The Dark Side of the Moon | Part 2
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Next weekend, ramen. Find the detail that moves you with immersive dining experiences from Sapphire Reserve. Chase, make more of what's yours. Learn more at chase.com slash sapphirereserve. Cards issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank and a member of FDIC. Subject to credit approval. Again, the footage ended, and the next few logs were all too corrupted to even open. We clicked through them, hoping to learn about Alexei's fate. But the next uncorrupted log had been dated 20 days following the impact incident.

August 27th, 1988. A bleak image was displayed before us, as the camera was directed at Alexei's deteriorated body. His abdomen and chest cavity had been hollowed out, replaced by the same mesh that had first appeared on his leg. There were no muscles, tendons, vessels, nerves, nor organs, just bones wrapped in a homogeneous meshwork.

In addition, the entire surface of his body had been flayed. Even his eyes had been eaten away by the parasitic infection, leaving gaping sockets on his no longer recognizable face. But his body had not yet succumbed to the injuries, though he sat almost lifelessly still. There were minor twitches, a mere remnant of the life his body had once held. Dr. Pirogov approached his chamber. He looked exhausted and had clearly lost weight.

He knocked on the glass, but Alexei couldn't, or wouldn't, respond. "Alexei, can you hear me?" Pyrogov asked, no response. "Do you remember who you are?" Nothing. He repeated the question, which finally triggered a response. Alexei, or whatever remained of him slowly turned its head, and appeared to be studying Pyrogov with his eyeless sockets. "Do you understand me?" He went on.

Alexei's jaw started moving, producing a low-pitched hum that mimicked barely recognizable words. "Alexei!" was all he got out before the footage cut out once more. When the picture returned, hours had passed, and the chamber which had held Alexei appeared empty, except for the spacesuit still lying unmoved on the floor.

A laboratory assistant walked by, and upon noticing the empty chamber, he immediately hit the alarm, marking the end of the log. Only one log remained, taking place 103 days following the impact event. We were met with a dark, quiet atmosphere, with only the emergency lights still providing dim illumination, similar to what we'd experienced upon first entering Belebog 2. Dr. Pirogov walked into frame,

He was frazzled, a mere husk of his former self. He sat himself down in front of the camera and just stared ahead, with a mixture of terror and defeat present in his eyes. "I thought we were safe. I thought we had quelled the infection," he began. "The pathogen is intelligent. It knew to wait, to lay dormant, until we thought we'd stopped it. We tried to save ourselves. Now they're all dead."

An eerie, low-pitched hum can be heard in the background. I've confined the husks within this half of Belebog II. The doors have been sealed, and I have destroyed the generators. I will attempt to detonate them using the shuttle's propulsion engines. I pray that the explosion is vast enough to kill everything still roaming this place.

With those parting words, the last log had ended. Pirogov had set out to break the generator and blow them up.

But for whatever reason, he'd only been able to go through with half of his plan. "That's it. We need to leave now." Yuri let out in a mere whisper. "Agreed. Let's get the hell out of this place." Angelica replied. Though the footage was closing up on four decades in age, what little we had seen was enough to put the fear of God in us.

An alien pathogen had wiped out over 200 people in just a few months, leading Dr. Pirogov to attempt a complete destruction of the station, a quest he had inevitably failed for unknown reasons. We're leaving, I announced. Gather whatever data you can. Yuri, seal off the biolab again. Lock it down. If this pathogen is still active, we're going to want to keep it inside the station. We're going to need the notes in the lab, Clara demanded.

"We're not going anywhere near that lab," I shot back. "We need to understand this thing to fight it. There's bound to be a stored sample somewhere. Are you insane?" Yuri joined in. "We can't bring this infection back to Earth." "Yuri's right. We're not doing it. I'm not saying we should bring it back to Earth, but we should investigate it closer, back at the SOB. I just need a single sample to experiment on," Clara argued. "No, this is not a discussion.

"We need to close the door on sight," Yuri interrupted. "We might as well collect the notes, but I cannot condone taking a live sample with us. All right, I'll go with you. Clara, stay here with Angelica and download as much data as you can." "No, I'm coming with you," Clara insisted. Clara's disobedience during such a critical moment was starting to get to me.

