Today was the day. Adlai rose from the ground groaning softly, his neck sore. As the fog of sleep slowly dissipated, letting in rays of thought, he found himself staring down his anxiety once again. He arched his back, joints popping in relief. Shawna, as usual, was up already, pacing on the hard packed floor of the hut.

  A look of relief passed through Shawna’s face seeing him awake, followed by her normal impassive mask. She opened her mouth to say something, but before the words left her lips Nire burst through the door, arms filled with flashbangs and what seemed to be jars filled with a clear liquid.

  “Wake up y’all! We’ve got a barbecue to set up and a picnic to enjoy!

  Nire covered her mouth in exaggerated shock as Shawna shot her a venomous look. “My oh my! Was I interruptin’ somethin’? Well, since I interrupted it, clearly it can wait. Let’s get moving ya lazy bums!”

  Shawna waited until Nire left before letting loose a string of curses that even a seasoned criminal would blush at. Adlai couldn’t help but chuckle, and Shawna smiled momentarily.

  The smile slipped off her face however once she saw Adlai packing up his own meager belongings. She had already packed as evidenced by the neat bundle lying next to the door.

  “Adlai…” Shawna began.

  He knew what she was going to say. The momentary flicker of happiness dimmed quickly. She was going to tell him he was stupid, or that he was making the wrong decision.

  Shawna frowned slightly, the first sign of negative emotion. What did I do? Her face seemed to say.

  “Adlai?” She began again, a note of frustration entering her voice. “Adlai, I want to ask-”

  “I’m going to be fine. Stop.”

  “That wasn’t even what I was going to ask, dumbass.” That note of frustration became a chord of anger. “You know what? Never mind even asking. Why do you act like this? Talking to you is like talking to a fucking rock. You know how frustrating that is? You always act so high and mighty, always thinking you’re the one who has to sacrifice everything. Just stop! You’re not superhuman, you’re not gonna make everyone happy.”

  Adlai felt his own anger boil past breaking point. “Someone has to take responsibility. Who do you think that is? Do you think I like being in charge? Do you know how hard it is? Do you know how it felt losing you? It felt like someone ripped something I needed out of me. I don’t want to make everyone happy. I’m not superhuman, I just want to keep you two safe.”

  His voice hoarse from shouting, he finished his monologue with a mumble. “I don’t want to lose either of you.”

  Before Shawna could respond, he grabbed his just barely wrapped pack and pushed past the door, only to run straight into Nire who was still carrying the fluid.

  Nire struggled to maintain her balance with the jars in hand. “Watch where you’re going ya bum!”

  Adlai raised his hands placatingly, dodging out the way of the scientist. He had wanted to find Averi to talk to her before the barbecue. A firm hand grabbed his shoulder and Adlai flinched. Nire turned him to face her, and despite him having a few inches over her, she seemed to tower over him.

  “Averi isn’t here right now, she’s helpin me with some of the preparations.”

  Nire handed Adlai a flashbang and pushed him outside. "You wait out here for me and angry girl, I’ll take y’all back to the picnic site.”

  Adlai acknowledged her request quietly, his energy drained from the shouting match. Outside, his eyes slowly adjusted to the miserable dark of the cave which was somehow even darker than before. No aliens called and no bioluminescence shone in the dark. It was a sea of darkness and silence, and Adlai was the only passenger.

  In the quiet, Adlai’s thoughts tended to get to him. It was when he was alone, little whispers would crawl up his body into his ears, telling him things he didn’t want to think about, remembering things he didn’t want to remember. And so he sat in the cold empty dark, thinking about his death, of Shawna’s smile, of Averi’s tears.

  In the corner of his vision, a little blurry dot of blue appeared for a brief moment before flickering out. Adlai shrugged to himself. It was probably one of the needle worms waking up. Nire finally pushed the outside door open, following closely behind her was Shawna. The researcher gestured to him to follow, and Adlai obliged.

