Jack Strong and the Red Giant

by Heys Wolfenden

  “Well then, you’re a fool,” said Ros. “You can die here with her if you want but I’m not going to.”

  “I’m not stupid,” said Jack. “I’m her friend! You probably don’t know what that means but…”

  “Boyfriend more like,” he sniggered.

  “Well, you can believe what you want...”

  “Wait can the ship still heal?” asked Ros, noticing the dark, inky streaks on his body for the first time.

  “I'm not sure; your ship has taken a lot of damage. Some things work. Some don't. You’ll have to try it and see if it works.”

  Ros closed his eyes and concentrated, green veins bulging out of his forehead.

  Not even so much as one stitch appeared.

  He tried again, harder this time, his forehead crinkling up like a concertina.

  “It’s not working,” he said after a few seconds. “Either that or it never worked in the first place.”

  “Well what are you going to do? You need to go to a hospital.”

  “Do I?” he asked sarcastically, before a long, grey tongue flicked out of his mouth, landing on a bloody gash just above his elbow.

  “What are you doing?” asked Jack, as Ros started licking the wound as hard and as fast as he could. “I said…”

  “I’m healing myself,” said Ros, in between licks, the irritation clear in his voice. “If I don't stop the bleeding I'll die. My saliva contains a strain of bacteria that helps repair skin and muscle tissue. Now leave me alone.”

  “That’s amazing, I wish I could do that. Sure would’ve come in handy,” said Jack imagining all the times he’d been beaten up.

  “Look, just stay quiet, okay?” asked Ros, as he slid into unconsciousness. “I need time to heal. Besides, there’s no telling what effect this planet's bacteria will have on my skin.”

  “Alright,” said Jack. “I’ll wait right here.”

  Hours passed, then days. The volcanoes continued their deadly splutter, spewing lava and pumice on an almost hourly basis, whilst the meteors cut through sky like flaming darts, skewering everything in their path.

  Just when Jack had given up on Ros ever waking-up again, he sprung to attention like a coiled spring. His near-comatose state hadn't done much for his bedside manner however. “How long has it been since the crash?” he demanded.

  “I don’t know,” said Jack. “Maybe a few days.”

  “What do you mean you don’t know?”

  “I don’t know because this planet is nothing like Earth,” he said. “The sun doesn’t even rise or set. It just hangs there in the sky getting closer all the time.”

  “What do you mean it’s getting closer?”

  “I can’t be sure, but it just looks that way to me. Do you see the constellation of stars next to it?” he asked, pointing at a large wagon wheel formation of stars.

  “Yes.”

  “How many stars are there?”

  “Twelve. So what?”

  “When we first landed there were fourteen.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, absolutely. I’ve checked and double checked. But more than that the whole thing just looks bigger. Much bigger. What does that mean?”

  “It means,” said Ros. “That the planet we are on is sooner or later going to crash into the sun. We probably only have a few days left, a week at the most.”

  “What? Are you sure?”

  “Of course. That is a red giant star.”

  “What’s a red giant?” asked Jack, thinking about some kind of monster from The Lord of the Rings or else Harry Potter.

  “Don't they teach you anything at school? It’s a star that’s spent all of the helium at its core. This causes it to expand in size and swallow all of the planets around it. It’s probably already eaten up several others before this one and we're next.”

  “Okay, well then what do we do?” asked Jack.

  “We have to get off this planet, that’s what.”

  “How? Both mine and your spaceships won't take off and Vyleria’s won’t even open.”

  “We’re screwed then.”

  “But…”

  “Look, it’s as simple as this. If we can’t get our ships to work and if the main ship won’t help us then we are going to die. Slowly and horribly. If the red giant up there doesn’t get us then the volcanoes or one of the fireballs will.”

  Then it hit Jack like a battering ram. They had to get off this planet. And soon.

  They sat there in silence for what felt like forever thinking of all the impossible ways to escape when suddenly the ground beneath their spaceship began to rumble and shake.

  Fissures poked up through the ground, stones danced and jigged, huge slabs of rock were lifted high up into the air; even the volcanoes in the distance seemed to burst with renewed viguor as towers of smoke billowed miles up into the atmosphere and rivers of lava burst their banks to fizz and pop away at the smoldering valley below. Then the ground opened-up before them as a huge, snake-like crack ate away at the desert, swallowing everything in its path: rocks, stones, boulders, even mountains. Just when they were about to be devoured whole, the ground ceased shaking and the gulf stopped in its tracks.

  “We’ve got to get out of here!” shouted Ros as one last boulder tumbled away into the darkness.

  “I told you – I’m not leaving Vyleria.” said Jack, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw her ship was still safe.

  “Well then, you two can die together.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I should never have gone out with you looking for Vyleria in the first place. I should've stayed on the spaceship and then all this would never have happened.”

  “Look, you don't know that,” said Jack.

  “Yes, I do. It's now or never Jack – will you come with me?”

  “What do you mean - go with you? Go with you where?”

  “Out there,” he said, pointing into the crimson murk. “I've got to do something – I've got to get out of here.”

