The shuffling of our feet and respiration through our suits is the only sound as we make our way down the tunnel. America leads the way a couple of yards ahead of Star. Elias and I follow along a few paces behind her.

With the back of my glove, I wipe the blood that's smeared on the front my helmet, but it only smudges it more. The stained glass tints everything a soft hue of red. My stomach turns as I think about how it got there.

I grind my teeth against the sharp pain shooting up my ankle each time I put my weight on it. "Fuck," I hiss under my breath.

"You doing okay, Shawn?" Star glances over her shoulder. She slows her pace slightly to wait for me.

I nod. "Yeah, fine."

"Maybe we should take a break," Elias suggests. "Any idea how long we've been walking?"

America pauses up ahead, but he doesn't look back at us. "Fourteen minutes since we left Devin behind."

A chill rushes across my skin as he says Devin's name. Even though I met Devin when he was still . . . human . . . now, I can only picture him as the monster he became. A mass of muscle with empty eyes and a mouth sprouting teeth from bloody gums.

"There's a clock built into your suit, you know?" America continues. Without even looking back to us, he continues walking. The sound of his boots lightly clicking against the dirt rings through the tunnel. "It's been thirty-one since we were first attacked."

I bite down on my lower lip. A tenseness hangs between Star, Elias and me.

"If it's been fourteen minutes since we left Devin and thirty-one since the attack," I say lowly, "that means it took Devin seventeen minutes after being bitten to . . ." My voice trails off. I don't know how to describe what happened to Devin.

Star nods.

"He's been counting the minutes," Elias fills in the thought for us.

Now I understand why America's been distancing himself from the three of us. He was the only one who might have been exposed when Devin attacked. None of us were bitten, and he was the only one not wearing a helmet. He doesn't want anyone to be near him if he . . . changes.

I cross my arms in front of me, imagining the feeling of dozens of tiny worms crawling through my skin. The apprehension of hanging in limbo like that—not knowing if he's been infected or not—must be killing him.

"America, just wait up for a second," Elias finally says. "Shawn's hurt. Let's take a short break."

America stops again. "Sure." He nearly laughs, shaking his head as he leans back against the side of the cave. "Why not? It's not like we know where we are, anyway. Fuck, we don't even have a clue where we are trying to get to!"

We are all quiet.

"Well, obviously we have to get out of these tunnels," Star says. "Find a way back to our starship. And then from there—"

"We do what, exactly?" America asks. "Hide on our ship and wait for those monsters to finally break in and kill us? Or worse, have what happened to Devin happen to us. It's not like we have the fuel to just blast off and head home. We're trapped here."

"We have to take each challenge as it comes to us, America," Elias says. "One step at a time. Right now, we are stranded underground with no water or food. We need to find a way back to the surface first. We'll figure out the rest from there."

America leans his head on the dirt wall behind him, tapping the helmet against the stones with a soft, echoing clank. "It wasn't supposed to go this way." He crosses his arms over his chest, turning away from the rest of us as he lets his body sink to the ground.

We're all silent. Again, I think back the conversation I had with America, where he told me he purposefully got caught committing a serious crime so he could go on this mission. Then later, when I asked him about what he did before going to prison, he avoided the question.

He knew about this mission beforehand somehow, but he couldn't have guaranteed he would get on it unless he had connections. He said he was an engineer, but he made a joke when I asked him what sort of engineering he did.

The best lies are usually those that are closest to the truth. Maybe he actually was an engineer, but one working for the Interstellar Colonization Corporation. Could that be how he found out about the mission?

I get the feeling there is more to it, though. Why hide the fact that he worked for them unless he knows something the rest of us don't? Something he doesn't want us to find out.

"I'll go and talk to him," Elias finally whispers to Star and me. "He's just freaking out. I'm sure he'll come around."

"Be careful of him," Star says. "We still don't know—"

Elias nods. "If I see anything strange, I'll call you two." Then, he heads over and crouches down next to America. He lowers his voice as he speaks, making it impossible to hear what he is saying, especially through my helmet.

"You should sit down, too," Star tells me. "Rest your ankle for a minute."

I nod, lowering myself to the ground and relieving the pressure from my injured leg. I stretch it out in front of me. My body relaxes as the pain recedes.

"Does it feel broken?" she asked.

"I don't know." I run my hands over it, pressing lightly to test where the pain is stemming from. "I've never broken a bone before."

"Of course you haven't." She smirks.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I can't help but smile back. I know what she means. I don't exactly look like the danger seeking type. About the worst I've ever done is skin my knee.

"Let me take a look at it for you." She sits cross-legged in front of me and unzips my boot.

I wince as she removes it from my foot, pain flaring all the way up to my knee. My ankle has swollen slightly right around the bone. A purplish bruise is just beginning to form on my pale skin.

"Let me know when it hurts the most," Star says. Her gloved hand touches my ankle, and I flinch.

"Sure."

She presses against my skin lightly, her expression tense. Focused. I think about when Devin attacked us—what she did. I don't know if I could have finished the job like she did. Killing someone . . . I don't know if I have that in me. Star did it like someone swats a bug. Like it was nothing.

"That wasn't your first time, was it?" I ask.

"What?" She presses against my ankle, and pain flares up my shin.

"Ouch!" I grimace. My muscles tense. "That spot. That's the one."

