Marshall keeps chatting with Marki, making plans without me. He’s probably trying to convince her to abandon me out here. He doesn’t consider me a valuable member of the team, and does everything possible to make it clear. He just doesn’t realize my value. I’ve managed to forge a connection to the local Nexus and started trying to find information about what happened here. That’s more valuable than a commander without a squad to lead. Information is always just as valuable if not more valuable than man power and right now, we don’t have the man power for anything other than running and hiding. The information I can find on The Nexus is going to be more important than anything he finds by peeking around corners with his finger on the trigger. Even in the plague of the century he looks like a psychopath.

It seems like this all started about 18 months ago. I can’t find any official reports or scientific data over it all. Seems like society went into a tailspin rather quickly after it all. Most of the information I can find is from blogs and videos from social media. The information over there spreads rapidly, getting twisted with every new person claiming to be an expert or cousin that really knows what they’re talking about. By the time it gets any traction it’s already the 50th version of the story. What I can gather is a flu started spreading as the colony expanded, nothing strange. It takes bodies time to adapt to new climates. Over the two years they’ve been here the population grew much faster than expected. Again, nothing out of the ordinary. If conditions are right, and there’s supplies to support the growth colonies can grow pretty fast. Trellis was envisioned with the idea of growing fast. It was a pre-built colony to begin with. There was already a decent number of buildings and it didn’t take much to adapt the technology to meet our needs. Still, as the population surpassed what we expected, but the flu stayed around. About a year ago the flu started causing mutations to survivors, if you could call them that. It seemed like nobody survived more than a few weeks after they were discharged. The fact that they kept discharging people that weren’t actually healed probably helped the spread. The first report of these creatures popped up about three months ago. Sick people rising from the dead, and refusing to die. They tried to contain them at first, but the number was simply too many. They couldn’t figure out how the illness was spreading so quickly. Some people think the flu was just coincidence and it was a Revrell plot the entire time. It all quickly descends into chaos with people presenting different theories before society essentially collapsed. The link to the Nexus as a whole has been severed out here, some radical group thinking the link was spreading the flu faster. Despite all the creature warring groups popped up. It quickly became a three-way civil war. Those who wanted to fight this and be their own entity, those who wanted to contact the Galactic Federation and those who felt only The Revrell would have the cure.

I’m sure the flu is nothing, a virus that spread rapidly due to people living in close proximity and not taking any precautions. What bothers me more is the rise of these creatures. It seems like we were right to assume they were some kind of mutated insect human. There’re no real pictures I can download, no clear ones anyone and Marshall doesn’t seem to want to let me get close enough to examine them. My issue is I don’t know if this is a manmade mutation or some sort natural reaction to an element on this planet we were unaware of. If this is some manmade mutation, stopping the spread will be almost impossible. We’ll need to find our way out of here as soon as possible.

I pause when I realize I’ve lost track of Marshall and Marki. I’m alone, standing in the remains of what used to be a thriving colony. Windows have been broken out of the surrounding stores, their contents ransacked. There’s a pungent odor in the air, I had smelled it since we arrived here but the scent is stronger now than before.

“Marki,” I call out.

The only sound I hear is a distant piece of glass shattering and the shuffle of feet the whole thing feels eerie so I keep walking. According to the map on my wrist comp I’m heading in the right direction, but I still haven’t come across them. The sound of something metallic falling to the ground causes me to jump. I turn and fire my gun on instinct blasting a hole in fallen trashcan. Next to it one of the creatures, but harmless. It’s crawling, the legs have been severed. The orangish blood trails from where the knees should be leaving two long trails. It adjusts its path, heading towards me. I don’t have any fear, it can’t hurt me in this state. It’s the perfect opportunity to examine it, learn about the creatures. I start the recording on my wrist comp.

“Duane Benjamin recording from Trellis. I’ve located a living specimen that has minimum opportunity to cause harm. Currently the legs have been severed below the kneecaps but the creature continues to live. I am unsure if blood loss will cause its expiration. As of now, the only way to kill these creatures has been through a gunshot through the head. I hypothesize that destruction of the brain will cause death, a gunshot seems to be the most convenient way for us. This one was clearly injured by a surviving civilian. Although we have not seen any, there are no legs in sight, this one has left a trail as far as my eyes can see.”

I move around behind the creature causing it to change direction, “behind the creature, the exoskeleton seems to be less formed. However, this specimen seems to be more human and still remains most human traits. Hair still remains, the legs are not fully covered and only two eyes are visible.”

I move around once again, this time placing a knee on the creatures back, preventing it from crawling or reaching me. I grab my knife and begin to cut away at it’s clothing. “I’ve removed the clothing of the creature. Although I am behind the creature and my vision is limited, there seems to be no signs of a parasite growing. The exoskeleton instead seems to be sprouting from the body of the creature itself. The creature is human in origin for sure. The exoskeleton seems to be developing from its bones and bursting through the flesh leaving behind numerous wounds that seem to heel around them.” I put my finger into the blood and sniff before wiping it on the clothing I cut away, “the pungent scent of the creatures seems to stem for the blood.”

“My current hypothesis is that the creatures are some kind of hybrid of Strux and humans. I’m not sure how it began,” I pause spotting Marshall and Marki in the distance.

I close my eyes and cover my face as Marshall lifts his gun. I know what’s coming next and I don’t want to get anything in my mouth. A few drops of a lukewarm blood land on my hands before I actually hear the gunshot.

“Subject has been terminated,” I end my recording.

Marshall is running at me full speed, I just cover my head as he barrels into me. A foot or fist connecting with my face. He lifts me from the ground by the corner of my breastplate slamming me into a wall and staring at me without speaking.

“We need to learn about these creatures, otherwise we won’t learn how to stop them,” I start the conversation.

“I lost every member of my crew, except for two. Somehow you survived and you still want to run around playing scientist,” Marshall responds calmer, somehow it scares me more.

“If we don’t learn about them, we might suffer the same fate.”

“You are worthless. We are at the end of the world, and you’re making videos nobody will ever see because we’re going to die while you play around.”

“I’m not playing, I’m a scientist.”

“You’re a fucking soldier,” Marshall yells at the top of his breath. “You are standing here in armor, you carry a gun. You are a soldier. A scientist will not get us out of here. Before you ever fell in love with a beaker you were a soldier,” he lowers his voice, “a scientist will not survive. I will not drag you to survival. If you want to survive, you need to act like it because if you die, it won’t even leave a stain on my consciousness. You’ll be just another coward, who chose to take the easy way out. Now pick up your gun and march.”