The group bolt through the thick vegetation and tropical trees, Eden's luxurious buildings and it's billions of twinkling lights had disappeared long ago. The change in scenery is odd, they must be on Australian soil now..or what used to be Australian soil. It's definitely past midnight now as Nila can see the dark, night sky get lighter and lighter every passing hour. The group must've been running for miles on end, Nila's constant, heavy panting seems evident of that. She never once felt tired, until now, her fear must've kept pushing her forward.

They all start to slow down, exhausted and sweaty. There's a sudden, pleasant breeze and Nila's pretty sure everyone sighs as the wind cools their overheated bodies down.

"There's a...there's a beach up ahead.." Riley manages to get out through ragged breaths, his hands resting on his knees.

Riley leads the way through a clearing in the bush, to be greeted by a sandy, white shore and beautiful, turquoise ocean and the words: "Down Under- Can't get any better than this!" painted in bright yellow cursive. Then they looked behind the billboard directly in front of them and saw what the beach really looks like. The ocean is no longer turquoise but a dirty, mud brown with who knows what floating on it's surface. The sand isn't white, but a miserable grey. Probably the leftovers of volcanic ash from the multiple Volcanoes that formed from the nuke messing up the Earth's geography.

It isn't exactly homey but it will do. As long as they're as far away from Earleen and her minions as possible, anything will do.

Nila's heavy breathing start to slow down once she steps onto the sand. The soft, little grains welcome her sore feet. Compared to the rugged terrain of the bush, the sand is heaven.

The thought of Earleen and that hellish hospital only serves to bring more bad memories forth and Nila drops to her knees, clutching the little grains of sand in her fingers. Kaitlyn jogs to Nila's side and kneels down, thinking Nila had fallen from exhaustion.

"Why did they have to do this?!" Nila asks, her voice just above a whisper.

Her loud wails send birds to fly out of trees nearby. Nila's question is what finally brings tears to Kaitlyn's eyes and her face scrunches up as she tries to stop herself from bawling her eyes out. One of the birds out of the frightened flock from before, a small and oddly ginger coloured Kookaburra perches itself on the ruins of an old wooden shack. Riley slowly makes his way over to his friends as Kaitlyn stares up at the little bird, it's feathers reminding her of her deceased friend. She once read that Kookaburras are supposed to be known for their laugh, though this one bows it's head in silence, it's laugh nowhere to be heard.

It's as if God himself never anticipated Anna and Brice's death.

"I don't know..." she eventually replies back.

Anna and Brice's death finally sinks in for Kaitlyn and she can't hold it in anymore. She throws her arms around her distressed friend's shoulders and cries her heart out. No one other than each other, around to hear them. Riley joins the group and bends down, throwing his arms around the two like a mother bird would for her children.

"I'm sorry, I should've protected you all more, I-" Riley starts to blame himself but gets shushed by Kaitlyn and Riley finally decides to let his own tears fall. After all, he has also lost two friends. Even if he didn't talk to Anna much at all.

------------------------

Nila yawns deeply and stretches out her arms after her long nap. It's got to be about past midway by now considering they only got to sleep after today's sunset. The group is settled in a cave, a few miles away from the opening that they walked onto the beach through. The ground is hard and cold and the cave's ceilings are wet and dripping constantly. Especially at night, the cave seems to get blizzard like winds passing through it. A dying fire made of salvaged rocks and sticks is set up in the middle of the cave and Kaitlyn and Riley are huddled up together like penguins seeking body warmth.

As Nila observes Riley and Kaitlyn she realises just how much that they've all went through and they haven't even had a full week on Earth yet. Not even a day in and everything went down the toilet. Riley looks as if he's got a frown forever etched into his face and Kaitlyn has red stains under eyes from crying too much. Nila sighs.

"....Why don't we have a funeral?"

Her friends give her an odd look.

"Do you even know how to throw a proper funeral? Why, anyway?" Riley asks quizzically with a monotonous voice.

