Pillbury's Journey

Chapter 1

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. Space is dense and heavy with extraordinary music that is fearful, marvellous, and truly astounding. The music pervaded my mind or perhaps it was the music emanating from deep within the bowels of the ship that altered my perceptions.

My eyes glazed over my surroundings, and as my eyes became accustomed to the dim light, a terrible feeling of sheer horror enveloped me. The only light emanated from a blue flame pulsating theatrically, giving the room an almost insouciant paternalistic hue. Utilising every fibre of my being I charged all my senses to take control and with an impassioned effort, urged my mind to stay calm. I was suspended in mid-air without anything to sustain my elevation and for some insane reason, the silliest thought crossed my mind. I’m either dead or in the fucking twilight zone!… My fear accelerated, making me unable to contain my panic and I tried to free myself, but found to my horror that I couldn’t move a muscle. I was sure I was awake and that this was not a dream. I was sure I went to bed in my Disney shorts and a white T-shirt, yet my mind was telling me I was naked. How strange, I thought, because I felt neither hot nor cold, just a strange metallic taste in my mouth. I moved or tried to move my eyes downwards towards my legs, but they felt heavy, and my motion was sloppy and any speech I attempted was slurry. A kaleidoscope of weird colours or shifting shapes danced around me.

Moments later, I watched in fearful fascination as an amphibious looking creature with huge saucer like eyes, with spindly arms and legs and the most spectacular colouring appeared holding out its arms to steady my panic. I lashed out again; but to my horror my arms and legs merely registered a little movement.

Pathetic! Absolutely Pathetic! Immobile, I stared angrily into the amphibious face with its leery mouth and strange air flap vents at the side of its face and attempted to strike it.

“Try to stay calm.” The creature said gently, its gills flapping with each syllable. Using its mind, it moved my still elevated body to a fanciful looking contraption made from a hard metal that looked like an oblong Titanium plate resting in a misty surface. The creature placed me down gently and said, “My name is Ov’eok Scrurqruix Vrugzo.”

Despite myself, I laughed when I thought it sounded like someone straining to push a turd out. Seriously?

“Do not be afraid.” Ov’eok Scrurqruix Vrugzo affirmed, ignoring my rudeness.

“Am I dead?”

“Not dead.”

“Where am I? And how do you speak English?”

Ov’eok Scrurqruix Vrugzo seemed to evade the question and instead answered clearly and slowly to aid my understanding: “You sleep 30 moons, Earth time — waiting to accept the Namnih Corresponder.”

“What is a Namnih?”

“Device to breath air on ship and speak many Astral languages.”

The creature explained more fantastical theories to me, but the fearful loss of our beautiful, serene Earth and the possibility that I may never see Earth again touched my heart so profoundly that it brought tears to my eyes.

By now, my fear had dissipated as the reality of my situation set in. I was not dreaming, and neither was I dead. My focus had now become clearer, and I could move my eyes and head a smidgeon. There was an engine running somewhere which gave the ship a deep-throated gurgle. To my left was a clear glass window, and I registered with silent panic as huge asteroids floated by. Often, the ship shuddered. What I assumed was an infirmary nurse, approached and opened my feeding tube. I began to gag and felt the unpleasant taste in my mouth intensifying making me want to vomit.

“Please take me back to Earth,” I whispered.

Ov’eok Scrurqruix Vrugzo did what appeared to be a shrug and a laugh that sounded like a clap of thunder and a car reversing in combined motion. I translated this to mean: “We take mothership to find help and save your Earth.”

“Surely, you don't need me to do that. Just take me back,” I pleaded.

In reply, Ov’eok Scrurqruix Vrugzo reignited the blue theatrical pulsing flame that knocked me out cold, sending me back to my previous elevated state, thinking: ‘The human is not yet ready for processing.’

When I came to, still hanging upside down in mid-air, I heard the infirmary nurse from earlier saying: “We should take this thing to Personnel.”

Number of words: 771