Lost On Mars

by George Robbins

  “Separately or together?” Raynin asked.

  “No one is separating. We are either going together or not” Gardner slapped Raynin’s back.

  “I guess that’s true” Donnie cut in and began to walk.

  They walked further away from the rocket and explored the land. They took samples of soil and rocks and pictures as well”

  “Okay we have gotten all the information we came for. Let’s get back to the rocket. We have to launch the mini rocket and get the hell out of here―” Donnie announced, holding a rock in his hand.

  “Umm, aren’t we going to stick the American flag on this planet? Just like the first moon landing” Raynin gestured his right hand towards the ground.

  “Seriously?” Gardner asked his partner. “We got no time to waste on this wasteland. Let’s get out of here and go get that goddamn money”

  “I guess your friend here can go back to earth and bring the flag he is talking about” Donnie tilted his head.

  “He can surely do that―I hope you two can stay here long enough for us to get back with the flag” Gardner squeezed his voice. Julius and Donnie looked at each other, confused about Gardner’s words.

  Gardner pulled out a 357 Sig pistol from the side of his suit and pointed it at Donnie.

  Donnie became stunned, his arms wide apart.

  “Do you think we are fools” Gardner smirked. “You heard the lady, even if only one survives. We ain’t sharing that millions of dollars with you. You are going to get stuck down here, whiles we go back to earth as heroes and the first humans to survive Mars―”

  “Shut the hell ―” Before Julius could even finish, he got shot three time in the stomach and chest. He yanked onto the red soil, blood oozing out of his suit.

  Donnie’s heart jumped as he looked down at Julius gasping in his helmet.

  “Now you” Gardner pointed the pistol back at him.” Stay here or end up like him”

  Raynin grinned at him and they ran the where the rocket was.

  “You can’t fly a rocket you fools!” Donnie yelled.

  He quickly knelt by Julius and covered the gun holes in the suit with his palms.

  “You are going to survive dude. Don’t die”

  Julius looked Donnie straight in the eye, blood spewing from his mouth.

  “Shit―you can’t die. I would have to break the rules to save you” Donnie loosed the grips of the helmet off Julius’s head.

  Thinking he would suffocate, due to lack of oxygen, Julius was still breathing. His eyebrows raised.

  “You are breathing? It’s safe out here. Dude you can breathe!”

  Donnie quickly loosed the grip of his helmet and took it off. He raised his head and breathed in his first oxygen from Mars.

  He crinkled his brow and looked around, wondering why there weren’t any tree on Mars but he could still breathe.

  He then brought his head down to Julius. He wasn’t blinking or showing any sign of breathing.

  “Julius, man―” he called. “Shit dude, you fucken died on me―” Donnie took off the gloves on his hand and wiped a tear from his eyes.

  A launching sound of a rocket pulled Donnie’s attention back to reality. He watched the mini rocket launch straight into the air and then suddenly explode.

  “Oh no” he thought, covering his eyes against the bright explosive lights.

  “I told them they couldn’t launch a rocket― now how do I get out of this god forsaken place”

  He watched burning pieces of the mini rocket, fall from the skies back onto the red soil.

  “Those bastards took their own lives.” He looked at the main rocket, where a few supplies were. He felt a little hope, knowing the supplies in there would allow him to last for days. “I got to find a way to contact NASA from that crashed rocket―only if they would launch another rocket to get me in time before I die”

  Everything settled and all Donnie could hear was the wind that howled over the red sands. He knelt beside his dead friend, wondering how he would get out of the planet. He turned his head to another direction to see huge dust approaching. He rose from his knees, placing his right palm above his narrowed eyes to have a closer look.

  He could see silhouette figures in the dust, approaching him very fast. He knew that wasn’t any humans or aliens, it looked like machines, like trucks approaching him in the desert.

  The dust got closer, a few kilometers away him. Donnie realized everything he thought about the dust was true. It wasn’t any illusion but trucks, looking dirty brown with metal spikes on most of its parts, approaching him.

  “This won’t be good” he looked down at Julius. “Till we meet again”

  He turned around, took off his heavy space suit and started running from the approaching trucks.

  He heard beings cheering from the trucks as they were getting closer to him. Donnie’s heart was pounding, he gasped and turned around to have a second look. “Mars is a whole different planet than humans think― so bad am going to die in their hands before humans know about it”

  The sound of the engines got louder behind him. Before he knew, eight trucks had surrounded him, moving around him in a circular motion, just like a predator ready to attack its prey.

  Donnie halted, consumed in fright. His eyes rolled from side to side with his arms a little apart and trying to see who those beings are.

  All the eight trucks stopped in unison and at ones. Donnie’s heart was pounding out of his chest, his eyes moved swiftly around, anticipating what might come out of those trucks. He couldn’t hear the cheers anymore―everywhere was quiet.

  The door of one truck swung open. A red being stepped out, tall and muscular, bald head, black color circled both of its eyes. It wore a dirty grey vest, cargo pants and boots. It was no different from a human, except its skin color, height and horns on its shoulders.

