The Girl from Outer Space

The pod door blew open, and the young girl leapt into darkness.

Moments before, the cavern burst to life with hungry curiosity as shadowy creatures moved and scurried across the damp rocky tunnels toward the noise. Their moves were instinctual. The smell of warm sand and the hiss of a loud, screaming vessel activated the neurons in their brains to scavenge any biological mass immediately. Their new prize was fascinating, a giant hunk of metal jittering and hot from an internal mechanism, an animal by their standards. One shadow poked into a crease in its shell and was met with a high-pitched scream, which was very interesting. The creatures prodded and peeled at the object, trying to open up the dense object further, when suddenly one of them was blown back by the door.

The monsters were taken aback. Should they be worried? The biped had an unusual phenomenon that drew them in, a head full of glowing hair. It was faint, but it emitted a low crimson hue that was pleasant to look at.

Suddenly, the nest was illuminated with a bright, sparkling light. It was as if they were dragged out and thrown into the sun. They couldn't concentrate. What animal was capable of this brilliance?

Sam knew she only had a minute at best. She rushed forth and brandished a knife with her right hand while holding the flare in her left. It frightened the shadows, activating their fight or flight reaction. However, one of the arachnids chose fight, and lunged with lightning-fast speed. Sam reeled back and swung out, closing her eyes. When she opened her eyes, the knife was buried deep in the monster's face, a split-second miracle.

The arachnid tried to yank the knife out, but Sam held on for dear life, avoiding the two spindly arms that attempted to entrap her in silk. The spider towered over her, poised to use its size against her. Sam dropped the flare and punched it square between the monster's eyes. The beast was formidable, the size of a horse and just as powerful across eight limbs, but a full-powered haymaker caved its skull in and made it drop like a sack of rocks, its appendages spindling around in its death throes.

Within the teenage girl lay the strength of three men, all compacted into a dense, slender frame.

After a few more panicked blows, the knife popped out of the softened goo that was its head. The viscera disgusted the girl to her core, but the gravity of the situation leveled her. Sam could hear more of them, and when she saw the flare, it was spouting out the last of its fuel. Every faculty of her mind ran at full speed, overcoming the panic. Fight, light, spiders, tunnel, supplies, door, shield!

She took the drop pod door handle to hold it up as a makeshift shield with a cloth wrapped around her elbow to reinforce it. Her other hand held one of the two remaining flares, and in her mouth stuck out the knife. Anything left she could carry was in her pockets, all one hundred kilograms.

As soon as the first flare gave out, another spider immediately barreled at her, but a new dazzling spectacle paralyzed it long enough for a slab of metal to collide with its face like a truck. Sam pushed it against the wall and squashed it before rushing ahead. There was no time to make sure it was dead. The spiders were everywhere. Sam had two directives in mind. Try ascending as much as possible while minimizing descents, and avoid the spiders.As she stumbled up the rocky inclines, both seemed to favor her. Her ease of violence had many retreat to their smaller capillaries, and with each new direction up, her march brought her into more extensive and broader tunnels. 

However, the cave system was more lively than she thought. Through her limited vision, she caught a glimpse of bioluminescent moss, deranged fungal creatures, and insects all over the ground. On a bend, she heard a rushing sound in a corner, a water stream. She might've been in a rich underground ecosystem, but it was hard to tell because the place was also littered with cobwebs, and their impediments led the monsters to reassert their aggression, light or no light.

A spider overcame its fears and leapt at her, forcing Sam to riposte. An arm jutted her in the chest and knocked her down, but Sam, knife in jaws, caught the enemy in its eye, and a few drops of blood leaked down its cheek. That little spill caused a fierce reaction in the cave system, overwhelming the spiders to take easy meat over harder ones. They swarmed and cannibalized the wounded one, and Sam didn't stay to be seconds.

After a few minutes of running, the flare gave out, so Sam lit the last one and revitalized the cave enough for her to catch a glimmer of something on the ground. It was rusted and rickety as if made of iron, and the routes ahead had them nailed into the bedrock. A few steps later, she found an overflow track. Railroad tracks.

That was, to her, impossible. How could there be mining equipment here? It didn't matter. Once she looked up, she fell to her knees and thanked god because before her, in complete working condition, sat a fully functional, pump-powered mine cart, unmoved and unguarded. There were many questions, ones she could only dream of answering one day, but her desire to escape overtook those exciting thoughts. She secured her equipment and pushed down on the machine, propelling the machine forward.

The area seemed to be sparsely used from its appearance. Old equipment and torches could be found on the walls and evidence of digging was everywhere, but it wasn't abandoned so much that the next set of tracks hadn't been placed yet. Perhaps they only needed to enter the mine occasionally, Sam thought, but that brought immediate skepticism. The spiders would've definitely considered them a meal, but she couldn't confirm if they traveled up this far. Was this layer of the cave system safe?

Her answer came as she passed an intersection, where she made eye contact with a fox-like creature. The creature was gray and fuzzy, with a long snout and a black-tipped nose. It was also four times Sam's size. The questions answered themselves instantly.

Sam put all her energy into making the cart fly because her new predator matched her pace quickly. She could smell the bloodlust panting from its snarling mouth. This wasn't instinct. It was something between focus and hatred assaulting her senses. Sam took it back. Why did god hate her? Why was this dire fox chasing her? Did she offend it? Something tugged at her pant leg, making her look down. Two little cubs were sniffing and playing on her feet in the most adorable cuddle fight she'd ever seen.

With a mighty scream, Sam shook them off her leg one at a time. Both landed on their mother's back, bundling together like possum joeys, but the mother didn't stop. It craved Sam's death, making continuous chomps at her, briefly stopping for a moment to regain stamina before immediately catching up again, pushing Sam even further beyond her limits. One bite tore right through the supplies tied to her waist, and it would've taken her too if the bite wasn't so clean. However, it was enough for the monster to get a taste of alien potpourri. It skidded to an immediate halt, spitting out the inedibles and coughing in disgust, its wretches echoing across the underground. The chase was over and, by extension, the rails.When she hopped off the cart, the last cub on her back did so too before happily trotting back into the dark.

Twenty minutes had passed. That's how long Sam had been on this planet, and her arms were heavy, her throat dry, her chest heaving. With a moment of peace, she broke down and sobbed on the cave floor. She was so sorry. Everything she had done up to this moment, she regretted it with all of her heart. To still be alive was frankly a cruel joke. Perhaps this was punishment for her delusions.

When the time came, she picked up her makeshift shield and walked toward the light. The air heated up slowly from a damp chill to a dry wind, and the taste of sand filled her mouth. From the shadows, she emerged to find endless plateaus and desert dunes for miles. The light was so blinding she averted her gaze.

"Where the hell am I?" she asked, but she knew the answer. "This is really...Pandema."