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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/googlyeyes93 on 2024-10-17 23:44:42+00:00.

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I opened my eyes, reading off the results before me with shock. The test designated it as blood, but it was so much worse… oh my god. It took a few seconds to hit me but I still managed to make it over to the trash can before puking my guts out into the garbage. The freshly downed alcohol burned its way back up like hellfire, making me wince and choke. Sho snatched away the paper before it could float to the ground, left behind while I was dealing with my own existential dread. I could see his face turn pale as the same results were read off.

”Human…” He whispered, scanning the paper again and again to see if he was imagining it. Desperately hoping that the results would change before his eyes. “The hell does this mean, Teller?”

I couldn’t even speak, just shaking my head as another heave of anxiety worked from my gut upward. It hit me then that we had another sample, the small, glowing organic material that Sandra took. I grabbed the tube from within the box, emptying it onto a slide to inspect it now. The spore was small, still giving off a faint blue light even out of the natural environment, but no bigger than the smallest grain of sand. Another slide was quickly pressed atop it, moving right under the scope to reveal whatever horrors we may have been down there with.

It wriggled under the pressure of the slide, trying desperately to escape. As I looked through, small pincers became visible on one end of it, with hundreds of small legs branching off in every direction, scurrying, stressed beyond its limits trying to get out of the new environment.

“It’s alive,” I muttered, moving over so Sho could take a look. “I don’t know what the fuck it is but it’s a living, biological organism.”

”Oh my god.” He whispered in return. Sandra sat in the corner, still out of it but now grabbing at her skin, complaining of an itch. Sho was trying to cry through bloodshot eyes, looking at me as he moved his eyes from the microscope. “We found life on Mars.”

”Great… fucking great.” I muttered, taking another drink and feeling it burn down into my empty belly. My mind was racing, not sure of if I would ever make it off this godforsaken desert planet. Sho continued staring through the microscope now, studying the creature before a thought came to him. As he grabbed a dropper and the remaining blood samples, opening the slide, I almost stopped him. It occurred to me that we’re about to do something bad. That we’ve discovered something that could inevitably kill us all. Yet I couldn’t stop him because of my own curiosity, and apathy surrounding my current situation.

“Look,” Sho told me, gesturing me closer to the microscope now. The thing inside the slide was absorbing the entire sample of blood Sho had just set on the slide, growing as it did. The blue glow pulsed as it absorbed more of the life force nearby, greedily sucking it all up as it grew like a damned tick.

“It won’t stop…” Sandra muttered, grabbing at her skin, pulling on it like she was trying to get something off of her. I noticed scratches beginning to show as her nails dug deeper into her arm. “The itching. It won’t go away. I’m so itchy it hurts.”

”What?” I asked, moving over to her. “What’s itching?”

”Everything…” She shuddered again, a cold sweat shining on her forehead. I could see her growing pale, eyes bloodshot like Sho’s. He was looking at me in fear, an understanding forming in his eyes as Sandra clawed at her skin more furiously. “Everything… crawling… AHHHHHH!”

She screamed as her nails finally tore through her skin, unleashing a small trickle of blood that began down her arms. Moving. The blood was… moving, pulsating down. As it dripped to the floor under her, it began to scatter, before disappearing, the luminous blue color pulsating, reflecting off the crimson blood like some fucked up police lights.

“Oh. Oh shit…” Sho said, grabbing the nearest sterile tray he could find and starting to beat at the micro-terrors skittering around the ground. It almost reminded me of that Mummy movie, all the scarabs bursting from skin… I shivered, fighting to keep my composure. These things were more like roaches, surviving the hardest hits from the tray as Sho fell to his knees, desperately smashing the tray into the ground to no avail as these things simply absorbed more blood, scrambling for every drop that fell from Sandra, bringing newcomers to the feast along with it. Sandra grew more pale, eventually beginning to shrivel from the blood loss, thousands of the things swarming around, feeding on her from the inside out. I was brought out of my stupor by Sho shouting once more, “TELLER! HELP!”