  The darkness was still oppressive, Adlai’s pupils straining against the blackness of the caves. At this point his nose had gotten used to the smell of mold and rot, so when a new scent hit his nose it was a strange surprise. It smelled like the inside of the old jerry cans his father used to have. It was an almost pleasant smell, almost. There was a pungent acrid taste to the scent that coated his tongue.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Nire laughed at Adlai’s coughing. “Never smelled fuel before?”

  Adlai didn’t bother responding, his mind fully occupied. Every time he thought of what he’d have to do, his heart raced. Staring death in the face was much different than the occasional thought of mortality. There was a sort of comfortable dread in knowing that he could die at any moment here, but when face to face with his own very likely death, Adlai was scared.

  He wasn’t just scared for himself, although that was an undeniable part of it. He was more scared of what would happen to the others. How would Averi survive without him? Would Shawna take care of his sister? The moment things moved out of his control, he felt deeply afraid. And death was the unequivocal removal of control.

  The water soaking into his shoe shook him out of his thinking and he knew they were getting close. There wasn’t much talk between the three, even the normally energetic Nire was quiet. Adlai smiled to himself in the dark. This wasn’t much fanfare for a barbecue.

  The researcher suddenly stopped and turned around, grabbing Adlai’s shoulders. She shook them slightly as she spoke.

  “When you go out there boy, you run like hell is after you, cause it will be.”

  Nire handed him a lantern, and gave him a hearty pat on the back.

  “Where do I run?” Adlai questioned.

  “Straight ahead. You’ll know when you reach em. Try not to let em reach you. I’ll see ya later, hopefully.”

  Nire walked off, her lantern slowly dimming in the dark. Another hand grabbed his arm, and he found himself staring at Shawna. Her face was stony in the dark, only lit by the dim lantern Adlai held.

  “I wanted to finish what I was going to say.” Shawna whispered, her voice cracking.

  Adlai stayed silent, not trusting himself to speak. She would probably scold him for their morning conversation or-

  Shawna reached up to his face, her warm but calloused hand patting his cheek. “Stay alive. ”

  Adlai stayed stock still, a strange feeling rising up in his chest and his cheeks burned. Shawna turned and jogged towards the dimming lantern light Nire held. Adlai breathed in deeply, steadying himself. So many emotions flowed through him and adrenaline coursed through his veins. He couldn’t feel more alive. He also couldn’t feel more confused.

He started to run.

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  It watched. The glowing one was setting up its traps for the worms, and the smaller one, the one that wasn’t broken, ran towards the glowing one. The tall one ran towards the needle worms. The hunter was taken aback by this, it was out of character for the new ones it had been encountering. Most would run from danger but this one ran towards it. There had been a few who had been like this one, but most had died. It did what most resembled a shrug and rolled through the air. It still had to wait, the parasite was not something it wanted to deal with.

  The glowing one was strange for being infected however. Most organisms once subjected quickly became living spore factories, but this one was fighting it. The hunter opened its maw lazily, droplets of saliva dripping down. It could wait, but it would intervene if necessary. Its prey was cornered in the caves with only water below. None of the new ones had survived any sort of water, especially with the native residents.

Besides, it had its own traps.

_________________________________________________________

  Adlai’s mind was blank while running, having entered a sort of rhythm. Thump. Thump. Thump. Breath. Thump. Thump. Thump. Breath. He ran just fast enough to be able to accelerate into a sprint but just slow enough to conserve his energy. With each thumping footstep he ran closer to what could kill him. His wounded foot had mostly healed at this point with only a twinge of pain on every odd step.

  Lights began to pop up on his right, then his left, then in front. Adlai began to turn just as the horde of needle worms woke. There weren’t enough waking up however, only a few odd blue lights outlining hundreds of silhouettes. So Adlai did what any reasonable person would and screamed at the top of his lungs. Like a living wave, the needle worm horde crashed against the ground, the unholy skittering and scratching grating at Adlai’s ears.

  Now was the time to run. And so he did. Adlai ran as hard as he could. His lungs aching, his heart thumping, but his mind clear, he ran. He ran for Averi, he ran for Shawna. But he didn’t run fast enough. The needle worms were closing in, blue lights flooding his vision. Adlai closed his eyes and kept running. That was before the first needle worm wrapped its legs around his own.