Missing

Bob is missing.

When I got up, Bob had gone, along with a Jeep and a load of kit. It's after dark now; he isn't back. If he hasn't returned by dark tomorrow, we have to inform the base.

I don't know if he's gone to get his specimen, or driven back to civilisation. They lose a few researchers a decade like this. They go AWOL. Some turn up at the base, or at home. Some don't turn up at all. Researchers have come back after multiple nights out. It has happened. Maybe the desertions are a subtle effect of The Sick Land. Or maybe researchers go stir crazy, cooped up in a tiny bunker with only two other people to talk to.

I knocked on Xi's door when I couldn't find Bob. She didn't answer. I know she's there, though. It's weird being here on my own. I feel like the lights are flickering more. The pipes that run by the side of my bed sometimes sound like they're speaking. I catch an odd word, but when I listen fully, it's just the sound of pipes.

I hope he comes back.