I don’t know what I was thinking, but I grabbed the bottle of whiskey off the table, took a lighter we used for some old bunsen burners nearby and getting ready, I heaved the full bottle back, getting ready to smash it toward the tile floor with all my might, “MOVE!”

He pulled away just in time, leaving the bloody tray rattling on the floor. The bottle hit the ground, exploding into glass and whiskey all over. I hit the lighter, getting ready to toss it right after, but before I could something began to happen.

Blue lights across the floor began to sputter out, the organisms stopping where they were and convulsing as the alcohol touched them. Everything that was touched by the spirits began to seize, staying where they were on the ground and thrashing in agony as they died. I could hear a small, guttural scream echoing out in chorus as they died, hundreds going silent one after the other. The occasional one would still crawl from one of Sandra’s wounds, falling to the ground into the drink before writhing in agony like those before it, dying on the floor.

”She’s dead.” Sho whispered, looking at Sandra’s drained corpse. “They… they killed her.”

”Sho, I need your blood.” I said, already grabbing a scalpel and holding it up to one of my fingers. God… please. I hesitated before making the incision, praying to whatever gods on Earth or Mars that I wouldn’t have those… things in me. Please…

The razor-sharp blade didn’t even hurt with all the adrenaline running through my veins. I grabbed a fresh slide, squeezing a drop out onto it. I closed my eyes as the other slide was put on top, loading it under the microscope and praying one more small plea before looking down.

“Oh thank fuck…” I breathed a sigh of relief, seeing no traces of the small creatures, just healthy swimming red and white cells. Clean blood. “Sho, come on. We need to be sure.”

”I know… I know. I’m ahead of you.” He said, grabbing a new scalpel and slide to take his own sample. The incision was made, his eyes closing with prayer like mine did just moments ago. We knew before we could get it under a microscope, before we could even get the slide on top. This blood was pulsating, a blue glow from millions of tiny dots almost made it look like there was glitter scattered into the crimson, mixing into a deep purple. He became more pale, “I’m going to be sick.”

”Don’t go on my yet.” I said, grabbing a bottle of isopropyl alcohol from a nearby cabinet. One drop on the slide and I put a top on it, sliding it under the scope to watch and see if my theory had any kind of hope.

It worked.

The spindly, glowing creatures were thrashing around on the slide, blue glow sputtering as they seized up just like the ones from Sandra. The blood was left alone, preserved by the alcohol for now as the creatures died off in huge numbers. My belief is fucking vindicated, there might be a way out of this after all. If I’m right, I might be able to save Shoto before he gets drained like Sandra.

The phone in the corner of the room began to beep, a signal coming in from wherever they were keeping an eye on us at. Running over, I was out of breath before they could even get a word out, making my demands as fast as possible.

“Strongest drinkable alcohol we have. I need it. Higher proof, the better. NOW!” I was almost yelling into the receiver, swear I could hear the guy on the other line retreating from the damn phone. All he gave me was a ‘yes sir’ before Pratt came on the line, voice gruff.

”The hell happened in there?” He asked, anger in his voice.

“Sandra’s dead. Sho might be too, if you don’t get me those drinks fast enough. You might want to have a few yourself, just in case.” I mentioned, pulling back for a moment and waiting for his answer, expecting him to offer some rebuttal to what was happening now.

“Okay. Do what you need to.” He mumbled. Something was off, something about how he was responding to the situation. He was too calm.

”Sir… you assigned this research point, right?” I asked, gauging my words carefully.

”That’s not a question for right now.” He shot back, hanging up the line.

“That bastard knows something.” I muttered, turning back to Shoto and seeing him begin to shake. Just in time, I heard the transfer drawer slam, two big glass bottles being shoved through in a bin. One whiskey like before, and one bottle of… holy shit, Everclear? No idea why anyone brought that up here when there were always better things, but who am I to judge? I uncapped it, shoving it to Sho, “Drink, don’t know how much, but just get drinking.”

”You sure about this?” He asked, grabbing the bottle and taking a huge gulp. His face contorted in disgust as the burn descended through his throat, down into his stomach. Assuming he was on a…

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