Wells turned around, gesturing to Roger at the other end of the room. “Roger!” Sonia jovially called out, as he immediately came running over to her. “Sonia! Thank goodness you’re ok!” He embraced her deeply. “What the hell happened? Space dementia? I can’t believe it! You were right all along!” They laughed slightly.
“Guys,” Kristina and Bertie were crouched beside Nadia and Byron. Wells and Roger helped Sonia to her feet, before joining them over there. “Are they…” Sonia didn’t want to say the word.
“Yes…” Kristina remorsefully answered, “They’re dead…”
For the first time in a considerable amount of months, Roger was stood in front of the air lock control panel again. “First of all: I would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to Sonia and Wells for freeing us from the condition that was gripping our minds. Without them, the space dementia would’ve gotten us all unknowingly killed.” Everyone nodded appreciatively to them. “Secondly,” He looked inside the air lock at Byron and Nadia’s corpses inside. “Space is the final destination for humanity. It’s a shame that Byron and Nadia will never get to feel it now. At least most of the previous sacrifices, they were alive for a few brief moments – They would’ve felt space itself. But not all of us can be that fortunate… So, to our friends Byron and Nadia: May the stars take care of you. Safe flight, our friends…” With huge remorse and guilt for once, Roger pulled the red lever, ejecting the two corpses out into the vacuum of space.
“Six of us remain…” Roger followed up. “Professor Sonia, Wells, Rosie, Kristina, Bertie, and of course, myself, Roger. It’s a real shame that we have lost so many of our beloved crew members. But know that their deaths will never be in vein. We know what has to be done now… Byron unlocked the escape pod in attempt to save himself before the space dementia claimed his mind… We have a way back to Earth should we desire to. Trouble is, we can only seat four people in the escape pod. We could risk two lives, but in doing so, the sheer forces acting on the pod would kill the two standees… Therefore, two of you would have to stay up here, with at least some chance of survival for some amount of time… We only have days, if not, hours, if not, minutes even, until this station loses power. It could happen at any moment. We need to make our decisions now. I want everyone to pack their things and make a decision, meet on deck for dinner in one hour. We’re eating early on this day, Boxing Day 2026. Dismissed.” Roger clicked his neck, then headed for his living quarters.
“So, what’s everyone doing?” Bertie asked the others, as they all confided in each other.
“I want to go back to Earth still…” Kristina answered, “I just… I don’t care what it’s like… I have to see it for myself, with my own two eyes. I’m really sorry, and I really don’t want to sound selfish, but I’m not staying behind or giving up my seat for someone else.”
Wells and Rosie looked at each other – their minds were clearly already made up. “That’s alright Kris… We’re staying.” Sonia and Bertie instantly tried to change their minds, but they were obviously already made up. “No, absolutely no way,” Sonia shook her head, “You two have a beautiful relationship. If you go down to Earth, you can live your lives out wherever you want. Think about it, this station is still orbiting the Earth for now. If you want us to go to Australia,” she was slightly biased for obvious reasons, “Then will eject the pod there. If you want to go back to Ireland, Wells, we’ll eject the pod there. If you want to go back to Belgium, Rosie, we’ll eject the pod there! Or maybe you want to go somewhere exotic! Peru? Barbados?” She was desperately trying to convince them not to give up their lives.
“There’s only one place I wanna be, Sonia. And that’s in Rosie’s arms,” He hugged her, as she hid her face in his chest. “Just pack your things… And go. All of you. Sonia, Bertie, Kris, Roger. The four survivors of this catastrophe who returned to Earth… You can tell everyone you meet the story which you have. It’s ok, go…” He turned back to Rosie, as he could feel her tears on his shirt.
“Go…” Sonia quietly requested for Kristina and Bertie to leave the room. They parted Wells with a remorseful look before leaving. “Wells… I’m sorry,” Sonia looked deeply saddened by their sacrifice.
