In the dark, James flailed and pulled at whatever had attached itself to his helmet. He yelled for Bill to help, staggering around, totally lost for directions. A sharp pain sliced his right cheek, just below his eye. He couldn't breathe in the stinking air. Another sharp, burning hot sensation hit his right temple. James screamed. He would lose his face to this thing.

A heavy force and muted metallic clang pushed him sideways so hard he fell. Then he smashed into something and jolted to a stop, hitting his head on the inside of the helmet. His hands and knees connected with the hard floor, and he rolled.

A bright light blinded him and loud squeals and thumps resounded in bright clarity. Confused, James blinked and looked around. The weight over his head and shoulders was gone.

'No, you don't!' Bill roared, followed by another loud bang and squeal.

Panting, James sat up, his head, shoulders, and hands pounding with each heartbeat. A flashlight lay beside him on the floor. He grabbed for it and shone the light towards the noise. Bill stood panting, bent over the shovel he carried, currently used as a steadying stick. James directed the light down, to the long, many-legged, segmented body lying there in a pool of blood. A few legs still twitched.

'What the...' he breathed. What was that?

Bill's head snapped around to regard him at the sound of his voice. 'You alright, man?'

James took a moment to consider the question. Was he alright? Hell no. Was he in one piece? It seemed like it. He went through his entire body, making sure no parts were missing. No bones broken. No eyes gouged out, his nose was still there. Thank the Seven. Only the visor was missing, the unpleasant, pungent air of the facility stinging his eyes and nose.

'Yeah, I'm fine,' he replied.

Bill walked up to him, the stained shovel placed over his shoulder, and reached out a hand. James grabbed it thankfully, and was pulled to his feet.

'You're bleeding,' Bill stated and shone his light in James face for a second.

'Yeah, feels like it,' James agreed, squinting.

'Can you breathe?'

'Uh... not sure. Doesn't feel great.'

'Here.' Bill tossed what looked like an old dirty scarf to him.

He looked at it for a moment before deciding it might be worth it after all, and draped it around his head, over his nose and mouth. Wouldn't help his stinging eyes, but might protect him a little from the stale air. That's when he noted the lack of steam.

'Hey! You turned off the steam.'

'Yeah. Found a valve further up and had just turned it when you started making a ruckus here. Hurried back as soon as I could.' He grinned for a second.

'Hell, yeah, that thing came out of nowhere,' James muttered, still shaken from the experience.

Bill pointed up to the ceiling. 'They hang above and drop down on people sometimes. Terrifying buggers.'

'You...' James shut his mouth. He'd been about to accuse Bill of knowing about them, but then Bill couldn't know exactly where they'd be, or when, and in the steam they couldn't have seen it anyway. And he had come running to save his ass. 'Thank you,' he said instead.

Bill nodded. 'Let's go.'

'Wait!' James didn't have the walkie-talkie and looked around on the floor. There. He picked it up, and saw that it had been turned off. Probably from the impact as he dropped it. Rebecca must wonder what happened. He turned it on, and almost immediately her voice, hissing with static, came through.

'James! Bill? Are you alright? Please answer, please...'

'We're okay,' James answered.

'Oh dear! What happened? You just turned it off, and I saw something on the screen right by you for quite long. I was sure you'd die! What-'

'Calm down. We're both fine. A bug attacked me, but Bill saved my ass. We're gonna look for loot now, please be on your toes and warn us if anything comes close, okay? Over.'

'Yeah, yeah. Okay.' She sounded stressed out, her voice barely more than a whisper.

'It's okay, really. Don't worry about it. Over,' James added in a softer tone.

He walked up to the oversized centipede-monster on the floor and poked it with his boot. It didn't move. He swallowed. That thing had almost sliced his face off. His hand shook ever so slightly.

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Just the adrenaline overdose, he told himself. Lords of the Seven.

'You coming?' Bill urged again. 'We should move. All that racket...'

'Yeah. I don't know.' He coughed. 'I can't breathe so well. Maybe I should go to the ship and grab another helmet.'

Bill frowned deeply. Going back would take too long, James knew.

'Hey, let's check this place out real fast, okay? Then we hurry back, before I fucking die from this poisoned air,' James suggested then.

'Alright. Let's go.'

James hated the Company with a passion. They could give them better gear. They could have warned them. Could have had larger ships with bigger crews. But no, let the suckers die to the monsters because why not? His anger rose to earlier unimaginable levels as he tried to breathe shallow breaths through the stinking rag around his face, following Bill through the humid darkness.

'In there, on the left,' Rebecca said on the comms.

