Escape, 680, a Barrow for the Living, by Allison Wilgis. I'm Merle Lafferty, your co-editor and host for this week.

This week's story is a Barrow for the Living by Allison Wilgus.

Allison is a Brooklyn-based best-selling writer, editor, and cartoonist who's been working in comics for over a decade.

Most of Allison's professional work has been writing for comics, including Flying Machines and The Mars Challenge,

with First Second Books and Cronin, a solo debut from

Tour Books.

Allison's short prose fiction has been published by Endry Zone, Analog, and Strange Horizons. In spare time, Allison hosts a podcast about comics publishing called graphic novel TK,

with Gina Gagliano.

Allison tweets and Instagram's at Ali Wilgis and you can find many comics and stories at

Allison Wilgis.com. It's narrated for us by Kalita Mohammed Ali.

Kalita lives and works in Houston as an oncology nurse. She's married and the

mothers of three brilliant artistic children. She writes because she loves

to and also because she has a story or two or three to tell.

This was originally published in Analog Science Fiction in Fact in the May June 2018 issue.

Now weigh your care package carefully before you put it in the mail.

It's story time.

A Barrow for the Living by Allison Wilgis, read by Kaleida Mohammed Ali.

Sitting on cold deck plates, which in turn sit on Mars, Deseret wonders why they bother to monitor the entry, descent, and landing for these resupply missions at all, as only the outcome matters.

Either the capsule will survive, and so will they, or some part of the EDL will fail and the cargo will be lost and their splinter of a settlement

will disappear into the dust.

The Arrow Shell has entered the atmosphere, says Vika.

She is cross-legged on the floor and hunched over her laptop.

...