“We live in hard times now, Sonia. Difficult decisions will have to be made… Decisions we don’t want to make. Thankfully, Rosie and I have just made our last one,” he hugged her a little tighter. “Go… Venture forth, Sonia. Venture forth in our name…”
She took a deep breath, and clenched her eyes with her fingers, “Alright, ok… Good luck Wells…” She put her hand on his shoulder, parting him with her heart-warming smile.
Roger was already at the table by the time Sonia, Kris and Bertie had arrived. “Aha! I hope you guys are hungry! Because our special of the day is… Peppers! And berries!” He joked. “We’re all out of protein packs as well I’m afraid. Last one got consumed about a week or two ago. Though it doesn’t really matter. We can get some proper protein when we return to Earth! Speaking of which… Have we um… decided?” He lowered his voice to avoid any aggravation.
Sonia took bites out of her pepper, ignoring Roger’s question. Kristina answered for her instead, “Wells and Rosie… They’re giving up their lives so that us four can get away…” She then took her pepper as well, biting into it.
“Oh, I see… God bless them. I understand how tough it is to make a decision like that. I would never have wanted to force it upon any of you, but it had to be done. Remember, this isn’t anyone’s fault. This is just… unfortunate timing, I guess. The world just so happened to end while we were up here in space.” Roger took his pepper as well, joining the others in eating their food.
“You’d never expect something like this to happen back then, would you?” Bertie appeared to be talking to himself, however the others tried joining in to make it a proper conversation. “I mean, back when we were in the rocket. When we launched off, all the way up here. I would never have ever anticipated that we’d end up killing each other off eventually. If I did know that, then I would’ve actually presumed that I’d be the first to die. No one at school ever liked me, ever. I’m the third youngest of the team as well. Three’s always been an unlucky number for me – No charm. Heck, most of you thought I was younger than Wells and Rosie. I get why. Only two years older than them, makes practically no difference.” He was digressing from his original point, but he didn’t care.
At that moment, the lights went out all across the station, as the engine seemed to stop humming as well – It was completely silent and still. The deck was barely lit up the light from the sun on the other side of the Earth.
“And there it is,” Sonia pointed out, “Power’s gone…”
Chapter 11: Philosophy
Wells and Rosie had said their goodbyes to the rest of the crew and returned to their quarters. Sonia and the others mean while packed and loaded all their things on to the escape pod. They had taken their seats and strapped themselves in.
“Brace yourselves, this is gonna be a rough take-off,” Roger warned them all as he flicked several switches and prepared to disembark. “Alright, this is it everyone. Hold on to something – or someone,” he turned around, making sure everyone was strapped in. He faced forwards again, taking several deep breaths. “Three, two, one…” He pressed a button, prompting the escape pod to disengage from the space station. The others could all hear him counting under his breath.
“Nine, ten!” He pulled down a lever, “Thrusters engaged!” The escape pod then darted forward quickly, thrusting at a high speed. Though everyone was strapped down, the force pushing against them made them feel like they were going to fly back against the pod.
On board the space station, Wells and Rosie watched as the escape pod launched down towards Earth. “That’s that then…” He remarked, as he took Rosie’s hand. “It’s just us now, babe.” He put his hands on her face, as they moved in on each other to share a tender kiss in front of the window, the escape pod behind them still headed for E
arth.
“Slowing down now!” Roger kept the pod under control, varying the speed, dependent on what velocity was appropriate. The rest of the crew held on tightly, fearful for their lives.
“Uh oh!” Roger made the one remark that no one wanted to hear. “Steady… Steady!” He struggled to keep the pod under control, “And, there!” All of a sudden, the pod halted to a stop – it was no longer being thrusted.
“What happened? What do you mean ‘uh oh’?” Kristina was stuck in awe. “We nearly overheated for a sec there. Luckily, I kept us under control. The best thing I could was deactivate the thrusters. Now, we’re simply drifting towards Earth. Everyone breathed out again in relief.