  “Look, I told you before I'm not leaving her. Besides, my rocket boots were damaged in the attack. I can’t fly anywhere.”

  “I can carry you.”

  “No, I’m staying with her.”

  “Fine, suit yourself. I'll take my chances out there – perhaps I can find another civilisation, a spaceship, something that I can use...”

  “You're overreacting Ros. You can't go out there. It's suicide. Please, don't leave us.”

  But Ros didn’t listen.

  He stormed out of the spacecraft at once, his rocket boots taking him high-up into the air. Jack lost sight of him soon afterwards, his dim silhouette consumed by an orange cloud of smoke and ash.

  Chapter 24: Hunger

  Jack watched Ros disappear beyond the horizon.

  He didn’t come back.

  Jack looked ominously at the volcano. It was still spewing smoke; every now and again there would be a tremor, each one more violent than the one before. Had Ros managed to get past it? As far as he knew the whole planet could be covered in these huge, coughing mountains of lava and rock.

  Hours passed, or was it days? He couldn’t tell with the red star hanging in the sky like fire.

  Ros still hadn’t come back and nor had Vyleria emerged from her silver cocoon. Perhaps she never would…

  Frustration gnawed away at him. He couldn't just sit and wait in the hope that he and Vyleria would get rescued. He had to take a chance and do something, anything that might make it easier for them to survive.

  He stepped out of the spaceship and started walking in the direction of the volcano.

  All he found was desolation.

  That and the hunger and thirst that increasingly nibbled at his stomach.

  Half a day’s worth of fruitless trekking had gotten him nowhere. He would have to go back to the spaceships. It was either that or become bones in the desert.

  He’d been walking for hours when he noticed the red giant star hanging in the eastern portion of the
sky. It was almost midnight. Had Vyleria woken up yet? He doubted it. She was probably dead along with Ros. It occurred to him that he’d never thanked her for saving his life when he and Padget had been attacked by the black goo. If she wasn’t there then the others would most likely have flown off and left them to their fate. He only hoped that one day he could have her level of confidence and that he could be as important to the group as she was. He would feel good about himself then. That was if he ever got off this stupid planet…

  He was just about to set off again when he felt the temperature drop suddenly. He looked up and saw a big brown wave on the horizon. It was coming his way. And fast.

  The dust storm sped over the valley like a juggernaut, wind and sand blowing in all directions, getting into his eyes, ears and mouth. There was no way he was going to make it back to the spaceships in time. He looked around for some cover and for somewhere to hide.

  Nothing but rocks and desert.

  Still the storm blew, its anger unrelenting.

  Something large hit him on the shoulder, then his leg.

  Heart rate faster now.

  Then he saw what looked like a cave towards the top of some cliffs above him. He rushed up the rock-face as quickly as he could, scrambling over rocks and boulders, desperation surging through him like a river.

  Ten feet.

  Six feet.

  Five.

  He could see the entrance now, looming large above him like a giant vampire bat.

  He pulled himself inside as a wall of dust rushed in behind him, showering him in a hail of sand and fist-sized rocks. He was just about to see how big the cave was when he heard a loud, growling noise behind him.

  He could pick out one word only:

  “Hungry.”

  Chapter 25: Survival

  Vyleria slumped out of her spaceship and out onto the red sand.

  She thought she was dreaming again, except she wasn’t – the sharp pain in her temple made sure of that. She tried to stand up and get a look around, only to lose her balance and fall onto some rocks.

  Her whole body stung with pain.

  She grabbed hold of a large boulder and attempted to pull herself up. She pushed off with her left leg, then tried to move her right, but it wouldn’t respond.

  She looked down.

  Nothing but the blood red sand.

  Where her right leg used to be there was now just a short, scabby stump, the wound cauterised just above the knee.

  Then the pain came, hot and fierce. She'd broken the odd bone before in racing and mountaineering accidents, but this was different. This was pure, concentrated agony. After a few seconds she passed out.

  The howling storm ripped Vyleria from the drug of unconsciousness.

  A hail of dust and stones raked across her face, stabbing her with a thousand knives. Her leg flared again, its white hot fires erupting like a volcano.

  She reached inside her mind for her central pain nerve and switched it off.

  The pain gone, her throat cried out with thirst.

  She looked around for her spaceship, but all she could see was a shifting sand-filled haze, its long claws whipping at her body.

  She fumbled around, shielding her eyes, desperate for a glint of silver.

  All she found was a handful of dust.

  More wind, more sand.

  Something heavy thudded against her temple. Her eyesight wavered, blackened slightly, then came back.

  Desperate now, wriggling like a worm on a hook.

  Boulder. Stone. Pebble. Another boulder. Hope fading fast.

  Then her bloodied fingers collided with something soft and cool and malleable. Relief flooded through her like a tidal wave as the spaceship molded round her hand, pulling her inside. After that she lost consciousness.

  Vyleria awoke to the sound of a meteor storm careening through the atmosphere like a flight of flaming arrows. The ground trembled. She rubbed her eyes and looked outside. The dust storm was still raging, rapidly entombing her spaceship. If it continued like this she would be buried alive in less than an hour.

