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Chapter 61

Chapter 61

February 3rd, 2158 (station time)

Five hours passed for Josh and Logan faster than it should have. With the thick fog and darkness of night, it was easy to forget that they were on the run for their lives. Occasionally, they would be brought back to reality when they heard bursts of fire from Mike's mini gun. A few times, they believed they also heard Nassor shooting from somewhere off to the west. But most notable was the loud bellow of the goliath's.

The goliath's call rang out like a deep foghorn. A resonating base note that one could feel deep in their heart. It was hard to determine how far away the calls were coming from, but more than once the sound came from a location too close for comfort.

The first hour of the trek was tedious and hard. The two had to walk down the steep slope of the mountain. However, once they reached the foothills the trip became much easier. With lighter gravity than on Earth, the two were able to move faster than both expected and easily made up for the lost time.

Logan and Josh made it to the extraction area with over twenty minutes of spare time. Instead of heading directly to where they thought the tunnel would open, they stayed at its perimeter.

They took cover in a patch of shrubs that were a meter tall, tall enough to sit upright and still have cover. The area where they believed the tunnel would open was a about two kilometers away from their hiding spot. The land there had no cover, no large rocks and no bushes to hide their tired bodies. The area was exposed.

As Logan's body began to relax, he realized that it would be difficult for him to get up and move. There were only a few things that would get him to move from his current resting position. The first is the tunnel opening. Second, well the second thing involved goliaths, and he didn't want to think too much on that.

"Is it just me," Josh asked, "or does it feel like we have been on this planet longer than just a few days?"

Logan laughed, "At least a few weeks."

"I can't wait to take a bath," Josh reminisced. "Yeah, a bath with enough water to submerge my entire body. Hot enough to turn my skin bright red." Josh turned to Logan, "and what about you? What is the first thing you want to do when you get back?"

Logan thought for a moment, and couldn't decide what he wanted to do first. His mind was sluggish and not working the way he wanted. Then he knew why his mind was so muddled. "Sleep, I might sleep for two or maybe three days."

"Sleep," Josh declared with a smile, "I think I use to know what that was."

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The way that the young security guard looked as Jean bothered him. For the past several days he hadn't had any problems walking around the station. To be noticed this morning, of all mornings.

Jean took another turn and stopped in a hallway much like all the other hallways on the station. However, this point in the station was unique because there was less than a meter between the start of the wall, and open space. It also helped that this hallway was far from any of the security checkpoints, and not often traveled.

Jean leaned against the wall and waited. Three minutes passed without another person walking down the hallway. The last thing he wanted was for that young guard to investigate, and his plans would have to change drastically.

Jean slipped the pack off of his back and sat it on the ground against the wall. The first thing he took out was the zero g safety belt. It only took a short minute to put on. He played with the straps a little longer before giving up on tightening it any further.