Agnes couldn’t take her eyes off of Amruth, she wasn’t sure if she could trust him. She didn’t know him, he could have been part of the Halalau for all she knew, he was blue and so were they. This Tarzan man child picks her up with one hand and carries her underground and what does she do? She cries and hands over the coded paper that could possibly get her home. “Good going” Agnes mumbled to herself, Amruth looked up from the paper and smiled. “You know I can hear your thoughts. I’m not a man child or a Halalau.” “It’s not nice to read people’s thoughts without their permission” Agnes said. “Reading is fundamental. Isn’t that what they say on your planet?” Amruth replied with a smile.

“So if you’re not Halalau, why are you blue?” Agnes asked. She threw her hands in the air, “I’m not a mind reader! How can I trust you?” she snapped in frustration as tears formed in her eyes. Amruth could sense her fear and he felt for her. “We have a different atmosphere on our planet Agnes, the air on this planet is probably similar to your planets air but it’s toxic to my kind.” Amruth said. He continued, “Upon landing on this planet I was endowed with a Shaman inside of me and it was able to inhale the poisonous air out of me into himself,” he explained. “So there’s someone inside of you sucking your air?” Agnes asked. Amruth laughed, “You can say that. The air I breathe gets intercepted by the Shaman and it’s able to inhale the toxic parts and I’m able to breathe pure recycled air,” he said. “The poisonous air gets sucked in by the Shaman in my throat while the pure air travels to my lungs”. Agnes was intrigued by the story, “So you’re not Halalau and I can trust you?” Amruth smiled and nodded, “Yes you can trust me, I just want to get us both home” he said.

Agnes had no other options and he did open up to her so she trusted him a little more. She move closer to him to see the coded paper better. “You’re hungry” Amruth said with little emotion. “I told you not to read my mind” Agnes snapped. “I didn’t have to when your stomach is growling” he said. They both laughed very happy that they were breaking the ice. “We’ll eat shortly but look at this figure on this paper first,” Amruth said to her. Agnes looked and squinted like the figure was out of focus, “I don’t know what that means”, she said. “I believe you’re a part to this whole puzzle Agnes. You’re the key to getting back home. Let me see the other half of the paper”, he said. Agnes looked puzzled, “I don’t have another half, that’s the only paper I have” she answered. Ten years on this planet and there was another half of code floating around that was the key to her getting home. It was probably in the hands of the Halalau which means she was doomed to this planet. “Do we really need the other half?” Agnes asked. Suddenly they both heard a noise and Amruth raised his finger to his lips, “Shh”

Amruth stood up and grabbed his spear and hurried up to the surface as Agnes carefully followed. He opened the hideout door, “Stay alert” he whispered to her. They heard squealing and Amruth went into the brush toward the sound, Agnes stayed behind to avoid getting hurt and she was weaponless. She seen bushes rattling and she heard the squealing louder and she heard roaring and grunting. “Amruth!”, she called out in a whispered but worried voice. She turned to her left and seen a pair of yellow eyes and sharp white teeth looking right at her. Agnes was frozen with fear as the figure crept toward her with its blue scaled skin and clawed fingers. With her eyes as wide as saucers, she was face to face with a Halalau, she could feel it’s hot breath as it exhaled and drips of saliva trickled down its chin. This was it Agnes thought, this was how she was going to die.

The Halalau opened its mouth and lunged toward her head as she closed her eyes! She heard the Halalau roar in pain as splatters of blood landed on her. She slowly opened her eyes and seen the creature laying on the ground, she was looking for Amruth but he was nowhere in sight. Agnes then felt a rocky shaped blade against her throat, “Don’t move unless you wanna find yourself laying next to that one” the voice from behind her said. “Let her go Luna, I think she’s human like us” the guy holding the bloody knife with the remains of the Halalau said. “Luna!” Agnes shrieked. “I know my name, who are you?” Luna asked. “It’s me, it’s Agnes! You’re best friend from Earth” she choked out holding back tears. Luna released her and spun her around to look at her as they both smiled. They hugged each other like time had never even passed, “How did you two survive?” Agnes asked. She smiled at Roman, she could never forget those eyes.

Roman looked around and said, “Its not safe out here, let’s move. We’ll explain everything on the way.” They had just killed a Halalau, chances are others weren’t far behind. They started moving away from kill scene, Agnes wasn’t sure if she should tell them about Amruth but then she thought to herself the more people, the better. “We got lucky all those years ago. When I pushed you out the way, Roman grabbed me and we somehow got caught in the beam but was undetected. I guess you got lucky too.” Luna said. Agnes nodded as they continued walking at a steady pace. “We’ve taken shelter up in this area, it looks like it was once a rebel camp, it’s hidden and we’ve survived all this time. We’re trying to figure out how to get home too but no matter how I read this code, nothing happens” Roman said. Agnes eyes got big, she thought to herself, Roman did have the other half of the coded paper, he was the one that read the paper during the game, he was the other ticket! “You know, the Halalau aren’t the only things we have to worry about here to survive” Luna said as she lifted a metal door. “What do you mean?” Agnes asked. “There’s another race of aliens on this planet who actually wants to just destroy this whole planet. They are planet eaters…..I call them Eater of Worlds.” Roman said. Just then Agnes heard her name being called but only she could hear it. It seemed that Amruth was in her head and she didn’t know if she should be afraid all over again.