  Where were Jack and Ros? The last time she saw them they were in the asteroid belt, fleeing for their lives. She had no idea what had happened after that. She didn’t even know where she was. She vaguely recalled getting hit, then Jack calling out to her; that was it. Had they been killed up there or had they crash-landed here too? She scanned for their ships immediately.

  She found them in moments. One spacecraft was about a hundred feet away from hers, whilst the other was several miles distant on the edge of a great sprawling desert. Had they survived the landing?

  She called out to them through the ship’s voice-control system.

  No answer.

  She tried again, hearing only static. Where were they?

  Next she scanned the ships for life, fear mounting.

  Nothing again. Her heart beat doubled, tripled. Jack…

  She looked down at her mangled leg. Even now the bones and tissue were slowly beginning to heal and re-form, but it would be weeks before she could walk again. She closed her eyes to see if the ship’s hospital still worked, desperate to speed the process along, but nothing happened. She would just have to struggle on and do the best she could. That’s if it didn’t get infected first…

  Next she tried to get her spaceship to fly. She needn’t have bothered. She couldn’t even link with the ship’s systems, let alone get it in the air. She was stuck.

  She tried to focus on Jack. Anything to take her mind off things…

  She searched the planet for hours, but there was no sign of either of them. They weren’t in their spaceships and to make matters worse the dust storm and volcanoes were impeding her scans of the local area. They could be anywhere.

  She wanted to go out and look for them. But she couldn’t even stand up, never mind brave a hurricane force dust storm.

  Worry, fear, and then finally a feeling of immense frustration gripped her.

  For the first time in her life Vyleria Romen was completely helpless.

  Chapter 26: Hunted

  The dust storm swirled and rattled as an avalanche of stones and pebbles roared all around the valley.

  Jack huddled next to the cave entrance, far away from whatever animal had mouthed the word ‘hungry’, its low growls mingling with the shrill cries of the wind. On a couple of occasions, he even thought he’d heard Vyleria calling out his name, but he put it down to a combination of the wind and his own imagination. She was probably dead. There was nothing he could do about that now. He’d better get used to it. At some point he fell asleep. He slept like the drugged.

  He snapped awake to a loud scratching sound behind him.

  He spun around and peered into the gloom. Several dark shapes were shifting in the shadows, each one pierced by a pair of electric green eyes.

  They were fixed on him.

  Jack looked outside. The dust storm was beginning to ease-off. Patches of crimson were increasingly visible in the sky and the wind had died down to a slight breeze. Could he make it back to the spaceships?

  Then he heard a growling sound behind him, followed by more scratching.

  Eyes getting bigger, brighter. Howling now.

  It seemed like the whole cave was full of them.

  Suddenly five huge snouts filled with razor sharp fangs poked out of the gloom. They were about to pounce.

  Jack took one look at the gulf and jumped.

  He fell for what felt like forever before he thudded against the rocky slope. He tumbled down, arms and legs flailing.

  He’d rolled about fifty feet when he slammed chest-first into a large boulder.

  He stumbled to his feet, winded, trying to suck in lungful’s of air, as all around him the animals roared and howled, following him with their hungry, green eyes.

  He ran as fast as his aching legs could carry him, pain lancing his chest, tripping over rocks, banging into boulders. More pain, almost out of breath now.

  Not lookin
g where he was going, he ran straight into a slab of rock the size of a car. Pain ricocheted up his body like bullets. But still he urged his mind and body on.

  Limping, he arrived at the top of a small cliff about one hundred feet high. The spaceships weren’t far away now. Perhaps another ten minutes if he was quick, maybe more.

  Jack looked over the edge. Some sharp, jagged rocks peered back.

  Jumping was obviously out of the question. Could he climb down?

  Then Jack heard a sound that almost paralysed his central nervous system: a long, throaty growl that echoed up and down the valley.

  They were coming. Thousands of them.

  He turned around just in time to see a horde of huge, hairy creatures pour down the slope behind him.

  Jack could feel the ground shaking. He froze.

  Then before he knew what he was doing he was scrambling down the cliff face as quickly as he could, clumps of stones and dirt coming away in his hands.

  One of the footholds gave way.

  His body lurched towards the ground, but at the last moment he thrust out a hand, gripping a narrow ledge of rock. His hand stung with pain, but he kept on going regardless. He couldn't stop now.

  In no time at all Jack had scrambled, tumbled and fallen all the way down to the bottom.

  He was cut and bleeding in several places, but he had no time to stop as several pairs of glowing eyes suddenly veered above him, rivers of saliva dripping from their blood-stained teeth.

  Jack waited for them to pounce, ready to feel at any moment their fangs tearing through his jugular. But all they did was scratch and paw at the cliff’s edge.

  Jack didn't wait to see what they would do next. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, his knees and thighs screeching and burning with pain.

  He ran across the desert towards the spaceships, looking behind him for a sign of their death-black hides and their flashing green eyes. He couldn't see any.

  He was close now. Just another hundred feet.

  Ninety.

  Eighty.

  Seventy.