Life on Mars

Andrea was tying her hair up in a bun when Oliver came into the room.  They two of them had been stationed here together for almost three months now, but they still hadn’t quite gotten used to each other.

Andrea Stanford, better known as Andy, was a short, plump woman who took her work extremely seriously.  She was in the army for a couple of years, earning herself a few promotions, before being recruited by NASA to train for this assignment.  They had been tasked with an important mission, to find and document evidence of life on Mars, and she wasn’t taking that mission lightly.

Oliver George, who preferred to go by Ollie, on the other hand, was a pale, lanky man of enormous stature.  He graduated at the top of his class in college while studying bioengineering, but no one would know that based on how many times he tripped over his own feet in a given day.  He had gotten a job at NASA from an internship he had when he was in his senior year, and he’d risen through the ranks until he got here. 

The two of them didn’t necessarily dislike each other, they were just extremely different people, and they had been butting heads ever since they were introduced about six months ago.

But they knew that they had to work together to get this done, and they were both determined to do so.

Their time on Mars was rather uneventful so far.  One would think that life in space would be full of adventure, but that couldn’t have been further from reality.

The two would wake up at the same time each morning, get dressed in all of their gear, go out looking for evidence of life, eventually give up when they didn’t find anything, and then return back to their station to go to bed at the same time every night.  While Andy enjoyed the stability of having such an air tight schedule, Ollie often grew restless and complained of his loneliness and of the monotony of their routine. Nevertheless, they continued to do it exactly this way again and again.

Ollie zipped his jumpsuit up to his neck and gave Andy a half smile.  “Ready?” he asked her. 

“Yup,” she said.  

The two of them grabbed their backpacks and headed out, both of them eager to finally have some real evidence to bring home.

“Do you mind?” Andy snapped as Ollie stepped on the back of her heel.

“My bad,” he muttered.  He made sure to stay a few steps behind her from them on out.

They walked in silence for a long time, constantly on the lookout for anyone- or anything- besides themselves. 

“Um…” Ollie started.  

“What?” Andy asked.  She whipped around to face him, looking all around them to see what he had seen.  But he was only looking back at her. “What?” she repeated, this time much sharper.  

“I think I left the oven on…” 

“Are you kidding me right now?”

“No…”

“Jesus Chris,” she sighed.  She rolled her eyes at the younger boy and turned back around, trying to ignore him as she continued on with her work.  

For hours, the two of them walked without saying a word to one another, and without seeing any evidence of life.  They bottled up a few samples of dirt from the planet and they were just about ready to call it a day when Ollie finally found the courage to speak up again.

“Andy?” he asked.

“Yeah?” she asked angrily, feeling that the boy was about to say something stupid again. 

“We gotta go.”

She looked up at him, but this time he wasn’t looking back.  Instead, he was looking past her. Cautiously, she turned to join his gaze.  

Then she saw them.

Dozens, maybe even hundreds, of creatures were heading towards them.  The strange things looked to be about the size and shape of humans, but they didn’t look quite like them.  Their skin was grey and almost scaly. Their eyes were burnt orange, filled with rage. And their arms and legs seemed slightly too long for their bodies. 

Ollie was frozen, shaking in place. 

“Run,” Andy instructed calmly.  She grabbed the boys arm, dragging him out of place, and they took off.

Andy’s feet pounded against the rock beneath her.  She had been running for a good ten minutes now and her lungs were starting to feel it.  The creatures behind them were relentless, never losing speed. The station was finally coming into sight, giving her a second wind.

“Where are the keys?” she demanded.

“What?” Ollie asked.

“The keys!” she shouted.

“I thought you had them!”

“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!” 

Though they had reached the station, Andy knew there was no way they’d get through the biometric security in time.  They needed they keys or they were as good as dead.  

She and Ollie bounded around the sides of the station.  Though Andy was trying desperately to think of another way in, Ollie didn’t seem as bothered as she was.  She grabbed his arm and pulled him over to a ladder on the side of the building.

The two of them grabbed onto the rungs and began to climb.  Once they got to the top, the creatures were not far behind.

“If they don’t kill you, I’m going to!” she snapped.

“Oh calm down,” he sighed.

Andy wasted no time.  She got to the latch at the top of the station and began twisting the handle.  Once it popped open, she pushed Ollie down the hole. He landed with a thud, letting out a yelp.  She climbed down after him, making sure to close and lock the latch above her.

The two of them sat on the floor for a long time, trying to catch their breath.  The only other sound was that of Ollie opening his velcro pocket. He pulled out a pair of silver keys on a hook.

“Oh,” he said simply.  “Here they are.”