[ WP ] We finally get men on Mars and they discover an old Soviet flag placed down decades ago . The Soviets won the space race but for whatever horrifying reason did n't say anything .

Colonel Anderson kneeled down in front of a broken pole and wiped away some orange dust off the ground, revealing a tattered piece of crimson cloth stuck under a rock. Dragging it out of its resting place, the Colonel tore it in half, showing the two men behind him a symbol of a gold hammer and sickle beneath a gold-bordered red star. 
 
 `` It ca n't be...'' said Lieutenant Colonel Haynes. `` Colonel, that's a soviet flag. A union of communist nations that dissolved nearly two hundred years ago.'' 
 
 Colonel Anderson sighed and tried to stroke his gray beard, but remembered he was wearing a spacesuit. He then shook his head saying: 
 
 `` I do n't like this, Haynes. We're supposed to be the first humans here. What's a relic like this doing in Mars?'' 
 
 `` Aliens?'' said Lieutenant Colonel Wilfery. `` Did they get killed off by aliens?!?'' 
 
 Haynes rolled his eyes and said: 
 
 `` There's no such thing as aliens, you dunce. Well, at least not on Mars. They probably had an accident and could n't return back home.'' 
 
 `` Maybe they were unable to contact Earth'' said Colonel Anderson. `` These...'soviets' assumed the mission was a failure and never reported on it out of shame, or something like that. Regardless, that distress beacon is still pinging. We need to find its source before we do anything else.'' He scoffed with a sly grin. `` Maybe one of them is still alive.'' 
 
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 The three astronauts hiked a tall mountain they encountered on their way to the beacon. Gusts of wind suddenly caressed the men, causing them to be buffeted by specks of red sand. Ignoring the harsh exterior conditions inside the comfort of his spacesuit, Lieutenant Colonel Wilfery said: 
 
 `` So why are you so sure there are n't any aliens here?'' 
 
 `` Because of the rover Curiosity!'' replied Haynes, through a bit of static interference in their radio. `` About a hundred and fifty years ago it explored the martian surface and did n't find anything.'' 
 
 `` A stoner's curiosity?'' said Wilfery. `` What's weed got to do with this? Did they really send an undergraduate student ahead of us?'' 
 
 The gales rapidly increased in strength and ferocity the closer they got to the peak. Enveloping them in what seemed like crimson mist, the dust clouds got denser, to the point of almost being tangible, and obscured anything five meters ahead of them. Slamming his palm into his helmet, Haynes then said: 
 
 `` Rover! R-O-V-E-R. It was a reconnaissance robot sent to study Mars' geology. It did n't find any life after decades of searching, so yeah, I'm pretty confident there are n't any aliens here!'' 
 
 `` Would you two just shut up and focus on the situation at hand?!?'' shouted Colonel Anderson, barely visible in front of them. `` We're in the middle of a sandstorm here! One wrong step and we break our necks on this mountain!'' 
 
 Just as he finished speaking, Colonel Anderson grabbed a loose rock and fell backwards. He screamed for his life while airborne, his horror subsiding once his men caught him by the arm. Wilfery grinned and said: 
 
 `` Teaching by example, I see! A testament to your great leadership skills, colonel!'' 
 
 Colonel Anderson narrowed his eyes and grunted at Wilfery, looking downwards in shame once his subordinates were n't looking. 
 
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 Once they got to the peak, the sandstorm had already subsided, making the descent a lot easier than the climb. The distress signal was beeping stronger the more they walked through the empty plains, giving Wilfery an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Marching behind the others did n't help his uneasiness. His back was exposed to whatever could be behind them and everything was too quiet, too still for his liking. The flat landscape they traversed looked more like a desert drenched in dried blood than an alien planet. Even the ground beneath his feet felt *wrong*. It was probably the difference in gravity to Earth's, but he still could n't ignore the thought that everything reacted differently here. 
 
 Looking over his shoulder, Wilfery widened his eyes with fear. The soil turned pitch black and flowed in bumps towards them, rising and falling like streaks of ink in a hostile sea of red dust. Wilfery immediately ran to his companions screaming: 
 
 `` The soil guys! The ground's out to get us!'' 
 
 Haynes turned around with tense shoulders, but quickly relaxed his body. He then shook his head, sighed, and said: 
 
 `` No it is n't. The ground is n't sentient Wilfery, it's just subterranean water rising from the ground.'' 
 
 `` Subterranean water?'' 
 
 `` Yeah,'' replied Haynes. `` they're called'Recurring Slope Lineae'. It's summer here, and highly saline water tends to flow this way during this time of the year.'' 
 
 Colonel Anderson laughed loudly and walked up to the darkened sand. He then touched its damp texture and said: 
 
 `` I ca n't believe you're a Lieutenant, Wilfery. Really? Wet sand? What's next? An abandoned soviet station filled with zombi-'' 
 
 The sand sprung from the ground and pierced Anderson's suit through his arm. He quickly jumped away from it, but it was already too late. The dust flowed into his spacesuit, filling it up until inflating it slightly and freezing him there with its added weight. Anderson's ear piercing screams were then muffled by the sand, who choked the life out of him by forcing itself down his throat. 
 
 Wilfery and Haynes gaped in terror, seeing Anderson's eyes pop out and being followed by a viscous fluid that fell from his sockets like crude oil. They turned around, trying to run away, but their knees weakened and tripped them over. The sand inched its way to their helmets, twisting itself around their calves and anchoring them to the ground. Clawing at the floor with their hands, they dragged themselves away from the black tendrils for a few feet, before being forcefully drawn into the darkness again. 
 
 The two men then faced each other and nodded, silently resigning themselves to their end. Once the black sand reached their necks, it covered them like a blanket and stopped crushing them with its pressure. Footsteps suddenly crunched nearby, coming from Anderson's body who stood in front of them. In a coarse and headache inducing voice his body said: 
 
 `` Get out of our planet, humans. It belongs to *us*!'' 
 
 `` W-we come in peace'' said Wilfery. `` Yes, its *your* planet. We have no intention from taking it from you.'' 
 
 `` Really?!?'' shouted the voice. `` That's exactly what the others said, but once we tapped into their memories, we saw they had other plans instead.'' The limp body raised its arms. `` Colonization! On *our* planet. They thought they claimed it by sticking a pole in the ground!'' 
 
 `` They did n't know you lived here!'' said Haynes. `` *We* did n't know you lived here! Please, surely seeing humans must've been surprising to you too!'' 
 
 `` Yes...'' The voice trailed off, pausing for a few seconds. `` We did n't know much of you lifeforms when they first came, so we possessed all of them, thinking you were a hive-mind like us. We knew more of you would come, so we used their trinkets to call you to our location. This time, we're leaving some of you alive to send a message. Never come back to Mars again. Stay off our planet and do n't you *dare* claim it as yours.'' 
 
 
 
 
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 > If you enjoyed this, you can check out more of my stories over at /r/WeirdEmoKidStories!
