Alone (15 page)
'Leave the lights off David'
I recognised the voice instantly to be that of Ian. He was standing in the darkness beside the large front window at the far end of the room.
'Ian.' I said in shock. 'Where have you been?'
'Come over here?' He replied still glancing out of the window.
'What is it?' I said, gradually making my way towards him. 'What's out there?'
'Come and see for yourself.' Replied Ian
I approached his dark figure standing quietly and calmly beside the large viewing window.
'How long were we in those sleeping pods for, you never told me.'
Ian raised his fingers to his lips and shushed me.
'Shush! It's a surprise. Now come and see.'
I stood side by side with Ian at the huge viewing window and stared out with a gaze of shear and utter disbelief and bewildered awe at this new, awesome but frighteningly huge awesome image in front of me.
'Well David! I suppose congratulations are in order. It looks like you finally made it home. And I suppose now you have an answer to that ongoing and burning question of yours.' Said Ian letting out a sinister chuckle. I ignored him and continued to stare out of the window in an intense wonderment.
'What is this?' I asked mesmerised.
'This is home David. This is your home.'
I turned to face Ian who was just grinning smugly back at me, but I was completely lost for words.
'You know you don't look so good David. In fact you look like shit. Is that how you feel? How do you feel David?'
I turned back to the window and continued to stare out in disbelief. I raised my hands to my head as I fully took in what I saw . Almost one third of the entire window was filled by what looked to be the planet Earth. My home. But not the planet Earth I thought I remembered, knew and loved. Where there was once a gorgeous array of the dominant blue, white and then the lesser colours of green and sandy brown. Now lay only colours of grey, darker and grimmer grey and murky brown. The wonderful and colourful blue oceans and white clouds that sprung to my mind had long, long ago since dried up and evaporated. In their place now lay miles upon miles of large, long and deep canyons and craters of ugly, hideously grey and grim brown. Continents of old could still be made out, barely, but now they were a dark brown and grey colour and full of large cracks and craters all over. The colours of blue, white and green, no longer existed on this dead world anymore and were as familiar to Earth's landscape as they were to her smaller and younger neighbouring brother, the moon, which still resembled it's old, dull and miserable grey self. The beautiful white clouds, the sea, the grass, the trees and the great ice lands of the north and South had long since evaporated into nothing and had melted away, long, long ago. Old satellites, broken space stations and drifting abandoned shuttles also cluttered and orbited all around the dead world.
I continued to stare out of the window in a complete and utter speechless shock and awe.
'This can't be home' I finally whispered. 'This can't be my home.' Ian said nothing and continued to glance out with me and still smiling smugly. Feeling faint all of a sudden I staggered backwards and down towards the flight deck chairs and sat down to gather my thoughts. But no matter what I did or what I tried to think about I just couldn't peel my eyes away from the dead planet outside, my home. 'What now.' I thought. 'What now.'
'This can't be home.' I said out loud. 'What the hell happened here?'
Ian smiled at that but said nothing.
'So this is it? This is the end of everything. I may as well just follow Mark and Anna out of the airlock.'
'Oh don't me so pessimistic David. You should be happy and proud.'
'Proud! Of what?' I snapped.
'To be the last of a kind. The last of a dead race. The final memory of what life was like on this dead rock ends now, with you. You'll go down in history now you know.' Ian chuckled loudly at that. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes and when I glanced back up at Ian again he was gone, disappeared into thin air and never to be seen nor heard from again I secretly hoped. I turned my attention back to the Godly and ghastly sight outside filling up the viewing window.
'This can't be!' I muttered to myself once more. 'This can not be my home. This can't be the end of my journey... My existence.'
