Husk
Pain, there is only Pain; the only thing there ever is, pain. Life begins with pain and ends with pain and there is always pain between.
So why then take that extra risk that will evidently cause more pain.
Hope.
Hope can momentarily drive pain away. This is why the risk is taken; hope of a better life.
But this hope was a lie that lied through its ever snarling teeth. This hope caused the pain.
Hope prevailed in the beginning through giving it a starting chance. Then it started to dwindle away abandoning those who risked this slight chance; letting the pain slip through like sand.
Then hope turned to doubt; the doubt of survival, the doubt of a better life.
Doubt just leads to more pain.
The attack was swift and almost quiet if it weren't for the screams. You think the pain of death is bad but the pain of living on this colony is worse.
Not alive but not living is the worse pain of all. It's a constant pain that nothing, not even hope, can hope to quench.
No thought of one's own, no movement of one's own. The wish to shout out and end it there and now is great.
A low rumble that echoes off of the rocks not too far away could it be the chance of death never so close. Spike that has lifted is now on the ground and with a spark animates the body once mine.
A rescue, may be a chance; hope comes to the table again. But guns, but bullets; now doubts turn to play. Firing at us couldn't there be another way? Run away, run away, but these thoughts won't go that way. Ground, sweet ground, be a pillow to ease the pain.