Elsa woke to the feeling of something on her face. She swatted at it absent-mindedly, then jumped up in terror. Bugs, hundreds of them, were crawling across her or on the rocky shelf surrounding her. She bit down the scream and scampered back, slapping the chitinous creatures off of her. They were making short work of the pieces of dead monster, and she had no doubt she’d have been next. Individually they were smaller than the palm of her hand, but the sheer volume promised a painful, if quick, death.
She grabbed her rifle and fired a few shots into the thicker concentrations of them. The overgrown cockroaches superheated and exploded instantly. She barked out a laugh at them and fired again until they got it into their insect brains that she was a threat they didn’t want to mess with.
Elsa realized she was breathing hard again, then felt the pang in her stomach. It had been almost a day or maybe even longer since she’d last eaten anything other than water. Intel said there was lots that could be eaten on Vitalis, one such meal, pre-cooked, had just been disposed of by the bugs. Elsa sneered and set about putting her armor back on. She’d been caught with her pants down, literally, and she expected she’d catch hell when she was debriefed. Debriefed by her superiors, that is, not the debriefing she’d given herself the night before.
Elsa’s eyes went to the passage to the surface. Her instincts had been right, light was shining down through the tunnel. It was daytime again. That meant she’d been out for several more hours. Once her armor was clamped back in place she slipped her helmet on so she could see if anything had changed. No messages from her unit and nothing from command. She had been asleep for another five hours, time she knew her body needed but she didn’t have. She was down to twenty two hours before the deadline. Less than a day.
She paused on her way to the tunnel, eyeing a pile of dead bugs. She knelt down and reached for one with her right hand. She stared at her hand, realizing that the pain in her shoulder was gone. She picked it up and rotated it, grinning at how well it worked. He cheek felt smooth and flawless as well, as though she’d never been injured.
She picked up a bug and pulled out her knife with her other hand. She peeled away the shell then carved out a chunk of the cooked meat inside. Holding her breath she tossed it in, chewing quickly and swallowing before her stomach realized what she was about to do to it.
Elsa waited a long moment for the convulsions or tremors to begin. Nothing happened. She stared at the carcass in her hand for a long moment, then carved out more of the innards. Insects and stranger sources of nutrition had been part of Marine FIST survival training. She’d never enjoyed that part, but then again she’d never gotten sick because of it. Her luck held true as she worked her way through three of the partially cooked Vitalian insects.
“ Not quite eggs and bacon with a side of home fries,” she said. “Then again, even the synthetic version on the ship tastes like dead bugs.”
Elsa stood up and made her way to the tunnel. She had to push her rifle ahead of her and struggle to wiggle her way up through it. She consciously focused on not thinking about how tight the short tunnel was, nor did she wonder what the odds of the tunnel collapsing on top of her. Instead she stared at the bright disc that promised sunlight and the top of the cliffs.
Elsa emerged unscathed, if dirty. She pulled her helmet off and stared, letting the bright sunlight warm her face and bring tears to her eyes. A soft wind blew through her hair, reminding her how badly she wanted a shower. She felt alive and filled with sudden hope.
Grinning widely Elsa turned away from the morning sun and saw another ridge ahead of her, several miles distant. It was jagged, promising to be more mountainous and hilly instead of a vertical line of rock. Her smile faded slowly, then was replaced by a feeling of numbness in her chest when she saw a small herd of massive creatures on the plain between her and the ridge.