Chapter 2
Sol 19
Beep. Beep. Beep. "Oxygen level critical." Beep. Beep. Beep. "Oxygen level critical."
Titus let out a groan and opened his eyes. He found that he was half covered in Mars dirt. He slowly sat up, the dirt falling off of his upper half. He pulled his legs out of the dirt and stood up. He moved to take a step, but he felt immense pain in his shoulder. He let out a cry. He looked down to see the communication antenna was stabbed into him and the wire to the satellite dish was still connected.
"That smarts." He grumbled.
Titus took a knife out of his pocket and cut the wire. He put the knife away, realizing that the suit was still beeping at him. He pressed a button on the space suit controls and the beeping stopped.
He began trekking towards the Hab, holding his shoulder. He reached the Hab, but before he went in he noticed the silence. He looked around. Where was the Hermes?
"No." Titus said. "They didn't." The Hermes was nowhere to be seen. "They didn't." His voice rose with fear of being alone on Mars. "T-they left me here to die."
He slowly opened the main Hab door and stepped, inside losing it behind him. Air began pouring in from vents on the wall.
"Pressure stable."
Titus pulled the next door opened and entered the main area of the Hab, closing the door behind him. He quickly took off his space suit helmet and put it on one of the desks in the room. Then he took off the rest of the space suit to reveal a one piece blue uniform. He took it off from the top down to his waist and sat down in a chair, where a few items sat on the desk.
*X*Meanwhile on Earth*X*
"The mission Ares 10 was canceled, due to a horrible storm." Charles Bolden announced to the world, glancing at the live feed cameras. He looked back towards the small audience before him. "Thanks to the actions of Commander Ellie Hethman, astronauts James Hulton, Trevor Deems, Anna Blythe, and Marcus Rodier safely launched back into space. However, one astronaut was struck by the Hab communications satellite dish and killed. That astronaut was Titus Jensen, the crew's chemist."
There were gasps from the audience.
*X*Back on Mars*X*
Titus gulped, hoping he wouldn't kill himself in the process of what he was about to do. He pulled on the antenna, crying out in pain. He heard it clatter to the floor as his hand flew to his left shoulder. He could feel more metal in it. Two or three small pieces of it. He grabbed a pair of pliers from the desk and put it in the wound to hold it open. Then he grabbed a pair of tweezers and inserted it into the wound.
He worked carefully as he felt around with the tweezers. He heard it hit a piece of the metal. He glanced at the wound and positioned the tweezers correctly before pulling the bloody metal out and laying it on the desk. He repeated the process until all of the metal was out. Then he tossed the tweezers onto the desk and leaned back, breathing heavily with pain.
Titus stayed that way for several minutes. He grabbed a towel and pressed it to the bleeding wound for a moment. Then he put it down and grabbed a stapler. He pressed the stapler to the wound and pressed it down. He let out a gasp of pain as the staple hit his flesh. He put two more staples in before putting the stapler down.
He wiped away the blood and put the rest of the blue uniform back on. He cleaned up and leaned back to relax for a little while.
Titus moved to another desk and moved through video clips on the Hab cam. They were all made by Mark Watney, the previous person alone on Mars. He found one that explained how to grow potatoes.
"That's just disgusting." He muttered once he had watched it. "That's tomorrow's work."
