On the third day, James' muscles protested with every move, and he groaned as he sat up. Bleary eyed, he took in the interior of the small shuttle.

'Well shit,' he muttered.

'Good morning to you too,' Dakarai replied.

James managed some kind of grimace that was meant to be a smile. His head ached. 'I think I've become at least eighty.'

'Oh yeah, me too,' Rebecca mumbled from the bunk bed above.

James struggled out of the bed and pulled on the suit.

Funny how fast you got used to things, he reflected. The smell didn't bother him as much anymore.

'You're all alive. I'm impressed,' Bill said from over by the monitor.

'You too,' James said, wondering if he'd forgotten about the save yesterday.

Bill gave him a glance, then returned his attention to the screen. 'Last day to reach the quota. I've asked the ship to take us to a different location. I hope there's more to gain there.'

'Oh, nice,' Rebecca chirped, suddenly looking more alive. 'Maybe it won't be as bad there.'

'Yeah, I really hope so,' James agreed.

'Sure, it'll be a walk in the park,' Bill grumbled.

Dakarai laughed. 'What a burn. I think it'll be worse.' He nodded as if he knew what he was talking about.

'Wouldn't that be delightful,' James snickered, hoping he was wrong, but fearing he was right.

'Landing the ship. Get ready.'

'I haven't had breakfast yet!' James shouted as he grabbed for his helmet. The ship was fast and he didn't trust that Bill would wait.

'Don't sleep in then,' Bill said and gave a quick grin. It didn't make him look friendlier.

Groaning, they got ready, and as soon as the ship settled they ventured towards the new facility. It lay farther away from the ship this time, but the terrain was much flatter. No climbing hills, which James' legs thanked him for.

'Man, I was so unprepared for this job. I will be dead in a few days like this,' he complained.

Bill gave him an odd look.

'What?' James grouched.

'Nothing,' Bill said, walking on ahead of him.

The wind buffeted them, kicking up dust and obscuring their vision.

'Is it getting windier? I mean, yesterday I could barely see the ship when we got back,' Rebecca said.

'Maybe a storm coming?' Dakarai asked, looking up. But the skies were clear.

'I think it's just windy here,' James said, noting the wind-worn rocks.

'Hope so. A storm would actually kinda suck,' Dakarai said.

'There it is!' Rebecca pointed and they all looked.

Through the hazy air, a large, angular edifice loomed. Larger than the first they'd been at. And hopefully, less looted.

'Let's go,' Dakarai said. 'We'll find what we need here for sure.'

After about an hour of walking through long dark corridors and empty rooms, James began to despair. Would they be fired after all? After just three days? Because they couldn't find enough scrap? It was ridiculous. Surely they should be able to find something?

A light metallic chink, stopped him in his tracks. He searched the floor. Something glinted in the dust. A key.

'Hey! I found a key. Maybe we can open some locked door somewhere?' They had passed several locked doors on the way in.

'Great. We should backtrack to that one earlier,' Bill said. 'It might not be looted since it's still locked.

'Good idea,' Rebecca agreed.

They spun around like one, walking back with more vigour and hope than before, soon arriving at the locked door.

James inserted the key and turned it in the old lock. At first, it refused to move. He grabbed it firmly and forced it as much as he could. It gave way suddenly and spun with a sharp click. The door squeaked loudly as they opened it.

Bill twitched at the noise, James noticed. What was he afraid of? It wasn't the slime, that was for sure. And what had he glimpsed at the other facility? He shivered at the memory.

'Look,' Dakarai said and walked past. 'There's things right here.' He held up the scanner and it gave off its weird chirp. 'Yes, several things here.' He began picking things up at once.

James breathed a sigh of relief, letting go of the foul memory. It was fine. This place was untouched, and they'd be done in no time.

They passed though the room and into another hallway. It split into three just a few steps in.

'Hey, should we split up into two teams? It'd be more effective,' Dakarai suggested.

'I don't think you're rea-'

'Yeah, it might be a good idea,' James interrupted. 'And we know what to do now.' He walked up beside Dak, ready to take on the new corridor.

'You sure?' Bill asked, a sceptical tone in his voice.

'We'll come straight back if we see anything,' James reassured him.

'Fine. It's your hide.'

Rebecca stayed by Bill, but looked for all the world like she wanted to come too. Probably how James would have felt too, had they left him with Bill. To be fair, she was probably safer with him. Oh well. He wanted to get going and be done with it.

