I'm writing this from the base, not from the station. I can't believe what's happened.

Last night, just after my previous post, the lights went out and the base locked down. I felt too sick to get out of bed, so I didn't react. Then I heard the screams; it sounded like Xi. The screaming stopped, and I rolled out of bed and staggered to her room. By the emergency lighting, I could see something, some creature, hunched over her bed. It was vaguely human, but the skull and the spine were wrong, and it had something hanging from it in ragged ribbons. It was eating her, tearing into her flesh with its face. I ran.

I ran up the stairs. I knew there was no point going to the entry level: the building was locked down. I ran to the lab and grabbed the bunch of keys. I was fumbling for the right one when I heard screeching. It terrified me; there was something so alien about the sound. The next sound was worse.

The sound of clawed feet skittering up the metal stairs.

I found the right key and turned it. The emergency lights went out with a pop, and I felt like an idiot for not grabbing a torch when I ran out my room. I pulled the metal door open and felt for the pistol. It was where it always was in my dreams. I pulled it out and snapped in the magazine. Then I stood and waited. The door to the stairs was visible as a faint grey oblong. I listened to the roaring in my ears and my rasping breaths, and tried desperately not to think about what might be behind me. I prayed that the lights wouldn't come back on while the metal door was open. It would be more than I could bear. The skittering stopped; the creature was silhouetted in the doorway to the lab.

I fired twice.

I saw the creature tumble back. Stepping out, I slammed the metal door closed, then locked it. I crept forward. From the top of the stairs, I could see the mound crumpled at the bottom. The creature twitched like a swatted wasp. I fired into it until the gun was empty.

The relief crew found me in the morning, sitting in a Jeep. They wrapped me in a blanket and brought me back to the base.