“How long until we actually make it to the ground then?” Sonia asked. “Ah, let me see.” Roger looked outside the pod, at the Earth, and then thought to himself. “Well, taking into account how far we’ve travelled away from the station, how much further we still need to go, as well as how much fuel we have left, and of course the inability to use the thrusters again… About half an hour.” He turned around, and quirkily smiled at everyone. “Great, half an hour…” Bertie didn’t sound too pleased. “Anyone wanna take it in turns to tell a ghost story then?” Kristina kidded with them, but Bertie took the idea too seriously, “Alright, I’ve got one. You’ll like this.” He cleared his throat.
“Many, many, many, years ago. There was a boy. A quiet boy, a shy boy. He wasn’t too quiet though. He had some friends who were just like him. They were all rather geeky, they all dreamed of going to space one day as well. After all, Space was a big thing at the school which this boy attended.”
Bertie noticed everyone was quickly losing interest, so he cut into the main part of his ‘ghost tale’.
“Things took a dark turn for the boy though. One lunchtime when he was just twelve-years-old, none of his friends were in school. They had all fallen ill. So this poor boy was entirely alone in the playground. People would pick on him even when his friends were around. But this time, he was completely by himself. A group of bullies in the senior years came over to him, making threats. One of them threatened to kill him if he didn’t hand over his money. All he had was a tenner which his mum had given to him. With shaky hands and shivering arms, he handed the note over to the bullies. But that isn’t even the dark part! Later that day, as he walked home from school, he was jumped in an alleyway by the same group of bullies. They beat him up, threw him against the fence, you name it. They did everything to him that was unbearable… Little did they know, he later died that night in hospital from internal bleeding. But the boy was far from gone. The next time those bullies met up, the ghost of the boy gave them the fright of their lives! His appearance was enough to induce heart attacks upon them!”
Bertie had become enthusiastic over his story, but looking around the pod, he noticed that no one shared his enthusiasm. “Bert, I mean this with the upmost respect, but… That was rubbish. Literally rubbish.” Kristina informed him. “Oh… don’t suppose you’ve got a better one then?” He raised his eyebrow at her.
“Well, not a bullshit campfire story, no. I’ve got something even better. My philosophy! Who wants to hear all about me? Where I came from, what I did before we went to space, anyone?”
Sonia rolled her eyes, “You know you’ve already told us your story. The very first thing we all did when we arrived on the station was share our philosophies with each other.”
Kristina remembered this to be true and nodded, “Oh yeah, you’re right. Sorry,” she laughed – Except this time, it wasn’t prompted by the space dementia in her mind.
Sometime had passed since anyone had spoken. Everyone was bored out of their minds. “How long’s it been, Roger?” Sonia leant back against her seat. “Only fifteen minutes.” Everyone looked up at him in shock, “Fifteen minutes?!” They all called out in unison.
“Feels like it’s been fifteen hours!” Bertie added.
“Feels like it’s been fifteen years!” Kristina added.
“Feels like it’s been fifteen lifetimes!” Sonia finished. “Can’t we turn on the thrusters and go a little bit faster?” She suggested. “No can do; the thrusters are completely burnt out. The only thing I can do now is activate the parachute, but that’s used to descend our fall. If we use it before then, it’ll screw up our landing procedure.” Sonia understood, “This is a really shitty escape pod then. I can think of four flaws in its’ design now!” She didn’t intend for her remark to be taken as comedy, she was being serious due to how bored she was.
“What do you guys really think’s happened down there?” Kristina looked between everyone’s faces for their answers. “Tell you what, we’ll do this like a little gameshow thing. I’ll ask you a question, give you a few seconds to think of an answer, then I’ll look at you one at a time to hear what you gotta say. Sound good?” She was surprised to hear everyone’s positive responses – they were all up for it.
“Alright then, what do you think has happened on Earth?” She first looked to Roger: “An epidemic.” She then looked to Bertie, “A virus made by the government.” Then finally looked to Jane, “I think it’s a pandemic,” she emphasized the word ‘pandemic’ to point out Roger’s mistake of referring to it as an ‘epidemic’.
