There's No Hope

It's been twenty-five days. We are reaching the very last of our supplies. Adoar, he... he's gone. Couldn't take it any longer. It's just me now.   I can't give up hope, that's not why I came here.   The last radio signal I received told me the plague had taken over 67% of the population. Two thirds of our world... gone. We were going to fight it, find a cure. It was a hopeless mission from the start. You can't outrun something like this, you don't fight it, you won't win.   This will be my last voice note. If anyone hears this, I'm sorry.

Khona opened a small drawer in his dorm, rifling through assorted items. Empty wrappers, pamphlets reading 'The Last Living City', and a small family portrait, Khona embracing two young children. He sighed, closing the drawer.

A quiet hum rung through the atmosphere. The last two oxygen tanks were filtering breathable air through the ship. Both were below fifty percent capacity, running on the lowest setting. Algae and mold infested each and every corner of the ship, rotting away circuitboards, infrastructure, and every other crucial framework. What was once a five member crew had been wittled down to one. An expedition, once to collect data and samples of alien creatures possessing anti-viral enzymes, has now become a solo survival mission. Zolo 05, once a world-class spaceship, has become a husk, destroyed by a solar flare and on its deathbed.

Planet Zephi had become overrun with monsters of its own making. A virus, manufactured in a laboratory somewhere deep within the Azauan Rainforest. It tore through six cities in a week. In a month, half the planet was rotting away. Zombies. It was always thought they were creatures of myth and legend. Guess not.

Fifty emergency ships were sent out to contact other people for help. Forty-nine of them were infected. The last one wandered too close to warship territory, and was obliterated. Then, they sent out research ships. To find a cure while survivors held down the fort on the planet. Zolo 05 was the last stand. The single surviving research ship, it had a mission to uncover a cure, bring it back to a secure surviving laboratory, and save Zephi and its peoples.

Solar flares from the blue star destroyed the planet's last hope of survival. It damaged electrical components beyond repair, disrupted communication, leaving its crew stranded in the depths of space, with absolutely zero hope of survival. One by one, the crew were driven insane, racked with guilt. One electrocuted himself. Two walked out of the containment doors, suffocating in the spacial void. And after consuming his electrocuted crewmate's burnt body, Adoar succumbed to insanity and hung himself in his dorm.

Khona held on, barely. The only thing keeping him from spiralling is knowing his children could be okay. They might still be alive, somewhere. He needed to get home, and hug them one more time. But there was no hope... it died weeks ago.

The survivors of Zephi still pray that Zolo 05 will return.