When Vincent finally reached the corridor that connected to the reserve, he was exhausted. Leaning against the wall he slumped down and slid to the ground. It had taken hours of running, with only a few stops just to reach here. Despite his superior physiology by design, he was still human. After taking a few bites from a ration pack and a couple of mouthfuls of water, he pulled himself back up to his feet. I’m probably just being paranoid, but I must check on them. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I didn’t and something happened. It was then, as he hurriedly walked to the end of the corridor that the smell of smoke hit his nose. It was still faint, but something had been burning nearby and not long ago. As this dawned on him, he broke back into a run until he reached the edge of reserve. What he saw there stopped him in his tracks.

There was no doubt that something awful had happened here. There had been a large fire, whole sections of the forest had burnt down. The fire control had done its job, the entire area had been doused in water that was now draining through to be recycled, but the damage was severe. Fearing the worst, he pressed on. The ground squelched under foot as ran through the partially charred undergrowth. He was halfway to the settlement when something moving to the left caught his eye. An arm had rolled out onto the path. As he inspected further, he saw a person laying just to the side of the path. Damn it. This isn’t good! It was when he approached, he realised that he recognised the man lying there. He was barely conscious and holding a wound to his abdomen.

“Hey Sam, can you hear me?” Vincent asked as he knelt next to him to inspect.

He didn’t know the man well, but he had come across him a few times whilst visiting the reserve. Sam was a fellow travelling merchant that passed through this way and was also on friendly terms with the community here.

“Ugh, no… It’s not... Uh, it’s you, you’re Vincent.” Sam said weakly, slowly turning his head to face him.

“Yeah, it’s me Vincent… You’re hurt, what happened?”

“It’s this…” He said moving his hand a little to reveal the wound.

Blood was seeping from the wound in his abdomen. By the amount of blood loss Vincent could tell that it hadn’t severed any major arteries. He was lucky in some ways, but he was still in need of some proper medical attention. If he didn’t receive it, he would die. Vincent wanted to head to the settlement, but he couldn’t just leave him there in this state. He threw his bag down and pulled out his emergency kit.

“I’ve got to check on the others but let me see what I can do first.”

He quickly disinfected the wound and then placed and emergency dressing over it. Once activated it closed the wound and stopped the bleeding. He wasn’t out of the woods yet, but it had bought them both time.

“Stay there and try not move. I’ll be back for you.” Vincent said as he stood and made to head for the settlement.

“Vincent, wait! This is… This is all my fault.”

“What?! You’re saying you did this?”

“No… They told me that no one would get hurt.”

“What the fuck are you on about?” Vincent said grabbing Sam by the collar.

“I didn’t have a choice. I had to show them this place… They, they have my family, they were going to kill them if I didn’t bring them here.”

Vincent released Sam.

“I don’t understand, who are you talking about?”

“The raiders, they took some of the villagers with them. The rest they… I don’t know if there is anyone still alive in there.”

“I see... But I still need to check. Just stay there, you’re going to tell me everything that happened. If I end up having to search for you, you won’t see the inside of a medical bay. Got it?”

Sam just frantically nodded at Vincent.

“Tsck, Idiot.”

There were a hundred things that Vincent wanted to ask Sam, but that needed to wait. Right now, he had to get to the settlement and search for survivors. Please be okay. He grabbed his rucksack and pulled the rifle from his shoulder, gripping it in his hands. Then without turning back, he ran towards the barrier. When he reached the outskirts, he could see the same shimmering wall in the air as always. It’s still operational, did someone from the reserve let them inside? He waved his hand and passed through the opening. At first glance the damage inside the barrier wasn’t as bad as he was expecting, the fire hadn’t spread to most of the houses. He made a beeline to Ray’s home. It was still intact and untouched by the fire. Milo’s shed however, was burnt to a crisp. It was only as he drew closer, he saw the three bodies lying to the side of the door.

When he saw who it was, he fell to his knees. He held his hand over his mouth and tried to hold back the urge to vomit. It was no use, pieces of sick pushed themselves through the gaps in his fingers before he gave in and bent over to let it all out. It wasn’t the first time he had seen a dead body before, but this young. It was a sight he hoped he would never see. It took Vincent several minutes before he could get to his feet and inspect further. He could barely bring himself to look without the urge to vomit returning, but he had to check their bodies. Lined up on the ground in front of him laying lifeless was Nathan, Ethan and their father Ray. Each of them had been killed by a single shot to the head, the only sign of injury. He let out an agonising shout at the top of his lungs, tears running down his face.