“Interesting. Alright. Do you think this is really the apocalypse? Is this the end of the world as we know it?”
All three of them nodded together. “If it wasn’t, it would’ve been dealt with by now. This is the end. This is Judgement Day. It’s what we all had hoped would never happen.” Sonia reasoned.
“I agree with her,” Bertie nodded to Sonia.
“It’s the apocalypse, but it’s not the end of the world. You see, there’s been extinction events before. Like when the dinosaurs were wiped out, or the end of the Ice Age. That’s what this is. Humanity is wiped out in this civilisation, but a new species will rise up in its’ place. Cockroaches, tardigrades, anything which is still alive. Eventually it’ll evolve, it’ll dominate the planet.” Roger seemed to be less concerned about the apocalypse than the others.
“What do you think caused it? The virus, the pandemic, whatever you think it is. What caused it to come about?” Kristina looked intrigued by the crew’s answers.
“Well, like I said, it’s a Government-made virus. They want to eradicate the population because they’ve got secret deals going on with the aliens living on planets all around us.” Bertie’s answer prompted the others to think he was mad. “Just you watch. They’re coming. The Martians. The Roswell Greys. Oh, they’re coming. The next dominant species come from another world…”
Sonia tried not to laugh. She evaded this by giving Kristina her answer. “I honestly have no idea. Some nights though, I have bad dreams, I have nightmares, about that news broadcast. Seeing that news reporter choke to death… and all the terrified civilians suffering the exact same fate… I have no idea what could cause that kind of a hell, let alone on such a global scale.”
Roger shrugged, “I don’t know either to be honest. But I doubt the government could create something like that. Maybe it’s something released into the water? Or the air? Is it a toxic spore perhaps?” He deduced several things amidst his answer.
Their conversation was interrupted by the blaring lights on the dash board of the pod. “Roger? What is it?” Sonia was eager, she became excited upon seeing Roger turn around, his face completely lit up. “We’re going home everyone…”
Interlude
Surviving in space is no easy task; especially during an apocalypse. The story of the Gemini crew proved this fact; with only four members definitely surviving and escaping the space station alive.
The remainder of the crew have more story left to tell. Each of them shall come into their own, and discover that life on Earth is not at all what they remember it to be.
But already on Earth, the story of one group of survivors has been followed; yet still, they also have more story to be told. This particular group has been through a lot: th
e destruction of London, the collapse of a pseudo-Government, a battle against animals mutated by radiation, and of course the pain of grief.
Will the survivors find some sort of happy ending? Or will the apocalypse continue to give them a hard time? Only time will tell…
TWO YEARS LATER…
Chapter 12: ‘Down to Earth’
Three ‘strangers’ walked a desolate dirt road, kicking the gravel up as they strode across it. Forests with eerily creaky trees swayed either side of them, sending shivers down their spines.
“Sonia, we need to rest…” Bertie was extremely short of breath. “Sonia?” He noticed that, over his panting, she was ignoring him.
Unsurprisingly, Sonia was the one who was not out of breath at all, allowing her the ‘right’ to ignore Bertie’s requests.
“He’s right Sonia,” Kristina was equally overworked, “We’ve been walking for two days now… One rest won’t kill us.”
This remark however, did indeed cause Sonia to respond. She spun around in an angst of fury, “What did you just say?” She marched over to her ‘friend’.
“I just… All I said was that…” Kristina realised the what the error of her words was.
“I believe you said, ‘One rest won’t kill us’? Correct?” Sonia mimicked Kristina’s words, as she lightly gripped her wrist. “Is… That… So?”
Bertie felt helpless, as he swallowed hard in a guilty manner, watching as Sonia’s grip on Kristina’s wrist tightened.
“I understand that, perhaps,” Sonia paused momentarily, as she looked down at Kristina’s wrist, adjusting her grip on it, “Perhaps it may have escaped your attention, that ‘One rest’…” Her breathing sharpened, “One rest, was enough to get Roger killed. Do you remember that? My dear?”
Human Nature (Book 2): Human Nature II Page 6