Project Human
Page 33
response. Adelle and Darryl sat together, holding each other close. Barton looked away, not wanting them to see his tears.
Within minutes, the darkness in the windows became lighter. Then they saw blue water. Soon they were surfacing.
Barton stood in the door and stared at the bright blue sky. The air was hard to breathe, and he told them to do it slowly. It was clean though, and it was theirs. A few white, billowing clouds floated freely in the slight breeze—one that could never feel more refreshing.
Adelle and Darryl stared out, too. Their arms were locked around each other, pressing close.
“We’re home.” Adelle said.
“We made it,” Darryl added.
Barton kept quiet. Words could not describe to them what he was feeling. Tears choked his vision.
He pointed in the distance. A large boat was coming. A cruise ship, he realized.
Barton laughed then. A cruise ship.
Lying on his bed, a plate of fresh fruit beside him, Darryl and Adelle freshly showered and robed sitting close by, Steve Barton felt a shutter. For a brief moment, he thought he was still back with them. As his heart settled, his smile was unmatched.
Commotion filled the deck and halls as the large ship swayed. Screams filled the airwaves then; voices yelling that something was rising from the deep. Adelle and Darryl swallowed hard, holding each other in wonder.
Barton sat upright and looked out the small square window. It was night. Yet in the blackness, something darker yet rose from the water, something that dwarfed the enormous ship. It rose into the air, and in a blink, it was gone, disappearing into the sky.
Steve felt his heart pound. He took a drink and laid back down, resting peacefully as hundreds of voices screamed in terror.
It was early morning, the sun’s orange glow beaming across the water as Butch threw in his fishing nets. His father stood at the helm of the four-man craft, overlooking his son’s work.
“Dad! Over there!”
Butch pointed, and he looked. Something dark was in the water. He turned the boat, moving towards it. As they drew closer, his son yelled back to him.
“It’s a body!”
Butch wasted no time pulling it aboard. It was a man, old and wounded, but alive. Butch began to dress his wound with shirts he had ripped into rags. His father stood motionless. He had never seen anything like it before.
“Let’s get him back,” he told Butch.
As he went to the boat’s controls, the old man opened his eyes. They were scared, and filled with secrets.
“Are you okay?” Butch asked.
The old man rose gently, then wiped off his bald head and face with a shirt. “The air is thicker than I imagined.”
Butch had no idea what to think. “What is your name?”
“Whitmere. Doctor Whitmere.”
“Well, doctor, you’re lucky you didn’t drown.”
Whitmere smiled. “You have no idea.”
About the author
After writing screenplays for a few years, Sean began to work on his first novel, The Elf King, a fantasy fiction. He then adapted his sci-fi screenplay Project Human into a short novel.
Sean currently lives in northern Michigan.
Connect with the author on Facebook at:
www.facebook.com/AuthorSeanMcKenzie/?ref=hl