Chapter 7 Rotten House

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Author's Note: 'Will be used for character's inner thoughts.' "Normal dialogue tags will be used for speech."

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"Stop it!" Zoe hissed under her breath, covering her paper from Ivy, who was leaning over her own desk to look at Zoe's test page. "I think you should look at your own paper!"

"I think you stink!" Ivy snapped back; she sat back in her chair and crossed her arms with a huff.

"You're the one who doesn't brush her teeth."

"What?" Ivy's mouth hung open—absolutely flabbergasted. "Yeah, what's the point? It's just gonna get dirty again."

"That's disgusting."

"You don't take showers!"

"I hate water!" Zoe protested.

"No one hates water."

A loud cough came from the front of the room. Their teacher had stood up from his chair and glared at them at the back of the room.

"I thought this was a free country," Ivy grumbled as she went back to her bored slouch, absently doodling on the sides of the test paper. Soon enough, though, she had begun to fidget and bounce in her seat.

Noticing movement out of the corner of her left eye. A quick turn of her head revealed that Ivy had her hands running through her hair in a frustrated fervor. She looked at Zoe, her eyes wide. "PLEASE?" they seemed to scream at her. Zoe glanced up, seeing that the teacher was greatly distracted by something on his desk.

Silently moving her own desk closer to Ivy's, she placed her test paper near the edge of the table so Ivy could get a better look at it. "This is the only time."

"Thanks!" Ivy said with a raspy whisper. "After class, we need to go see Colson about something."

"Why?"

"LADIES!" A booming voice came from the front of the room. The teacher stood, fists clenched. "You will both fail if I hear another peep out of either of you!" He didn't seem to notice that their desks had migrated together.

Ivy bit down hard on her own tongue to stop herself from laughing. Zoe's face turned ghostly white, and she put her head down and continued feverishly working on her paper.

"Colson's gonna agree!"

"Ivy, no," Zoe said as they walked through the classroom doors. "That's a terrible idea."

"Why?"

"He's not going to do anything you ask him."

"Really? I'm sure he would!"

"I've known him a long time. He won't."

"Uh, okay," she extended the last word. "Well, what if we do a mission instead? A real dangerous one! One that'll make us tough and get us a star!"

Zoe sighed, "We aren't going to find one like that. We're just going to have to pick up trash or, worse, kitchen duty," she shivered at the thought.

"You'll see. Colson will be on my side." Ivy had a sly smile on her face. "I, too, can see the future. We will get a mission on that board. You'll see."

"Ivy, that's not how that works," Colson said while stuffing the rest of his books in his bag. They were inside his dorm room, somewhere they shouldn't have been in the first place, but Ivy had dragged Zoe along. He sat down in his desk chair with a huff. He turned to his desk, fiddling with a sleek black camera. Colson picked up an almost microscopic screwdriver, squinting at the camera's underside, looking for a screw. "We can do them if you wanna make a quick buck, but it's not gonna get you any closer to ranking up."

Covering the brick walls of the room were hundreds of pictures. There were photos of classmates, scenery, sunsets, and statues.

"Oh, by the way," Colson pointed, "This is my brother, Pearson."

Pearson sat on the bed adjacent to Colson's desk. He was half asleep, flipping through a large textbook on his lap. He briefly glanced up from his book, eyeing Ivy and Zoe tiredly and giving a slight wave before looking back down at his book. His eyes narrowed as he looked back up, squinting at Ivy and looking at Colson.

Colson raised his eyebrows and nodded slightly in her direction, his eyes shifting from Ivy to Pearson. A silent conversation took place in that brief second.

"Ah," Pearson nodded with comprehension. Colson thought he saw a look of disappointment on his face, turning his attention back to his book, 'That's really who that is? Not sure what I expected,' Pearson thought.