But before I could shut her down, Angelica took charge of the situation and made the choice for us. "Stop wasting time bickering like children. Go, shut the fucking place down and come back to me. I can handle the computers on my own." Leaving Angelica in the supposed safest section of Belebog 2, the rest of us headed for the biolabs to shut everything down.

More than 30 years had passed since the infestation began, and we had yet to see any signs of life, human or otherwise. I had to question whether it was even possible for an infection to survive that long without sustenance, an idea that seemed to have lulled Clara into a false sense of security. I was determined to keep the mission brief, lock down the lab, and get the team out of the station in time for Steven aboard the CSM to complete his orbit and pick us up.

"Alright, be quick," I told Clara as she rushed in to retrieve any piece of information she could get her hands on, while Yuri and I prepared to seal the door. But after only taking a few steps inside, Clara froze in place. Her eyes fixated on the glass chamber we'd seen Alexei perish within. She let out meekly, "A spacesuit is gone." "Gone? What do you mean?" I asked. "It's just not there anymore." It hit me then that Pirogov had been correct.

This wasn't some mindless pathogen we were dealing with. It was something else. Something intelligent. It had never vanished from the chamber in the footage. It had just relocated inside the suit. Hidden. Biding its time until it could strike. Waiting for someone to be foolish enough to let it outside. We'd been the fools that unlocked the chambers. "It's time to leave," I ordered as I called Angelica over the radio. "Whatever data you've gathered is going to have to suffice. Head for the airlock. We're leaving right now."

I paused for a moment, giving Angelica time to respond, but a reply never came. Angelica? Nothing. Before we could process what was happening, the tension was cut by a large thud emerging from within the walls. Who's that? Yuri began, before getting interrupted by another thump, this time from the ceiling vent. They're in the walls! I let out as more and more thumps were heard around us.

Rushing back to the security station, I kept trying to get in contact with the radio silent Angelica. Once we reached her last known location, she was nowhere to be seen. A sliver of hope still remained that she had headed for the exit, but was suffering from a malfunctioning radio. The impulse to go searching for her remained, but we had to trust that she'd followed protocol and headed for the exit.

With no time to lose, we ran for the airlock, constantly pursued by the ever-increasing number of loud thumps coming from within the ventilation system. However, no matter how close they got, they never attempted to breach the metal hull, as if they had the forethought to wait for an opportune moment to strike. It only took about 10 minutes traversing the hallways before we reached the airlock that we'd entered Belebog 2 through.

But as the inner hatch came into view, all hope of escape was swiftly extinguished. There we found Angelica, on the brink of being unrecognizable if not for the spacesuit torn apart and dispersed throughout her mangled remains. Her flesh had been converted to the same mesh-like structure we'd seen on the tape, but rather than maintaining her humanoid shape like the husks had, she'd been spread out.

Her body now covered the entirety of the airlock, making it impossible to traverse. Few human traits remained: a few patches of skin, some bone fragments, and the outline of a head with eyes darting around the room in a panic. Even her mouth had been left in place, and though she was trying to scream, she was rendered unable to produce audible sound as her lungs had already been consumed.

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Next weekend, ramen. Find the detail that moves you with immersive dining experiences from Sapphire Reserve. Chase, make more of what's yours. Learn more at chase.com slash sapphirereserve. Cards issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank and a member of FDIC. Subject to credit approval. Angelica! I let out in shock. That's not her. It can't be. Clara chimed in. But it was a truth we couldn't deny. The boar husked before us had once been our friend. How do we get out now? Here he asked.

Though callous, it was a valid question. The thumps increased in intensity as more and more creatures gathered within the vents, and at last, they started hammering on the hatches, trying to get through to us. "We need to find another way," I said as I looked down at the map, looking for an alternative escape route. "What about Angelica?" Clara asked. "There is nothing we can do for her," Yuri argued.

"I can't leave her like this!" Clara yelled back. The first hatch broke halfway off its hinges, forming a crack through which the creatures reached out their stringy, pale flesh. Unlike Angelica, these things had maintained their humanoid form, based on the one biological conversion we'd seen. It had taken them almost a month to convert. Why it happened to Angelica in mere minutes was a question that remained to be answered. Yuri yelled.