Who could do this? Why would anyone do this? His head spun and he couldn’t think about what to do next, then he realised. There’s no sign of Milo or Felicia. The thought pulled him together for a moment and he rushed inside the house. He searched every room. The place was a complete mess. Whoever had attacked had really turned the place over, but there was no sign of the elder children. He pulled the sheets from Ray’s bed and made his way back outside. Once there he covered their bodies. He pressed his trembling hands together, he didn’t even want to move, but he knew he had to keep on looking. Several more minutes passed before he gathered the strength to search the rest of the village. The scene from the front of Ray’s house was repeated, again and again across the village. There wasn’t a single soul left alive, but there was no sign of Milo or Felicia. The only evidence of the pair he found was one of the automatons that Milo had been working on. It had been vaporised in half. These raiders had somehow gotten their hands on some seriously dangerous weaponry.

Just as he was finishing his search a siren rang out. The chambers lighting switched to the emergency red mode. Then an announcement rang out.

“Warning, this area has been deemed unstable and is now off limits. All personnel are to evacuate immediately.”

It was a standard message and set on repeat. Vincent knew it meant there had been damage to the superstructure. It wouldn’t be long before the entire area was closed off. He was out of time, he had to leave now, or he would be trapped inside and repurposed along with everything else. He grabbed his gear and ran back towards the barrier, his legs still shaking from what he had just seen. When he reached it, the warning message suddenly changed.

“The area will be sealed automatically in ten minutes. All personnel evacuate immediately.”

How can there be that much damage? I need to get out of here now. He reached the barrier running, barely stopping to open the exit, and running as fast as he could once, he had passed through. He soon came across Sam. He hadn’t moved from the spot. Just seeing him sat there breathing almost sent Vincent into a rage. Seeing the look on his face Sam edged backwards.

“I didn’t know they were going to do that I promise!”

Hearing those words sent Vincent over the edge. He lunged forward as swung one well aimed punch. It connected hard with the side of Sam’s face. He was knocked out cold. Seeing him lay there, with his feet twitching snapped Vincent out of it. This might be partly Sam’s fault, but from the sound of things he was forced into helping them, and he needed information from him. There was no time to think things over. He swung his bag around to his front and then hauled Sam onto his back. Once he was on safely, he started jogging towards the exit. As things stood It was going to be tight making it out.

“The area will be sealed automatically in five minutes. All personnel evacuate immediately.”

Vincent picked up the pace, if they were sealed inside, they wouldn’t survive. By the time he reached the edge of the corridor there was only a minute left on the countdown. As he passed the section door, he gently laid Sam down on the floor and turned back to the reserve. He knew this was the last time he would see it looking like this, it would soon be returned to an empty chamber. There were sparks coming from the ceiling where the maintenance bots were cutting their way in from the access shaft. Even out here in the lost zones if there was damage to the ships structure they would activate. During the war the ship had sustained heavy damage. Because they hadn’t entered a solar system since then, they could only mine rogue comets and asteroids for materials. It meant that there were only enough materials for essential repairs. Central control ensured that what they considered critical areas were fully maintained, but this came at the expense of large swathes of the civilian population. This was how the lost zones were born. Despite this, when serious structural damage was detected, the maintenance bots were automatically sent to the area, just like now. It was a process even the captain couldn’t shut down.

As Vincent watched on a section of the ceiling fell to the ground, there was a loud boom as it hit the floor. It was followed by one maintenance bot after another. Once inside the modular units begun to connect, steadily forming one gigantic construction machine. It was this machine’s job to repair the structural damage and repurpose all the material left inside the massive chamber. The door begun to close as he watched on. As the door clanked shut there was coughing coming from behind him. He turned to see Sam was coming to. Sam opened his eyes and seeing Vincent standing close by begun to panic, trying to get to his feet.

“Relax, I’m not going to hurt you. I lost it back there and well, I’m sorry I hit you like that.”

“I-I’m sor…”

“Let’s not talk about that for now…” Vincent said gruffly, sitting down and leaning against the wall.

He rummaged inside his bag and pulled out a couple of ration packs.

“Here, you hungry?” Asked Vincent.

Sam looked at the packet cautiously.

“It’s just food.” Vincent said reassuringly.

“Thanks.” Sam said while taking one of the packets from Vincent.

“Are you able to walk?”

“I think so.”

“Good, that’ll be a big help.”

“What are you planning to do?”

“Take you somewhere nearby to get patched up. There’s a medical bay that was still operational the last time I passed a couple of levels up from here.”

“You’re going to help me?”

“Yes, I can’t have you dying on me.”

“But…”

“How about you tell me about your family?”

 “My family?” Sam answered surprised.

“Yes… Give me another reason to keep you alive.”

Vincent was still seething. It was a struggle just to keep his emotions in check. Maybe if I can understand why he did it, I’ll stop wanting to beat his head in.

“I have a son and two daughters. My boy’s Six and the two girls are both four, they’re twins…” Sam’s lips wobbled as he struggled to hold back his tears. “I don’t know if I’ll ever see them or their mother again now.”

Vincent sighed.

“We’ll find them.”

“How?”

“You’re going to help me track down this gang.”