"I literally told her this not five minutes ago," Zoe said, her arms crossed as she kept turning around to glance down the hallway, nervous that someone would hear two girls on a 'boys' floor. "You were there, weren't you? When I was talking to Neph. It's almost impossible to get a mission that's even worth doing."

"Isn't every mission worth doing?" Ivy asked.

"No." all three said in unison.

"All we'll get is the dregs, the D-ranks."

"Is that bad?"

Zoe sighed, "Listen, the mission rankings go from 'D' to 'S.' D-ranks are unthreatening odd jobs. We will be catching escaped pets, picking up litter, cleaning houses, shaping the bushes. It'll do nothing to help us rank up. Missions are either made by the colony or it's a commissioned job. Most will be commissions, and the commissioners won't want any low-ranks like us."

"Oh," Ivy said, a slight frown crossing her face.

"And another thing," Colson said, turning in his chair to face her. "They'll sometimes ask for certain colonists who are known to be good, so the barrier to entry on these missions is high."

"Well," Ivy elongated the word, "there's still a chance, then?"

Colson threw his hands up in the air with an exasperated sigh, "okay, girl, fine. You win. Let's go to the mission board."

Ivy flashed a satisfied smile to Zoe and strolled back down the hallway towards the elevator.

Colson stood behind Zoe and Ivy as they looked at the pages on the mission board—mostly assignments, but a lot of recent missing pet posters as well. It was a tall wooden thing set in a grassy field near the oval chairman building, splintery with hundreds of rusty staples and nails implanted into the soft wood.

Eventually, Zoe turned to Ivy, "Like we were saying. These are the only missions that we have right now."

Ivy clicked her tongue, "But if we do enough of them, we'll build up a reputation, right?"

"In theory."

"Not in practice?"

"Nope."

"Okay...But we can still do one, though."

"Ivy, do you just not listen t—"

Colson interrupted, "You know what, Zoe, let's do it. Let's just show her what it's like to do this and how sucky this can get. I don't know why you're fixating so hard on this."

"Yea, okay, fine." Zoe said, grabbing a random piece of paper from the board. "Alright, let's go get this signed off."

While walking, she looked over the paper. Nothing stood out to her except the address of the house. A wave of familiarity washed over her, "I know I've been here before, but when and why?"

It was 10:30 PM. Walkie-talkies in their pockets, and Ivy had a large grin that seemed to illuminate their way. Stopping to look at a sign with the map of Crater, Colson noted four ways to get there, as the house was located in the eastern district. They could walk along the roads, taking the twists and turns; they could move along the river that led through a forested area that would spit them out a quarter of a mile from the home; or the three could see if his brother, Pearson, and his friends would let them borrow their bikes—he said the last option would be very doubtful, and the river would be the fastest way there, taking them about forty-five minutes to get there instead of the hour and a half of the roadways. Zoe commented that they could take the ferry that taxi'd people from one side of the lake that lies in the center of Crater to the other side, but Colson mentioned how tickets at this hour would be triple the usual price. He and Ivy both decided to go along the river shortcut, with Zoe reluctantly agreeing.

Their path was almost pitch black, the nearby trees blocking most of the moonlight. Zoe had no idea where they were, but Colson confidently walked in front, only occasionally stumbling over a rock or walking face-first into a tree—Zoe's light-up sneakers did little to illuminate the way.

"Wow! Look at that!" Ivy said, pointing across the river. Zoe glanced over; there was a slight break in the trees, allowing a patch of moonlight to get through, illuminating what looked to be a half-eaten carcass. Its bright pink antlers stood out among the mountain of fur and bones.

Zoe scrunched up her nose, "Eww."

"I thought you said they keep all carnivorous animals on the outside of Crater."

Colson looked around, slightly wary, "That's what they're 'supposed' to be doing. But we should probably hurry up, though."

"Yes, please," Zoe mumbled, walking around a considerably sized hole.

They quickened their pace, almost jogging, following the muddy river until Colson took a sharp right turn, walking through the woods and seeing the glow of the town in the distance.

