Sunday - October 19th, 2121:

  With every step north, I felt a skin-crawling, toe-curling terror penetrate my suit. The howling wind battered against me, and the unprovoked yowling of beasts stirred my sanity, but what could I do but continue trudging along? Around me, the minute flora writhed like sentient beings dancing in the wind. Their violet-dyed green hues were alien to my concept of normalcy from my days on Earth, hiking the green pastures of old.

  Curiosity beset me, and I reached down, brushing my gloved hand across the blanket of grass. The flora reacted to my touch, subtly vibrating in a twisted frequency that pierced my suit's outer defenses and tickled my flesh.

  It was an insignificant poke, like rubbing your hands together out of boredom, but it still made me wonder what it would be like to feel it without the suit. Would it be more aggressive, akin to the gnawing of insects? Or would it remain something else entirely?

  I continued further north. The sights remained novel and strange, but fortunately, nothing craved to attack me, to my immense relief.

  Despite this, I still had to be careful and quiet. Minding each step to avoid startling this warped terrain that manifested a life of its own. A lesson learned the hard way.

  The minutes figuratively ticked away on my SmartScreen, flashing by. It left a deep unease in my mind that caused my breath to scrape against the suit's oxygen intake, for there was a disconnect between my body and the passage of time on the screen.

  Unnatural and twisted. Why was it all so twisted? As my thoughts swirled in conflict with what I knew to be reality, the overarching jungle of bioluminescent fungi appeared before my visor once more. My breath hitched, and curiosity beset me. I crept up to one of the stalks, gliding my palm against its coarse surface. The subtle vibration tingled against my glove, the same sensation as the flora before—like the tenuous breath of life that pervaded all creation.

  A shrill yowl cut through the air, causing the stalks to slam against the ground, scattering like a startled flock of birds.

  I could see it ahead.

  A creature with an elongated furry form and plant-like growths dragged its body low and lunged at one of the stalks further from my location. I knew it. Or at least what I thought it was—a marten. A twisted, unnatural version of the once familiar creature with green antennae blossoming like flowers as they turned in the wind, monitoring for prey.

  For such a large creature, it moved fast. Once it latched onto one of the stalks, from its ears, a misty residue wafted out, halting the fungi's escape attempt. Its maw opened up. Biting into the stalk with ravaging chunks that tore the flesh off and caused a viscous green liquid to squirt.

  My heart pounded against my chest at the sight. The beast was relentless and vicious, a predator that disregarded those beneath it.

  I took a step back.

  But the marten's ears perked up, and it turned its head toward me, with chunks of bioluminescent goo still dripping down its voracious maw.

  Its bestial eyes froze my heart with fright. Life flashed before my eyes as its beady-eyed stare penetrated deep. I reassured myself 'martens aren't pack animals; they're solitary creatures.'

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  My feet froze. I wanted to run, to flee, and never turn back. But I could not move.

  I was lucky.

  A thunderous growl crackled from afar, causing the marten to jolt its head, bite into the incapacitated stalk lying at its feet, and run off, dragging it along.

  Weakness coursed through my feet, and I slumped down. The firm ground stood a bastion of support where I could gather myself. The creature had left, but at what cost? Would it return to stalk me, waiting for the moment I let my guard down?

  I couldn't let those thoughts distract me. Orion was waiting for me. Truth, hope, and my friends all lay close by. I just had to survive the journey first. Understanding was beautiful, but it couldn't counter the tension that was taut as a bowstring on the verge of snapping.

  The wind nipped against my helmet like a starved piranha, sensing blood. When paired with the distant howls that carried on it, sometimes closer, other times further away, my feet surged with life, and I picked myself up.

  My feet thudded against the warped grassy terrain, the heaviest they had ever felt. Each step was a hurdle, a necessary challenge to reach my destination. I spent forty minutes trudging along—if my SmartScreen could be trusted. The hues around me gradually shifted from greenish violets into dull blues that took control of the area.

  Strangely shaped trees filled my vision, their trunks and branches warping into unnatural angles. The bark creased and opened in jagged patterns that resembled teeth. Through a crack in the canopy of trees, the sky peered through, not the Earthen sky I was familiar with, but a foreign one where clouds streaked across in waves of thickened smoke, blanketing the planet from the sun, moon, and stars. It was a kaleidoscopic spiral of dull colors, illuminating the Earth in its eternal glow.

  My breathing became hoarse as I lowered my head and continued walking. Seeing the sky brought a pang to my heart. I had to tell myself repeatedly: 'This is not my home.'

  I continued for another twenty until I found a sheltered outcrop, untouched by the strangeness of the environment surrounding it. In hindsight, maybe that was the strangest thing of all. Grey rocks mounted atop one another, forming the arched dome, sat over a flat stone half buried in the soil.

  In my mind, I knew to be vigilant, but the overwhelming fatigue surmounted beyond expectation, and I needed to collect myself.

  I took refuge in the outcrop, my senses keen as I held my breath, waiting for sudden shifts in the area. But after several moments of silence and peace, I breathed out with relief. Despite the alienness of this world, I was but a human with limited stamina.

  Even worse, a twitch in my stomach, jolting through my insides. It gurgled and roared like an untamed beast galloping in my gut. 'Accursed hunger!' I thought, the downfall of humanity.

  I had never been as uncertain in my life. None of my training could have helped. Should I forage and try to find something to sustain me? Would the air even be breathable, or would it attempt to kill me the second it touched my lungs? I reached toward my helmet and palmed my hands to the sides of it as I lowered my face toward my lap.

  It was impossible. I couldn't risk it. There was no choice but to find Orion first and foremost before risking my life with the unknown that surrounded me.

  I slid my hand down and clicked on the scanner again, my final reassurance.

  [Unidentified Access - Report to Orion Command]

  [Access Terminated - Unknown Anomaly - Report Required - Orion Detected. . .]

  [Head Northeast. Approx. 3KM]

  My hand dropped, and my head drooped. That's that, then.

  Seeing that the approximation had only lessened by two kilometers was a crushing blow to my confidence. My belief in immense progress shattered into pieces. Never had I realized just how arduous five kilometers was in foreign lands.

  I had to go. But it could wait for just a moment. I needed to rest.