The Four
Author's Note:
Write on an empty
Earth and I came up with the Four Horseman.
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Our call to
Houston was not replied to despite the many attempts which we made. And finally,
we decided to descend on the emergency coordinates programmed in the system. It
was a smooth landing and we are now back on Earth after a two years mission to
Mars. But we stayed in the craft as there was no welcoming party for our
arrival. It's all quiet out there. We feared the worse but we will sit tight
for now. After all, we have been away for two years and what is another one
more week. Our rations will suffice and the craft is working fine with its life
support.
"Warren, do you think we
can leave now?" I am Warren Mather; Commander of Flight X102 from Mars. We
left for Earth on 2nd April 2015 and now it's May 13th, 2017; the eight-day since
we landed. My other three crews are getting nervous to open the door to our
craft. The person who is asking is Cornelius Bend; Navigator and Co-commander.
Next to him is (Ms.) Frances De Mille; our Flight Engineer and the last member
is Doctor Paula Smith; Medical and Scientist. I looked at all four of them as
they sit by their consoles looking at me. Since we landed; we had been busy
with the instruments to do the reading outside on everything that can tell us
what happened to those on Earth. But we read out of the nothing except a high
spike in oxygen level. We tried to link up the Houston Main Frame but we failed
as we could be not be authenticated. We checked that all we had was the last
feedback on December 23th 2016, and then nothing after that date. It looked
like the whole world went offline or dead on that day at precisely 2319hrs.
Frances told us that the system log registered nothing after that time. So the
vote was on for us to decide our next action.
Three weeks later
after a long search for living souls in the borrowed jeep, we finally ran out
of petrol on the stretch of road at Santa Rosa, Florida. I got out of the jeep
and looked down the road which we came. I remembered we pass some town about five
miles back and I was sure the petrol gauge was half full.
"Warren, you
mind telling us what do we do now? We have been in this unit for three weeks
and we have seen not a living soul. Empty cities and towns but there are food
and drinks for us to grab. But I want to know what happened to the folks? Did
they die or if they did, where are the bodies? Now we are stuck in this
no-man's stretch with a dead jeep." Cornelius had been bitching since we
left Houston. He is right; since we came out of the craft, we had seen no one alive
or dead. It was like a ghost town but the machinery is still in place. The
control screens are working and we checked that our messages came in but no one
replied to us as if they are all missing.
It was then the
ground beneath us was a dark shadow. I looked up and saw the large alien spacecraft
hovering over us. Immediately, the four of us got out of the jeep and we ran
off the road. But soon we find ourselves immobilized in our tracks like we are
frozen in time. I see something appearing before me; it's an alien with some
sort of weapon. It walked towards me and point the thing at me. But I am not
shot or dead. The alien took the so-called weapon and pocket it. The next thing
I know I was in some holding area with my three crews. We looked around us in this
empty hold area. It a rectangle area with what may appear to be a large doorway
at the rear of us. Suddenly the doorway raised itself like a garage door.
There are a few of
our people like us walking out towards us. They came forth and hugged us as in
relief we are alive. I knew them and more so one other person. I walked towards
him and called out his name.
"James, it's
me Warren. What happened back there? Where am I now?" James is the Flight
Coordinator for X102 at Houston Control.
"Warren, thank
God you are alive. We have been rescued by these aliens from Earth last year.
Somehow our atmosphere failed on the day December 24th at 0001hrs. The oxygen
level dropped to nil but we were all rescued up here by the aliens. They came
in their large ships and took us here. They have been taking care of us while
they repaired the Earth's atmosphere. They have taken us to near Jupiter since
then. We were advised that your craft was sighted in Houston and we came back
to fetch you. You are safe now."
"But James, I
was on Earth. The air is breathable again. We can go back. Can you tell the
aliens this and we can all go back."
"Is it?
Please join the others while I tell the Master of the ship." James took
off back behind the door while the others came swarming over me to inquire
about the mission. Little I was to know later that James was to report to his
Master on my findings may be detrimental to my survival.
"Commander
Warren. I sincerely apologies for having taken you off your planet called
Earth. You see we have taken your people to be our feeding stock for our people
while your planet will be used as our training ground for the military. But
your late arrival back to your planet gave us a new idea. You will be returned to
Earth to continue in your survival there as the last four Earthlings. But mark
my words, your existence will depend on your ability to evade termination by my
military trainee's force of twenty million young recruits who will be landing
there soon in one Earth month period. So you got shall I say 30 days to prepare
yourselves for the next invasion."
It's now our 29th
day since we came back to Earth. We are the last survivors but we renamed
ourselves the Four Horsemen. Like in the Biblical tale, we will ride like on
the last days of Earth. It's a ride to set for the battle which we would never
win but we have assured ourselves of victory. A final victory for Earthlings
will be ours. The landing of the invasion force came as planned on that day on
the peninsula of Florida state.
"Cornelius on
my mark, you will turn the key. Frances will assist me here while you and Paula
do the same there. We will take them with us and leave them ashes." I
placed my finger on the key which will unlock the detonating countdown for the
nuclear bombs we planted around the state.
"Ashes to
ashes, and goodbye Earth." I heard Cornelius reply from the other end of
Florida State.
The secondary
blast of the reserves bombs in the 20th level below ground will hasten Earth's
demise if not destroyed it by now. we bid our love and goodbye to the 3rd
planet from the Sun.
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