"Kyle!" Clara pleaded. "We have to help her!" "I'm sorry! I'm sorry, but she's gone! Dying here won't save her! Please!" She begged. By then, the entire hatch had broken off, prompting the first of the husks to drop down before us.

vaguely resembling a twisted version of a human being, except with porous, skinless flesh. They moved with jerked movements towards us, akin to newborn toddlers taking their first upright steps. As they did, they let out a low-pitched humming place of a voice. "Mander!" Yuri yelled. Having memorized most of the pathways within Belebog 2, I had come up with a possible escape route.

As much as it pained me to leave someone behind, I had no choice but to order the remainder of my team to follow me as I led the way. The husks remained behind, gathering in numbers, learning to use their bodies again for the first time in decades. They appeared to quickly get a grasp of it, but it had bought us just enough time for a swift escape deeper into the station. "Where are we going?" Yuri asked. "Aerlock, on the southern end of the station," I explained.

"That's best to Biolab," Yuri stated. "We're not exactly running on a lot of options. It's our only chance." Closing the doors and hatches behind us as we ran, we forced the creatures to return to the ventilation shafts, slowing their progress as we fled. It only bought us a few seconds at the time, and the longer we attempted to flee, the more the creatures started to feel comfortable within their stolen bodies. What had started out as slow thuds inside the walls had quickly turned to a gallop.

even through the narrow spaces they were forced to traverse. We passed through the bio-lab and ran past the first generator room. Next, we entered a small shuttle bay with two ships still docked. They seemed intact, but the hatch above had been damaged beyond repair in an act of sabotage, just like Dr. Pirogov had sworn. He had made sure none of the husks left the station, sealing the fate of his entire crew in the process.

Containers of kerosene littered the floor, seemingly what Pirogov and his men had planned to use to detonate the station. But the containers remained untouched. One of the shuttles was open, occupied by filaments of flesh spread out across the surface. A similar fate that Angelica had met.

Occupying the hive-like structure were five husks in a dormant state, mindless of our presence, mere remnants of the cosmonauts that had once thrived within Belebog II. "What the hell is that?" Yuri asked in a whisper. "Is that what they did to Angelica?" It was a question that didn't require an answer. We just kept running, careful not to awaken more of the monstrosities. In the distance, we could hear the rest of them approaching via the ducts. We were running out of time.

Through twists, turns, and locked sections, we eventually reached the second airlock. What had been a hopeful escape turned more dire. There had been significant, purposeful damage to the inner door. We had no hope of getting through. "Dammit!" I let out. "We have to keep moving. There is another airlock nearby," Yuri said as we started running. "Maybe we shouldn't do this. Maybe we shouldn't do what?" I asked. "We should finish what Dr. Pirogov started.

Clara asked. Yuri nodded. I asked. I replied.

"Hold on, we all saw the footage. The pathogen needs a point of entry, a wound or a scratch. We haven't even been out of our suits since we entered this place," Clara argued. "Maybe it's on the moon's surface. We might have gotten infected after disrobing in the SOB. Are our lives worth the risk?" Yuri asked bluntly. "All of mankind could be at risk." Pausing for a moment, we could hear the monsters getting closer.

We had to make a decision. Death or escape. We only had seconds to choose. We could end this right here, Yuri said. We can destroy this station. Maybe we should. But if we die here, there'll be no one left to warn Earth. Even if one of the husks survive and command back home decides to send in another team to investigate, we die for nothing. Clara went on. Yuri sighed, contemplating the options before turning to me.

"It's your call, Commander," he said. "Long until we can contact Steven. Another couple of hours?" I asked. "Two hours and fourteen minutes," Clara said. "That's it then. We're not wasting our lives on a hunch. We're going to survive until we can contact him and warn him about what we've seen down here. We're going to escape this godforsaken place and hold up in the SOB. Only then will we decide what becomes of us. If we are to die on the moon today, we better make damn sure it's worth our lives.

"Yes, sir," Yuri agreed. We continued through the station, sealing every door we came across in a futile attempt at slowing the husks down. As we progressed, we noticed the thuds getting quieter and quieter, and for a moment, we felt like we were successfully outrunning them. That's when we came across another module, a large dome that had been set up as a living quarters.

