Creator1

The crew was now well into their work, chipping away at the surface and collecting pieces of minerals that will later be refined. Their equipment made no noise and pieces lightly floated up as the tools did their work, they’d slowly descend back to the ground after they made their way past the workers. There were lights set up by each of the miners, illuminating their individual space they were working. Like personal spotlights, the lamps made perfect circles around the workers and their small domain, Tracy looked out at all of them, satisfied with their pace, she continued focusing on her drill.

‘How about music?’ George huffed.

‘Yes please! Holy shit, the silence was killing me!’ Maddie chimed in.

‘Alright, enjoy.’ George smirked.

‘I don’t like how you said that, George.’ Dillon said. The speakers on their suits crackled with static briefly, then the music began. Starting with a soft trill of a snare drum, accompanied by warm, rolling piano chords setting a mellow and inviting tone. A smooth electric guitar subtly joins with it’s gentle rhythmic strums, somehow a saxophone interjects nicely.

‘Times are hard, you’re a afraid to pay the fee, so you find yourself somebody who can do the job for free.’ The soft gentle voice begins.

‘Ah dude! No!’ Soren groaned,

‘Yeah come on man, just because you’ve been working for the company since 1970 doesn’t mean we all have.’

‘I’m a fool to do your dirty work, oh yeah!’

‘That’s fuckin’ it, I’m not working to this song.’ Dillon said throwing his tools to the ground, they lightly bounced.

George smiled and turned back to his work, drilling happily to the song.

‘You can always turn your headset off.’ George suggested.

‘No, we can’t. You all know I got my ass reamed last time.’ Tracy interjected.

‘Listen Tracy, nobody on this team thought you were wrong, that dude was a mouth breathing shitbag, you had to turn your headset off. Can’t listen to Darth Vader all shift.’ George said.

‘I don’t wanna do your dirty work, no more!’

‘Okay, seriously are we not going to change it?’ Soren pleaded, annoyed.

‘Please change it George.’ Tracy said, George hesitated.

‘George.’

‘All right! I’ll change it! This one’s for the whole crew, and then I’m only holding my tools, I’m not changing it again.’

All the crew began to continue to work, even Dillon. The music began again, this time several strums on the acoustic guitar.

‘I’ve never even seen a guitar.’ Tracy thought. She wondered if hearing a real guitar in person who have a much more profound effect than the recording.

‘Well, I’m a-running down the road tryna loosen my load, I got seven women on my mind.’ The singer begins.

‘George, I think you miss the point, this is old guy music, like eight generations old!’

‘I’m not changing it Soren! Listen to the Eagles, maybe you should take their advice.’

‘What even is a Eagles, George!?’

‘Lighten up while you still can, don’t even try to understand,’ the speakers preached.

‘Oh stop!’ Maddie laughed over the song.

‘And take it eeeeasy.’

Dillon was remaining silent, he had switched off his headset, annoyed by the music, and continued drilling. He was chiseling away at the wall of rock when a large chunk fell quickly to the ground, creating a dust cloud.

‘What the hell?’

He leaned into the rock examining it closer, he poked at the large piece of rock that had just fallen, it was from the ground up to his collar bone. He’d never seen a rock, even that big fall so quickly on an asteroid. He pressed his drill against it, pressed his weight against it and began to break minerals off. Instantly, he slipped, slamming into the rock, and he pressed off it, he felt it shift, smaller rocks slowly tumbled down. His helmet light shown deeper into the rock, and it appeared as if it moved, just slightly. His heart began to thump as he scrambled to turn his head set back on. The song had changed again.

‘Hey! Hey, umm, Hey Tracy, can you come in please.’

‘Dillon, just deal with the music, for real, okay?’

‘Ah you may want to come take a look at this.’ Dillon said, there was no answer, Tracy was likely putting her tools down.

‘I’m pretty sure the rock just moved.’

‘Well yeah, you probably crumbled the larger rock’s support.’ Tracy said, stopping her approach.

‘Nah, I think it’s still moving. Very slowly, this is fuckin’ bizarre.’ Dillon continued. Tracy froze, confused.

‘Dillon, have you been huffing fumes in the chemical closet?’

‘I’m not messing with anyone.’ Dillon had not an ounce of disingenuity in his voice.

He again pressed his drill against the rock and started getting samples off the outer most part of the rock.

‘Daydream! I fell asleep amid the flowers, for a couple of hours, on this beautiful day.’ The music blared.

Dillon slipped again, falling to the ground this time. In front of him was a giant, emerald green mucus covered ball. The green ball disappeared then reemerged. Dillon could see clearly now that this was an eyeball, about the size of his helmet. He scrambled his whole body backwards, spreading several feet between him and the creature.

‘Holy shit you guys!’ Dillon shouted.

‘You’re swinging from a chandelier.’

Just then, the huge rock he’d been drilling lifted up high above his head. Dillon screamed, and then was smashed by the rock. His body completely separated in two, his bottom half completely flattened to the asteroid, with the exception of his feet, which stood pointing straight up, giving the effect of a bone dry, squeezed, tube of toothpaste. His torso was flung into the never ending blackness as the rock raised itself to smash no-longer-Dillon’s legs again. The beast that had destroyed Dillon had revealed itself to the crew, it had the appearance of a horsehair crab, but the crew wouldn’t know what that was.

Everyone stopped what they were doing to observe, stunned, they all froze. The Asteroid crab flung its mighty arm, sending Dillon’s lamp flying toward Maddie.

‘Get to the Rover!’ Soren shouted, starting to run.

‘No, hide! Get out of the light!’ Tracy shouted. She quickly darted out of the light she was in, turning off the lights on her suit. It was freezing out of the light, she saw Maddie do the same, but Tracy could see her suit lights still.

‘Maddie, turn your suit off.’

The rest of the crew remained in the shadows.

‘George, are you alright?’

‘I’m hear boss, just going to hunker under where I was drilling.’ He hid under a large rock, a risky move given that the rocks may be crabs. Soren reappeared at Maddie’s lamp, he was making his way to the rover, slowly trudging, trying not to bounce to move quickly..

‘Soren what are you doing, get out of the light!’

‘Are you fucking kidding me!? Did you see that thing! I’m getting to that rover and I’m heading back to base camp.’ There was significantly more light near the rover, up the hill from the cave they had entered, they could all see it, just out of sight. Tracy knew now what had happened to those who input the previous entries. Tracy sat in the cold darkness and thought about something Dillon recently said, ‘What the fuck do they know? They’re builders.’

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