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Wolf knew that joining this team was going to be a risk. Operating a station on a remote planet, only the eight of them, for months, with high chances of corruption. But Wolf wanted to go, wanted to see more of the galaxy, and Centross said it would be fine. That he would be waiting for Wolf when they got back.
And now, in the middle of the assignment, as food was just starting to run low, as the end was always just out of sight, Athena snapped.
Athena’s small. Athena can barely hold a sword properly. Athena has destruction powers capable of obliterating the entire docking system. They all watch him do it, laughing, the eight of them standing in a small circle. Wolf doesn’t let the dust settle before he’s gone, running down into Electrical.
Adrenaline is flooding their system, but they try to breath through it, clear his head. They know that in order to survive, they need to have a clear head. So he breathes through the panic, and lets autopilot take over.
The station’s on its last legs on the best of days, which today is not. There’s only emergency lights on, casting everything into shadows, and every so often an alarm will blare from a distant part of the station.
It’s been silent in the maintenance sector. Wolf’s fixed a set of sparking wires, looked at the tree, and sent the trash down in a chute. They’re just trying to keep the station running, to stay alive long enough until…he doesn’t even know.
He’s in O2, filling canisters, when Rae walks in.
“Hello,” he says, giving Wolf a hug.
“It’s good to see you alive,” Wolf says.
“You too. Haley got a message out.” Rae starts filling his canisters. “There’s reinforcements coming, with an antidote for Athena.”
“So we only have to survive until then,” Wolf says, and Rae nods. “Alright. See you around,” they say, then try to get up to Laboratory as quietly as possible.
As they’re heading up to lab, it’s almost like everything is normal. They see Haley and Sherbert, and then even walk though lab with Easton. But instead of talking, everyone just rushes past or there’s tense silence. The tension, the fear in the air, settles next to Wolf’s bones and makes his skin crawl.
He’s up in lab, having just put his samples in to incubate, when Athena walks in. He immediately crouches into the shadows, moving across the opposite wall, then sprinting past them, watching as she starts to turn, to look after him, but he’s already gone.
Easton’s bloody body is outside laboratory. Wolf thanks the gods it’s not Rae’s.
They hide in the snow behind the weapons building. Through the window, they can see Sherbert, barely. It’s fine. He only has to run, to hide, for a few more hours, only has to survive.
He’s done this before. They’ve ran and hid from people looking to kill. The feeling of moving silently, of running along walls, of stopping at doors and looking for people, it all settles into his body as easy as breathing, right along with the fear that comes with it. They don’t know whether they should be concerned about that or not.
But they can’t think about that for long, because Athena appears at the corner of his vision.
Wolf runs.
His feet pad against the ground, his breath clouds the air, their heartbeat sounds heavy in his ears. They sprint through the office, past Ven’s body, Athena’s laughter ringing in his ears. But Wolf is taller, they are faster, and he hides up in the corner of Laboratory, watching as Athena turns towards Storage.
He goes into lab, finishing his tasks for today as alarms blare in the background. It seems trivial, unnecessary, logging unusual samples while one of his former friends is trying to kill them all. But now all he has to do is stay alive, stay hidden, until reinforcements come. He creeps through Specimen, past Caspian’s body, which seems to be wet with more than just blood.
When they emerge from Specimen, Athena is walking through the hallway by the office. She turns just in time to make eye contact with him, and for a second, time stretches.
It snaps back like a rubber band, and Wolf is already on the move, trying to back into the already closed Specimen doors.
“It’s ok, Wolf,” Athena says, their voice sweet as ever. “You’re Rae’s friend. I’ll go kill Sherbert first.” Wolf’s voice seems stuck in his throat, and he can only nod as Athena moves on.
They stand there, frozen, watching the DVD player that somehow still has enough power go around and around until his brain logs back online again.
They find Sherbert’s body next to the lava dock. Wolf hasn’t seen anyone alive other than Athena in a few hours, and honestly doesn’t know if that is a good or bad thing. He just sits on the dock, petting Carpet, who’s been running after them for all of this. He hopes Centross likes Carpet. He hopes he’ll actually be able to see Centross again.
It’s nice and quiet, by the lava. The alarms are far enough away that it’s quiet enough to hear the rumbling of a ship entering the atmosphere and making a bee line for the ruined docking station, then turning and heading for the docking station by Wolf.
The ship lands in a cloud of dust that Wolf doesn’t squirt through, doesn’t dare close his eyes against. He needs to watch every second of this, too see that it is real, to know that they are actually going home.
The ship doesn’t disappear, doesn’t fly away, just lowers its door. Out of it bursts a squadron of soldiers, who start combing the area and collecting the bodies. One of them comes up to Wolf, guiding him up to the ship, asking them questions Wolf can barely answer.
But before they can even get on the ship, Centross appears in the doorway, pushing past soldiers and many more official-looking people, and Wolf is running.
“You’re alive,” Centross says, holding onto Wolf like if he let them go they would disappear.
“I’m alive,” Wolf says, holding on just as tightly. Later, there would be tears. Later, there would be mourning for all of the friends they lost here. But now, the only thing that Wolf can think is that Centross is here, that he is alive, and that they are going home.