They stood in front of the house. It was a two-story house with a modern gothic design, mirroring the other homes in the neighborhood. Zoe gulped when she saw the house, "that's why the address looked so familiar," she thought, feeling her heart skip in her chest. All the memories came flooding back.

Years ago, when Zoe lived on the west side of Crater, she would walk past this house every day. She always thought that multiple families lived in the massive thing, as there were always people sitting in the front yard, walking in and out of the front door, and many people inside that she could see through the windows. Now all the lights were off except for one. From where Zoe was standing, she could see the large tree in the backyard—a treehouse stuck in its branches.

Before she met Colson, another friend, Reiza, convinced her to skip their curfew and spend the night there. They only lasted a few hours past their limit as they got creeped out from the creaking of the branches and the wind cutting through the leaves, sounding like the hushed whispers of ghosts. It scared Zoe so much that when they were scrambling down the tree, her foot slipped on one of the branches. Zoe didn't scream or cry, like a kid normally would after falling over ten feet; she just had a confused look on her face. She was perplexed because she never knew her forearm could bend that far.

Reiza quickly put her hands over her mouth, shushing her. She quietly brought her to the nurse's office. Somehow, the nurse could heal her arm almost instantly. That part of her memory was fuzzy, but she remembered it felt like they dropped her into a washing machine full of slime. While she was there that night, she met Colson for the first time. He was there after Pearson had received a large head injury earlier that evening.

Zoe had a smile on her face, looking at the house now, realizing that she wouldn't be here and that she wouldn't have known Colson if she hadn't broken her arm. A brief sense of awe washed over her. At that time, breaking her arm was the worst thing that happened to her, but she would never have met Colson if that event had never happened. Colson was the one to convince her to ask Neph directly about getting a mission the other day; if he had never done that, she wouldn't have been introduced to Ivy. A fortunate coincidence perhaps; but she didn't believe in those. The memory also made her sad, as Reiza had been her only friend at the time.

Colson squinted at the lawn, "Yeesh, that looks awful."

Zoe had to agree. It looked like the lawn hadn't been tended since she broke her arm all those years ago.

Zoe took the contract page from her pocket, "We're at the right address. I guess we should knock."

"This house kinda sucks!" Colson yelled quietly as he walked up the cracked concrete walkway and banged on the front door.

"Shh!" Zoe hissed. "You're going to wake the neighbors!"

"I hope they do wake up! I don't know how the people living here haven't been evicted yet for having an 'unsightly property.' Just dumb."

There was a shuffling behind the door. They heard the blinds in the window be pulled back. A silhouette with wide eyes stared at them for a few seconds. The door opened, a tall old lady stepped out on the front porch. She gave them all a suspicious look, pausing on Ivy when she saw the big grin on her face.

"Hello?" she said, a confused look played across her face, "Can I help you?"

Colson stepped up, "Hello, miss. We're here because of the ad you posted."

"I posted an ad?" She scratched her chin, "Well, if you're looking for something to do, I've got a few things."

The trio stood there silently, waiting for her to tell them what to do. The mission paper only displayed the address, and the time to arrive. That's when the smell from inside the house wafted out towards them.

"Yikes!" Colson yelled, stumbling back in horror, pinching his nose shut with his fingers. Zoe did the same thing.

Ivy sniffed the air, "It smells familiar, like something from a forest. Like a sick animal."

"Yes, it does!" The old woman said with glee.

Colson took a step back, a nervous look crossing his face, "Uh, what?"

"I just can't get the smell out."

"I can see that," Colson said under his breath. "Or, smell it."

"Charles was such a good man...I'll always hate them for taking him away."

Ivy had a confused look on her face, "Taking him away…Is he in prison?"

"I always made sure to treat him right, you know. Went to the library and looked it up there; I made sure he didn't smell."

"Oh goodness," Zoe murmured, realizing where this was going.

"You can't just take someone's husband away, just because he died!"

