Astronomicon 1: Inception Point (Finished)

40 - Melissa

"You think she's possessed or something?"

Now, standing beside the flatbed buggy, they could only see Melissa from the middle up. She did not look in Chris's direction, but chose instead to slide down the side of the buggy behind her and sit on the ground. Chris reached for the rucksack in the footwell.

"Something's wrong. It's like she's been drugged or something, but I know nothing which explains her eyes. I don't see how she could have come into contact with something poisonous. There's no plant life, no venomous animals or poisonous insects. Even if one of us is responsible for this, what have we done to her?"

"I haven't seen anyone do anything suspicious," Lucy replied in a low voice.

"I've never heard of a chemical which can do that to someone's eyes. I'm going to give her this bottle of water, but I think someone should watch her at all times."

"Should we say anything to her about this?" she asked.

"No, not yet." He unscrewed the cap of the bottle as he set off back towards Melissa.

Lucy did not follow him.

He found Melissa, as he expected, sitting on the grey gravel. Her hands stroked the ground on either side of her, but she stared blankly ahead. Kate gave him a puzzled look and nodded towards Melissa. Chris looked more closely but did not know what she was getting at.

Melissa continued to run her fingertips through the gravel, occasionally stopping to pick up an individual piece before discarding it. He watched her pick up several more pieces before she found one which interested her. He expected her to look at it but, instead, she moved it directly to her mouth and dabbed it gently with the tip of her tongue. Like her eyes, that was similarly off-colour.

He was about to speak to her again when her tongue darted back into her mouth taking the pebble with it. Her mouth closed and her fingers went back to sifting the gravel as before. Now he did not know what to say. He gestured to Kate to follow him while doing a shushing gesture to stop her saying anything. Next, he quietly returned to Lucy's position beside the flatbed buggy.

After waiting for Kate to arrive beside him, he whispered, "I think we need to decide right now. Melissa isn't Melissa anymore. I don't know why or what we can do about that, but I'm not happy taking her back to the Command Module like she is now.

"So, what do we do with her?" Lucy asked.

"That's what we've got to decide," he shrugged. "I'm not even sure what our options are."

"We can't just leave her here!" said Kate.

"I've never seen anyone looking like she does, and I don't know if she's a danger to the rest of us," Chris replied. "Right now, she's sitting there eating rocks and I don't know what that means."

"If it isn't poison or some sort of contamination, and we're ruling out venomous creatures, what's left?" Lucy asked.

"Well, I'm not about to go with your possession theory," he replied.

"There is another possibility..." she started.

"The mushrooms?" he finished the sentence for her. "You think they may be toxic?"

"Melissa spent more time near them than everyone else, and she had her gloves off. There's nothing else alive on this planet."

"Just us and the mushrooms? Could be. Her eyes are about the same colour as them."

"Do you think she's contagious?" Kate asked.

"If she picked up something from those mushrooms, she could be. Who knows?" he replied. "If it's an infection, any of us could be infected too. We must assume that she's contagious."

"We don't have any way of isolating her, do we?"

"Put her in an E.V.A. suit? I don't fancy trying that," he replied. "If she's contagious, I don't see how we could do that without spreading it anyway."

"What's our alternative?" Lucy asked.

"Putting her in a suit means transporting her back to the Command Module. I don't think that's safe, and I don't believe we'd get her into one. Can we leave her behind?"

"Seems harsh," Lucy replied, shaking her head. "But if it's that or take her back to the others..."

"Can you shoot her?" Kate asked in an even lower whisper.

"We're not going there – not again!" Lucy replied, forgetting to whisper.

"So, it comes down to take her with us OR leave her here," said Chris.

"I don't like either," Kate sighed.

"What are you three plotting about?" interrupted Fletcher, peering over Lucy's shoulder.

Chris briefly explained the situation and Fletcher immediately looked relieved.

"Commander, she's not right. Those eyes? They creep me out, sir. It's not natural!"

"Do I take it you'd vote against taking her back with us?" Chris asked.

"Aye. If it was up to me, sir, I'd shove her in the crevasse and get out of here," Fletcher shivered slightly as he spoke, then coughed quietly.

"I won't do that, but does anyone object to leaving her here?"

"To starve?" Kate protested.

"There's plenty of gravel for her to eat," he replied wryly.

She punched his arm. "That's not funny!"

"No, no. it's not," he agreed, rubbing the bruise. "I don't see we have any choice but to leave her behind."

"And then what?" pushed Kate.

"To be honest, I don't know," he sighed.

"Are we leaving her to die?"

"I don't think she's still herself anyway. Look!" he said, then turned towards Melissa and casually called her name.

Melissa did not react.

"I can't bear the thought of just leaving her on her own," said Kate.

"Does anyone want to share a buggy with her?" Chris asked.

"Not me," Fletcher replied.

"Not if she might be contagious!" added Lucy.

"And if she is, I don't want her going anywhere near the Command Module. So, we leave her. The only alternative is to kill her here before we leave."

"Fine," Kate replied grumpily. "I just want it noted that I did not agree to this."

"Noted," Chris replied. "Let's get back into the buggies. I'll shout 'go' so we can all drive off at the same time."

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