Feeling a sudden, desperate urge to do something I stood up onto my feet and rushed over towards the main computer. The one where Mark was always working from. I scrolled through the various options and programs on the screen for a good long while before one program finally caught my eye. AUTO LANDING. There must be some way to land this hunk of junk, even if it meant certain death with the lack of oxygen on the planet, because I sure as hell didn't want to die trapped inside this tin can. I selected the program for the auto landing and the computer searched instantly for a LANDING BAY that was within range and working. I prayed and hoped beyond hope that it would find something on the dead planet, anything at all. I waited... I waited some more. Then something flashed up onto the screen. NO LANDING BAY IN RANGE. I sighed out in frustration then browsed at the other options on screen. There was an option to widen my search. I felt a sense of pointlessness as I selected this new option, but with what little hope was left inside me. I entered a figure into the search box. I typed in 1000 Kilometres. NO LANDING BAY IN RANGE. I typed in 10,000, then 100,000. NO LANDING BAY IN RANGE. My heart sank. 1,000,000 Kilometres. NO LANDING BAY IN RANGE. I was getting frustrated and was determined never to give up. I would keep typing and typing figures for a long as my fingers could move and just out of spite more than anything. 50,000,000 Kilometres. LANDING BAY IN RANGE. My heart skipped a beat and I had to read the message several times for it to register. I couldn't believe I had found one. I gathered myself and my thoughts and selected the option as calmly as I could to land this hunk of shit junk tin can at this landing bay. The computer flickered and flashed up more messages. DESTINATION VENUS. MYLKOVA SURFACE BASE. MYLKOVA LANDING BAY. Holy shit I thought! We were on our way to another planet all together, Venus. It felt so surreal. I selected the option to confirm the selection. It was as easy as that. I then turned towards the large front viewing window and watched as the front of the shuttle gradually turned away from the dead Earth and to face the glittering black never regions of space once more. I turned back to face the computer screen again which began flashing - ARRIVAL TIME 55 HOURS - I let out a deep breath and buried my head into my hands and sobbed out with joy.
Final chapter
I was lying down on the control room chairs fast asleep when the computer started beeping again. In the past Fifty or so hours I had been too scared and excited to leave the comfort of this room. I wanted to see the gradual appearance of this new planet. My new home. My last chance no doubt of a shot at a home. I gradually awoke as the computer screen continued to beep. Wearily I got to my feet and checked the screen first which was flashing - ARRIVAL TIME 30 MINUTES - And when I turned to face the viewing window I was amazed to see a whole new other planet filling up about one quarter of the glass in front of me, Venus. This planet looked very much alive with its swirling white clouds and thick bulging atmosphere. I approached the window and watched in fascination as the strange surreal cloudy planet began to grow bigger and wider until it completely engulfed the entire viewing window of the shuttle. All I could do was stand still and watch this awesome event. Suddenly the shuttle window turned away from the Venus surface and I was given a bizarre side view show of the planet as we dropped down into the thick clouds and pink and orange atmosphere in a sideways motion. Finally we descended out of the clouds and into a rocky and desert terrain. The shuttle straightened up and I was given the full frontal view of this new and vast surface horizon. We travelled further along another sandy and rocky desert terrain until in the distance I could make out rows and rows of faint flashing lights. The sun seemed like it was about to set in the distance, so the flashing lights were the first things that caught my eye in the ever darkening and murky horizon. Then the lights became bigger and brighter and soon a towering metallic structure of a building, which looked like dark hills and mountains at first, emerged from further beyond the lights upon the distant and dark horizon. The flashing lights running out in front of the huge metallic building complex must of been part of a large landing bay which the shuttle was locked onto. Finally the shuttle hovered over the large landing bay and made a perfect gentle landing down upon the metallic ground and for the first time that I could remember we were completely and utterly still. I continued to stand up against the window glancing out at the large metallic buildings and new landscape surrounding me. A massive metal fortress wall stretched out wide, left and right, as far and as the eye could see, while more metallic structures towered up high from behind the gigantic walls. Along a small section of wall and not too far away from where I had landed I noticed a huge electronic metal