel anything as darkness consumed me.

Really? Did you pick now of all times to pass out?