Half a mile in silence with only the occasional grunt from our tormenters or a snide remark from Marshall about how I should be dead or I’m a coward. Marki tries to make small talk and keep the peace. I can’t tell if she’s disgusted with me but doesn’t want to see anyone else die or she’s got actual sympathy. For my part, I don’t contribute anything to the conversation more than pointing out landmarks and updating them on the information the drones are still feeding me. I don’t think they care about any of that but to me it feels better than just dead silence.

“Hey, you guys see that,” I ask.

“What? Another school, or is it a restaurant this time,” Marshall asks sarcastically.

“No, it’s a trail of parts from our ship which might lead to more people,” I reply in the same tone.

I don’t have any doubt that Marshall would destroy me. Fist fight, gun fight, any kind of fight but a knowledge fight. I never thought of him as a dumb man, but he isn’t acting himself. He’s thinking with his guns not his mind.

“Let’s go check it out,” Marki makes the final call.

She seems to be the more composed of the two. So far, I can’t see any cracks in her, but nobody lives through this without some kind of issues popping up. They may not go completely insane but something will happen.

It doesn’t take long for us to find what remains of the ship; the once sleek and beautiful ship was now a crumbled and torn ball of metal that had been ripped apart into several large chunks scattered throughout the colony. In front of seemed to be the largest, most intact chunk. It’s clear to me that nobody could have survived this. I wouldn’t have survived had I not been cradled in an escape pod designed to survive hard landings, and even I didn’t walk away unscathed.

There’s not much of the wreckage that can be explored. It’s obvious we’re looking at the remains of the crew quarters but nobody could sleep here. There’s no clear remains of beds or anything like that. Any headroom has been crushed down and compacted. Bloody limbs stick out from the chunks of metal decorating it with the remains of our team members, our friends.

“Let’s get going, the sun is going to set soon,” Marshall says.

Marki doesn’t hear him, she’s too busy taking it all in, shifting some metal here and there. I’m not sure what she’s looking for. I know I’m just kicking pieces aside, trying to account for the dead. I don’t blame myself for any of these deaths, there was nothing I could have done to change the situation.

“Lieutenant, we need to go,” Marshall says louder.

“We need to search for survivors and account for the dead,” Marki responds solemnly.

“Nobody could have survived this.”

“We won’t know if we don’t check.”

The two continue to argue as I poke around in the scrap, searching for anything we can use. Most of what isn’t crushed has already been burned. At this point I’m searching for a reason to pretend I don’t hear Marki and Marshall arguing, because there’s nothing I can do to break them up if they start fighting.

A growl and some rustling comes from the metal as I’m poking around. I half expect it to be another one of the creatures but it sounds more human, more painful. I dig a little deeper, as the sound grows. I shift a metal sheet and spot a person in dire condition. I can’t tell if they’re man or woman, I certainly can’t tell who they were. Or, who they are. Nearly all of the flesh on their face and neck has been burned away. Any sound they make comes out as a rough growl and wheezing sound. My wrist comp doesn’t even pick up life signs, so they should already be gone. A blackened hand displaying muscle and chipped bone reaches out to me. Instinctively, I pull back.

“Hey,” I call out to Marshall and Marki. “Hey,” I yell louder when they don’t answer.

“What,” Marshall shouts.

“Someone is alive over here.”

Marki makes it before Marshall does, but both are amazed someone is alive. I’m wondering if they’re really alive. Is this any way to live? Burn to a crisp, with crushed organs unable to even get your words out. I can only imagine how the pain would be unbearable if the nerve endings hadn’t burned away already. Marki drops to her knees and crouches near the person.

“I’m not sure if you believe in an afterlife, a great peace beyond this world but in times of suffering I often think of what lies beyond this life, and how it must be better than this. You’ve been strong, and you still have much better days to come. This is not the end of your story,” her words are sweet and moving.

The person in front of us seems to calm down as Marki speaks to them. Blood, bone fragments and brain matter scatter across the wreckage before I realize what happened. Marki had used her side arm to kill the person, firing through the back of their head and causing blood to shoot towards us. It was a mercy killing, a killing nobody had asked for.

“Let’s get going,” Marshall says, Marki gives a nod.

I follow without saying anything, I understand what was done and why it was done. I don’t believe I have the heart to have done it myself, but it needed to be done. There was nothing we could do but provide some comfort on the way to death. As we walk I notice a piece of brain matter stuck to the toe of my boot. I pause to shake it off but it sticks

“Hurry up, I won’t come back for you if you get in trouble,” Marshall yells at me.

I bend down to flick the brain matter off my boot and sending it flying off to the side.