Alone

by Sean-Paul Thomas

  'David is your brother Anna. I am your husband.' He continued. 'Look! I'm not getting into your family history right this second if it's just going to confuse and upset you even more. But what I do need is for you to come into the medical bay so I can have a proper look at you.' Mark paused for a beat and smiled. 'Now unlike you I'm no Doctor, but you did teach me a thing or two over the years. So hopefully if we can just go over some basic checks and routines, it might help you to at least remember something about yourself. Maybe even about your past.'

  'I... I'm a doctor?' whispered Anna, still trying to comprehend the gross magnitude of everything Mark had said.

  'Among other things, yes.' Mark replied with a smile. Anna glanced back up at me with a look of sheer and utter disgust. If any look could kill a man where he stood then it was that one right then.

  'And him? This is... This is my...' she asked with venom in her tone. She could not bring herself to say the word that clearly pained her to say out loud.

  'Yes, your brother. You are twins if that means anything more to you.'

  I broke my gaze away from Anna for the second time. If I could make it so then I would never look upon her again. The shame was too great. Anna scrunched her face like she were in great pain. She then turned away and held stomach in tremendous discomfort.

  'I feel, I feel like I'm going to be sick.' Anna said, wincing. Mark stood then stretched over to help Anna off the bed. Anna freaked though, thumping him with her fists like a wild, uncontrollable, raging animal

  'DON'T TOUCH ME! DON'T YOU TOUCH ME!' She screamed. Mark was caught off guard. Still a little dazed and disorientated from the pod he found it hard to block some of her wild blows at first. Finally he came to his senses, eventually grabbing a hold of Anna by her wrists and restraining her with his brute strength. He turned and pinned her struggling naked body face down upon the bed with her arms locked behind her back. Anna continued to scream and struggle wildly as I looked on horrified at the raging, rabid animal she had become. I couldn't think at all in the moment. I didn't want to think. I only wanted to run and disappear. Instead I just continued to watch this dream like charade before Mark interrupted my numb state, both turning and shouting at me at the same time.

  'David! I need you to run into the medical bay and get me a sedative and an injection needle from the top right hand cupboard, okay?'

  'I don't, I don't know where... I don't know what any of that stuff is.' I said panicking and flustered because I'd been put on the spot.

  'Shit!' Mark raged frustrated. 'Do you at least think you can hold her down while I run and get what I need to get?'

  I didn't want to do this either, but I nodded submissively as Anna continued to scream and rage at Mark to let her go. She sobbed manically too.

  'Well come here then, quickly!' Mark snapped getting more annoyed. I hurriedly approached the struggling Anna who was still pinned down upon the bed.

  'Now take my grip of her wrists okay, kneel on her lower back and hold her down and hard for two minutes. You think you can manage that?'

  Anna continued to scream, struggling frantically, but could hardly move for Mark's strength. I nodded taking a firm grip of Anna's wrists. Mark let go of his hold. I placed my knee upon her lower back as Mark hurriedly left the bedroom. I continued to hold Anna down as she screamed and sobbed more uncontrollably.

  'I don't understand any of this! I don't understand any of this!' she raged. 'Why is this happening to me? Why is this happening? I don't... understand...'

  I couldn't control my emotions any longer and started sobbing too. I then lowered my face close to her ear and whispered gently.

  'I am so, so sorry Anna! I am so, so sorry... for all of this.'

  'Get away from me!' Anna exploded, spitting and snarling. 'This is your fault! This is all your fault. THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT.'

  More tears trickled down my cheeks as Anna continued to sob in unison with me. I wanted to tell her that everything was going to be okay. That all of this would turn out all right in the end, but nothing was okay. Nothing would ever be okay for the two of us ever again and for as long as we both shall live. For a brief, good, comforting and innocent moment in time we had our own little bubble together here in this place. Where everything was fine and everything felt nice, okay and simple. We might have been able to get past the episode in the shower, the uneasy and forced copulation on my behalf, but after this. After everything Mark had revealed to us. That bubble had well and truly burst, and it was never, ever coming back.

  Chapter 14

  Anna lay sleeping upon the bed again as both Mark and I watched from the doorway. She was heavily sedated thanks to a strange and curious needle Mark had injected into her arm. It took barely a few moments to take effect

  'Was that the first time she's been hysterical like that since you both came out of the pods?' Asked Mark without taking his eyes away from her. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was truly hurt and distressed by Anna's state.

  'Yes.' I duly answered.

  'Maybe it was the shock of seeing me. I must be like some random bloody stranger to her now.' Mark continued before turning to face me. 'How long have you both been living like this for?'

  'I... I don't know!' I replied unable to meet Mark's stare. 'But it feels like a long time.'

  Mark took a deep breath and touched my shoulder as he turned away. He headed out into the corridor.

  'Well let's have a look around the shuttle. See if we can find out what went wrong, and just where the hell everyone else is?'

