His feet can only carry him so fast and he feels like he's about to fall – the momentum too quick for his legs, unaccustomed to all of the running – and he does so with a breathless grunt, hitting the moist soil with a thud before flipping himself onto his backside, eyes surveying the terrain around him. Henry just wants to go home. He isn't even sure how they arrived on this planet, but he was certain that he would give anything to be back on the ship, heading for the mining colony. He'd rather be digging for a source of energy on K4-230-1 than stuck on this place.

Bringing himself back to his feet, he listens to the soft wind that flows through the trees. There's one sound in particular he's listening for. He hasn't heard it in a few hours, but he also hasn't stopped running. His lungs burn and he closes his eyes and presses a hand to his chest, wondering if this was what a heart attack felt like. His old man had gone out with one and he'd been warned that his dinners and beer would bring one on for him one day.

It always gave him a laugh.

"Rather go out on a good steak than on a bowl of rabbit chow!"

Now it didn't seem so funny.

He'd been lucky enough to survive the crash. Four others didn't and the beasts that set upon them the first night, devouring them where they lay, still strapped to their seats, weren't anything to be trifled with. They howled through the darkness, calling one another to a new meal and Henry always feared the howls would be close enough that he would understand the meal would be him.

"Henry?"

The voice that called out quietly belonged to Mariel and he involuntarily smiled before he turned to see her rushing towards him, long crimson hair flowing behind her like a curtain of fall leaves. They embraced, something they'd never thought of doing in the months they'd worked the mining shafts together – but it was welcome now, knowing they were both still alive.

"What happened?" Henry asked, rubbing the sweat off his thick neck. "Last I saw, you'd gone into the forest with Benny and Jupe… what happened?" He repeated.

She shook her head and her eyes were instantly wet with unshed tears. "They got Jupe first night, tore him right out of our camp. Benny broke his leg not long after, he begged me to leave him behind," her lips trembled as she shook her head, "God, Henry, I just left in there to die."

"He was as good as dead and he knew it," Henry assured her sadly. It was the only comfort he could offer before a long note pierced the air and they both turned towards it, blood cold in their veins.

They ran together then and Henry probably knew it was better that she not know what happened to the others – the ones that had been left with him. It was pure luck that he'd been the one to survive. Plenty of others much more fit than himself. He operated the lift, for Christ's sake. Did a few observations on the surface. No heavy work, nothing that would keep him in shape aside from the walks about to check the equipment and do head counts. But he'd been better at hiding.

Funny what it comes to in the end.

Henry looked forward to Mariel, watching her as she occasionally turned to make sure he was still at her heel and he slowed, shouting out, "Ship shouldn't be far from here Mari – if you get there, lock yourself in, work out a way to send out a distress signal. There's gotta be some power left in that old boat. Tell 'em to blow this rock out of the sky."

It'd be his last farewell, his only good deed, and he could see by her bloodshot eyes that she understood. Beautiful woman with the brightest red hair, he thought to himself as he stopped running and grasped his knees with his palms, regaining his breath just in time to straighten and see the last wisps of hair disappear over a ridge. She'd been the first person he met on the job. The only one to shake his hand and meet his eye like an equal and not like he was the portly one they'd have to carry on their backs.

"Don't let the bloke's get to you, Henry – they're good folk, just need warmin' up to is all."

Perpetually hopeful. It was why he enjoyed calling her Mari. Reminded him of her merriness; the cheerful laughter at the dinner table and the soft voice that sang out late at night when they readied themselves for bed on the ship. They were long nights the last few, and he often wondered if it'd been better if they'd stayed in Cryo the last leg of the journey instead of waking. If they'd been in Cryo, they would all have perished in the crash – that was the part of the ship that was destroyed on impact.

"Jeremiah was a bullfrog," Henry sings out loudly horribly. "Was a good friend of mine." He raises his arms at his sides and closes his eyes to the sky, hearing the sound of feet padding over the foliage. "Never understood a single word he said, but I helped him drink his wine!"

He laughs to himself at the incredibly old song his grandfather used to sing to him and then looks out over the land, seeing the glowing yellow of their eyes as they slow to come near him. Henry feels his upper lip trembling with anger as his eyes spill over onto his cheeks, wetting them with the finality of the moment. They approach even slower, infuriating him, because he wants it to be over quickly. It would be vicious and it would be painful, but it would be over.

"COME ON!" He bellows, the words echoing through the trees. "Come on and get me," he adds in a whisper.

The overgrown wolves have ragged hair in greys and browns and long sharp teeth and they growl, pacing around one another until the first one leaps and lands on his chest with a rough thud that jars his heart. His shouts, increasingly pained and then silent, make their way over the dense forest and find Mariel's ears in a wave of sorrow that causes her to stumble. She hits the side of their ship with a deafening clang as parts of her suit collide with the metal and for a moment she's still, sobbing against the hull.

But there isn't time to mourn, there's barely time to gather herself and get inside the ship before she hears them rushing towards her. She imagines that there are a few packs out there, enough to split up and still take on two groups of adults and still more to create a state of panic as they snap twigs with the pads of their feet and growl menacingly from various directions.

Like a game.

Mariel works to bind wires together and she manages to get a small light flickering on the dashboard, just enough to tap out a message. She doesn't know the energy isn't enough to get it out of the planet's atmosphere. And she doesn't know there's a gash in the ship, just big enough for them to slip in, and they pull her away from the station with powerful jaws that clamp at her waist and eventually her neck. At least it…

There comes a screaming through the trees, something foreign, muttering half words and mumbles. The tall muddied beings that slide down over the hill with their furs and hunched bodies would blend in with their surroundings if they hadn't moved. But there's nothing to hide from now. They smoothly come to a stop just beside the ship and growl at the dogs before taking in the woman lying dead on the ground. They eye one another and go silent before creeping noiselessly back into the fog.