They sat in silence. James didn't want to eat, or speak. His heart bled. He hadn't realized how attached he'd gotten to her.

'Who am I kidding,' he muttered under his breath. He'd liked her. But now she too was gone. He saw it play out before his eyes, time and again.

Olivia sat on the bunk bed, her arms clasped around her legs, head resting on her knees. She rocked back and forth, sobbing. Probably in shock. At least she hadn't known her.

'I'm not going back there,' James said a little louder then.

'We have to,' Bill said, voice neutral, calm.

'No.' James stood, went to the computer. Started pressing the keys, finding out were else they could go, trying to keep his thoughts occupied. 'I can't go there. There's too many things. Too many... too...'

'Fine. Can we go to March?' Bill asked.

James checked. 'Yes. I think so.'

'Weather?'

'Uh... rainy. Does it matter?'

'Everything matters.'

'Right.'

'If we are fast. Can we do it?'

Vaguely, James noted that Bill had asked if “we” could do it. He usually didn't include himself. But he considered the question. Looked at Olivia and Rich. Rich sat on the floor, eating from a can. He thought Rich could handle it. Olivia? No clue. Himself? Not really. But he'd try.

'Sure,' he answered.

Bill's mouth thinned, but he nodded. 'Then route the ship fast, we're losing time.'

'We can make it,' Rich said. 'We did well yesterday. We don't need to get that much.'

'Guys,' Olivia snuffled. 'Guys. How can you? You're thinking about work. She died, you know.' Her eyes were wide and red-shot.

'Yeah, happens all the time,' Bill said mercilessly. 'Either we deal with it, or share the same fate.'

'Sorry,' James added, 'but it's true. The Company are assholes and they're treating us like trash. We either work, or die. Or we don't work and die anyway. Sorry you had to find out so soon.'

She stared at them for a while, glanced at Rich who nodded solemnly, then back at them again. 'I see.' She swallowed, chewed her lower lip for a moment. 'Alright. Well, this sucks.'

They all nodded.

'I can do it.'

'How long's your contract?' James asked.

'Eight months.'

'Great. Four months shorter than me. Let's see if we make it, then.'

'Yeah,' she said weakly, her hands fluttering around like she didn't know what to do with them.

An odd determination set in James' body then. 'Let's survive. Let's show those Company assholes what we're made of. Let's prove them wrong, and let's get out.'

They looked at him in surprise, mouths open. Then some of that determination settled in their eyes as well.

'Yeah, let's.' Even Bill looked determined as he spoke.

James pulled the lever, and the ship changed course. Going to March. He hoped it'd be slightly better than this Vow moon. They'd be effective, find loot, survive, and go to the Company. He would show them. He had to find out who they were. And then, somehow, avenge Rebecca.

'What's March like?' Olivia asked as he looked away from the screen.

He shrugged, having never been there and looked at Bill.

'It's very similar to Vow,' the man rasped, 'but with fewer walking trees and brackens. More baboon-hawks and thumpers.' He gave James a hard look.

'Thumpers?'

'The monstrosity that chased you and I hit with a shovel. Rebecca scanned it.'

James recalled the creature; a weird-faced, pink, long-armed monster. Super fast. “This is the first time I've seen one and nobody's been eaten,” Bill had said with a defeated expression afterwards. A cold trickle went down James' spine, like cold fingers. Had he made a mistake? Well, too late to change it.

'Let's all bring shovels. I'm out of shotgun shells.'

'Shouldn't have shot the giant,' Rich said.

'No shit,' James growled, not in the mood to be reminded of his failure.

Rich raised his hands. 'No offence. Just, they're really big and hard to kill.'

Hard to kill? Did that mean? 'Wait... they can be killed?'

Rich nodded, then resumed eating. 'Almost impossible though. My first crew managed, but only I was alive at the end of that fight. Barely.'

James watched him for any hint of a smile, or twitch, or anything that'd reveal it to be a lie. But he only saw sincerity.

'Wow.' He didn't know what to say beyond that.

'What's the average lifespan of a Company worker,' Olivia asked, her eyes wide.

'No idea. Three days?' James half-jested. But he wouldn't be surprised if it was less. Most people probably died on their first or second day.

'I think you're optimistic, still,' Bill said.

He nodded. 'Tell us all you know about March, so we can be as prepared as possible,' James demanded.

Bill nodded, grabbed a food can and sat down beside Rich. Then he started talking.

As the doors opened on the new planet, James anxiously looked out at the hilly, forested landscape. Rain pattered lightly, the thick clouds hung low, dark and foreboding.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

'Where's the facility?' James asked.

'Behind us. I checked the map,' Bill answered. 'There's a hill beside the shuttle, a rocket with more shovels will land soon.'

'Alright. Let's go?'

They jumped down from the walkway, rounded the ship and walked towards the hill.

'Look!' Olivia pointed.

Looking from the back of the shuttle, James spotted two lights shining from just a few hundred meters off. The rainy, slightly foggy air made it hard to judge the distance, but that couldn't be too hard to reach. They'd never landed this close to a facility before.

'Nice.' He hoped it was gonna be an easy run.

'I know right,' Olivia gave a weak smile. 'We can do this.'

'Yeah. Let's get it over with fast.'

Rich called from the hilltop, 'It's almost here.'

James looked up at the approaching rocket. Shovels. It was ridiculous. They should all have proper weapons. But he supposed the Company didn't wanna waste money on that as most would be lost within a few days anyway.

He frowned.

Don't sympathise with them.

They grabbed the shovels and a flash-bang. Bill had spent most of their money, he supposed. That was fine. He'd rather live than have money.

They set off towards the building, scanning left and right all the time to spot any creatures. But it was oddly quiet, aside from rain pattering his visor and a distant rumble of thunder. Great.

