'A distant, habitable planet, a crew of six; three women and three men, a perilous journey.'
I read the news with a sinking heart and said to myself , perilous indeed.
It's all our fault.
Man kind was never supposed to leave earth, infact we should have stayed there, hidden.
But yet here we are .

I folded the news paper and laid it on the console.

I stepped out of the space craft and descended down the stairs into the beautifull but alien terrain.

Rose was busy burying Jacob or whatever is left of him in the 4th grave, next to his comrads, following traditions, I no longer cared for !

how long will it take to decay on this terrain , longer I suppose, would it even decay ? I pondered .

sudden rustling in the local plant life with a purple coloured fruit which we tested and found to be inedible,startled me back to reality. I readied my aerosol in one hand and 2 small blue coloured stones in the other which rose had said possesed some properties that she found during her expedition. I laughed it of as nothing, as nothing penetrated their thick hides, so why would this ever work ?

I raised my hand to signal rose who was alerted and armed herself with the shovel, while she quickly but without making a sound, sprinted towards me.

We had our backs to each other and could feel each other's heart pounding out of our chests.

in case we don't make it out, said rose

shut up, I won't let anything happen to you ! I interrupted her trying to reassure her.

promises..well we couldn't hear what others had to say before they got gobbled up, said rose and added,

I want you to hear me !
Sir I always admired you !

rose focus goddammit ! I barked back at her in response.

but still, rose rambled on , " we need to get off this planet in one piece

but don't let what happened between ur brother and you ....."

the sand on the other side of the plants started to move appart

2 wire like projections darted out like 2 long fingers and started feeling the air and then the ground.

sir ? muttered rose

I shushed her

the projections stopped and started pointing in our direction

those slender wires were antennaes attached to a head with multiple beady eyes under which, there was an opening covered with rows of serrated claw like mandibles, and slowly started revealing itself from the ground, segment after segment with 4 or 5 limbs attached to each. it resembled a giant centepede or millepede, whatever , a creepy crawly, with its other end still buried under ground it, towered over us like a snake ready to strike.

"just like we practised" I shouted to rose with my gaze fixed on the creatures set of eyes. I ran to the left while rose ran right, confusing the creature as where to strike first. the few seconds of advantage gave me a chance to get behind the the creature while it finally decided to follow rose.

rose defended herself from the sharp mandibles to the best of her combat knowledge, with the shovel she had, while I lodged the tracker in the soft part in between it's segments.

I was happy I succeeded, but it was short lived because what I heard next, was roses blood curlding screams. I ran full speed ahead to the front end of the beast and what I saw was undescribable but I will try.

Rose was pinned to the ground by its legs piercing deep into her muscles of her legs while it was eating roses dismembered legs. eating was an understatement , as it was quite efficiently like a forensic surgeon, dissecting a cadaver, picked the bone clean off muscles, tendons, nerves and vessels within seconds, with its mandibles, with laser like precision . if it was another situation I would have been glad to study it's anatomy in detail but now, all I had was rage.

run !
rose with her eyes rolled up, only whites visible, whispered to me in a feeble voice, with the remainder of her strength as the blood pouring out of her torn limb, drenched the ground beneath her.

clean dry bones fell to the ground as the creature dropped and waited no longer as it soon started going in for another bite out of rose.


"come to me you ugly piece of shit", I shouted to the creature and as soon as it turned towards me I squeezed the aerosol and as it started spraying, I held the stones in my other hand, under the stream and crushed them which burst into sparks reminiscent of a fire cracker and trust me, it hurt like hell. The stream caught on fire and the aerosol can soon turned into a makeshift flamethrower with which I burnt the creatures antennae and most of its mandibles.

" you are resilient but you are not fire proof are ya ?" I shouted smirking while squeezing the shit out of the aerosol while keeping it aimed at the sreeching creature.

sir ! rose called out to me with her eyes back to normal barely keeping eye contact, in a weak voice !

hold on sweetie, you are fine, just hold on, ok ? I replied as I realized the flame slowly dying out as the can was near empty. the creature screamed in pain what sounded like a thousand tyres burning out at once while I looked for the showel. As soon as my eyes locked onto it, lying next to rose, I dropped the can, the stone rubble and sprinted towards the shovel. I leaped the last few steps and picked the shovel turned around but the creature by now, with its head still on fire, screeching in a low tone, slowly receded back into the ground.

As it disappeared I dropped the shovel and ran to rose. She was already pale and taking shallow breaths

I placed her head on my lap and brushed her hair. She looked at me and I said,

the stones worked like a charm. you geologists always fascinated me !

she smiled in response.

and yeah I placed the tracker, hope it stays on !

destroy this planet sir ! rose interrupted

what ? why ? I asked trying to make sense of it all.

I connected with it sir, when the creature was assimilating me !

what? , you lost a lot of blood, you are rambling, it must be a poison of some sort, altering your perception somehow !

listen to me ! rose interrupted again and added,
follow the creature to the core !
you will find the answers there !
I saw it all !
just blow it up sir ....blow it up !

with this rose gasped and took her last breath.

I hugged her tight and screamed out into the open, wishing it would ease my pain. After burying her, digging a grave for myself, I gathered the poisonous fruits we tested earlier during the expedition.

Yes, I decided to take the cowards way out. I had lost the will to live. We came here to find another planet to destroy as we mercilessly squeezed the life out of our own and we finally found one, which only seems favourable but in truth, is a living nightmare.

To think, my obsession to prove I am better than my brother , brought me here, is quite funny, because I spent my entire life to reach here and it amounted to nothing.

The signals been a bust from the second we landed here, so I decided to record a voice message and broadcast in a frequency as a warning to those who ventured close enough to the planets orbit to simply stay away

there is nothing but death here ! I recorded and broadcasted it . As I was headed for my grave something caught my eye on the navigation screen and it blew my mind. I ran towards Roses grave and knelt down beside it and said

rose you were right !

I have to destroy this planet or whatever it is !
I am going underground, following the tracker that I planted on the creature. I will find out why this planet has strayed away from its orbit and is now heading towards earth, that's a promise




end of chapter 1


chapter 2 coming soon



© All Rights Reserved