Within were bunk beds, furniture, even a billiard table, all of which had been covered in biological matter. It looked like several converted crewmen fused together into a giant hive, split open, and were used as decor for the place. The walls, ceiling, floor, it was all covered in the flesh of the dead. We have to cross that? Clara asked that. Or we turn around? I replied as the thumps got closer once more. Come on!

taking a first step onto the flesh. I half expected it to wrap around my feet and swallow me whole, but the only response to my body was a mild twitch that propagated through the hive. As eerie as it felt, the action itself didn't appear to be directly hostile. "Don't just stand there," I said, walking further into the room. Dispersed in the flesh were old clothes and personal effects, ancient memories of the people that had once thrived here.

They had known that building a settlement on the moon might cost them their lives, but I doubt any of them had been expecting their dead bodies to be used as spare parts for an extraterrestrial infection. "Please, God, don't let me end up like this," Guri mumbled to himself. The hive twitched more violently as all three of us stood on its mass.

and what I had previously thought to be indiscriminate reactions to our presence, turned out to serve a horrific purpose. The impulses propagated to specific structures protruding out from the ground. Within them human larynxes, vocal cords and tracheas had been integrated, with air-filled pouches attached to the end.

Once the signals reached them, they let out distraught, human-like wails, loud enough to shatter glass and rupture our eardrums. I instinctively put my hands to my ears, forgetting that the spacesuit's helmet stood in the way.

But the screech was not a form of an attack, but rather a biological alarm system meant to awaken any hibernating husks. They called back with a low-pitched hum, followed by a rapid stampede coming in our direction from all sides. "Run!" I yelled as we sprinted through the living quarters into another set of narrow hallways. Turning another corner, we dove into a massive dome containing what appeared to be an experimental vehicle and weapons facility.

Most was just inert garbage that hadn't even been fully constructed. "Is there anything here we can use?" Clara asked. "Look for any standard weapons you know how to use," Yuri said. But the station appeared to lack standard projectile weapons, holding only experimental, bizarre-looking equipment that we could risk operating. "They had to make this complicated," Yuri said, annoyed.

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It was a bunch of staffs that resembled prodding sticks, simple enough to operate even with zero training. Without time to look through all the weapons and wanting something we could at least swing at the assailants, we each picked up one. We tested the button, which emitted a powerful electric spark produced from its distal end. "It's better than nothing, but I still vote for running," I said.

we headed for the far side exit on the other end of the dome, with the next and final possible airlock only a short distance ahead. But no sooner had we set foot within the next set of hallways than we were met with half a dozen husks coming from the opposite direction, effectively cutting us off.

Even with weapons in hand, it was a fight we couldn't win. So we retreated back into the facility, knowing there was only one alternative path. One taking us to a secondary shuttle bay. "This way!" I ordered as I let Clara take the lead. Yuri trailed just behind us, trying to get a better grasp of how his weapon worked.

Moving, Yuri! I followed Clara into the hallway and waited for Yuri to join us. But as soon as he set foot inside, the hatch from the overhanging ventilation shaft came plummeting down alongside a husk that landed directly on top of Yuri, sending him crashing down. The rest of the horde quickly joined in,

But rather than splitting their strength and going for Clara and me, they decided to focus their attention on the already incapacitated Yuri, who was screaming in agony as they tore into his spacesuit and then his flesh. Having no chance to escape, we used our prods at the monsters, hitting them to no avail. We then attempted to shock them. I hit the button and pressed the prod against the closest creature.

The force of the shock alone was enough to send not only it, but also myself flying across the room. It held enough of a punch to light the husk on fire, its skin turning to ash as it let out a horrific wail. I quickly got back on my feet and grabbed the prod, striking a second one. Clara did the same. Our unexpected attack was enough to redirect their attention to us, letting Yuri crawl to safety.

Igniting two more of them, we were able to push them out of the hallway and seal the door between us. The smoke produced by the burning husks had activated the fire suppression system in the weapon testing facility, which began sucking all the oxygen, sealing each connecting door in the process. Our hallway had been spared just enough to leave an intact, albeit weak, atmosphere with some oxygen.

