Month: July 2015

As night began to fall, he began to recall thoughts of Earth simulation he experienced. Beautiful beaches with ivory colored sand. The season called Winter where cool breezes would remove the sweat from his brows. He imagined whatever he could think of to get through another wretched night on this planet.

He thought to himself, “Now that I’m out of that swamp, I could finally gain some ground and make up some of the time I…”

A sound of a crackle caught his attention.

In the distance he could see what looked like another human being. He called out, “Hey! Someone out there?!”

The sound of someone walking became louder. It was close.

As he began to walk towards the direction of the sound, it became louder, harder, and more rapid. The sound of walking became the sound of running. He began to panic.

“What the hell is that?” he thought to himself, “I… Where did that…”

He reached in his pack and began looking for his radio. As the the distance of the sound narrowed he began to stumble and dropped his pack. After a failed attempt at recovering his backpack he began to look for a place to hide.

There was a hole that looked large enough to fit him in the ground just ahead of him. As he ran closer and closer to it, the sound got louder and louder, and the image he saw ahead of him grew larger and with it, a cloud of black dust. He slide into the hole.

Three feet above him, he could see the dust rushing over the hole and what looked to be orange colored objects. At the speed they were traveling, they were impossible to make out. The dust seemed to go on for hours. He sheltered himself there for the night and when he woke in the morning, with the dust cleared and a calm quiet wind, he arose. What he saw startled him.

Mud sloshed in his face, breaking his focus on his footing. The suction of the mire pulled at his feet and he stumbled again under the weight of his pack.

“Eight hours of walking on this cursed planet and nothing to show for it,” he said.

He used the last clean square of his shirt to wipe the ore-laden mud from his eyes.

High above, the alien sun shone like a hot day in Nevada. He had only seen Nevada once, and only in a simulator. When he was younger, he met a man who claimed to have visited Earth.

But he knew the man was a liar.

Taking a few more steps, he grabbed a rare hanging vine and pulled himself against the sludge. As soon as the vine left his grip, his hand began to burn and swell. Grumbling to himself, he hung his backpack on a tree. Reaching into the largest pocket, he produced a medical kit. With his good hand, he unzipped the old canvas bag and removed the anti-allergen spray.

The cap popped off and fell into the mud, now lost to the unsanitary conditions of the rotting pool of water.

With a quick spray, his hand began to tingle. The medicine would not be in full-effect for some time, but at least the coolness of the spray would take the edge off.

When he had returned the can and medical kit to his backpack, he soldiered on. Two hours later, his feet landed on the solid ground at the edge of the swamp. With a smile, he bid it farewell and moved onward. When the trees grew farther apart, he could see the mountains. Years ago the men from one of the colonies had gathered there to mine, but what became of them he could not say.

The map showed him to be another day from their last outpost, but that couldn’t be right. With the heat of the sun and the ruggedness of the terrain, it would be another two. But his water would be gone by morning.