Together they walked a short bit down the corridor and found another door. Dakarai tested the handle and it opened with a loud thunk.

'Ooh, I think we might have hit the motherload,' he announced and entered.

James followed. A server room of some kind, full of computers. 'Nice.'

But they soon realized most of the computers were tightly screwed in place, and they had no tools to get them out. So in the end, they only managed to pick up one measly controller they found in a corner. They continued down the corridor, checking out more rooms, getting further away from Bill and Rebecca.

'It's pretty dark here,' James said as they rounded a corner. Ahead, just one lamp still flickered, ominously, like in a horror movie.

'Creepy stuff,' Dakarai said and walked on, unbothered.

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'Nothing affects you, does it?'

'Those spiderwebs might.'

James huffed. He hated spiders.

'Whoa, those are big though,' Dakarai said.

'Holy shit.' James came up beside him, watching the ridiculously big web. It stretched from the ceiling on the right to the floor on the left. Too big. What kind of spiders did they have here? Some kind of alien tarantulas?

'Well, it's just a bug. Let's go.'

'Maybe we should turn back?' James vainly hoped Dak would listen, but he simply ducked under the web and kept walking.

'Dak. Maybe we shouldn't...'

It was pointless. Dakarai wasn't listening. Instead he was speaking to himself about another light ahead, like it was a great discovery. James hurried after him, unwilling to get too far behind.

'Dak,' he hissed.

'What?' Dakarai looked back at him, smiling.

He enjoyed this, James realized. 'Nothing. Keep going.'

Dakarai raised his eyebrows, shrugged and stepped over another large cobweb. 'Another door. Let's goo!'

The door thunked open, spilling light into the dark concrete hallway. Something shuffled further down in the dark. James froze, staring down the hallway.

'Dak, we should leave.'

'Bro, we just found this place. Look!'

James dared to glance into the room. A large engine of some kind stood on the floor. A couple of boxes filled with smaller parts were stacked beside it. And in a corner, something large lay half-propped up against the wall.

Dakarai grabbed the engine and hauled it up on his shoulders and huffed, 'Get the stuff in the boxes.'

James went to pick one up, but something about the shape of the thing against the wall had his hairs stand on end.

'Just a moment.' He stepped closer, nausea growing in his stomach. The shape was too... human. Squinting in the half-light, he leaned in closer.

Webs. Something covered in webs. Like a cocoon. Carefully he reached out and poked it. Snatched his hand back.

Nothing happened.

'Dude! What are you doing?' Dak called. 'Let's go back with the stuff already.'

'Yeah, yeah.' James poked it again, a little harder. It fell over to the side, and James jumped back with a gasp. Then he took another step back. The webs had been stuck against the wall, and as the thing had fallen, they had pulled apart, revealing an orange suit. 'Ohshitohshitohshit...'

'What are you doing?' Dak asked.

James couldn't believe it. That was a person. A very dead person. Spiders. This was a nightmare.

'S..ss...'

'Let's go. Come on!'

James nodded, spun on his heels and half-ran back to Dakarai. He grabbed the entire box and stumbled as he tried to lift it and run at the same time.

'Fuck.'

Dakarai didn't comment. Odd. James looked towards the door.

'Fuuuuck!'

A spider-like brown creature the size of a horse blocked the doorway. Thick hairy legs, multiple large eyes, fangs. James froze.

For a few precious seconds, nothing moved.

'Run!' Dakarai yelled as the giant spider quickly moved into the room and stopped, the many legs splayed, blocking the doorway. Dakarai jumped back, still balancing the engine on his shoulder.

James staggered back a few steps, then stopped as well. Warily eyeing the large creature, he prepared to run. There was no other door out of this room. They had to get around it somehow.

'Dak. I'm gonna distract it,' James hissed.

'Whatcha doin'?'

'I'll throw this,' he slowly raised a small piece of machinery, 'into that corner over there. If it goes for it, let it get halfway. Then we run for it.' He gritted his teeth, hoping it would work.

Dakarai nodded and took a ready-stance.

The many eyes of the spider stared at them, one leg tap-tapped the doorway, as if impatient. James swallowed.

'Go!' He heaved the junk towards the corner with the corpse. The spider shot forward, straight at him.

Shit.

James dove to one side, and Dakarai ran in the other direction. Sucking in a breath, James skipped over one of the spider's legs as it swiped towards him. He almost hit the wall and pushed away from it, dropping the box. The loud clash made the spider sidestep away from him, giving him the room he needed. With a whimper he bolted for the door.