I just stood there, staring through the glass door in anticipation, waiting for the creatures to asphyxiate. But even as all the oxygen was removed, they kept moving, trying to break through to us. "Thanks," Clara asked. We quickly tended to our injured companion, who sat, leaned up against the wall. I inspected the wounds on his abdomen as he whimpered. "Get up, we can't stay here," I demanded as I tried to help Yuri to his feet, but the injuries were too grave.

"Don't even try it," he said. I began before Yuri interrupted me. "Look at me. I can't leave you here," I argued as I removed his broken helmet. Though we were in a pressurized section of the station, the atmosphere was too thin to sustain life. Even if the wound didn't kill Yuri, he'd slowly suffocate. "It's not like I want to die here in this hellscape, but I know what the alternative is. Don't let me turn into one of those things.

Though he didn't say it out loud, I knew what Yuri was hinting at. "We can't," Clara let out in a meek whisper. "It has to be you, Commander. Just make it quick." "I'm sorry," was all I could think to say. "Don't waste your words on me. I'm not going to be around to remember them. Now, do your duty."

I nodded, before reaching out my hands and wrapping them around Yuri's exposed neck. Though it had been his wish to go out on his own terms, his body automatically resisted. He tried to break himself free, but with his body already weakened by the attack, he was no match against me. I squeezed, listening in horror as Yuri let out struggled breaths. Little by little, his body grew weak, and the breaths faded until his eyes just turned blank.

My hands finally loosened their grip on Yuri, and I fell to the floor in shock, unable to believe what I'd just done. All the while, the husks on the other side kept glaring at us. They had stopped their attempt to get through, but their actions weren't the result of defeat, but rather the certainty that they would emerge as victors. They knew something we didn't. They were waiting for something. Their secret would quickly reveal itself as Yuri's body started twitching and moving.

From the edges of the wound, the flesh quickly converted to the biological mesh, consuming his skin, muscles, and organs in an instant. I had thought the death would take the infection with it, but on the contrary, it only sped the conversion up. The sight alone was enough to break me free from my shock. I shot to my feet, and Clara grabbed my hand, forcing me to keep running. "The secondary shuttle bay isn't far away."

I had lost the map in the struggle, but had long since memorized the passages. "You think it's still operational?" Clara asked. "We're not going to fly it," I replied. We reached the shuttle bay, again holding a fully functional vessel blocked by a broken hatch. "What now?" Clara asked. "We're going to activate the engines and try to blow a hole in the hull," I explained. "And if the entire shuttle explodes? I'd rather have my body obliterated than turn into one of them."

Clara nodded in agreement. But with somber acceptance, clearly visible in her eyes that our chances of survival were slim, I climbed up the ladder to enter the cockpit, only to find it entirely occupied by another hive. To our luck, there weren't any dormant husks within. But with the hive taking up most of the space, I couldn't fit inside. I was simply too large. "I can't fit!" I let out. "Let me try."

with a significantly smaller frame, and therefore a smaller suit. Clara might just be able to squeeze herself inside the hive and activate the shuttle. She climbed up and pushed her way inside, grunting, struggling. Unlike the hive in the living quarters, this one wasn't developed enough to have a screaming apparatus. Not that it would have made a difference, seeing as the creatures already knew where we were and were actively trying to get through. "You all right up there?" I asked. "Almost got it."

She called back as she fiddled with the partially consumed control panel. The engines booted up, preparing for combustion. But it had a minute-long countdown timer to allow for the crew to clear the area. "Clara, you got it! Now, come on, get out of there!" From above, I could hear her struggling to wriggle herself free from the cockpit. "It's tightening around me! I'm stuck! Hold on!" With the countdown progressing, I only had seconds to climb up and get her out.

The flesh had contracted around most of her lower body, leaving only one arm free. I reached in and grabbed her, pulling with all my might as we got closer and closer to the combustion of the engines. "Just leave me," she begged, but I kept pulling, finally feeling her getting loose. Slipping out from the hive's grip, we both fell from the ladder onto the ground. I groaned as I tried to breathe. I was certain I fractured a couple of ribs.

but I got to my feet and pulled Clara up with me. From there, we limped over to the nearest supply closet and barricaded it with whatever supplies and furniture we could get our hands on. It wasn't much. We could only pray it would shield us from the blast. The propulsion systems activated, but with a sabotaged hatch, it couldn't take off. Instead, the entire energy of the engines was ejected into the narrow bay with no way out.

