Suddenly we were crashing at four hundred miles an hour, the back engine had already caught fire, and down they went. We hit so hard we had no idea where we landed. Dust was blowing in every direction, outside the rocket was pitch black. I couldn’t see anything, all we could hear was each other breathing, and a high-pitched tone that was making us unable to concentrate.
“David! David!” the female pilot screamed at the top of her lungs from the front of the rocket. “Can you hear me down there”
I was in shock, I couldn’t really hear anything, and I felt my head spinning. I looked up to see Hazel. She was trapped within her seatbelt, and was bleeding from the back of her neck.
“Hazel! Are you ok? You’re bleeding! What happened?” I asked her while trying to break free from the debris I was under. It took me a while, but I finally reached her. She was hurt, and it looked very bad. She was losing too much blood, so I carried her down towards the bottom of the rocket.
“I’m going to add pressure here. I have to stitch you up to stop the bleeding” I said while sitting her down next to the medical kit.
“Ok, just do it David. Where are we?” Hazel asked, a bit confused and lightheaded.
“I’m not too sure, you’re the pilot remember” I said with a joking manner trying to make her calm down.
“Check the GPS; it was on when we came down” Hazel suggested, as she pointed back towards the front of the rocket.
I began to sew together the skin on the back of her neck; it had been sliced by a piece of metal that came off the rocket. As I proceeded, she was screaming, her skin had been cut deeply, and all she had to bite on was the neckline of her shirt.
“I’m almost done, try to stay still,” I coached her, trying to keep her calm while I was working on the last stitches.
She was in too much pain to speak, the needle was slicing back and forth through her skin, and she had to attempt and sit still through it. I finally finished the stitches, so I reached to the medical kit, and gave her some ibuprofen. I lied her down on her side, so she could get some rest.
“I’m going to get the GPS, to try and figure out where we are.” I said while walking towards the front of the rocket. I had to climb over debris, and dirt that had piled inside the chambers from the crash.
I made it to the GPS, and when I did, I realized it was cracked, so it was hard to read. I was able to figure out where we landed, Kimora. Yes, you heard me correctly, the planet of the devils. Or at least that is what we called it back at the station. Station nineteen, for SI, Space Investigators.
“How did we land on Kimora if we were headed towards Guzka, it was in the opposite direction, and nowhere near where we were going” I thought to myself as I walked outside.
It was dark and smelled like someone was burning wood, but of course I knew it wasn’t wood that was burning. I reached into my back pocket and grabbed my handkerchief to cover my nose, I was walking around in the dark, and all I could smell was something burning. The planet was dark, and it was nearly impossible to make sense out of any of the figurines around me, so I gave up and walked back to the rocket.
“Breaker Breaker come in; this is station nineteen. We crash landed on Kimora. Do you read me?” I shouted into the microphone; the rocket was so damaged I was almost completely sure they couldn’t hear me. “Hello Hello, this is Captain David, do you read me?” I asked again, this time full of hope. Still no answer.
I walked back to Hazel; she had fallen asleep from taking the medication. I locked the door of the rocket and tried to fall asleep. I kept waking up throughout the night, due to hearing running and swishing noises around me. Something was near the rocket I just didn’t know what it was yet.
The alarm goes off at six AM, but how could it possibly be working if nothing else on the rocket was. I reached towards the motherboard and was able to shut it off, but when I did, I heard a screeching noise in the background. I rushed back down towards where Hazel was lying down, I nudged her over and was able to wake her up.
“Hazel, did you hear that noise, it sounded like someone was screaming” I told her while looking through the rocket window.
“No, I didn’t hear anything, but it couldn’t have been another human David, we’re the only ones here.” she said while looking at me in a very confused manner.
“I know that no one else was with us, but I couldn’t help the feeling of thinking. I remember reading in the paper that a ship had gotten lost in space a month ago, what if it’s them? What if they are here too, Hazel? What if they need our help?” I said beginning to panic and lose my breath.
“Look David, I know you have a need to help everyone, but we have no idea what that noise was. Let’s not begin to lose our minds because of something we thought we heard.” She said in a sturdy voice.
“Ok, I’m just going to take another look around the rocket, to see if I can find anything.” I said as I walked out the door hatch.
As I was walking by the north side of the rocket, I saw scratch marks, they were deep and appeared fresh. They had a very jagged appearance, and when I rubbed my fingers against them my fingertips went numb. I also found what seemed to be some type of red fur like material by the wall. “Now what could that be from?” I thought to myself. I grabbed some of it and tucked it into my backpack, I was going to examine it when I got back to the ship. I kept walking and the claw marks seemed consistent all around the rocket, except for one spot near the front that seemed to have been from a different animal. They were a lot smaller and not as deep as the others. This made me even more curious than I had already been. Where were we and what had we awaken by arriving.
Days began to feel like years, and sadly I had begun to lose track of what day and time even was anymore. I was starting to lose my mind and Hazel was just sleeping all the time due to her new liking for pain killers. I was the only one I could really depend on now but hearing those screeching noises every night was really making me curious.
“Maybe if I just walked out further than I usually do later tonight I could get a better glimpse at what may be out there” I thought to myself and this is exactly what I did for the next day to come.
I began to walk a little further every day and I was gaining mileage fast. I felt as if I was so close every time, but whatever was out there did not want to be found. At night is when I would go out to walk, for that is when the screeching began and when Hazel was too tired to try and stop me. Outside the ship was cold and strangely at night it felt humid and there would always be huge clouds of fog that rolled in around three in the morning. I would have nothing but my flashlight and my sense of intuition while walking because rocket pilots don’t really have any sort of weapons on board.
