One sandstone alien stood guard at the doorway every zombie minded person walked through. I guess you don’t need many for a detail when everyone’s leashed. A rattling of stone on stone caught Anthony’s attention. It came from the alien’s direction. Anthony recognized the piecemeal armor and an open gash of stone where dust sifted into the air. Pricks of pain burned to life along Anthony’s arm and he cursed out loud as Atlas jumped.

Anthony didn’t think the alien even saw Atlas, but the yowl the feline released sent the guard into a run in the opposite direction, uninjured arm hold the other. Atlas followed with a deadly sprint.

“Atlas, what the fuck?”

Even with the guard gone, the line kept moving through the door. With only a few leashed humans remaining, Anthony located Elida right before she walked through the doorway. The green light illuminated little of the darkness beyond. The last of the line entered the door. Anthony ran toward the doorway, but it clanged shut in his face.

As Anthony stared at the strange emblem on the door, a warlike scream came from the hallway. Metal clanged, Atlas yowled, and a man grunted. A sound like a slop of rocks on metal. The silence between movements caught Anthony’s breath, and he bent his knees, balled his fists, and tried to breathe quieter. An outline twice the size of any human or alien limped down the hallway.

Anthony stepped back a few paces and searched for any weapons. I’ve fought no one before. What the hell can I do? There were no obvious guns, or swords, or knifes, but he noticed a small cabinet with the same emblem as the ship. The blue “C” sat snug against the orange “D,” but there was something in the middle he couldn’t recognize. Heavy breathing echoes down the hallway. A distant pop jolted Anthony from his daze and he ran for the cabinet.

Inside he found a small red container that looked like a first aid kit, a pocket-sized book identified with strange characters, and a palm sized disc with a blank screen. Anthony was ready to inspect everything further when grunts, groans, and meows resolved into actual sound. Anthony found the last two humans he thought he’d meet again and the unkillable cat.

Red dust covered Atlas’s fur. How many more lives do you have, bud? Kyle and Donnie shared similar marks, but red pebbles clumped around Donnie’s abdomen. Atlas yawned. The floor shook, and Anthony’s stomach lurched. Air sucked into the room before Anthony’s lungs collapsed. The world dimmed, but Anthony ground his teeth and lunged for Atlas, Kyle, and Donnie.

An alarm sounded, and some alien language broke through the pressure in Anthony’s ears. The words came through garbled. An explosion nearby. The floor tilted sideways and Anthony saw the door was gone to reveal blurs of treetops and rocks. When Anthony felt their huddled group slide, he tried to grab hold of the floor, but he had little strength while trying to hold on to the objects from the cabinet. Next thing he knew, they fell through open air until the first branch struck his head.

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