Colson looked queasy, "What the…."

The woman turned and pointed inside the dark house, "They came and stole him right from his chair. Something about taxes, probably. That's what it was! Taxes! That bastard, Neph and Amelia, always trying to raise the taxes! Removing mandatory Sunday services! Removing degeneracy and lechery laws! Total cultural entropy! If Orion were here and in charge…" she trailed off. "Well, anyway, while you're here, come take a look at the dishwasher," she said and glided inside the house.

"I don't know what any of that meant," Ivy said.

Colson let out a long sigh, "Ivy, I blame you for this." He walked past both of them to follow the woman.

Their sight slowly adjusted as they walked through the dark halls of the house. Zoe walked close behind Ivy; every strange sound and creaking floorboard made her jump. Her eyes were wide as she watched the shadows flicker and dance on the wall.

As they walked, the lady remembered what she hired them for. She said she'd lost her dog somewhere on the property. It had been a few days, but she couldn't find it anywhere. She knew it was close by as she would occasionally hear it bark and yelp. It wore a bright pink collar, with the name 'Lila' etched on it. "Try upstairs, or under the house."

"Alright," Colson said as they all surrounded the dishwasher. "What's the problem with the dishwasher? Also, just so you're aware, we aren't plumbers or mechanics. Well‌, I guess I kinda know a thing or two about fixing machinery."

The old lady smiled innocently, "Oh, there's no issue. It's just a good dishwasher. Very reliable."

"Uh, wow…" Zoe said, trying to sound impressed, her face looking the opposite.

"Yup! There was a movie once where a young man got in one of these to survive a nuclear explosion."

"I think that was a refrigerator," Colson said

"What?"

"He got into a refrigerator, not a dishwasher."

There was silence as the lady stared at him. Zoe looked around awkwardly. "Hey," she said, elbowing Colson in the ribs, "So, we should get to work now," She looked at the lady with a forced smile.

The lady stared at her for a second. Her smile returned, "Well, anyways. You guys know what to do! I think there are some animals around the house, so do be careful. I'll be back later," she said as she walked out of the kitchen.

"Dear lord," Colson said once he was out of earshot of the woman.

"I like her," Ivy said.

Zoe peered through the panels that surrounded the base of the house.

"Yea, I'm not going under there," Colson said as he looked over her shoulder. "If any animal was trapped under there, it's long dead."

"We won't be able to see it either," Zoe said. "Even if it were daytime, the crawlspace would be too dark." She took out the mission sheet again, scanning it. "Well, crap."

"Well, who's going under? It's not gonna be me," Colson said.

Ivy smiled, "Okay, how about we play a game, and whoever loses has to go under?"

Zoe shrugged, "Sounds fair. What game?"

"Rock, paper, scissors."

"Whatever," Colson said. "What will the winners get?"

"They search the house for the animal?"

"Alright."

Zoe lost to both Ivy and Colson.

"Dang," Zoe said, her face paling at the thought of entering the spider-infested crawlspace. The blackness bleeding out from the open panel.

She looked up, seeing Ivy and Colson walk into the house. Fresh air entered her lungs as she took a deep breath. She crouched down and scurried through the open paneling, holding her breath as long as she could.

She lightly rubbed her eyes, trying to open her retinas to get as much light inside as possible. She could only move a few feet before she couldn't take it anymore and had to gasp for air. The air, it tasted like death.

An imaginary lightbulb turned on over her head; she took out the walkie-talkie from her back pocket, the dim green glow of the screen illuminating a small area in front of her. To her dismay, she discovered she could only see directly where the device was pointing; she sighed, realizing this would make the task a lot more difficult. Though thinking of the alternative, this was better than nothing.

"Lila, are you here?" She called out in a shaky voice. It was barely above a whisper.