  ***

  Mark led me into dark computer room with the large viewing window. To be honest I just wanted to lie down somewhere and be alone, but Mark wanted me to help him and I felt I had to oblige with whatever he asked. I guess he was our only hope to make any sense of this mad, mad situation. I hovered around the doorway as Mark took an extra long moment to scan the dark interior of the room. He finally focussed his attention upon the first row of vandalised computers and their screens.

  'What the hell happened in here?' Mark mumbled almost to himself.

  'It was always like this.' I replied.

  Mark sat himself down at one of the damaged computers. The screen had a large crack along the front, but when he touched the black screen it sprang to life with an array of different colours and images. Amazingly it seemed to be in fine working order despite its badly damaged exterior appearance. I moved closer so I could get a better view of what he was doing. I wanted to learn. I had a new urge growing inside me to know more about everything here.

  'Can you explain to me what you're doing?' I asked.

  'Well, at the moment, I'm just rebooting the system. Then I'm going to run a program through the main computer which will hopefully scan for our location.'

  'So where do you think we might be located?'

  Mark chuckled and gazed over towards the viewing window. I followed his gaze.

  'In all honesty... we could be anywhere my friend... any bloody where!'

  'What is that out there?' I said focussing my attention towards the twinkling darkness outside.

  'If you really can't remember David, then you really don't want to know.' Mark replied chuckling as he returned his focus back upon the screen.

  'Does it have a name?'

  'Space my friend. Just endless regions of never ending space.'

  'And the lights... all those beautiful twinkling little lights?' I said.

  'Homes for some people, I guess! Lots and lots of homes dotted all over space. One of which, hopefully, is our own home.'

  'Home.' I said softly smiling at such a comforting thought. Suddenly Mark hit his hands upon the desk in frustration. He was getting angry for some reason.

  'Shit!'

  'What's wrong?'

  'The program won't tell me our location because it doesn't recognise any of my commands. It's like it's been completely wiped.'

  I watched over Mark's shoulder as he entered a program into the computer which seemed to
be for the hibernation pods. A second screen popped up with writing inside asking for a time and date entry. Mark looked even more frustrated and confused.

  'If the computer doesn't know the time and date then how the hell am I suppose to bloody know!' Mark sighed to himself.

  He tried to access another program. Another screen popped up flashing 'inactive'. Mark entered another program which I just couldn't understand at all.

  'What are you doing now?'

  'I'm trying to access another program which will hopefully tell me about the ship's power supply.'

  The screen flashed 'MAIN POWER GENERATOR OFF LINE. EMERGENCY BACK UP 40%.'

  'What the hell is going on here?' Mark said thumping his fists upon the desk again.

  'What does that mean?' I asked. Mark quickly stood up from the computer and made his way over towards a huge, sealed and metallic looking computerised box.

  'It means that if we can't get the main power back on again then we are as good as dead my friend.'

  Mark explored all around the large electronic box. It didn't look as if I could help Mark out in the slightest with his new duties. Instead of hanging around him I made my way uncomfortably towards the row of three chairs in front of the viewing window. Thoughts of forcing myself upon Anna in the shower room randomly flashed through my mind. I did my best to shake them off and concentrate upon the reason I'd approached the three chairs. I wanted to show Mark the Skeleton remains on the floor beside the chairs. I wanted to get his thoughts and input.

  'I think you should come down here and see this.' I said glancing back up at Mark who was fully engrossed in his new work over beside the large box.

  'What is it David?'

  'I don't know... Maybe one of the missing people.'

  Mark stopped what he was doing right away and glanced over at me looking very confused. 'I mean how many other people are there suppose to be?' I continued. 'How many are missing?'

  Mark left what he was doing for the time being and made his way over.

  'There are two others missing that's all. Ian and Stefani.' Mark said. He approached the chair glancing down in dread at the skeleton remains.

  'What the hell?' He crouched down to take a closer look. He picked up some of the scattered bones and skull fragments before studying them with great fascination and curiosity.

  'I don't understand.' He said, still confused. 'This is a female skeleton... and it looks like... it could be hundreds... thousands of years old! I mean what the hell?'

  I remained silent as Mark continued to study the skull in greater detail. My mind was still struggling to keep up with the recent events since Mark's arrival and still couldn't process the basic concepts of time. Ten years. One thousand years. It meant nothing to me at this moment.

  'How is this even possible.' Mark mumbled to himself.

  'There's another one.' I said.

  'Where?' Asked Mark glancing up at me.

  'Down the dark hole. The one with the long ladder into the darkness.'

  Mark let out a deep breath and stood back onto his feet.

  'Well we can't do anything about this right now. I need to get the shuttle's main computer and generator back online, get it working in at least a half decent condition too. Then hopefully I can access the DRD so we can find out just what the hell's been going on here.'

  'DRD?' I said clueless.

  'It's a Digital Recording Database. Recorded footage of the entire shuttle.' Mark said as he pointed over towards various dark places on the ceiling. 'There are cameras in every room and corridor inside the shuttle keeping a digital log of everything that goes on here. Do you understand what I mean?'

  I glanced up and all around the dark ceiling.

  'No.' I replied. I didn't understand much of what Mark was saying anymore.