She releases the pressure immediately. "Sorry."

"What you did to Devin," I say, stretching out my leg, "that wasn't your first time killing someone."

She pauses, but she doesn't flinch back from the question. "He wasn't Devin anymore, Shawn. But no, you're right. It wasn't my first time."

"Is that what you went to prison for?" I ask. "Murder?"

She lets out a long sigh through her nose. "Technically, yes. But I don't regret what I did. Getting caught, sure, would have liked to avoid that. But, the man I killed deserved to die."

I suck my cheeks in and bite them. "Okay."

"Coming here though," she says, shaking her head, "in hindsight, maybe I should have just stayed in prison."

"Maybe?" I raise an eyebrow at her.

She laughs lowly. "Prison kind of sucked—just killing time until you finally die. At least this is interesting." She returns my boot to me. "Here, put this back on before any of those worms crawl on you."

"Thanks." I brace myself as I zip the boot back on. My ankle throbs under the pressure for a few seconds before the pain ebbs away.

"So, I have bad news and good news for you," Star says once I've sealed the boot with the leg of my spacesuit.

"Good news first."

"I don't think your ankle is broken. It looks like it's just a bad bruise. Maybe a sprain at worst."

"And the bad news?"

"We're about fifty feet below the surface of an alien planet infested by enormous, monstrous worms, and we have no idea where the fuck we are."

A laugh escapes my mouth, surprising me so much I choke on my own saliva. The truth sounds completely ridiculous.

I cough and clear my throat. "And to think they said worm holes in outer space were just theoretical. We are literally stuck in one right now."

"Oh God." Star laughs. "You're right. And this is exactly what Cassie told me was going to happen, too."

She stands and holds out her hand to me. I hesitate for a moment before taking it and letting her pull me to my feet.

"Who's Cassie?" I ask, brushing some red dust off of my ass.

"Just a friend of mine. We met in prison." She shrugs. "You know."

I respond with silence. I don't know. I didn't have friends in prison. I didn't even have friends before that. I'd always thought I didn't need them.

Did I think I was too good for that or something? Too good for having friends? A dull ache pulls at the inside of my chest, and I swallow down a lump in my throat.

"What was she like?" I ask. "Cassie. I mean, what did you do together?"

Star shrugs. "She was an older lady. A bit batty, but she was a good one. Every time I asked her what she did to get in prison, I got a different answer. We watched old movies together sometimes. Made fun of the acting and special effects. Did jigsaw puzzles. Played cards. Stuff like that, you know?"

But I don't know.

"Fuck, poor old thing is probably dead by now," Star continues after a pause, "not that I will ever know one way or the other. When I told her I was going on this mission, she said, 'Jess, you're crazy going up in that starship. Bet you get sucked up into a worm hole and die.'" She says it in a nasally, high-pitched voice, like she is mimicking the old woman. She chuckles to herself. "Who'd have thought Crazy Cassie would actually be right?"

"Not me," I say quietly, but my mind isn't there. I twist my hands in front of myself. "Your name is Jess?"

"Jessica, yeah," she replies. "Kinda' boring name, but not as bad as America, right? I guess I never told you, did I?"

"I never bothered to ask," I mutter under my breath. "I've just been calling you Star. I even told Elias that was your actual name."

Why didn't I ever ask?

She tilts her head to the side and smiles. "Really? That's . . . actually that's too funny." She reaches to her neck as though to touch her tattoo, but her hand hits her helmet. "I mean, you can call me Star if you want. New planet, new me, right? No longer am I Jess the Convict. Now, I'm Star the Astronaut." A pause. "I like that name, actually. It's cool. Makes me sound badass."

I smile. "I like it, too."

Silence falls between us. Star glances off to where Elias is still talking to America. "Looks like he might be in the clear," she says. "Seventeen minutes must have passed by now."

She heads towards them. "Doing okay?" she calls.

I make my way over to them slowly, careful not to place too much weight on my ankle. It's even more tender after taking off and putting back on my boot.

"Shawn's ankle looks like it might just be a bruise," Star says when I reach them. We should probably get moving again, soon. Not doing us any good hanging out in this worm hole."

"Good idea," Elias says, standing and brushing off the seat of his pants.

"I'm sorry," America says. "Sorry for scaring everyone."

As he pushes himself to his feet, a deep rumble sounds in the distance. The ground vibrates and shudders beneath us like an earthquake. I brace myself against the wall to keep myself from falling, gritting my teeth. Pain flairs through my ankle. My heart races.

"What was that?" Star steals my question before I can compose myself enough to ask.

Before any of us have a chance to answer, another rumble shakes the cave. Dirt and small stones rains on us from the low ceiling. A few stones bounce off the glass of my helmet, sounding like hail pinging on a tin roof. The rumbling intensifies.

"Shit," America hisses as he covers his head.

Another rumble, and then the sound of rocks tumbling fills the entire passageway.

"It's caving in!" I shout, my mind going into a panic as I remember the last cave in that got us stuck down here.

"It's not caving in," Elias whispers.

"Then what's happening?" I ask.

As if on cue, the sound of clicking and smacking suddenly fills the cave. My heart rises into my throat, and my stomach flips over in my gut.

"Worse," Star says, raising her hand to point down the tunnel in the direction we were heading. "It found us."