The fear grew in her that there would be a massive rabid bear just inches away from her; the psychosomatic feeling of the creature's hot breath on her, its razor-sharp fangs just out of sight, ready to rip her to shreds. Her hands shot to her right pocket, where her knife should have been, but remembered how she had left it in her closet.

"Hey, Ivy!" She hissed into the walkie, "Are you there?" Her voice was a lot shakier than she meant it to be.

The walkie-talkie crackled to life in her hand, "Yea, this is spacewoman V, what's your status? Over."

"Ivy, stop. There's something weird about this place."

"What do you mean?"

"I-I don't know. Nevermind. Sorry." She turned the device around once more, shining it around the area. The fear slowly grew inside her, realizing that an animal had been trapped down there and something terrible might have happened to it.

There was a long pause on the other end, "I can come down and look with you."

"You'd do that?"

"Yea, if you want."

"That would be nice."

Zoe heard the dull thuds of footsteps above her as Ivy walked towards the front door. She felt dirt rain down on her as she passed overhead. A wave of relief washed over Zoe. She shuffled back towards the opening of the crawlspace, taking a moment to shine the green light around her. 'Not as many spiders as I thought there'd be,' she thought, 'I'm almost disappointed.'

There was a loud thump as Ivy moved through the opening, hitting her head on a high beam.

"Here, use the walkie-talkie as a flashlight," Zoe said, holding up her own to show Ivy. The green glow reflected off Ivy's wide eyes; to Zoe, it made her look like she was possessed.

"Alright," she said and took the walkie from her pocket and held it up. She turned around, grabbed the wooden panel, placing it over the opening.

"Why did you do that?" Panic rose in Zoe's voice.

"It's okay; we can easily move it. Also, if there is an animal down here, and it runs past us, we wouldn't have a chance at catching it."

Zoe looked back at Ivy's grinning face, realizing that she had made a good point. 'She really does have some infectious optimism,' Zoe thought.

Ivy shined her walkie-talkie around the crawl space. She only saw dirt and concrete support beams that held up the house.

"I'll check right, and you can go left," she said as she shuffled on her hands and knees over to where she was looking. Ivy stopped and put the walkie-talkie to her face, "Alpha-tango to Foxtrot-Colson, what's the report? Over."

"Nothing so far," Colson sighed. "A whole lot of nothing…Over."

"Keep mission control updated Delta-Colson."

"If you keep talking like that, I'm just going to turn this off," Colson said. He could hear them both laughing without the walkie-talkie; he couldn't help but smile.

Zoe crawled forward, "Of course, Ivy would pick the side that smells the least bad!" She wrapped her hands around a support beam to pull herself forward. As she placed her hand on the ground, something damp touched her palm. Zoe shined the walkie-talkie down, holding her hand over her mouth in horror, trying not to scream.

The flesh had been eaten away, revealing a mushy mess of bones and wet fur.

Trying to steady her breath, she called out, "Ivy?"

"Yeah?"

"C-come here!"

A shuffling sound came from the opposite side of the crawlspace; ten seconds later, Ivy's face appeared from the darkness.

"Woah," she said, looking down at the corpse with an odd curiosity. She reached out her hand.

"Gross! Don't touch it!" Zoe hissed, grabbing Ivy's wrist before her fingers could make contact. She looked back down at it, "That's so sad."

Ivy shrugged, "It's just an animal."

"I guess, but still…." She pinched her nose with her hand and shined the green light on the animal. "This has been dead for a while," her voice was slightly nasally.

"You think so?"

"Yea, they showed us examples of the different stages of body decomposition in one of my classes a few months back. Humans…animals…But considering the heat that gets trapped under here, that probably means it sped up the process."

Ivy looked as if her head was about to explode. Zoe shined her walkie-talkie in a wide-sweeping circle; her eye caught something in the dim light. She pulled on the sleeve of Ivy's coat.

"Can you go in front of me?" She pleaded, pointing towards the far left corner of the space.

"Alright," Ivy shrugged and crawled in that direction.