I was walking that night when I heard voices that sounded human, they were coming from what seemed to be only a mile away. I began running in that direction, but no one was there. It was just rocks after rocks and a lot of dirt.
“Hello?” I shouted many times. Perhaps I had just missed them I thought, but then again maybe Hazel was right. Maybe I was losing my mind, I was unaware of what to do. I had heard voices and there was no way I could be making them up, but I thought I should call it a night regardless. On my way back to the rocket I saw footprints of what seemed to be a creature that only had three toes. I got closer to examine it, but when I went to touch the print it melted away as if dust had covered it in a blink of a second.
“So, does this planet cover footprints or is something up with the dirt” I thought, and as I turned around, I realized my footprints were gone as well. I was in shock and couldn’t wait to tell Hazel about what was going on , the only problem though is that with no prints to look out for, I would never know what had just walked passed or was there before I was.
I got back to the rocket and when I knocked on the outside of door Hazel didn’t call back like she usually does to let me know I could go in. I knocked again, but harder this time and still no response.
“Hazel I’m coming in! What’s going on?” I shouted as I entered the rocket, only to find that she was gone. I looked around and found her bandage from her neck wound on the floor and her blankets were trashed by a bunch of scratches and tears. There were no prints to be found, but there were scratches on the inside of the rocket that resembled those from outside as well. If something had come in here, it took Hazel with it. My mind began to spiral, she wouldn’t be dumb enough to go walk outside by herself, or even to try and look for me if she realized I was gone, so something must have caused her to go.
“Hazel! Hazel! Where are you? Can you hear me? Hazel!” I repeated over and over as I walked around the rocket and some. I wasn’t getting a response, not even a quiet answer. She must be in danger I thought, that’s it tomorrow I will pack up what I can carry in my backpack and look for her. She couldn’t have gotten that far.
Next day, as soon as the sun began to rise, I got up and got ready for what seemed like a rescue mission. I was determined to find my partner and I wasn’t going back to the rocket until I did so. I had packed my backpack with a blanket, water bottles, first aid kit, and my only weapon possible two flare guns. I had packed them just in case I needed to give Hazel a sign of where I was, but they seemed like my only shot to scare whatever animal was on this planet away.
The sun began to fade and set I had been walking for hours, and still no sign of Hazel. Part of me was wanting to give up, but I knew I had to find her. I continued to hike through nightfall when I saw what reflected a mirror on the ground. I walked towards it and went to pick it up, it was Hazel’s pilot badge. She must have dropped it to let me know where she was going. I placed it into my backpack and began walking in that direction.
“She must have just been here” I thought, “I’m close”. “Hazel! Hazel!” I continued to scream as I walked for what seemed like forever more. I was getting tired, so I lied down to take a nap. It felt like I had my eyes closed for five minutes when I heard screaming form close by. They sounded like a woman’s screams, they sounded like Hazel. I rushed up grabbed my backpack and ran over to where the screams had come from. I was looking around and was able to catch a glimpse of footprints that resembled the ones form earlier while they were fading away. I was running as fast I could, losing breathe and scrabbling to retrieve oxygen. I made it. Where was I?
I arrived at a crater in the planet that seemed as if it were used for some type of ritual. There were holes everywhere and the burning smell from before was stronger than it had ever been. I rushed down to see if I could find Hazel and when doing so, I slipped and fell right into a puddle of what appeared to be black slime. It was like a tar pit but smelled of death and rotting. I dragged myself out of it, but the slime had already dried on my skin. It was stiff and caused me to gag because of the horrid smell. I began to walk again when I saw a shadow that resembled a person on the floor. I rushed over to it, and just as I thought it was Hazel.
“Hazel! Hazel no wake up! Come on do not die on me! Don’t you die you hear me! Ughh Hazel I’m sorry, I’m sorry I left you, please don’t go” I shouted while shaking her body and grasping her as tight as I could. My face was full of tears and I couldn’t breathe. I had lost my partner, but I had also lost my best friend. If only I was there or if I had gotten here sooner, but it was too late she was gone. Her face was almost unrecognizable due to all the scratches and blood that had painted her face in pain. Her uniform was torn and covered in dirt form the ground, and there she was lying on the ground lifeless. No more signs of breath and her eyes were so far open it was as if she could still see me.
I shut her eyes, covered her body with the blanket I had packed, and I saluted her for the last time. As I walked away from her, my body felt cold. I had just lost someone I held dear to my heart, and now it was just me. I was alone on this planet with no one else, except for those terrible monsters that killed my best friend. It was war from here on out, and I wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
As I walked back to the rocket, I kept hearing footsteps around me, I was in full panic mode. Any little sound I heard was making me crawl out of my skin, and my head was on a complete swivel the whole time. Just as I was about to arrive, I saw one of those devils walking out of the rocket. It was long with a dark red color on its skin. Its nails seemed to be a foot long in itself, and it had spikes that resembled the devil’s horns on it. I slowly reached into my backpack to grab the flare gun when I locked eyes with the animal. I stood frozen and unable to move; I was terrified. The animal was staring me down and then let out a screeching noise that hurt my ears.
“Why did it make that noise, did it call for backup” I thought to myself trying to keep it together, but I was shaking uncontrollably. It seemed like a second went by, and I was surrounded. I pulled out the two flares from my backpack and lit them up. The animals stayed in their places and did not even flinch at the sign of the flame. The flares quickly gave out and then it was just me and the devils. I stayed in the same spot trying to prepare myself for what was about to happen. I knew it was the end, and that I was outnumbered. I saluted to the sky that was on top of me for the last time, the space I had called my home for over thirty years, and in that moment, I unplugged my oxygen tank, and took my last breath.
