He didn’t know how long it went on for. Hours, minutes, maybe seconds. He heard nothing, saw nothing, felt nothing. The burning pain at his back, legs, and feet. The occasional cry that arose from the woman on his back. It seemed to be engulfed by the wallowing misery in his mind. It wasn’t until …

“…Dr. Lagos,” said Aida as Jimmy and Patricia stood in front of the mounds of furniture, piping, faux plants, anything that could be used to barricade the doors that kept them from the living quarters.  “We’re familiar,” Jimmy said back. “Please tell me he’s close to the entrance.” “He’s not far from it,” she said …

He placed the last suit over the mechanism they were using to fill them up with oxygen. “Ready,” he told Patricia as he felt the suit finally stay up on its own. Patricia tapped the panel close by and the sound of escaping gas resonated around them. “Fond memories of this place,” said Patricia with …

“Malto,” said Patricia as they walked side-by-side down the dark corridors, each with a bag that contained two pairs of suits they had been instructed to carry with them. It hadn’t taken long to take apart the internal drive for the work station. It had seemed too simple, but he had to admit that he …

“I’m sorry,” came a voice that echoed all around him. Everything was completely black. He could hear someone sobbing in no particular location, as if it were happening everywhere, yet nowhere. “I’m sorry,” he heard again. “I shouldn’t have done that. You deserve better.” Jimmy began to feel something again but was unable to pinpoint …

Throughout Jimmy’s life he had never been able to sleep with others in the same room and if he could somehow manage to doze off enough, any shift or noise, no matter how faint, had woken him in a panic. Here and now, however, it seemed his body cared more about his recovery than entertaining …

He was regretting every moment of this. There was no reason to put his life at risk again. Especially now, just so he could win Patricia over to his side. She had been kind enough to wait until he was somewhat confident enough to walk on his own but it meant that if they were …

The sound of the creature’s claws scratching wildly at the entrance woke Jimmy in a panic. His body felt frail and clammy as if he had been sweating profusely. He could tell he had not yet fully healed by the inconsistency of his hearing. Pain shot through his side as he sat up but he …

“Ahhhhhhhhh!” shrieked Jimmy as he felt the teeth of a starving stray dog chewing through his wound. He felt something smother his mouth with so much force that he felt as if he were about to be raped. His eyes sprang open and he tried to struggle but he was too weak to do anything. …

With his mind lost in thought, he didn’t even feel the trip. One second he had been outside the parlor with his head sunk in misery, the next he was in the gargantuan floor that housed the welcoming stores of Galapagos 3, his ego lost to the clouds. He trailed toward engineering, all the while …