After a few seconds of crawling, they reached the corner. Zoe squinted her eyes, not sure what she saw at first. There was a small metal bowl.

"What the?" Zoe said under her breath as she scurried over to examine the object. The bowl was almost entirely filled with water. When she shined the light on it, small smudges could be seen surrounding the bowl's edge.

"Is this that dead thing's water?"

"I don't think so. It's been pretty hot out, especially under here, so the water would've evaporated pretty quickly. So maybe it's been out for a little more than a day. I doubt that old lady can crawl under here like this…." Her eyes widened.

"So…"

"So that means someone is feeding something under here. They might even be bringing them animals for it to eat!"

"Oh jeez," Ivy said, her eyes widening at the realization.

Zoe took a shaky hand and lifted the walkie-talkie to her mouth, "Hey, Colson, meet us outside right now, okay?"

There was crackling on the other end, "Hold on, I've got one last room to search."

"Colson, please! Just meet us outside. We might've found her dog."

"Okay, okay, I just-" His voice abruptly stopped.

Zoe checked her walkie-talkie to see if she accidentally switched channels, but it was fine. She looked to Ivy, who just shrugged.

Above them, they heard fast-paced footsteps, moving quickly. 'What is he doing?' Zoe thought as she looked above her. They both sat in silence, waiting for Colson to finish what he was saying, but he never did.

The footsteps above got heavier as if Colson was stomping everywhere he walked. Their walkie-talkies came alive.

"You guys aren't in here, are you?" Colson's voice was hushed.

"Uh, no?"

There was a long silence. "If you're joking…."

"Colson, we're both under the house still!"

There was another long silence, the only sound being the stomps from above. "There's someone in the house. It's definitely not the grandma."

The footsteps stopped briefly and slowly got quieter. Zoe realized that whoever it was was moving up the stairs. She wanted to say something else but didn't want to alert the person to Colson's location. Not knowing what to do, they both waited and listened.

There were more heavy footsteps, followed by a loud thud.

'No! Colson! We have to do something! He's been caught!' Zoe thought. She looked to Ivy, who had a confused look on her face and her ear to the floor above, intently listening. 'She probably lives alone. Who could that be?'

Tears welled up in Zoe's eyes. "I-Ivy…what do we do?" Her voice was shaky and barely audible. "What if he told the person that we're under here! Would he do that? None of us brought our weapons with us!"

Zoe felt paralyzed. She wanted to save Colson. She wanted to run home. Not her dorm, but to her parent's home, into her mother's arms. She wanted to call someone for help. She couldn't do anything but sit there staring up at the floor.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ivy moving slowly toward the crawlspace opening, trying to make as little noise as possible. Zoe took a deep breath and crawled as fast as she could past Ivy to the opening.

As they scurried away, two yellow bloodshot eyes stared at them from the one corner neither of them checked—The back left corner. It was careful to stay still and not disturb the mountains of bones and rotten flesh that surrounded it. Below it was a bright pink dog collar.

Zoe pushed on the panel, but it didn't budge. She felt the hot panic well inside her chest. "We're trapped! Why Ivy?" She whispered to herself.

Ivy appeared next to her and pushed. Her face had an "oh no!" look as she realized she had placed the panel the wrong way, jamming it in backward, so it couldn't slide in and out like it was meant to. She put her full weight into the board, making a loud cracking sound, but it wasn't enough. They both propped their shoulders to the wood, ready to push together once more.

Above them, two pairs of footsteps thundered down the stairs. The lighter of the two zoomed towards the front door. A guttural yell seemed to follow as the footsteps disappeared as they flew out the door and onto the lawn.

"Push!" Ivy yelled. They both reared back and slammed their shoulders against the panel. As they connected with the wood, the board seemed to give way, not by their own force, but an exterior one.

They fell forward, fresh air finally filling Zoe's lungs. Before she could catch her breath, a hand shot out and grabbed her by the wrist. She looked up, seeing Colson as he hoisted her to her feet, to the side; Ivy stood in front of the house looking inside.

