Hello! I'd like to thank the reviewers from the last chapter, your words were very much appreciated =). I know this chapter is shorter than the other one, and in future I will try to make them a bit longer. The length is due to the fact that I haven't had much time to write, but I still wanted to get something out to the readers. Hope you enjoy!

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She sat on the biggest bolder, her feet dipping slightly into the tide as it lapped at the rock's edge. Her silver hair whipped all around her, caught up in the sea breeze. She stared out towards the ocean, the twinkling stars providing the only light around her. A sense of loss weighed heavily on her, almost crippling her with its pressure. Her eyes lingered on the gash she had sustained on her arm. She shut them, suppressing the memories, the pain that was all too fresh. But she couldn't have known...she couldn't have predicted...

The sound of footsteps broke her melancholy musings; he had come looking for her. He stepped out from the shadows, the light of the moon bouncing off his raven black hair. He came close to her, so close his breath tickled her face. He spoke, yet she couldn't make anything out. She might have answered, yet she might not have. Suddenly his lips were on hers, and it didn't matter.

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Pain. There was incredible pain. Serena groaned as the cold left her pod and each muscle was finally made to feel the strain which had been inflicted on them. However, this was more than post-cryo stiffness. She whimpered slightly as a burning sensation took her over, engulfing her senses. Suddenly, memories broke through the fog in her mind; lights, screams, quaking...

Her eyes snapped open as she darted upwards, roughly pushing the top of the pod open. Serena's scream pierced through the silence as her disbelieving eyes took in the scene before her. The shell of The Marsden had been broken and large parts of the bay were exposed. Bodies lay strewn across the floor, blood which had crusted over with time surrounding them. Cryo pods scattered the massive area, and Serena had to place a hand over her mouth to muffle the shriek of surprise when she noticed that the bodies were completely preserved, having been frozen in time. In fact, had they not been dislodged from the oxygen tanks, they might have stood a chance.

Bewildered, she noticed that her pod had been the only one left unaffected, the only thing left untouched in the sea of chaos before her. She shivered as she felt the dull burning of her ankle, she didn't understand this at all. She hated things she didn't understand. It was almost comical, all these puzzling phenomena occurring to a girl who had always prided herself on her rationality.

Shakily, she set one foot out of the pod, then the other. She stumbled, dizziness washing over her. Serena closed her eyes and exhaled slowly, she needed to get out of the passenger bay.

Slowly, she made her way towards the exit, gripping onto whatever she could while keeping her gaze trained off the bodies and debris. She didn't know what had happened, she wasn't sure she wanted to.

Once in the narrow hall, Serena searched for a sign, for anything that could indicate where the control room was. Trying to calm herself down, she had realised that common sense dictated that she would be able to find answers in that room. Serena knew the ship was no longer in space, the forest visible through the cracks in the hull confirmed it. It occurred to her that she could be absolutely anywhere, and that frightened her even more than all the gore.

After what seemed like ages of scouring the long, metal halls- all of which looking exactly the same to her- , she stumbled upon what she was looking for. Serena noted that some of the corpses remained sitting in their chairs, indicating that whatever happened did so quite suddenly.

Her heart pounding, she busied herself with finding a navigational screen that was still intact and functioning. However, it was all in vain, everything had been shattered. Tears sprung to her eyes as the reality of the situation washed over her. Serena realised that she was on a planet she knew not the name or the whereabouts of, the only other occupants of the ship were dead, and that she had no fathomable way of finding her way home. She let out a cry full of anguish as she kicked a stray piece of debris across the room.

"Careful now, don't you think this ship has sustained enough damage?", a male voice sounded from behind her.

Whirling around, Serena came face to face with a middle aged man. His hair was slightly gray, reminding Serena of her father, and he had kind, yet tired eyes. Serena noticed that he was wearing a pilot's uniform. She fixed him with a wide eyed stare, too shocked to speak. Apparently, someone else had survived the crash. Had her brain been functioning properly, she would have been relieved. Although she was still utterly screwed, at least she wasn't completely alone anymore. Still, her lips remained sealed. He spoke, "We're on Terra, circumference, O2, and wildlife scans confirm it."

