Trevor didn't know precisely what he'd say to Edward, but he had about 3 minutes to figure it out. Edward's room was farthest away from his, which he'd failed to appreciate until this moment. They lived in a pod now, which was really just a giant igloo with three tunnels branching off a common space they called the rec center. The tunnels made it feel like he was at a never-ending slumber party for 10-year-olds.

  So far, half of their days were spent in the pod, and the rest outside exploring or in the hub. The hub was where the senior crew members worked and conducted research. It was also where they ate and housed Camden, since he was currently in a medically induced coma. Two more minutes, Trevor thought as he walked.

  Ms. Lawrence and the girls' rooms were located in branches one and two. The boy's rooms were all in branch three. The girls rarely ventured over to branch three, so it was typically vacant unless the boys were asleep. Camden's room was empty. Trevor hated walking past it. Voices drifted up from the rec center as Trevor arrived just outside Edward's door. Part of him hoped Edward wasn't in. His mind had failed to provide him with a script. Just do it, he thought, knocking softly.

  "Come in," Edward said, his voice dull.

  "Hey, man," Trevor said awkwardly, walking into the room as though he'd rather be anywhere else.

  Edward nodded at Trevor. His face was a blank page.

  "I just thought I'd check on you. How's the room coming along?"

  Edward stared past Trevor, then pointed to his desk and a chair beside it, violently duct-taped together.

  "So, I see you're not a fan of the chair."

  Edward smiled slowly, but his eyes looked dead. He was sitting on his cot in a t-shirt and joggers. He'd spent almost all his free time in these same clothes for the past two weeks since landing.

  "Want to talk about it?"

  "Not really. I did that to the chair."

  Trevor glanced back at the chair, feeling warm. Edward definitely had anger issues. Would he snap if Trevor didn't say the thing he wanted him to say?

  "I understand you have a lot going on, man. I'm not here to judge. You didn't treat me like a psycho when I broke down about the notebook. I want you to know you're not alone.

  "I think it's safer if I'm alone. A kid that I openly hated is in a coma because I attacked him. I don't trust myself, to be honest."

  "Not to lessen the struggle, man, but everyone openly hated Camden. I mean, hate is not the right word. But you know what I mean. The kid was seriously annoying."

  "I never meant to hurt him or mangle the chair," Edward replied abruptly. "I stood on it, trying to put my clothes away, and the thing literally fell apart underneath me. And when I tried to tape it back together, I crushed the legs somehow."

  Trevor looked at Edward, who was shaking now, and then back at the chair, which barely resembled a chair, trying to make sense of it.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  "Maybe it's a gravity thing?" Trevor said.

  "We weigh less here than on earth."

  "Oh yeah, damn, you're right."

  "What do YOU think is happening?"

  "I think I've developed superhuman strength and become a menace to society."

  Trevor laughed at Edward, but then noticed his friend was quite serious.

  "Wait. You think you crushed that chair? Is that what happened with you and Camden?"

  "I think so. I don't know. I really didn't like him."

  Trevor laughed again and punched Edward in the arm as he swung past him to examine the chair.

  "You did all this just by stepping on it?"

  Edward nodded, watching Trevor inspect the chair. "Ms. Lawrence asked me that same thing," he said.

  "So, you have Hulk strength, I can move shit with my mind, and Ms. Lawrence hears voices?"

  "Yes."

  "Yet, no one is surprised by any of it. Have you noticed that?"

  "Yes."

  Trevor thought back to his meeting with Ms. Lawrence and General Stone, 4 days after landing. He'd been so consumed with Camden's condition that he couldn't remember exactly what they'd talked about. Commander Mitchell had also attended the meeting, but she'd only monitored his heart rate as far as he could tell. He felt like they'd believed what he was saying, but there had been no fear or panic around his telekinesis. Stone had explained it as a bizarre temporary side effect of Martian radiation, which sounded like horseshit, prompting Trevor to reevaluate if he wasn't just exhausted from living on a spaceship for 6 months. But if it were true, Edward might be experiencing a different superpower. Would they all get superpowers? Sloan was scary enough without anything extra.

  "Have they come and talked to you?" Trevor asked.

  "Only Ms. Lawrence. General Stone talked with me right after the accident happened, but he doesn't know about this," Edward said, pointing again to the chair.

  "It's not your fault what happened to Camden. He shouldn't have left the group," Trevor said.

  "He's in a coma, so his brain won't swell any larger because of me. How's that not my fault?"

  Trevor glanced at the ceiling, recalling the night of Camden's accident. Presley had been inconsolable. No one knew if Camden would make it. The memory made him physically ill. They'd been instructed to set up their rooms and report to the hub for dinner as if nothing had happened. No one left the pod that night or ate anything until later the next day.

  "When you tackled Camden, you weren't aware of this weird strength, right?"

  "No."

  "Dude, you didn't intend to do this. It wasn't premeditated."

  "Tell that to his mom. She emails Presley daily. What do you think the woman thinks of me?"

  Trevor didn't answer that. It couldn't be good. Camden had been transported straight to sickbay from the landing site, and other than Ms. Lawrence, none of them had been allowed to visit. Obviously, Edward shouldn't be allowed to visit, but Trevor didn't understand why they were restricting everyone else, especially Presley.

  Each night, Peyton would show up after dinner and report on Camden's condition.

  "He's still stable," she'd say, hopeful.

  "What does he look like?" Max had asked the first time she'd come from seeing Camden.

  "Well, he looks like himself, but swollen. They've placed a shunt in his head to drain the fluid, but it keeps building up."

  That was the first and last time Edward had stayed for the report. Now, when he saw Ms. Lawrence arriving from a nightly visit, he'd disappear into his room until morning.

  "No one blames you for what happened to Camden. They may not understand, but he shouldn't have been on that mountain. The kid was going to find his way into trouble at some point, believe that. Mia overheard the adults saying his microbots started producing meds to stop the bleeding immediately."

  "I need him to recover fully," Edward said. "I can't live with this the rest of my life."

  "He's gonna get better," Trevor said. "Ms. Lawrence said the sick bay is like a state-of-the-art hospital. She says there's an insane amount of medical equipment up here. He's well taken care of. "

  But before Edward could respond, Kai, Alex, and Max stumbled into the room.

  "Dude, Lilly's trying to hack into General Stone's email. She thinks they're hiding stuff from us. A girl named Rebecca came up here before us. We're not the first kids to go to Mars."