gate slowly beginning to slide open, movement from outside the shuttle, something I had never seen until now. Then I realised that someone, somewhere inside that fortress must be making that gate move. I mean surely it couldn't of been a coincidence that the gate just happened to open right at the moment of my arrival... And then I saw it. It was a shocking sight at first, but calming and soothing once I adjusted to the idea and reality of it. A figure, a very distant, faint, but distinct human like figure standing all alone at the foot of the newly opened gate. The figure was too far away for me to tell whether it was male or female even when I squinted my eyes. They didn't move though, not one bit. Whoever they were they were more than content to stand right where they were, right in the middle of that open gateway entrance while glancing in my direction. I still couldn't believe it though, another human life! So I wasn't alone after all. Ian had been wrong, very wrong! I didn't know what to do now. Should I try and find a way out of this tin can, rust bucket shuttle, as quickly as I possibly could or should I just stay and wait here for the strange figure to make themselves known to me. Oh what to do? What to do? What to do? These were the only words echoing through my mind right now. Within a few seconds though I had finally made up my mind, I had to get out of this ship, right now and right this very second. I had to feel the air on my face, the setting sun rays on my skin, the brown dirt beneath my feet. So I turned and ran, I ran as fast as I could in the direction of the cargo bay and to somehow find a way out into this world, this new world waiting for me beyond the large viewing window which had always been filled in the past with the vast, glittering, darkness. I had to get out of this hell hole instantly because now I was filled with hope, a new hope of living and staying alive and a thrilling feeling of excitement that I was no longer Alone.
The end
Thank you very much for downloading my second novel 'Alone.' If you enjoyed reading my work or even if you didn't enjoy reading, then please leave a quick review on Amazon so that I can learn more from your feedback and for my future writing. Thank you once again
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You may wish to check out my first novel 'Ugly Beautiful' which is available from Amazon.com and co.uk at the link below.
I also have a short story available 'Beauty in the woods.'
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Connect with me online here:
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seanpaulthomas1aol.com
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Smashwords -
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Amazon USA
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Amazon UK
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I have included a brief chapter excerpt from my first book 'Ugly Beautiful' on the next page for you to sample.
Ugly Beautiful Synopsis
Jason, a tormented soul and small town, womanizing gangster, double crosses his only friend and does a runner with a suitcase full of drug money, disappearing into the heart of the gorgeous Scottish highlands to lay low in a secluded cottage and start a new life.
On his second day of hiding out Jason discovers the mysterious body of a young and hauntingly beautiful woman lying unconscious at the bottom of a nearby hill. The woman though has no memory of who she is or how she even ended up there. So Jason carries the beauty back to his cottage, tenderly nursing her back to health and gradually gaining her trust and friendship by confessing his own past crimes, misdemeanors and infidelities, while also coaxing the woman to unravel her own forgotten past and tormenting mad visions... But doing so without the hindsight of the chilling, terrifying and sickening horrors which are about to be unleashed.
Ugly Beautiful Extract
The very next morning and Haley was sitting peacefully inside the passenger side of Jason's car. From the other side of the cottage Jason exited the front door, closed and locked it for the very last time. Carrying his bag and briefcase he made his way around to the back of the cottage and towards the boot of his car, smiling warmly at Haley through the window as he passed her by, while she in return smiled warmly back at him. Jason put his luggage into the boot and eventually climbed into the front driver's seat. Once inside there was a brief but comfortable silence as Jason finally spoke.
'You're sure about this then yeah? You definitely don't want me to drop you off anywhere or even the first town we come too?'
'Like where?' Replied Haley smiling. 'And don't say a hospital.'
Haley reached over and kissed Jason on the cheek.
'Okay.' Said Jason grinning. He placed his hand on the gear stick, foot on the clutch, ready to start the engine when Haley suddenly reached down to place her hand on top of his which was still firmly placed upon the stick.
'What...! What's wrong?' Said Jason turning to face Haley.
