Dove Levy: Way Station

I hope he’s early.

He’s not early.

[radio static] H-hey, there’s been a problem,

When I asked him to take samples from Facility A, I didn’t mean dig up and bring back two entire bodies. He said I need to be more specific in my instructions next time.

Can’t tell if he’s teasing me or not.

We were right, though. The bodies are nearly identical now to those we’d found a few days ago. I’ll be updating my autopsy report before the communication channels open again now that cause of death is known, and I certainly won’t be eating a single thing that wasn’t dried and prepackaged back on Earth for the remainder of my stay here.

Dr. Federman seems almost cheery, which is… strange, but also a bit relaxing. His sense of humor is much drier than I’m used to, but the fact that he’s joking around at all takes a bit of the fear from me. And also makes me worry over how he’d managed alone. Sometimes the more outwardly happy someone is, the more they’re compensating. Hopefully, he fared better than I did. At least one of us needs to stay on top of the situation.

We’ll be leaving to Facility E soon on the way to the coast. Part of me is relieved to leave this place, but part of me doesn’t want to go. I don’t know if that’s because of the farm, how this building holds more of Earth than any other place on POGE, or if I just don’t want to get back in the car again, don’t want to feel like I’m going to snap at the smallest of sounds outside.

Fungus doesn’t mean there are animals, and certainly not ones large enough to hurt us.

Nothing is here with us. Nothing can be.

Dr. Eve Strauss, Research Facility E on the southern continent of Way Station, assisted by Dr. Isaac Federman. Walls are intact and the life support system is running at optimal capacity. Food storage and air supply are clean. All members of the research team were found between the 8- and 10-mile markers on the boundaries of the facility’s lighting, clustered around the eastern and southeastern side. No signs of struggle.

Examination review of Jerrell Conley, ID number 409, details in file. Full autopsy report in temporary file, pending transfer when communication channels open again. They were found standing and clothed in their walking suit 8.9 miles from the facility near a weather monitor by the eastern border in a similarly petrified state as those found in Facility B. Their right arm is broken off and their walking suit has large tears in the front and right sides of it, with many lacerations and cracks emanating from wounds below these tears along the face, torso, and right leg of the deceased.

All characteristics of petrification match those of the trees on Way Station and of the research team members of Facility B, though the damage is more extensive to those here in Facility E. Many of the bodies have more tears in their suits and lacerations on their persons than those in Facility B. About half of the research team is currently accounted for, and a third of those have missing limbs. Some bodies were so shattered we are unsure if a positive ID can be made.

Cause of death is natural and caused by the storm, which passed over the far border of the facility where the members were clustered. Their reasons for going outside are unknown, and no personnel had been inside at the time of death.

If I could go back in time, I would find myself right when I was offered this job and smack myself upside the head. Then, I wouldn’t be holding a staring contest with someone’s decapitated head right now.

This job feels much less creepy when I’m in a lab. Preferably my lab back home, but the facility ones here are fine, too, if I don’t think about how everyone else who’d set foot in them is now on the examination table. In a lab, it’s all work and routine and they’re just bodies, inanimate things, that I have to remind myself to respect because they used to be like me.

I thought it was a rock when I first stepped on it. Ugh.

What I’m sitting on right now is a rock, though. An actual rock. I made sure.

This would be easier with Dr. Federman nearby. He’s still trying to be cheerful, and I’m grateful for it, especially when we’re out here in between the mile-marker lampposts with only our handheld lanterns to try and find the rest of the bodies. But he’s a few miles away now, searching another part of the land. Splitting up is faster. There are still sixteen bodies unaccounted for, and we’ve been out here all day, combing as much of the eastern and southeastern edges of the facility boundaries as is reasonable to expect for two individuals with tiny lanterns and a time limit. I don’t know if it’s even possible to find everyone. Some of these bodies were shattered like ceramic pots, without any indication of how many individuals some piles hold.

At least this one wasn’t grinning when they died. That would have been too cruel for me.

The walking suit’s helmet is a few feet away from where I’m sitting, spiderweb cracks covering it and blood around the collar where it should have attached to the rest of the suit, but I can’t find that suit anywhere nearby. I’m picturing the grisly scene of this head being tossed about like the rest of the debris in the storm, coming to rest here with its future only consisting of being stepped on and then being the sole witness to my shrieking when I did.

Despite the lack of vegetation, the quiet of Facility B was still pretty, compared to the complete desolation here. There’s nothing for miles around, not even a bit of the underfoot greenery that seemed to serve a similar purpose as grass does back on Earth. No canyons, because this is one of the least tectonically active areas on POGE, and no shrubbery or mountains or anything but human equipment to give character to the land.

Still, even if it was the most beautiful place on POGE, I can’t stop myself from thinking of the drive from C to A, or the drive here. This job wasn’t supposed to be fun, I know that. But we also weren’t supposed to be reduced to shaking, inconsolable, terrified messes any more than once or twice. It really puts a damper on the whole experience.

Dr. Federman is almost as jumpy as I am now, and that’s a sure sign of a problem. His jokes grew forced after we’d finished in C and started on our way here. At least he hasn’t expressed fear over monsters out in the woods. I still feel silly for that.

There are a lot of caverns in this area, with drilling equipment stationed every half mile or so around the facility all the way out to the borders. Facility E was meant to study the composition of POGE’s crust and, eventually, interior, which is why it was built in such a barren place.

The scientists and engineers were at the tops of their fields, but I keep worrying that something will collapse under me and I’ll be the next body Dr. Federman examines. The holes around the drills are enormous, too, and sometimes it’s hard to tell whether something is land or emptiness when I don’t shine the light directly onto it. I should move faster, try to get as much ground covered as I can, but if I trip just once on the rubble littering this place…

We’ve decided to avoid the outermost edges. There are three bodies we’ve seen out there, but that’s where the storm hit the hardest according to what data survived the battered weather monitors farther out. Supports of the caverns below are likely compromised and can — will — send us tumbling to our deaths should we step in the wrong place. Even without that risk, the debris kicked up by the storm includes shredded drilling machinery meant to cut through rock the density of diamonds. Nobody wants that falling on them.