Escape from Planet 025

Chapter 9: Hopeless

Captain Alan Nannon

I winced as Fayne's hand brushed unconsciously against my injured arm. She had fainted shortly after her uncontrolled sobbing had turned into quiet moans and gasps. I was worried about her head injury. It seemed to have paralyzed her from the waist down, and I could only hope that it was temporary. I thought of the monster that had hurt her and my arms tensed, my hands curling into fists. If I ever saw that creature again... Well let's just say that I intended to challenge the theory that only ten men could kill it.

My eyes misted over as I once again remembered Matthew's screams and cries for help. If only I could have done more! I sighed and mentally shook myself. Beating myself up wasn't going to help anybody. I heard raised voices overhead and looked up in alarm, only to relax in relief a few seconds later. We had reached the ship. I pushed forward through the crowd. What was all the anxious babble about? Why wasn't anybody going inside?

I reached the front of the mob and stopped abruptly, my eyes wide in disbelief and despair. The ship had been completely and utterly razed. It looked like it had been stepped on by one of the giants of myth. The only space that we could get into was the Viewing Room, where the frame of the massive window had kept the roof from crumpling downwards like the rest of the ship. That window was built to withstand the strength of the biggest asteroid, so it was no wonder that it was still intact. Long scratches down the middle and sides of the window showed where the destroyers had tried to break the window. Luckily, they had failed.

It was a good thing that so many people had come out of the ship. As it was, everybody who had stayed was most likely dead. I doubted anybody would be able to survive the roof of a spaceship crashing down upon them.

I gently put Fayne down on the ground in front of Jaelyn and Amy. The two remaining members of her family. Jaelyn opened her mouth to say something, but abruptly closed it again, tears streaming down her face. Instead, she just nodded in thanks. I briefly rested my hand on her shoulder, throat restricting with guilt that I couldn't have done more, then turned to Amy. Her face was white with shock, and her eyes were closed. I suspected that her ankle was more damaged than she thought. A lump rose in my throat. She probably didn't even know what had happened to her brother. When the pain of her ankle faded away, she would look for Matthew. Expecting him, as he always had, to be there. I quickly turned away from them and blinked the unwelcome tears out of my eyes.

I looked up to the spaceship, and the enormity of what had happened hit me. New fear filled my bones and I ran towards my ship. My legs gave out and I stumbled onto my knees in front of it and covered my face with my hands. I understood now. That monster in the forest had been nothing but a distraction. A diversion, if you will, from the real threat. I knew I needed to organize rescue parties, but I stayed down there on the floor, devoid of hope. I felt in my gut that we weren't going to find anybody. At least anybody alive. How many people were we going to lose on this hateful planet? And yet that wasn't even the worst part.

My voice was hoarse and filled with fear as I whispered to myself in horrified confirmation, "The worst part is... We can never leave."

Jaelyn

I was trying not to think. Not yet. It was still too painful, too raw. One foot in front of the other. That's how I had survived after my father's death. Just keep going. But I hadn't had to actually watch him die... No. Keep moving. Don't dwell on it. One foot in front of the other. Keep walking until I'm strong enough to deal with the pain. But when would that be?

Never. My mother's voice came to me, as clear as it had been the day I had asked the same question about my father's death. That's the point of pain, Jaylee. You'll never be strong enough. Only brave enough. Pain is a strange thing. It demands to be felt. If you ignore it, it's going to get worse. We'll never be strong enough to deal with pain. We have to feel it. That's what makes us human. That's what makes us different. We only know that we've truly loved something if we feel the pain of losing it. So no, we're never strong enough to deal with the pain. But what most people don't realize is that that's ok. Even beautiful.

Yes, It's going to hurt. I'm not going to pretend that it won't. But when you're finally brave enough to deal with that pain, and it's all over, that's when you see the beauty. That's when the pain makes sense.

I shook my head. I didn't know if that was true or not, but I was not going to allow myself to feel it yet. I couldn't feel the pain. So I held it back. But distantly, in the back of my mind, I felt it building, like a dam. I knew that when I let it loose, it would wipe me off my feet. So I shut it down and I didn't allow myself to feel the pain. Made my heart numb and hard as iron so that it would not break. So that it would not shatter. I looked down at my unconscious mother at my feet, her arms at her sides and her legs slightly splayed out, and my sister wincing in pain from where she sat on the soft grass. There was too much to do to allow my emotions to take over.

The Captain was leading a small search team into the ship to check for survivors and resources. I sat down on the grass and cradled Amy's head in my lap, stroking her hair and talking soothingly to her. It was 30 minutes before the search team returned, and by that time Amy had settled into an uneasy sleep. I slowly eased her head off my lap and scrambled to my feet, rushing over to where the captain was standing with his head bowed in dejection.

"Captain?" I asked tentatively. He shook his head.

"They're all gone." He whispered. "No one was left alive." I gasped, my hand flying to my mouth in shock and horror. There had to have been at least fifteen people left behind on the ship. And now they were all dead. Gone. My breath was shaky as I tried to pull myself together.

"Resources?" I whispered, waiting in horrified anticipation for the answer I already read in his eyes, in his bowed head. His head shook ever so slightly. The world around me dimmed as my brain went numb. No resources and fifteen or more people left dead. No resources meant no medicine. No medicine meant... My breathing hitched. I didn't know the first thing about injuries, but I knew enough about Mama's condition to know that without medicine, it could quickly turn fatal. I looked at the Captain's arm. A wound that deep could quickly fester and become infected. I looked towards Amy. If we didn't get medical treatment for her ankle and it healed wrong... she might never be able to walk without pain again. That was without considering the injuries of everyone else that had been injured in the mad escape from the beast.

"Did you bring a doctor here?" My voice sounded hollow. Desperate. The Captain's eyes met mine and softened slightly in pity.

"She was on the ship when it was destroyed." He whispered. "We found her body covering the medicine. She tried to save it, but..." He shook his head, sadness clouding his features. "It was no use. Everything was destroyed." His voice was hardly above a breath.

I covered my eyes, my mouth trembling slightly. I hardly felt the warm brush of the Captain's callused fingers as he briefly rested a hand against my arm before he went to inform everybody else.

I tried to hold them back, but silent tears slipped down my face. What had we done to deserve this?

Oh, God, My heart cried, as the tears kept falling, Where are you?

-Rebecca Underwood