There were drinks in the hotel, I drank them, I got drunk. I’m not a sloppy drunk, I’m a great drunk. I came outside and cleaned out the rover. Everyone loots food and money when the end of the world is here, but nobody ever loots cleaning supplies. The end of the world is a dirty, dirty place. Blood, guts, dirt, mold, more blood and guts. Covers the whole world when the end is near. I sound like one of the crazy people that stand outside yelling the world is coming to an end, but it is. The dead are walking around and making new dead, who get up and walk around.

I climb up on the top of the hood and lie across the top of the rover. You can’t even tell we killed a little girl up here. If it wasn’t for the whole grub thing, this would be a nice planet. I wonder how long it would take to kill all the grubs and restart a normal society. Yeah, I can do it, a whole lot of guns and just start killing them. I’ll kill them all. Every grub I see, a shot straight to the head. They won’t even see it coming. Maybe I dig a big pit, lure them all in and blow it up, then pick off the survivors. Yeah, that’s exactly what I’ll do.

“You coming inside,” Marshall asks.

“Nope, just going to enjoy the night sun. One of the few times you can look directly at it with no issues.”

“Do you mean the moon?”

“I mean, normally yes, but this planet has a second sun, a dead sun. It comes out at night, doesn’t provide much light so people just assume it’s a moon. You should have read your notes before we got here.”

“Didn’t need to because I had a great scientist, one that wasn’t a teetotaler.”

“Who taught you the word teetotaler?”

“Didn’t expect me to know that,” Marshall laughs, taking a seat on the hood of the rover.”

“I didn’t expect you to know it, I certainly didn’t expect you to use it correctly. Which you didn’t,” I laugh. “I’m just not good at holding my liquor.”

“You’re not good at holding your composure either,” Marshall sighs.

“I’m perfectly composed.”

“No, you’ve been on shaky ground since you killed Karl.”

“Well, we can’t all be soldiers like you. Soldiers, that’s your favorite word. A soldier wouldn’t do this, a soldier wouldn’t do that. Do you know how much I hate that word now because of you? You could never shut the hell up. I kept telling you I’m not a soldier and you were so stuck on this version of me you knew from sixteen to eighteen. We barely saw each other as adults. You don’t know me and you kept complaining. You want Marki back? I can’t bring her back. I tried, I tried to save her but I’m not a doctor either.”

“I’m glad you’re getting things off your chest,” Marshall says. “You’re an entirely different person than the one you were when we landed. I wanted to kill you so bad back then.”

“You know, I wanted to kill you too. Actually, when I shot you, I thought about it. I really thought I could get away with it but decided you’re better to have around than not.”

“Well thanks.”

We just sit in silence for a moment, “do you think we’ll get off this planet?”

“Honestly,” Marshall asks.

“Yeah, I want to know.”

“I think they’ll get off the ship in full gear. We’ll tell them what happened. They’ll take the data and let their AI skim it for keywords about infection. Then they’ll either leave without us if we’re lucky or they’ll just kill us on the spot.”

“Glad we had the same idea.”

“I’ll tell you this,” Marshall looks up at the moon. “I’ll shoot them before they shoot me. If they try to gun us down, promise me you’ll help try to take their ship. We can find some planet far away in Revrell space or be the first humans to set up a home in Draconian territory. Just, don’t let them try to leave us here.”

“Yeah, I can agree to that. If they try to kill us, or leave us behind, we go out together.”

“Same way we came in,” Marshall leans in to shake my hand.

“Honor serving with you commander.”

“We’re not dead yet. Make sure you come inside and get some sleep before tomorrow. We got a big day.”

“I’ll probably sleep in the rover, but I’ll make sure to sleep.”

“Sleep well Duane.”

“Goodnight Marshall.”