  Other beings, having the same features as the first one also stepped out from the trucks. They had big black guns clasped in their hands.

  “What do you want from me?” Donnie huffed in terror. He knew that was his last breathing in oxygen. “Do you even understand me at all?”

  The first being that came out of the truck walked towards him. It seemed he was the leader among them, Donnie could tell. Donnie kept his mouth shut, feeling his hands shivering as the being got closer. Immediately it got to him, it hammered the stock of its gun on the side of his neck. Donnie yanked onto the ground and faded.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The continuous crashing thunders got Donnie to wake up from his long sleep.

  “Argh, my neck― those crazy creatures hurt me so bad” he passed his fingers over the cut on his neck.

  He sat up and glanced around to find himself locked in a cell.

  “Was I dreaming or what? Am still in prison. I was having a damn dream all ―”

  “Well, who do we have here? The alien who came from the skies” a soft voice came for the darkness, further in the cell. Light from the corridor only reflected on half part of the cell, the other half going further into the cell was dark.

  Donnie’s stomach churned, he looked into the darkness. “Who are you? And am I on earth?”

  “You are dead wrong fellow. You are in the upper militia cells of Mars” the voice came again. “And you came at the wrong time”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  A female, looking the same as a human, having light brown skin, long black ponytail, deep yellow eyes and ears like an elf, walked into the light.

  She wore a light blue vest, tight black pants and boots. Four white tattoo rings were drawn on both of his lower arms.

  She squatted next to Donnie. “You are lucky to be still alive by now. Aliens who come from other planets are killed on sight and experimented on later―”

  “What are you?” Donnie interrupted, amazed by how the being spoke fluently in earth’s language.

  “Simply, am a Martian and I guess you are from plan
et Earth? I studied a lot about planets, especially Earth since it was closer to ours―back in the days when I was young”

  “What?” Donnie whispered to himself. “We were taught Mars is inhabitable―like nothing lived here. The people of Erath must know abo―”

  The being speedily grabbed his shirt, raised him up and yanked him against the steel bars.

  “What are you going to tell them for? Do you want them to come over here, invade and colonize it―I know you humans, I have read a lot about you and I know your great obsession to colonize other planets” She glared at him as she spoke. “No one from earth must know about this ―about Mars. You hear?”

  She threw Donnie to the ground and rubbed her palms down her singlet.

  Donnie laid on his back, his head raised towards the female Martian. “Do you want to kill me before those red beings do?”

  “Be careful of going back to tell the people of earth or I would have to kill you before you even leave this planet”.

  Donnie sat up, both of his hands on the floor to support his back. “Speaking of leaving, are you going to help me escape this planet? I need to go back. Please help me, please”

  She looked at Donnie and placed her hands on her waist, nodding. “Am a prisoner like you. If I could escape this place, you wouldn’t have come to meet me here. Our cell blocks are heavily guarded here on Mars. You can’t escape without dying first― the Upper Rim Militia is more aggressive, unlike the Lower Rim Militia”

  “Who are the Upper Rim Militia and the Lower Rim Militia?”

  The lady came and sat opposite to Donnie. She pointed at him and said “There are lot of things about this planet that will take you time to understand. There are millions of beings on this planet―”

  “But I saw nobody. Where are all of them?” he rudely interrupted once again.

  She was quiet for a while, looking right at Donnie. “The lower rim” she answered. “About 98%― all on the lower rim. The upper rim, which is the surface of Mars got destroyed through Nuclear Wars and asteroids thousands of years ago. Jaen Quinn, the first leader of the Lower Rim Militia and the ancient Roghims saved millions of Martian civilians to the underground. Where through years have built massive advanced cities. Very advanced and beautiful than what you humans can imagine” She glanced around the cell and sighed deeply. “It’s been very long since I stepped foot there”

  Donnie listened to her attentively, trying not to ask any question. She continued. “And the Upper Rim, the ruthless militia. All they do is kill. After the nuclear war, the surface of the planet was devastated and harmful. Oxygen was no more, water bodies dried up, trees, all gone. Only a few animals survived, that were those taken to the lower rim. The surface was full of radiation. Everyone moved underground, except for the prisoners who were left to die in the radiation. Many of them escaped to the lower rim, but those who stayed were too strong for the radiation to kill. They were the Khaghin clan―red skin, mostly tall and muscular. They have two distinctive skin layers and two hearts which made them to withstand the radiation. Through years, they multiplied and claimed the surface of Mars. Due to their color, they are able to blend with the color of the sand. This makes them look invisible and able to capture aliens who visit the planet. Their militia kills aliens―just like you”

  Donnie never realized he was getting sunk into the history of Mars. He didn’t even realize his jaw was dropping as he continued to listen to her.

  “Representatives of the Lower Rim buy the body from them to perform various experiment on. Only representatives are allowed on both rims. No civilian from the Lower Rim can come up here and no civilian from the Upper Rim can cross into the Lower Rim. It’s a crime punishable by death if one is found guilty”.

  “How did you end up in here?” Donnie asked.

  “I crossed the line. I violated the law and I was caught” She chuckled, her head hung low.

