The air in Z-75 felt like lead suspended in the atmosphere. Although her spacesuit filtered and regulated oxygen, Valeria felt each step as if she were dragging her body through an invisible swamp. The terrain was hostile, rocky, with red sand dunes crunching under his boots and an electric wind sparking against his visor.
Zara trotted by his side in his tiny adapted suit, the safety harness jumping to the rhythm of his small jumps. He was smelling everything he could as if the planet were his personal garden.
"Zara, please stay close." I don't want you to end up under an alien rock or... Valeria was interrupted when she saw how Zara, fiddling with the harness clip, was completely entangled in her own legs.
The possum did a couple of awkward somersaults before rolling into a puddle of thick, greenish mud, letting out an offended squeal.
"Oh, for the love of—!" Valeria exclaimed, kneeling between complaints about the heaviness of gravity. You're like a trouble magnet.
Zara splashed and stirred as if she had humbled herself before the universe. Valeria carefully picked her up, wiping away the slimy mud with a thermal towel, while Zara looked at her with a mixture of guilt and pride.
"Don't make that face at me, you were the one who thought swimming in alien soup was a good idea."
When she was finally clean (or at least decent), Zara let go and ran off with renewed energy, sniffing something insistently.
"Zara, wait!" Zara!
But it was too late. The little creature came to a screeching halt in front of a rocky wall. There, half-hidden by crystalline formations and dark vines, was an opening in the mountain, like a mouth waiting to be crossed.
Valeria approached, flashlight pointing. The surface scanner showed strangely stable humidity and temperatures.
"It looks like a refuge," he murmured, while Zara was already sneaking inside as if she had done it a thousand times.
Going deeper, Valeria was relieved to escape the infernal heat outside. The cave was a world apart.
The walls were covered in minerals that glistened in bluish and lilac hues, some pulsing as if they had a heart rhythm of their own. Drops fell from the ceiling, creating a constant echo that slid between the tunnels like a distant whisper.
Zara jumped happily between the glass and puddles, her reflection repeating itself a thousand times on wet surfaces.
But something was wrong.
"Do you hear that...?" Valeria stopped her step. It wasn't just the echo of the water. Those are not our steps.
In the background, in the darkness, something was crawling.
He pointed his flashlight. Only shadows.
Zara froze, her ears stiff. Then, a distant squeak... human, but distorted.
They kept moving forward and found a rocky room where technology and the past intersected: remains of a makeshift base, crumbling furniture, rusty cables and... bones.
Lots of bones.
Some humans. Other... no. Their skulls had extra cavities, their limbs were twisted unnaturally. On the walls some holographic recordings were still flashing.
Valeria activated one.
"Mission D-27, day 11. We find creatures... they were not human when we found them. They were already something else. Something that I had forgotten what it was to have consciousness."
Another hologram.
"They infected us... They converted us... If anyone finds this, don't underestimate them. They're not just zombies..."
Suddenly, Zara screamed loudly, recoiling with her back bristling.
From the shadows, a figure emerged. Then another. Then many more.
Withered corpses, with rotting suits, torn skin, and pieces of cybernetic implants embedded in their skulls.
Opaque eyes, but guided by something that still breathed hatred.
"Monscar...!" Valeria whispered.
One of them roared.
"Zara, back!" Valeria pulled out her laser gun and fired. One of the zombies fell, its chest exploding in shards of putrid smoke.
But five others took his place.
Zara jumped and dodged, dodging the misshapen hands that were trying to catch her.
"They surround us!" Curse! Valeria shouted, firing relentlessly as she retreated into a side rift. One of the Monscars tried to pounce on her, and Zara bit his leg, distracting him enough for Valeria to pulverize him with a direct shot to the skull.
"Zombies!" They are zombies! He shouted, seized with adrenaline.
They managed to enter a narrow corridor, almost a natural chimney, where Valeria fired just above the entrance, partially blocking the passage with an avalanche of rocks.
Darkness enveloped them. Panting, Valeria turned on an emergency light and leaned against the wall.
Zara huddled next to her, still trembling.
"Are you okay, little one?" Valeria asked, touching her helmet.
Zara nodded, her mustaches twitching.
"What the hell were those things...?" Valeria murmured, looking down the closed corridor.
The echoes were still there. Blows, grunts. They were trying to break through.