We fashioned a transport for Marki out a shopping cart and some shipping pallets. For the last few hours Marshall and I have been working together. We’re too far gone from ever being the same as we were before we landed on this forsaken planet, but we’re better. There was a time when the two of us worked together to come in at the top of our academy class. He’s right, I’m a soldier, I was trained to be one and I put that behind me. But he doesn’t understand that I’ve never gone to war, I’ve never had a single battle and even if I practiced to keep my aim at a high level, I’ve never shot any living thing. Since we left the academy, we chose to focus on different sets of skills and it’ll take both of us using those skills to get out of here alive.

I was hoping when we left, we’d be making our way to the help beacon. Instead, we’re trying to make it through the streets to get to the hospital. Marki has been the only reason we haven’t stopped the insults and punches to try murdering each other. If something happens to her, I would feel guilty about that. I don’t care about the people on ship that died. They would have died anyway. Marki survived, she’s supposed to live and make it out of here.

“We’re going to have to make a left,” Marshall returns from scouting the next block.

“That’ll double our time to get there.”

“Has she gotten any worse?”

“No.”

“Then we’ll need to take the time, we can’t get through straight ahead without another gun. There’s just too many of them up ahead.”

“Alright, let’s get going,” I try not to argue with Marshall for Marki’s sake.

I was hoping we’d have a quick route to the hospital. I simply wasn’t expecting so much resistance, but the closer we get to the center of the city, the more of the creatures start to pop up. I believe the people who released the help beacon called them grubs, as did the woman from the radio. Grub implies they’re in the larval stages of an insect. Unfortunately, that means there’s probably at least one other stage we aren’t yet aware of yet. If I really break it down I’ve seen several stages already. Some that maintain mostly human features, those that have developed an exoskeleton but keep human heads and those that have had their heads shifted into something more insect life.

It seems like they had the same Idea that I did. The creatures are likely a mixture of human and Strux DNA. If I take that to be fact since we’ve all reached the same conclusion, then the only questions remaining are how, why and how to correct it. That’s a question for another time, right now it seems Marshall is hesitating on a path forward.

“What’s going on?”

“We’re trapped.”

“Then we can just go back the way we came.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“You’ve been lost in thought, I told you that would get you killed. Look behind us,” he points.

There has been a group following us. I’ll say the grubs aren’t very fast. I contribute it to the exoskeleton being formed incorrectly. If you’re not paying attention to the sounds of their shuffling feet, they can really sneak up on you. Up ahead of us there’s a larger group. We’re trapped in this alleyway; the only way forward or back is to fight. If all three of us were ready and willing we could probably shoot our way through them all but Marki is down for the count. She can’t hold a gun, much less fire one right now.

Marshall probably is a good commander. I’ve never seen him in action outside of the academy. It’s been clear to me that he cares about his people. That includes me. I expected him to barrel through them but instead he’s trying to get through the locked back doors of these buildings. I suppose now is the time when I get some courage. I take my assault rifle and flip the power switch. Marshall and Marki like the classic models of rifles, gun powder filled bullets, clips and all of that. I prefer something new, more with the times. It’s fires a pseudo plasma, it doesn’t have the same distance as Marshall’s rifle but without a scope, there’s not much noticeable difference. I turn off the burst mode, and take aim at one of the creatures in front of us.

While Marshall is trying to kick in a door I fire a hot round directly at one of the creatures. Out of curiosity, I fired at the chest to see if plasma would penetrate. My shot lands dead center of the chest, and prompts what seems to be a pain response from the grub. There’s a scorch mark on the torso, but it doesn’t destroy the exoskeleton. I was hoping it would, but experiment over. I fire another shot, landing between a bunching of eyes. There’s no blood splatter, the plasma burned through it leaving a clean wound. The creature continues to step for a second before dropping to the ground dead.

“What are you doing,” Marshall shouts.

“Buying you some time so get one of these doors open,” I respond while lining up another shot.

Marshall works harder on getting the doors open as I drop another grub. I try not to think about the fact that these were once human lives. I try to think of them as some mindless movie creature, hoping it’ll make pulling the trigger easier. Still I pause each time to line up a shot, unable to do it in quick succession as if I was shooting targets. I’m thinning the herd, but there seems to be an endless amount coming from both directions.

Marshall barrels through one of the doors after shooting out the lock, “Let’s go,” he yells at me.

“Get Marki first, I can protect myself,” I keep calm.

Aiming gets hard for me if I get too excited. For me, keeping the adrenaline down is a key part for me. I just stay focused, pivoting between the directions and taking out whichever group has gotten closer. Marshall calls for me once he’s gotten Marki into the building. I fire off a few more shots and duck into the building and slamming the door behind me. I put my back to the door and wait for Marshall to drag a shelf in front of the door. It shakes the ground as it drops, into place, I begin to grab furniture and had to the pile.

I take a seat on the floor and rest my head against the wall before taking some deep breaths. Adrenaline is like a drug for most people but for me it always made my head foggy. I need a few moments to calm down and a get my body back to normal. I’m glad that Marshall is giving me a few minutes to recover from it all. I hit the switch releasing the built-up heat on my rifle and take a deep breath before turning to a smiling Marshall.

“Why are you smiling?”

“We’re safe for the moment, and you did a great job out there.”

“That sounds like a compliment.”

“Don’t let it go to your head.”

For the first time in what seems to be years, I share a laugh with Marshall. We’ve still got to get Marki to the hospital, but things might be a little easier from here on out.