This made Serena gasp, and suddenly it seemed impossible to stay silent, "E-e-earth?", she stuttered.

"That is correct. You've heard of it I presume?"

She nodded dumbly, "But...we can't stay! We need to get off this planet immediately.", she panicked.

Serena had learnt all about Earth in her history classes. Once the beacon of civilisation, the people of Earth fell prey to their own greed. In the spring of 2250, about a century before Serena's birth, the two leading forces of the planet engaged in a nuclear war, killing most of the planet and its inhabitants. It was said that those who remained had gone insane, making Earth the subject of horror stories. The entire had been condemned, ships were allowed neither on nor off it.

The man shook his head, "I'm afraid there's no saving this ship. She won't fly."

Serena swallowed hard, trying to keep herself calm despite the horrible circumstances she was being faced with, "So...what do you propose we do?"

The man set his gaze beyond Serena, out the ship's front window. Outside, all that was visible was dense forest, obscured even more by the sheet of heavy rain that was pelting down from the sky. "We need to look for some sort of civilisation.", he replied and his shaky tone betrayed his calm demeanour.

The two shared a solemn look before making their way out of The Marsden, and out into the wilderness of the long condemned planet.

XXX

"Do you believe the stories?"

The man, Hunter, as he had introduced himself to Serena, considered the young woman's question, "To some extent yes. The human mind is fragile. If you had gone through what the inhabitants of this planet have, wouldn't you go a little wrong in the head?"

Serena nodded, truth be told she was scared to death. Hunter's answer had not been at all what she was looking for. She wanted to be comforted; she wanted to be told everything would be alright. Instead, there she was, trekking through the mud, with the renewed belief that it was simply a matter of time before something jumped out of the bushes and attacked her.

Hunter cleared his throat loudly, clearly about to break the uncomfortable silence and continue with their pitiful small talk. Serena really wished he wouldn't.

"So, what was bringing you to Epson6? Not much for a young woman such as yourself to do over there, yeah, the young crowd never seemed too interested in that hunk of rock..."

At that moment, Serena thought it was quite fortunate that she was walking behind him; it would not have done well for him to have seen the scathing look she sent his way. Technically, he was all she had, and it wouldn't do to go around picking fights. It was common sense. Serena took a deep breath and tried to answer the pilot as politely she could manage.

"I was going to go visit my aunt.", she bit out and then muttered to herself, "But I guess that's been postponed."

Hunter chuckled, "Parents wanted to unload you for the summer eh?"

Another scathing glance, she'd never tell him...never.

They both stopped in their tracks. Sounds could be heard coming from what Serena guessed was a few yards away. The hope that welled inside of her was quickly quashed by the crippling fear she had of the unknown. This place wasn't civilized, the inhabitants were most likely barbarians.

Hunter turned to her, his eyes reflecting her own emotions, "I'm going to try and get us some help, you hide in the bushes."

Serena swallowed hard, and did as she was told. She was thankful; as she had no desire of facing whatever it was that was coming their way. She briefly berated herself for acting like such a coward.

She ran to some nearby bushes, ones that were big enough to conceal her, and crouched behind them. The sounds were getting louder and louder. So was the thumping of Serena's heart. Peering through the bushes, she could see Hunter standing not so far off, idling around a tree, fidgeting slightly.

The wanderers then made their appearance. Coming through a few trees to the east were 4 of the ugliest creatures Serena had ever laid eyes upon. They were men, or at least used to be. Their skin had a greenish tinge to it, and was scaled and peeling off. They wore raggedy, torn clothing made of a rough fabric. From what Serena could tell, they also had beady yellow eyes.

Hunter spoke, gesturing wildly with his hands, in case the mutated humans couldn't understand him. His voice didn't carry all the way towards Serena, but she thought she could hear him explaining their situation.

The next series of events happened quite quickly, and Serena had little time to process it all before her legs acted of their own volition and carried her away. Blades, flesh, blood...so much blood.