  “Why would you come all the way up her, by yourself whiles there is a better life in the place you call the Lower Rim?”

  She raised her head and heightened an eyebrow. “You want to know?”

  Donnie nodded briefly.

  “Am an explorer. Wanted to find out about the upper rim after 28 years of being down there―all I did was study and follow rules. I just wanted to be different. Different like how things were in the old days”

  “Old days?” Donnie threw his head back.

  “Never mind― you are a stranger and you don’t have to know everything”

  Donnie stared at her for a while and slowly pushed his hands forward for a handshake. “Am Donnie”

  She looked down at his hand without saying a word. She rose to her feet. Shrugged and walked into the dark again.

  Donnie was stuck in the handshake posture as he watched her leave. “Whoa, that’s so rude”

  “What’s the point if we are going to executed tomorrow” she spoke from the dark.

  “What? Tomorrow?” Donnie got struck with fear. “At least knowing your name will give me a peaceful death―knowing I talked to a friendly Martian”

  “Sleep, while you can. Tomorrow isn’t for us” she paused. “Oh and the thunders, its normal out here―very loud”

  Donnie gloomily turned his head away from the dark. He didn’t hear anything from the female Martian anymore. He crawled to the opposite side of the cell and rested his back on the wall. Donnie sat quietly, thinking of his wife and daughter. He took a necklace from his pocket and opened the round pendant, staring at an old picture of them together till he fell asleep.

  Donnie suddenly woke up just when he felt a kick in his groin. He opened his eyes to see three red beings in the cell, one carrying the lady on his shoulders and the two standing right in front of him. Donnie stood up to his feet, trying not to get carried like the lady, but he was wrong, one of the two red beings grabbed him, tied his hands and placed him on his shoulders like a weightless material. They carried them down the corridors. Donnie glanced at the other cells which were all empty.

  “We were alone in this cell block? But why, aren’t there criminals here on Mars?” he thought.

  They walked into a dark narrow space and halted. Then a heavy metal gate slid upwards, casting sunlight on them. They walked out into the red desert sands. Donnie could feel the hot sun rays on his back. He looked at the metal gate close right behind them.

  As they carried them further to the trucks, he realized they had actually come out of a mountain. The cell blocks were built in a mountain. Donnie turned his head to look at the lady being carried next to him. He wondered why she laid there motionless and not saying even a word or jolting her body.

  The three Khaghins halted and threw both of them behind a dirty red pickup with spikes on its doors. Donnie fell on his back, he narrowed his eyes and turned his head away from the hot sun rays.

  Other Khaghin soldiers walked to the three and began to converse with them.

  “Kill them and bring back their bodies. They would make us some good money” Donnie heard the chief of the Upper Rim Militia, the same being that hammered his rifle stock on his neck, instruct the three in a Martian language he didn’t understand.

  They got into the truck and drove away from the Base. Donnie looked at the female Martian, laying on her side and looking at him like a statue. “Hey, where are they taking us?” he whispered.

  The female shrugged and closed her eyes.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Donnie wondered why she was reacting that way or was it a Martian tradition to behave that way when you are going to be executed?

  They laid at the back of the pickup truck silently in the never ending journey. Donnie was trying to figure a way to escape, but all the ideas that came through his head wasn’t going to guarantee their survival.

  The truck immediately pulled up. The three Khaghins came out of the truck and walked to the back.

  They laughed as they pulled them out. They untied them and kicked them onto the sands.r />
  “Do you know what you are going to do?” One spoke with his monstrous voice and this time Donnie understood him loud and clear. “We need you to run. We are giving you a chance to play before you die” they laughed.

  The female Martian looked at Donnie and stood up from her knees.

  “Run for your lives. Run fools!” they yelled, knowing there was no way they could escape their gunshots on that large wasteland.

  Donnie and the lady began to run. One Khaghin, his hand placed over his waist watched them with a monstrous smile on his face. The other two had their laser guns aimed at them.

  “Wait a minute” the Khaghin with his hand on his waist instructed the two khaghins with the guns. It seemed he was in charge. “A second―”

  The female Martian looked at Donnie as they run and yelled. “Come over to my side!”

  Donnie didn’t know what plan she got but he had to do it would keep them alive. He went to her side. She also quickly ran to Donnie’s previous position.

  “Again!” she yelled once more and they swapped position again.

  They continued running with this strategy, in an intertwining rhythm and swapping positions after positions.

  “What are they doing?” the Khaghin in charge asked, frowning his face. “Shoot them! Shoot!!”

  They started firing on the command. The strategy employed by Donnie and the female Martian made them to dodge every laser shot at them.

  The two Khaghins got confused, not knowing when or where to shoot.

  “Give me that!” the Khaghin in charge took a laser rifle from one.

  Every laser he shot failed to strike any of them. He pulled his head away from the rifle’s scope and exclaimed.

  “Get them!” he rushed into the pickup truck, then the two climbed behind, still aiming the laser guns at Donnie and his counterpart.

  The Khaghin started the vehicle and hastily pursued them.

  CHAPTER FIVE