HEN

Good morning, Mason, Will!

Mason

[yawns] Hey, Hen. Why are you here so early?

HEN

It’s a secret!

WILL

Well, that’s suspicious.

MASON

Yeah- Jesus, Will, you look absolutely terrible!

WILL

[sarcastically] A simple ‘You’re so handsome’ would have sufficed.

MASON

No, I mean it, like- You’re really green, and you look like you haven’t slept in years.

HEN

You do look pretty bad, Will.

WILL

I feel pretty bad, too.

HEN

But you still haven’t turned!

WILL

But I still haven’t turned, so there’s that. What did you wake us up so early for?

HEN

Well, she should be here soon…

[door opening]

DAETHIE

Guess who’s here?

MASON

Daethie, what’s up! I didn’t think we’d get to see you again.

DAETHIE

Yeah, I’m here escorting a messenger with some packages or something. [shocked] Holy- God, Will, are you okay?

WILL

I’ve been better.

DAETHIE

Shit, did you get bitten? When?

WILL

Here, first day in the colony after the initial quarantine.

DAETHIE

First day? But it’s been eleven days since we dropped you off here, so, three days quarantine… You got bitten eight days ago, and you still look like that?

Will

Again with the rude comments! Just because I look like a zombie doesn’t mean I want to hear about it.

DAETHIE

The point is that you haven’t turned, but you haven’t gotten better either.

MASON

It’s weird, right!?

DAETHIE

Uh, yeah! Any idea what’s going on?

HEN

The doctor assigned to Will says it’s the vaccine ‘battling it out’ with the zombie virus, but…

DAETHIE

Don’t vaccines usually shorten sicknesses, if they even occur at all?

WILL

The doc all but said this vaccine was experimental. I guess we’re in completely new territory here.

DAETHIE

Damn.

WILL

So, about this package…?

DAETHIE

Oh, sorry, it’s very classified. Even I don’t know what it is, just where one came from and where the other is going.

MASON

Well, where is it coming from?

DAETHIE

Earth. That’s as much as I can tell you.

MASON

Who the hell is sending packages from Earth?

DAETHIE

Great question, but I definitely couldn’t tell you that, even if I knew.

MASON

Fair enough. How’ve you been?

DAETHIE

Pretty good! I was moved from evacuation escort to package escort, as you can tell. But things have been… okay. I see a little less action this way, but I’d say that’s a good thing. It’s a shame I don’t get to see you all more often, though.

[phone buzzing]

DAETHIE

Oh shit, gotta go, they’re calling me! It was nice to get to talk to you guys again.

MASON

Yeah, of course! I’d say ‘give us a call,’ but I don’t think your cell does interplanetary communication.

DAETHIE

Yeahhh probably not, but if I’m ever on the moon with some free time, I’ll track you down. Get better soon, Will! Later!

WILL

Bye!

[door opening and closing]

[silence]

WILL

Hey, Hen, can you turn off the broadcast for a second?

[click, silence]

[phone recording starts]

WILL

What’s the point of turning off the broadcast if you record us on your phone anyway?

MASON

This is evidence, Will! I think I know what you’re gonna talk about, and we need to have a way for other people to know what was going on if we get merc’d.

HEN

Merc’d!? What the hell are you talking about?

WILL

Look, something about this place is just… sketchy.

MASON

The worst vibes.

WILL

I keep turning and un-turning, Dr. Elora is definitely putting something in my drink and there’s no way it’s ‘vitamin C,’ and now Daethie is escorting a messenger with a mysterious package to Earth? Not to mention how weird Elora was about where she was from.

HEN

You’re right, actually. I’ve been asking around, and everyone here is from the Shayn County area, Kitmouth or Arkmunster or Blackpool. Even the people I talked to from different colonies!

MASON

The colonies are labeled by evac times, so if this colony represents an entire round of evacs, shouldn’t there be more variety in where we’re all from?

WILL

I don’t like this, Mason.

MASON

Neither do I, Will. Neither do I.