Flames spattered across the platform, tearing it apart, filling the room with smoke as the emergency alarm screeched for everyone to evacuate. I embraced Clara in a hug as we felt the room shake around us, followed by a loud explosion as the shuttle tore itself to pieces. Taking the exterior hull with it, the walls around us began to fall apart, and I could feel my feet lifting off the ground as the atmosphere was pulled out into the vacuum of space.

We both screamed, unable to hold on. And as I was finally ejected out, the world around me just went dark.

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I couldn't have been out for more than a few seconds, and when I came back to, I found Clara standing above me, desperately trying to wake me up. She was injured, with a laceration in her suit, leaking oxygen. We were back outside on the moon's surface, surrounded by debris and the unmoving bodies of the husks littering the ground. The damage to Bellabog 2 itself was significant, but more than a quarter of the station was still intact. "You're wounded," I pointed out.

It's nothing. The suit has already begun to seal the breach. There was a self-repairing gel layer on the inside of the suit, which could prevent the air from being sucked out in case of damage to the exterior. While it wasn't a perfect mechanism, it would prevent asphyxiating due to minor damage. I glanced over at the nearest husk, which had already begun twitching and observing its surroundings with its eyeless face. None of them had perished in the explosion. They were just momentarily stunned.

Unlike us, they were not in need of an atmosphere to function. It would take a moment for them to gain their bearings and get back on our tails. "Where's the rover?" I asked. "This way," Clara said as she started walking, only to collapse under her own weight, too weakened by her injury. I put her arm over my shoulder, and together we limped away from the quickly awakening husks. We slowly climbed the hill to the plateau where the rover had been parked.

We counted the minutes until we could contact Steven back on the CSM. "I'll drive," Clara demanded. "The hell you are. You need to rest and make sure you don't hurt yourself even more." Though hesitant, she let me take the driver's seat, allowing her to keep an ear open for Steven's return. "I'll take us to the SOP first. There are medical supplies there. We'll patch you back up. Take your time," Clara groaned. "I'm only bleeding out."

Once we'd reached the edge of the Von Karman crater, the radio finally returned to life. Steven's static-filled voice slowly cut through the interference. Worry clearly present in his voice. "Commander, do you copy?" "Steven, we read you. What's going on down there?" Steven asked. "I saw an explosion from orbit. There was an incident at the AL-03. We need immediate extraction. We're not alone." "What do you mean, not alone?" He pushed on.

I'll explain everything once we get to the SOB. Claire is injured. The others... I trailed off. They didn't make it. Angelica and Yuri are dead. We couldn't save them. I'll prepare for an extraction. But you need to get to the Lunar Module ASAP. You have 90 minutes to take off. Or you'll have to wait for me to complete another orbit. Can you make it?

I looked back to Clara, who was looking worse. Her face was growing paler with each passing minute, indicating ongoing blood loss. We had to get her to the SOB, but there wasn't time for a pit stop, a fact she was well aware of. "Just get us out of here," she said. On the horizon, a large group of husks had gathered. Though they weren't quick enough to keep up with the rover, they could see or sense where we were heading. Pausing even for a few minutes would mean certain death.

Entering the crater, we drove for the lunar module, now on a deadline of less than an hour. By the time we reached the crater's floor, Clara was drifting in and out of consciousness. Even if we made it back to Steven on board the CSM, the aspect of her survival was questionable at best. "Clara, talk to me. You still with me?" I asked as I glanced back at my now unconscious friend. My words were just barely enough to wake her into a fragile state of consciousness.

"Feel good," she whispered weakly. "Something's wrong. We're almost there. Just try to stay awake." But it was a futile task. She passed back out, leaving me alone with my empty surroundings as I drove full speed towards the lunar module. The minutes counted down, but if my calculations were correct, we'd reach the module with half an hour to spare, just enough time to take off while skipping the checklists.

