The Day We Went To Mars - Sidemen Fanfiction

**Chapter 12**

Despite Josh's attempts to joke, the six men were brought back down to Earth as blood trickled steadily from his cut, arms reaching blindly as he sat up and found Simon's chest rising steadily. His head slumped against the slow rhythm, feeling Simon's own arms moving around his shuddering body. The sounds of conversation seemed distant as the pounding though his cut and down his face continued, fading into the darkness.

"Josh!" Simon called concernedly, gently shaking the older boy's limp arm before casting a glance at the rest of the crew, "What do we do now?" Vikk joined him on the floor, lying the pale figure of Josh back on the floor and cupping his forehead with a quivering hand.

"I can take care of this," he began softly, "But it's protocol that you take over Simon." He looked up to the blonde haired boy who stood with an anguished sigh, a frown infiltrating his previous expression of worry.

"Fuck protocol," he replied loudly, ignoring Ethan's gentle reassurances, "Where has protocol got us? We're completely alone in the middle of fucking nowhere and, like normal, everything's gone to shit."

"A little optimism goes a long way," Ethan commented wryly, frowning briefly at Simon's outburst, "Vikk is right. We've broken every other rule in the book; at least follow this one." The second in command continued to shake his head in exasperation before his flitting gaze rested on Josh's stormy, closed off expression. His eyes seemed to melt away and his reluctance dissipated almost instantly.

"Tobi, check our course and correct it best you can. We're going back to Earth," he ordered suddenly, his voice taking on the same tone Josh used when he was in 'commander' mode, "Vikk, look after Josh and try and get him to come round again. Harry and Ethan: you're coming with me to assess the damage to the rest of the shuttle; we need to take stock of the situation before anything else happens." There was a brief moment of silence as the four listening boys looked between each other, pleasantly surprised by Simon's leadership.

"Do I need to repeat myself?" Simon continued more sharply, raising an eyebrow towards Harry and Ethan, nodding his head towards the air lock which was, fortunately for the boys, still intact. The thought of that being damaged sent a shiver up their spines, the mere possibility of a death in the vacuum of space unwelcome along with the idea that this had been so close to reality.

Having changed quickly into the EVA suits stored in the main control room, the three members of the crew who were surveying the damage stepped into the air lock, tethering a rope to one of the handles, each of them praying that the door on the other side opening wouldn't trigger any sort of explosion. Simon stared at the countdown, slowly showing the percentage of air beginning to stabilise, only to look away and find the digits tattooed across his vision.

"What's our plan?" Harry mouthed uncertainly, unable to use the communications as they had cut out in the crash and refusing to tear his eyes from the flashing display, fingers knotted together through the thick gloves of the spacewalk suits. Ethan mirrored his doubtful expression, fixing Simon with a questioning look. The latter thought for a moment, wracking his brains for any real justification for leaving the safety of a well sealed room. There was no reason why the air lock wouldn't work going the other way but, it had crossed Simon's mind that they may have just trapped themselves on the fatal side of an already threatening situation. And, of course, he had silently though to himself, on the other side to Josh.

"We just need to assess the damage," he tried to sound less like he was making excuses as he mouthed and gesticulated a response, "If we could patch some of the damage or at least isolate the rooms that are no longer secure, we might be able to stabilise the whole ship and increase the air levels safely again." Ethan smirked to himself but declined the opportunity to make a further comment.