On Mars, funerals were originally held like they used to be on Earth. You would bury the body, say a few words. But Mars soon ran out of soil and dirt to spare for bodies instead of agriculture and farming and infrastructure was more important for their survival. So instead, everyone was ordered to have the bodies floated out into space, outside the dome. Traditional funerals haven't been held ever since.

"Believe it or not, I do listen in classes...sometimes. I learnt a thing or two in our Earth's History lessons. Besides, I can't move on without at least doing something. It's for respect. For closure..." Nila starts to trail off.

"Okay.." says Riley and Nila gives him a grateful smile.

------------------------

"I don't get it..we don't have a body," Riley says whilst shrugging his shoulders.

They're all standing in front of two shallow and small holes that Riley effortlessly dug into the ground. Behind both holes stands a cross, made of two pairs of sticks wrapped together with seaweed which Kaitlyn kindly volunteered to do. It isn't particularly fancy but Nila is still ever so grateful that her friends are doing this with her.

"You don't need a body..." Nila responds and slowly unclips the diamond Mars necklace Anna gave to her from around her neck. She holds one end of the silver chain and let's the little shiny emblem slide down and drop into her left hand. Nila gulps down the large knot in her throat as she makes her way to Anna's "grave" and decides to say a few words of her own, "Anna, you gave this beautiful necklace to me, which honestly I didn't even deserve." She lets out a small laugh then takes a deep breath. "I'm stupid. So stupid..and stubborn. You would know that, no doubt. I let something so small get between us and for so lo-ong that...that when it was finally o-over you were taken away from me..." Nila can feel her heart shattering with every word and starts to break down.

"Nila," Kaitlyn places a hand on her friend's shoulder. "You don't nee-"

"NO! No..I need to do this," Nila murmurs and slides Kaitlyn's hand off her shoulder. She doesn't deserve pity for what she's done.

"You ar- were an amazing friend. I should never have pushed you away. Your family, is as loving as you are and sadly...they'll never be able to see you again. So, I...I give you this. So that your family on Mars can finally be with you again....and you them," Nila finally finishes her speech and drops the Mars emblem into the dirt, sighing as she does so. As if the weight of Anna's death is slowly lifting off of her shoulders. She wipes her face and walks back to her friends, clipping the plain silver chain back around her neck.

"But what about Brice, we have nothing for him..." Kaitlyn objects but Riley quickly cuts in.

"I have something," he says and pulls out a half eaten 'Sram's bar' out of his pocket.

Nila giggles through her tears. How humorous.

"Why do you have that?" Kaitlyn asks.

"He gave it to me to have a piece but a nurse came in and said it was lights out and with everything that happened afterward....we just forgot about it."

Riley looks up at his friends, unsure of what he does.

"Go on. You were his best friend," Kaitlyn reassures him and signals a hand towards Brice's "grave".

He nods and gives a small smile, taking a deep breath before he walks over.

"So um, I'm not exactly sure how to do this..but, you would have got to be the best mate that I ever had. You somehow always knew how to cheer people up and you did the most stupidest things," Riley mutters as he looks down at the chocolate bar in his hand. "You were different but we all loved you for it and it's...heartbreaking to see you go so early," Riley fidgets with his tattered training clothes and bites the inside of his mouth before sighing. "Remember this? Well you never got to finish it so...hope you enjoy it in the afterlife."

Riley cuts his speech short, not wanting to carry it on any longer and drops the 'Sram's bar' into the dirt. When he walks back over to his friends, Kaitlyn rubs his back and Nila smiles.

"You did great."

With that, Kaitlyn walks over silently and begins to throw the dug out dirt over the items. Burying the memories they hold with them. Two of their friends were murdered in cold blood. A great burden to bear and they'll forever be remembered.

But now, they're in the middle of something much more sinister.

It's time to move on.

And it's time to get answers.