  'The computer watches everything and records it all. Whatever we do onboard this Shuttle the computer sees it.' Mark continued as he pointed over at the large electrical box he was just working on. It took a moment for Mark's words to sink, but when it finally did I felt sick and anxious. Someone has been watching me all this time?. Did he mean Ian? Was Ian maybe a part of the metallic box! He seemed to know and see everything, but wasn't Ian suppose to be one of the missing crew? I really didn't understand any of this too well.

  '...If I can get it working then I'll show you. There should be hundreds, thousands of hours of footage containing every single bit of action and conversations that have ever taken place on board this shuttle since we left... home.' Mark smiled half heartedly and placed his hand upon my shoulder. 'I guess it could be your job to rifle through all that footage since you have nothing better to do with your time here. And I can get on with fixing the shuttle and trying to get us the hell back home. And who knows Davy boy, it may even help with your memory problems.' Mark chuckled as he slapped my shoulder. He headed back towards the large computerised box. I continued to stare up at the ceiling trying to catch a glimpse of these hidden camera digital things that he was referring too. I couldn't see them. No matter how hard I tried, but I'm sure they could see me no doubt. Had they heard every word I'd spoken. Saw every step I'd taken and watched every single move I'd made from the first moment I'd emerged from the sleeping pod?

  Chapter 15

  I didn't know how much time had passed, but it felt like a lot. I was sitting in a crumpled heap in the far corner of the dining area and hadn't seen Mark for quite sometime. Of course I'd heard him wandering all over this place, this place he called 'Shuttle.' At times I could hear him working and banging away from down below. Other times I could hear him moving about and doing things in the rooms nearby. Anna I had not seen or spoken too since we'd sedated her. Nor did I have any intention of ever seeing or speaking to her again if I could help it. Once or twice I'd heard Mark going into her room to speak with her but I didn't think she ever spoke back. He must've brought her water too and maybe some food but I couldn't say if she consumed it or not. Sometimes I moved around this floor of the Shuttle when I felt the need arise. I enjoyed more than anything just laying down inside one of the other bedrooms, just lying and thinking about everything that had happened. Apart from the other bedroom and the kitchen/dining area there wasn't really many other places for me to be alone. And no matter where I ended up I could never truly escape the nightmare thoughts and images of all those previous crazy, weird, wrongfully pleasurable and horrific interactions I'd endured since my awakening. They haunted me with every conscious moment.

  ***

  After some time passed of nothing new happening, the lights unexpectedly flickered then faded until the shuttle fell into complete darkness. This was a new development. After another few moments all of the lights came surging back on again, but somehow brighter than ever before. The new lighting situation hurt my eyes immensely. It was the quick sudden brightness which effected me more than anything. As I closed my eyes shielding them from the brighter light, it triggered something in the back of mind and I remembered... Some old memories returned to me again from before my time in the pod, but in much greater detail.

  I was inside the small box room which I'd discovered earlier when Ian told me about the double tapping of all the doors. The room with the up and down leaver inside. I could remember that this was called a lift and could take me from the main first floor of the shuttle down into the next dark floor below. I remembered that this area was called the 'Cargo bay.'

  I was in the box room lift with Anna. We were both laughing and smiling playfully, wearing our grey body suit uniforms. The lift doors opened and we exited into a huge brightly lit cargo storage area. As Anna walked out of the lift first I teasingly tugged upon her long pony tail she had her hair tied into. She yelped playfully, turning to slap me on the shoulder but I was far too quick for her and moved out of reach.

  'I'm going to kick you where it really hurts in a minute David.' She said acting cross.

  'Go on then?' I cheekily dared her.

  Anna turned away from me again. Just as soon a
s she did I quickly moved up behind her and pulled on her pony tail once more. This time making a train noise.

  'Choo! Choo!' I said chuckling. We seemed so happy annoying each other like this. Anna laughed too before turning and pretending to kick me right between the legs. But I was too quick and scooped up her leg. I held it off the ground while she desperately tried to balance herself with her other leg.

  'You call that a kick sis! That was pathetic.' I said taunting. I then casually walked away still holding onto her leg. I slyly made her hop along with me further into the main cargo bay.

  'You are such a big kid David. Jesus.' Anna continued giggling away and desperately trying to free herself without falling. I continued to drag and hop her along.

  'And your thigh is going to be a hell of a swollen like a big fat balloon by the time I've finished hopping you all over this shuttle for the rest of your shift.' I said right back at her. She then deliberately fell down onto the floor to wriggle from my hold. Quickly she shot back onto her feet and jumped onto my back to tickle me hard. The sensation was almost unbearable as I struggled to throw her off. Luckily for Anna a grumpy looking Ian stepped out from a side room just up ahead.

  'Come on guys stop acting like a bunch of teenagers for Christ sake. There's plenty of work still to be done here you know.' Ian said disapprovingly. He seemed to be a completely different person to how I knew him in the present. Was this really the same man? Anna stopped tickling sliding down from my back. We stood up straight and faced Ian, composing ourselves.