5 - The Tunnels

With each step, my footfalls could be heard echoing down the corridor. The only light in the darkness was that of my headlamp.

"Take a left here," Scarlett's voice crackled through the comms. I still had a decent connection to the lander now that the hatch was open. On and on I crept through the dark corridors until I found a small stairwell that was overgrown with some sort of fleshy growth. With the toe of my boot, I poked the growth but nothing happened. Slightly more confident that it wasn't too dangerous, I stepped on it and walked down the stairs, constantly being careful not to slip on the flesh-like mass. Soon enough, I found myself inside a rocky tunnel, much like the one we had entered from, the growth was now far behind me. Scarlett's voice was becoming increasingly broken with large gaps of static. I could at least make out her directions a bit.

"St… t... head."

I continued along the tunnel until I came across a fork in my path.

"…eft." I considered myself lucky that I could still hear Scarlett. After a while, my foot struck something metal. I bent down, shining my headlamp on it. It was my carbine. I looked up into the seemingly unending abyss that I had been carried into by those horrible, twisting tentacles. I picked up the weapon and put it up to my shoulder. Slowly, I skulked forwards, assumingly towards the exit. Perhaps the others had been making their way back out as I was trying to find them.

At one point, in what seemed like the middle of the tunnel, I heard a horrifying clicking noise. I spun on my heel and raised my carbine. Straining to see further into the darkness than my flashlight permitted, I saw it. The black gleam of something smooth reflected my torchlight. It was moving, scuttling across the wall. Soon, another black object appeared on the other wall, then some on the floor. As they approached me, I realised they were the bugs that I had seen in the vent of the square room. Without hesitating, I opened fire, remembering to use short bursts. The first creature screeched a shrill cry as it hit the rocky floor. Another small burst of light from the muzzle of my weapon and another crumpled into a heap beside the first creature. They kept coming, like a tide of gigantic insects. I turned and sprinted up the tunnel, Scarlett's voice was no longer audible past the static. I was once again alone in the tunnel.

I tripped over the large rectangular object that matched the tunnel doorway we had passed on the way in. Completely ignoring the pain that now pulsed in my knee, I scrambled to my feet and ran towards the tunnel entrance. Eventually, a small speck of light was visible in the distance. I dared not look behind me. The queer noises of the monsters were more than enough to keep me focussed on my goal. Although I didn't know what to do once I reached the sunlight, what if the others weren't there? What if these insect-like monstrosities followed me into the jungle?

I pushed these thoughts out of my head and kept on running. The speck of light grew larger and larger until; finally, I plunged into the veil of bright sunlight. I tripped again and instantly rolled onto my back, raising my weapon and training it on the opening in the cliff face. Time seemed to slow down as I waited for the insects to emerge. Sure enough, they burst from the opening. They were truly hideous. They only had six pointed legs, four strong mandibles and no eyes. Their bodies were covered in a smooth, black exoskeleton. I squeezed the trigger and they started to fall onto the ground. I disregarded the short, controlled bursts and decided to just pray and spray. Only a few seconds passed before my carbine ceased firing. The strange thing was, the sound of gunfire continued and the creatures continued to die. I looked behind me and saw Zander, approaching, firing, followed closely by Thomas, Clint and Elysia.

"Jacob, can you hear me? You're right on top of them, have you found them?"

"I found them, Scarlett. I found them."

Elysia was the first to stop firing and knelt down beside me. "Lay still, I need to give you a once over."

The thin opening in the cliff face was very quickly being plugged up by the bodies of these beasts. Eventually, they retreated. Zander maintained a watchful eye on the crevice whilst the others came to sit beside me.

"What happened to you?" Thomas was the first to speak. "We would have searched for you but were ambushed by these things."

"I'm fine," I said, groaning as I sat up. "Can I explain everything on the way back home?"

"He's healthy enough to get back to the lander where I can give him a proper check-up," Elysia interjected.

"It's a good idea, I can always study these things later when we aren't so vulnerable," Clint helped me to my feet and we set off into the jungle. The sun was setting by the time we made it back. I opted to remain in the airlock for the time being until Elysia was satisfied I wasn't going to contaminate the rest of the crew.

Once inside, no one could believe what I had found.

"Seriously? I thought we were supposed to be the world's first deep space colonisation mission," Elysia was beside herself.

"Maybe they were considered a failure and we were sent. Are we sure it's a rocket?" Thomas spoke next.

"Unsure," I thought about what I had seen. "It could have been an underground facility but that would mean who ever built it arrived ages ago."

"Hmm, Scarlett, did you get anything we could use to identify the structure when you performed the scan?" Thomas asked.

"I saved all the data as it happened, if that helps at all."

"Good, that will really help us figure this out, however, we are still left at square one as far as finding a new home goes," Thomas looked downwards and seemed deep in thought.

"I'm not going back inside that tunnel," I piped up.

"Aw, is little Jakey scared of the dark?" Scarlett joked.

"I was eaten. That's not something that is easily forgotten. And I have a thought about the entire home scenario. When I was on top of the mountain, I could see a large green patch not too far from the river; it looked like a grassy field. Maybe we could check it out."

Zander gave a little cheer. "Once again, Jacob saves the day. I knew there was a reason you were awake with us. Now if only you could do something about our ammunition situation."

He was right; almost everyone had fired all their rounds in the skirmishes with the insects.

"I only used one magazine if that helps," I said after a moment.

"That's pretty much all we have left unfortunately, plus Scarlett's two magazines of course. We all used our first magazine in the tunnels and the second when we found you," Zander put his fingers to his forehead, obviously trying to come up with a plan. "My only suggestion is that we split the remainder and take eighteen rounds each. It's almost a full mag at least; sorry Scar but you shouldn't need them in here."

There was no objection to this plan, we decided to have a good helping of nutrient paste and head off to bed. It had been a big day.

The next morning, we all rose early and after a hasty breakfast of more nutrient paste, donned our exosuits. Thankfully, Thomas had done a simple patch job on mine and I was ready to go. We trekked the familiar route to the river and followed it for a couple of hours until, finally, we laid eyes on a vast field. The thin, hairlike grass waved serenely in the soft draught. I longed to remove my helmet and enjoy the breeze but after experiencing the heat and humidity the last time I bared my head to the elements, I dared not do it again. Slowly, the five of us made our way towards the centre of the field. Once there, we decided to spread out and look around. I went off with Clint who was more fascinated with the spindly grass than assessing the area as a potential settlement. What luck this was, it was the perfect location. It was right by the river and had enough space to begin with until we would be able to start clearing some of the jungle. After thirty minutes, we reconvened and decided that we had found our new home.

"Jacob, call down the rest of our people, if you please," Thomas' smile was visible behind his exosuit visor.

I opened the hard-case attached to my leg and pulled the control tablet into the sunlight. My heart sank when I looked at the screen. It had shattered. Why didn't I check it when we got back to the lander? Why had I been so stupid?

Elysia put a comforting hand on my shoulder, "is there no way of bringing them down to us? Are we stranded here alone?"

"Not exactly, I set the auto-launch function to three weeks just in case. It's been just less than a week since then," I continued to stare at the broken piece of equipment. " I can set up a beacon for it to home in on but we will have to wait another eighteen days until it launches."