It took them no time to get to the facility through the light woods. They followed a large, deep sided lake on their left, and kept the entrance ahead in sight all the time. It stuck out from the surrounding hills like a bunker.

Once inside, they decided to stay together as much as possible, picked the right hand corridor and started searching.

It was annoying to carry the shovel around all the time, but he supposed it was worth it. But it meant both hands were occupied all the time. He pressed the scanner again and again.

'Something's over there,' Bill said and pointed with his flashlight to an open door on the left.

'I've got it,' Rich said and loped over to it.

Was he trying to prove his usefulness? He already had, hadn't he? He and Olivia had saved his life. Without them, he'd simply have been eaten along with Rebecca. He had just stared at it. Done nothing.

'James? Snap out of it.'

He blinked and focused on Bill. 'Yeah, yeah. Sorry.'

'Don't think about it. Look for scrap.'

'Yeah.' He pressed the scanner again, opened a metal door ahead and hesitated. Something red blinked in the dark. What was it? He swapped the scanner for the flashlight. A bleep came from the thing in the corridor. It moved, a long turret glinting in the light from James' flashlight.

'Shit!' He jumped back and slammed the door shut just as a thunderous bombardment of bullets hit it.

Olivia yelped behind him. Both Rich and Bill froze and looked his way.

'You alright?' Bill called.

'Yeah, I'm alive,' James gasped. 'There's a turret in there.'

'Maybe we should go somewhere else?' Olivia suggested. 'We can try the other corridor?'

'Yeah. We should. I'm not insane enough to try dodging it,' James said, thinking of Dakarai.

The other corridor split into many tunnels, and stairs led both up and down. Soon, James wasn't even sure where out was anymore. He hoped Bill or the others could backtrack.

'Do any of you know the way back out?' he asked after a while, as the loss of direction bothered him more and more.

'Yeah, I think so,' Olivia said.

'Probably,' Bill muttered. 'There's something over there.'

James scanned and something red showed up to their right. What was it? He didn't hear anything. The red dot didn't move either.

'A face-hugger?' he wondered aloud.

'Too big,' Bill answered.

'Spider,' Rich said and pointed to the ceiling. The remains of a large, dusty net hung in tatters. Further in, the compact dark and several pipes obstructed the view, casting disturbing shadows whenever they aimed their flashlights at it.

'Nope,' James said and turned the other way. 'I've had enough of those.'

Rich chuckled. 'Yeah, they're nasty bastards. But we can take it on, if it attacks. Just avoid any nets.'

James nodded, though Rich probably couldn't see it.

They moved further into the dark complex, picking up anything they found. They eventually found themselves in a dead end. The large room had several machines, and three other doors, but they were all locked and they hadn't found any keys.

'Let's go back and try another way,' Olivia said. 'I don't like it here anyway.'

'Yeah, almost no lights are working here,' James agreed. They had to rely fully on their flashlights to see anything.

'Maybe someone's turned off the lighting to save energy?' Bill suggested.

'Then, we could turn it back on?'

'Possibly, if we can find the control panel for that.'

That'd require a lot of luck, James supposed. Better not count on that happening. He backtracked, then took another route to avoid the corridor with the spider. The others followed, and he briefly wondered why he took the lead. He wasn't the expert here. Bill, and he suspected Rich as well, had more experience than him. But maybe that's why they stayed back. Bill had a habit of running away first, and staying in the middle if he could. It had kept him alive so far, James concluded. Maybe he should try that strategy himself.

Something tugged at his foot, and he looked down. Spider webs across the entire floor.

'Oh forf...'

'What is it?' Bill asked sharply behind him.

'Spider!' Olivia screamed.

The many-legged predicament came towards him, snapping mandibles and facet-eyes glinting. The light wavered as his hand shook. He pulled back, yanking his foot loose from the clingy webs.

'Get back!' he shouted, and turned to flee, the fast patter of the spider's many legs right behind him. He got a full ten steps before it snapped at his backpack, causing him to stumble.

'Get away you foul beast!' Olivia hollerred and raised her shovel.

James bounced back up, readying his own, barely registering that he'd dropped his flashlight. But Bill shined his towards the menace. The spider battered Olivia with its front legs, and her swing went wide, missing its head. James jumped in, bashing its large abdomen. The monster kicked him with another leg as it snapped at Olivia's hands with its mandibles.

She shrieked and jumped back as James groaned from the punch to his guts.

Rich came as backup, hitting the spider several times with the shovel, before it jumped at him and latched onto his arm. He grunted.

James took advantage of the situation and whacked the spider's back again, as hard as he could. The shovel's edge cut into the chitin, cracking it. It squealed and curled its legs for a moment. He hit it again. It squealed louder and tried to scramble away from him. Olivia and Rich raised their shovels as one, raining blows over the spider's head and back. Soon, it stopped moving.

Panting, James wondered why they hadn't brought more shovels earlier. They had barely taken any damage. Or had they?

'You alright?'

'Yeah, I'm okay,' Olivia huffed.

'I'll live,' Rich said, raising his left arm to inspect the damage.

His orange suit had torn and blood stained the fabric and dripped to the floor.

'You should go back to the ship,' Olivia said. 'Get that cleaned and bandaged.'

Rich laughed. 'Hah, it's more dangerous to do that alone. I'll stay here until we go together.'

'Oh,' Olivia looked stricken, 'I didn't mean like that. We'll go with you of course.'

He waved it off. 'No, let's keep going. We've probably got what we need. But the more we can find before we leave, the better.'

'You think so?' James asked.

'Yeah,' Bill answered and handed him his dropped flashlight. 'We've got enough. But having a bit extra might keep us alive longer. Let's go. This racket-'

'Will draw some unwanted attention,' James finished for him.

Bill blinked, then smiled.

James chuckled.