Trees whipped past her in a mossy green blur, her lungs burnt from lack of oxygen. She needed to run, she needed to get away. These words became her personal mantra, hissing into her brain.

As she ran, she was reminded of her dream. It was such a similar seen; the trees, the wet mud, the rain, the sense of extreme emergency... Only this time there was no mysterious witch after her, this time there was a bloody sword with her name on it. Certain death.

As she threw a quick glance behind her in order to see if she was being followed, she collided into something hard. The impact sent her sprawling onto the mossy ground. One of her hands immediately went to grip at her leg, which she suspected had pulled. Looking up, she saw the cause of her fall. Serena nearly choked.

Standing above her, hair dripping, eyes narrowed, chest heaving, was the man from her dream.

The one I...her cheeks went crimson.

Without any words, the man crouched down, and offered her a hand. Serena gratefully took it and heaved herself up.

"Are you alright?", he asked in a gruff manner. She remained took shocked to talk.

He cocked an eyebrow, fixing her with a strange look, "Are you mute or something?"

Somehow, deep within her reverie, Serena was stirred by the instant reminder that she had been running for her life. Spontaneously, she grabbed his hand and resumed her sprint. He tried to resist, yet she kept going, not faltering for a second.

He yelled out, "What the hell? Where are we going?"

To this Serena had no answer, she had no clue where to go, "We're just running! I'm pretty sure they're after me!"

He halted immediately, sending her reeling backwards into him. He didn't flinch, "Who's after you?"

Serena panted, and started rambling, "I don't know! They were...human! But not...they killed hunter! I think they saw me run away...horrible...yellow eyes! The ugliest things I've ever seen...We have to go!"

Recognition seemed to don on him, but he was cut off by a sinister voice, "Hear that boys? The girl thinks we're ugly! Kinda rude ain't it?"

Amidst her panic, Serena saw the man beside her slide into a defensive pose. She gulped as she knew what this meant, there would be a fight.

"You know I don't think it's very nice to go around talking about people that way, just because we're different doesn't mean we're all that bad. You poor friend didn't understand this, and therefore he had an unfortunate run in with my blade."

The other three behind him chuckled, "I'm afraid I'm going to have to teach you two the same lesson." He pulled out his dagger, but before he even had time to raise it in the air, the man from Serena's dream had pounced on his and disarmed him, and proceeded to dig the blade into the mutant's own chest.

Seeing what had become of their leader, the other three ran off, muttering words of revenge.

To Serena's shock she thought she heard one of them say "The witch shall hear about this..."

Her eyes wide, still trying to register what had happened, since it had all happened so fast, she looked from the mutant corpse to the man, and back again.

The man kept his eyes off her, and glued to a spot in the distance, "Anyway, if you think you're quite done trying to get yourself killed, I'll be on my way."

"Why can't I go with you? It's not like I have anywhere else to be...or anyone else to be with.", she asked tentatively, momentarily setting her shock aside. Some things were more important, like figuring out how to get off this planet.

The man let out a scoff, "I'm on a mission. There's no way I can have a silly little girl tag along, you'll just slow me down.", he bit out, cutting into her with each word.

She wanted to hit him, she wanted to lash out, yet, he had just saved her life. He was perhaps the only person she could trust in this awful place. He turned away, leaving her to stare at his retreating back for a few moments. Serena finally broke, she had had enough of this awful place, she just wanted to feel safe for a little while, and like it or not, safe was with him.

"Please! I have nowhere to go, please...", she whimpered, falling to her knees in the cold mud.

He turned around, and rushed to her quickly; slightly horrified that she had started to cry. He offered her a hand, "For now."

The first true grin she had ever given anybody spread upon her lips, "Thank you", she whispered as she gratefully took his hand.

They resumed their walk, him slightly ahead of her, headed towards wherever the man had been off to in the first place, before he had paused in order to save her life. Serena paused for a moment, "So, what's your name?".

He turned around once more, setting his cold gaze upon her, "Darien."

XXX

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