Welcome to our new and deadly home

What lays hidden can be shocking and deadly

It has been years since Melody had last heard from Autumn. They kept waiting to see if she would ever contact them again, and a few times even tried to reach her with no success.

It took all the strength Melody had to not break down once again, as she had when the call was dropped.

But despite this, she began to stand up on her own two feet again after a few months, hoping to help in the re-invigoration of the project's plans.

After the call from Autumn had dropped, the now thought-of as useless and waste of time first mission came back as a success, and helped to spread hope of sending a second mission to help with ensuring the planet was suitable to human needs. This success caused a swell in pride in many working on the project and caused many to work that much harder for their end goal, including Melody, who was just doing it in the hopes that Autumn was still alive to see her and welcome them to their new home.

They had even progressed to the next stages of the plan, which was to get a crew of able scientists to the planet in order to begin to set it up with electricity, and any other things humanity would need. So essentially to try to colonize Planet Lux. And she had just boarded a sleek ship, one that was to hold about a crew of 50 top experts in their fields- from engineers, to environmental scientists, to construction workers, to astrologists, to-

"-Ody? Melody? Hey snap out of it."

A snap was heard next her eardrum as her head jerked up, making it thrum.

"Hey, glad you are back. I was worried there for a second. You were pretty out of it for a while. Just standing there and stuff. You good?" Marci, a coworker who had practically taken care of her and gotten her extended leave time in order to help her get over the rather distressing transmission she had received from Autumn. Because of that time that Marci spent practically taking care of Melody, they had gotten rather close, not as close as Autumn and Melody were, but close enough to give gifts for each other's birthdays and the holidays.

"Ya, I'm good. Thanks for checking in Marci. Just thinking of the past few years, and all that we have accomplished. Man, has it really been two years since that transmission? It felt like yesterday."

Marci humphed in affirmation, as they both stepped off the ship to collect data samples from the ground, making sure that it was the perfect pH for humans to be able to grow their crops in.

Several other scientists joined them, and many others went out to collect tree samples, try to find animal samples and others went to scourer the land to see where to set up camp and where the human colony would go.

Hours went by with the tedious analyzing of samples, and with that a strange sense of being watched, like eyes peering from behind the trees, and hair raising on the back of the neck.

It reminded Melody too much of that stalker that she had to deal with when she was a ripe adult, just eighteen years of age. She shivered at the thought. That man had gotten too close for her liking, way too close.

She turned to see how Marci was doing, only to see that she had disappeared from sight, and in her place was a shattered tube with soil samples. Startled, Melody called out her name a few times, with no answer. The raising of her hair on her arms and neck increased in intensity. Her body began to shake as she made her way back to the ship, watching her environment with hawk eyes.

Once she got back, she saw only a few of her colleagues left, and the sun was setting. Something wasn't right here. All of a sudden, another one of colleagues, an engineer named John came stumbling into the clearing with an arrow stuck out of his shoulder. Everyone screamed, and it was at that moment that they became surrounded by the native people.

They screamed at them in their language, shouting things they could only guess at. It was at that moment that a trembling Melody, seeing a gap in the circle, dashed forward to escape. She tumbled on the roots, often tripping and having to pick herself back off the ground, when she crashed head first into someone's chest.

She looked up only to see-

"Autumn," she gasped.

Autumn only tilted her head and asked,"noh cna oym?" ("Who are you?")