The worst has happened. Orvina, who feared more than anything that she would soon find herself walking down the same path as Nubela, found herself breathing in the foul smell of acidic fumes that permeated the entire surface of Kalibash.

  At first, she thought she was dreaming, even though she did not remember falling asleep. The odour assaulted her senses, making her eyes water and sting. Believing it a dream, she clenched her larger right fist and drove it into her own stomach without hesitation.

  Even as the air was knocked out of her, and she keeled over gasping, the surroundings remained the same. The pain was real, the stench was real, even the mud in which she kneeled was real.

  Ahead was the human settlement, eerily still and quiet, the front gate battered down.

  With no other alternatives, Orvina reluctantly headed towards it.

  What was once a stable colony now looked like a mass grave. Bodies strewn about the streets, marinating in the muck. The Vice Captain crouched down in front of the corpse closest to her, examining it closely. She was horrified to realise that it wasn’t starvation that brought death to these people.

  Each body was torn apart and half devoured, some to a higher degree than others. What remained the only constant for every single one she came across, no matter how damaged they were, was the lack of a heart. Every corpse had either its chest or back violently torn open, and its heart removed.

  “What the fuck happened here? Did they eat each other when food ran out?” She whispered, looking all around.

  Flarians gave no concern to corpses, nor were they believers in superstitions. A dead body was a dead body. Yet Orvina’s hair stood on end, the unmistakable feeling of being watched following her as she walked through the settlement.

  She made her way through the settlement, street by street, hoping to run across even one living soul. But upon arriving in front of the main building, once occupied by the head of the colony and her grandson, Orvina accepted the bitter truth: Not one living person remained on Kalibash.

  Still, the feeling of not being alone, in what was now a ghost town, gnawed on her.

  Orvina approached the door of Tomyris’s house and knocked on it lightly, clinging to the hope that the old woman, or her grandson, might still be alive. The door gave way before she could even knock a second time, slowly opening inwards. The sight inside crushed what little hope Orvina had. The old human and her grandson lay dead on the floor, much in the same way as the rest of the colonists.

  The Flarian Vice Captain sighed in surrender and stepped away from the door.

  “Dammit. Why am I here? I need to get back to the ship.”

  She looked around frantically, pinching and hitting herself in hopes of waking up, but nothing she did seemed to work.

  “Fuck! Someone, get me the hell out of here!”

  Her frustrated shouting did not go unanswered. A blood-curdling howl echoed through the empty streets of the settlement in response. Orvina spun around, turning in the direction of the sound. The uncomfortable feeling of being watched evolved into full-blown terror when she saw it.

  Far from her, on the very end of the street, something stood. It was hunched over, but Orvina could tell by feeling alone that it was looking right at her. The creature moved, standing upright on its hind legs and howling again.

  The Vice Captain stood frozen; her feet glued to the muddy ground in terror. The creature, now standing on two legs, was unmistakably a Flarian. Two pairs of arms, one bigger than the other, a body covered in a blend of fur and protective plating, and four eyes. It began to advance, grabbing something off the ground in front of it and throwing it across the entire street towards Orvina.

  The object struck the side of Tomyris’s house with a sickening wet crunch, sticking to the corner of the wall for a moment before falling into the mud. The Vice Captain hesitated to look at what it was, and later cursed herself for pushing past that hesitation. What the creature threw at her was a body, missing its head. Orvina gagged when she realised the corpse was too small to be a fully grown human.

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  As the beast got closer, now once more running on all fours like an animal, Orvina finally recognised it. The burning blue eyes filled with bottomless hatred and hunger.

  “Nubela?”

  She no longer responded to that name, or any other word of reason. Adorned with nothing but the Grumlag skull atop her head, the monster sped up, charging straight for Orvina. Within seconds, she cleared the entire street, grunting rhythmically.

  Orvina understood within seconds the situation she found herself in. Even so, she was clueless as to what to do. She couldn’t outrun Nubela, and seeing what the captain had become, Orvina doubted she could take her head on either.

  “Shit, shit, shit, shit! What do I do, what do I do?!”

  She looked around frantically, searching for anything that could help her. A weapon, an answer, anything. All she found were corpses. The little girl’s body that Nubela threw at her, the bodies of the colonists, torn apart and consumed. What help could corpses provide?

  Orvina gritted her teeth, clenching all four of her fists, preparing to take Nubela head-on, as it was the only thing she could do. The images of the bodies flashed in her mind every time she blinked, a grim reminder that she would soon share their fate.

  “Aaarrrghh! You want my heart, you crazy bitch?! Come and get it!” She screamed.

  Nubela leapt through the air, claws and teeth sinking into Orvina’s body. In that very moment of absolute pain, a realisation dawned on the Vice Captain.

  “The heart.”

  ***

  Orvina gasped, gripping the armrest of the command chair as her eyes opened. The pain of claws and jaws tearing at her body felt all too real for a moment longer before fading. She blinked a few times as the flashing red light assaulted her eyes. The alarm blared, and judging by how the remaining crew on the bridge were still in a state of confusion, it seemed to have activated just as she woke up.

  “What’s going on?” She shouted.

  “We’re under attack, Ma’am.” One of the crewmen replied.

  “The alarm was triggered from the medbay. Hostile forces seem to have boarded the ship.”

  Orvina got up from her seat in one swift motion.

  “Medbay… Nubela.”

  She unholstered the weapon on her hip, switching it from stun to lethal rounds, while giving out orders.

  “Switch to lethal rounds. Get Admiral Girlek back on comms and inform him of the situation. We don’t want the crew he sent to walk headfirst into this shitshow.”

  “Understood. Right away, Vice Captain.”

  “Can you use the ship’s trackers and cameras to locate the enemy?” Orvina asked.

  Before the crewman could offer a response, the doors to the bridge opened, and the ship’s doctor, Vanya, stumbled inside while panting.

  “Captain… It’s the captain.”

  The Flarian soldiers closest to the door quickly grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him inside before closing the doors. Orvina walked over, crouching down to be at eye level with the doctor.

  “And the others?”

  Vanya’s response sent a chill through the entire bridge.

  “Everyone. The dead and the dying. They all just got up.”

  “Where are they now?” The Flarian Vice Captain asked.

  “Medbay. I managed to lock them in there before Baland arrived. He told me to come here.” Vayna replied, standing up straight while clutching his wounded arm.

  Orvina took a step back and nodded.

  “You did well, Doc. Now sit down and let someone patch that arm up.”

  “Vice Captain.” Called out the Flarian working the main panel.

  “The medbay is empty. Trackers show a large number of unidentified hostiles in the cargo bay. I ran the bio scans, but the results keep coming back with errors. The bio scans keep marking the hostiles as flarians.”

  Orvina was not surprised by that information. She turned to Vayna, who was sitting in one of the chairs, while another Flarian applied first aid to his arm.

  “Where is Baland?”

  “Medbay.” The Flarian doctor replied.

  “Get Baland on the comms and tell him to haul ass back to the bridge. He and anyone else with the sound mind to hold a weapon.” The Vice Captain ordered.

  “The short-range comms are down, Ma’am.” The comms technician replied.

  “Shit.” Orvina hissed, pacing back and forth. If she sent anyone to get Baland, she risked having fewer people to defend the bridge with, but leaving Baland uninformed of what was going on meant he would stand no chance should he, and whoever was left across the vessel, run into Nubela.