'Come on, come on, come on!' Dakarai called, beckoning with wild hand movements.

James ran faster than he'd ever run in his life, a fast-paced tapping right behind him from the spider's many legs. He expected the monster to snap at his heels at any second, a cold prickle running up and down his spine as he flew down the passageway, jumping and ducking between the webs, following Dakarai's orange back.

Then, Dakarai stumbled, his right leg ensnared in a web, the engine tumbling to the floor. James grabbed his arm in passing and pulled him with him, almost toppling from the sudden weight of his friend. The spider hissed, and it's large fangs snapped millimetres from his helmet, its foremost legs raised, pushing him back with surprising force.

James hollerred in terror, but somehow managed to stay upright.

Dakarai kicked at the spider with his free leg and, to James' astonishment, punched the monster in the face.

The spider reared its legs and bit at Dakarai's gloved hand. James' yanked Dakarai away from it, and the sticky webs tore from Dakarai's leg. They turned and ran, breathing heavily.

They burst into the room where they'd left Bill and Rebecca only moments later, dashed through it and out into the corridor. The rapid tapping again right behind James.

Ahead, he spotted two orange forms in the blinking lights, blurry from the perspiration on his visor, and tried to shout, but only managed a desperate hissing for air.

Dakarai sped past them without a word, but pointed behind them. Bill immediately bolted.

Rebecca looked up, her mouth forming an O of surprise.

'Spider, spider, spider, ss...' James managed as he stumbled past.

'What?' Rebecca gave a short, surprised laugh. 'Spider?'

James couldn't stop to explain, but he didn't have to. Her terrified scream rang through the corridor like an alarm only a second later. And then she sped past him like an orange lightning bolt. Yelling at the top of her lungs.

'Holy...' he managed between deep, burning breaths.

Together they sprinted in the heavy suits until they no longer heard the tapping behind them. Then they ran some more.

Sitting on the floor, James heaved for air like a fish on land, his heartbeat thundering in his ears, and his lungs burning with a fire he'd never experienced before. He looked at his hands. They shook, violently. He couldn't believe they'd survived.

'Fucking spider,' Rebecca panted, lying flat on the floor a short distance away from him.

James didn't have enough air to reply, the earlier close call repeating in his head. He had been so close to death he'd been knocking at heaven's door.

'This job sucks,' Dakarai spat after a while. 'Like, for real.'

Bill nodded.

'How long... have you worked for The Company, James managed after a while.

Bill looked at him.

'Well, how l-'

'I don't know, alright.' Bill got back up and glanced out the dirty window on the door to the room they rested in.

'You gotta know at least approximately, right?' James pushed.

Bill shook his head. 'It's been... months. I think. I used to know, but...' He fell quiet.

Very cryptical. How had that happened? Maybe he'd taken a hit to the head, James reasoned. It certainly wasn't too far out in this place.

'We have to get the scrap,' Bill said then, in his usual grouchy voice.

'Are you serious?' James asked. 'I can barely stand. There's a giant spider there. Giant!'

'Do you want us all to get fired?' Bill fired back.

'Why would we all be fired?'

This was getting stupid. Was it for real?

Bill walked up to him, a deep crevice forming in his forehead. 'If any one of us fails to earn the quota, we all...' He hesitated. 'We're all fired.'

'They can't do that!' James protested.

'Who's gonna tell them? You?' Bill laughed. 'Fine. I'll go. Just get my body if I die.'

'What?' James stuttered, wasn't sure what to say. 'Are you mad?'

'Perhaps.' Bill strode to the door and opened it. 'Time's running. Gotta go.'

'Wait!' Dakarai stood and brushed himself off from the dusty floor. 'I'm coming.'

Bill nodded, then started walking.

James sighed deeply, met Rebecca's gaze, then with a grimace got up and followed, Rebecca in tow.

Insanity. Going back to the monster. They'd die like this. But maybe that was the point? Bill had hesitated before saying they'd get fired. He's noticed it before. Something wasn't right. No, everything was in fact very wrong. But he was in too deep. It wasn't like he could just quit or go home. He was stuck. So, perhaps Bill was right. They had to do their best. He could talk to the manager, perhaps, or someone, at The Company when they went back there tomorrow.

'Come on, hurry up,' Rebecca called.

The others had vanished around a corner. James lengthened his steps, even though the thought of meeting the spider again had his hands tremble. Well shit.