And before I knew it, the module appeared on the horizon. We were almost there, Clara whispered. Just need a few more minutes. We're almost there. No, Kyle. I'm not going to come with you. Stop it. We're not giving up on you. We're so close. You don't have a choice. What are you... I began as I turned to face her. No sooner had I laid my eyes upon her than I realized why she'd given up.

From the wound on her side emerged small, unmistakable stumps of infected tissue. "How?" I asked. "You got wounded in the explosion." "I thought so too," she began. "But it must have happened as I crawled through the hive, as it constricted around me. Maybe we can fix it," I suggested out of desperation.

We can turn around and head for the SOB, and let Steven orbit the moon another time. We can still save you. No, you can't. I can already feel it inside me. It's in my head, wriggling around, messing with my memories. You need to leave me. She was right. No one had survived the infection. And even if it remained dormant for long enough to bring her aboard the CSM, taking her back to Earth would be too risky.

"I just need you to promise me one thing," she went on. "Anything. Promise me that you'll-" She began, interrupted mid-sentence as she started to cough up a large amount of blood, covering the inside of her visor. She couldn't even think to react before her chest was torn open.

Large amounts of tainted flesh poured out onto the vehicle, wrapping itself around the wheels and causing it to flip. I tried to hold on, but it launched me into the air. As I collided headfirst with the ground before me, I was immediately knocked out cold. Kyle, where are you? A faint voice called through the darkness. You need to take off now! I slowly opened my eyes, seeing nothing but vast darkness above me.

An alarm was beeping incessantly within my own suit. My visor had cracked, slowly letting oxygen seep out. Steven kept calling my name over the radio, ordering me to get on the lunar module and take off. "Kyle, you need to take off now! You have less than ten minutes!" "I'm awake," I responded. "How far away are you?" There it stood, only a few steps ahead.

Behind me lay the rover flipped on its side, covered in what had once been Clara, now reduced to a hive. I tried to get on shaky feet, realizing I had little to no sensation on my right side. At first, I thought I'd just broken my leg, but then I noticed the infected wound. I let out a defeated sigh. My willingness to keep fighting had died alongside Clara. After all that had happened, I would gladly remain on the moon if it meant humanity could live on.

All I needed was for Steven to know the truth and to bring back people to bomb the surface from orbit. I called him, ready to break the news that he'd be traveling back home alone. "Steven, can you hear me?" I asked. "I hear you. Are you ready to take off?" I wasn't sure what to say, but I figured the specifics of the words didn't matter. He just needed to get a gist of our predicament.

I prepared to speak, but no matter how hard I tried to form any sort of coherent warning, I couldn't physically bring myself to utter the words. Any attempt was simply met with a splitting headache, leaving me dazed. "Commander?" Steven asked. Then I finally spoke. "I'm taking off in a minute. Get ready to guide my path." I ordered against my own wishes. "And Clara, is she alright?" Steven asked. "She's unconscious, but she'll be fine." I lied.

Get her home safe, Commander. With that involuntary lie, I entered the Lunar Module and prepared for takeoff. I struggled against it, looking for any way to sabotage the craft, but my body was no longer mine to command. Any action I took against the will of the infection was met with an immediate shutdown. I entered the commands, and the Lunar Module lifted off from the ground. Whatever monstrosity had been let into my body was now fully in control.

I could only watch on in horror as it steered us towards the CSM, which we would reach in a matter of hours. So, I sat myself down, unable to protest. I could only pray that something malfunctioned on the way, taking me out before we reached our ride home. Chances were slim, and as soon as we were received by the CSM, Steven would be the infection's next victim. I hope they put us into quarantine back home, but this infection is intelligent.

It knows how to lay dormant, striking only at the perfect moment. I might appear healthy, convincing the crew on the ground that I'm myself. I can only pray that they notice that Commander Kyle Hastings died on the moon, and that whatever husk makes it back to Earth isn't even human. Hey guys, thanks for listening. I want to give you all a quick heads up regarding some upcoming political ads you may start hearing leading up to this year's presidential election.

These ads do not represent my own political viewpoint. So if you hear a political ad play on the podcast and it's not in my own voice, then it has absolutely nothing to do with me personally as a podcaster. Thank you again for being a dedicated listener of mine, and I can't wait to have another amazing year with you guys. I'll see you in the next episode.