They went in and picked everything they could in the messy room. From there on, the looting progressed fairly well. After some time, they heard something move further off, and decided it was time to leave. They encountered no monsters on the way back. Though James was sure he heard the thumping footsteps behind them, closing in.

Once back outside, breathing became even harder. The winds had picked up, blowing dry dust around, the sun was setting and long shadows loomed. Their heavy packs weighed them down, forcing James to breathe heavily. His eyes and throat burned as he gasped liked a stranded fish. He hoped this wouldn't kill him. On top of all that, he was beginning to stiffen, all his muscles screaming at him for rest.

Bill hushed at him then, needlessly, because he was already quiet. 'Dogs,' he whispered.

James froze for a second. Not those too. He followed Bill's gaze. The large reddish beasts, three of them, roamed around in the dusk, sniffing and growling still a good way off.

His knees felt weak just seeing them. But just be quiet, make no sound, and they won't find you, he told himself. They couldn't see, after all.

They took a small detour to approach the ship from the back, keeping their movements' slow and precise to make no unnecessary noise. James struggled to keep from coughing, but fear was a good motivator. As they moved the last stretch of open ground, from a few straggling trees to the ship, maybe thirty meters or so, the ground trembled.

'Shit,' Bill hissed under his breath.

James froze for a second. Some guttural barks alerted him to the dogs. They'd heard either Bill or the tremors themselves. Adrenaline surged, and he bolted forward at the same time as Bill. The ground trembled again, and James stumbled, running on the verge of falling for a few steps before catching his balance again.

'There's something big! Run!' Rebecca's voice yelled both through the open door to the ship, and the walkie-talkie on James' belt.

In the corner of his eyes, James saw the three dogs make a sharp turn towards him.

'Fuuuck!'

He threw himself forward after Bill who was halfway up the ladder to the ship. The ground shook and rolled. He grappled for the rail and rungs of the ladder as Bills footsteps banged loudly on the metal walkway. He pulled himself up just as a dog came rushing past, maws wide open.

The ground rumbled loudly behind him, the entire shuttle shook, and a rush of air and pebbles blasted him from behind. Without looking back, he bolted along the walkway, took the turn at the front to reach the entrance and sucked in a breath. An eyeless dog had climbed up over the rail, just by the door.

James ducked and skidded inside the ship on his knees. Bill slammed a hand on the red button as soon as he was past, and the doors slapped shut behind him. A thud hit the metal and a loud growl resounded.

Shaken, James sat on the floor, staring at the door for several seconds.

'Oh my god, James, Bill!' Rebecca's arms encircled him in a warm embrace.

Taking a long deep breath, James closed his eyes. Maybe, just maybe, he needed that hug right now, he thought. The hug made him feel like he'd come home. Like he'd finally reached his family, though he didn't have one.

'Come here,' Rebecca said, and motioned for Bill to join them.

To James' surprise, he did. And for a few seconds, they sat on the floor, arms around each other like the best of friends.

It felt good to be home.

The moment ended and Bill left them, hurrying towards the controls. The shuttle rumbled and took off only moments later, leaving the blind dogs and whatever other thing had been out there.

James climbed back up to his feet, pulled off the scarf around his face and took several deep breaths of the air. His eyes and throat still stung, but he thought it already felt a little better. He's only been exposed for a short time after all. Maybe an hour or two. Everything else however, that was another story.

'Oh my, James, come here. You're a mess. You're bleeding!' Rebecca pulled at his helmet, and he let her remove it. She gasped loudly. 'The whole visor is gone! What happened to you?'

'Uh, yeah, I know. There was a monster.'

She dropped the helmet to the floor and stepped decisively to the cabinet with their first aid box and pulled it open, rummaging around.

'What was it?' she asked, without looking up.

James couldn't help but smile a little. Clearly, she needed something to occupy her mind with. Well, no wonder. He refused to let his eyes drop to the floor, to the headless body laying there.

'Imagine a centipede, only longer than I am tall,' he said. 'It dropped down from the ceiling, and sort of, wrapped itself around my head. Then it... uh, tore the visor off.' He pulled off a glove and touched his cheek. His fingers came off sticky with half-dried blood.

'Don't touch it,' Rebecca snapped and pulled his hand down.

'Sorry?'

She dabbed his face with something. It stung like a bitch. But he didn't complain, instead he clenched his fists and let her do it.

'There. You're good. Let me put this on.' She added some plaster or self adhering gauze bandage. 'Done!' She smiled brightly.

'Thanks.' He smiled. Then the world tilted, and went pitch black.