The humidity in the air was stifling, but we still ran. My breathing was getting harder due to the armor, and weapons that I had strapped to my back, but I still pushed forward with everything I had left. I could feel the soft sand shift under each of my steps, as I heard the roll of soil from the monster that chased us, as it made its closed in for the kill.

Just three hundred more yards.

Two.

I felt like my heart was going to explode then, under that damn moon, on that accursed planet.

Only one hundred more.

"CHOLE! COME ON!"

I kept my eyes ahead, as I saw a fellow soldier, my best friend, turn her head slightly back and wave me forward. She raised her Stiletto class pistol and fired two shots behind me, to that monster that was closing in on us.

Grunting, I kept forward. I didn't look back like she did, oh no. I couldn't.

Only fifty more yards to the drop shuttle that was hovering over the ground, not daring to touch it.

Then, just when I thought I could hope, I felt it's slimy tongue twist itself around my ankle and start to pull me under.