"Let's go! Now!" Colson yelled! Running over and grabbed Ivy by the hand, snapping her out of her curiosity.

They all sprinted towards the fence gate; without thinking, Ivy hopped over it with ease, both Colson and Zoe followed her lead. Behind them, Zoe heard screaming; they weren't words but sounds coming from the crawlspace. They ran for the nearest set of houses, weaving in between them and down alleyways. No real direction, but they just wanted to be harder to find.

When they were far enough away, Colson kept repeating between breaths, "Neph, we gotta go tell Neph!"

"Where are we?" Ivy said, looking around. The houses around them had shifted from a Gothic modern to an Eastern style.

Zoe, through gulps of breath, said, "Northwest…I think. We gotta keep running. His house is…a few miles that way." She said, pointing to her right.

Neph took off his reading glasses and rubbed his eyes. He was sitting at his desk, stacks of paper piled on almost every flat surface in the room. A single desk lamp illuminated the area.

He took a small sip from his coffee cup. He let out a satisfied sigh; the subtle sweetness of the drink gave a pleasant aftertaste; vanilla and roasted bananas, as well as a mix of other flavors—too small of a taste to put a name to.

Suddenly, his door slammed open, and three kids tumbled into the room. They were sweaty, out of breath, and all frantically talking at once.

"Woah, there! Catch your breaths, alright? One person speak at a time," Neph said, standing to his feet with a concerned look on his face.

"A dead sprint…all the…way here. Many miles," Colson said between gulps of air. Zoe looked like she was about to pass out as she leaned on Ivy for support.

"What happened? Are you alright? Is anyone hurt?"

Ivy looked down at herself, then at Colson, "We're all fine."

Colson pointed toward the house, "There's some person or monster living in the house over there."

Zoe took the mission page from her pocket and pointed at the house's address on the paper. "This house," she said through deep breaths, a concerned look crossing her face while she put her hands in all of her pockets, realizing she had dropped the walkie-talkie at some point.

Neph put on his reading glasses and read over the sheet. "You went to this house for a mission, but there was a person and a monster inside the house?" He looked down his nose at the trio.

Colson proceeded to explain everything that happened. Zoe apologized for failing the mission. Stopping halfway through, her eyes widening and her mouth agape.

"OH NO!" She yelled. This was as loud as Colson had ever heard her be.

"What happened?" Ivy grimaced, holding her hands over her ears.

"That old lady, she said she would be coming back soon! We gotta go back and warn her!"

Neph quickly ushered the three of them away with the explanation that he needed to make some phone calls, that they should just go to bed, and that he'll find and take care of the woman and for them not to worry.

When they were outside, Zoe told Colson about her dropping the walkie-talkie. She kept saying she was sorry she dropped them, but Colson said it didn't matter.

Colson looked down at his hands, realizing they were shaking. "Even if we brought our weapons with us, I don't think we would've survived!" The thought invaded his mind. A silhouette of the figure in the house. The animal-like screams as they ran away.

"Maybe we can go back to the house tomorrow and get the walkie," Ivy suggested as they walked back towards the dorms.

"It could be anywhere. Under that house or not even on the property. I don't even remember the path we ran," Zoe said, checking her pockets once again.

"I wonder who Neph is calling."

"Probably calling an investigator colonist."

Ivy put a hand to her chest, feeling her heart drum against her ribs, "Is it weird that I found that kinda fun?"

"Sort of?" Colson said. "Besides, does this mean we failed?"

"I don't know," Zoe said. "We did everything she asked of us. We found 'parts' of her dog."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," he chuckled, "We might've just screwed our chances at a mission for like the next decade."

Neither Ivy nor Zoe could fall asleep. Zoe sat huddled in the corner of her bed on the top bunk, staring at her door. She kept waiting to hear the loud thumps of footsteps at her door.