The Scream Within

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.

But you sure as hell can feel one!

They don’t warn you about the unbelievable pain you will experience as the extreme silence tears at your body with its fingerless grasp. Quietly and manically picking every inch of flesh from your bones, leaving you feeling pulled inside out.

They don’t tell you that its noiselessness encircles in your head like a cyclone, creating insanity where once there was sanity. Making crazy seem normal. No warning that it leaves you open and vulnerable as the scream silently penetrates every fiber of your being.

On board, cameras show a successful orbit, while everyone looks on with delight, carefreely eating their ice cream or soda and chips. Oblivious to the unseen. Completely unaware that you are imploding on the inside, consumed by the muffled muteness, quickly and thoroughly paralyzing your throat.

They never mentioned that the assumed tranquility you saw pictured in the literature they poured over you, was only a guise of peaceful serenity to lure you in. Knowing full well you would be completely engulfed in its concealed, quiet uncommunicativeness, raging like a forest fire with no means of escape, no way to quench its infernal stillness.

No, that was conveniently left out of the brochure. I mean, who in their right mind would go otherwise?

There wasn’t anyone who wasn’t talking about it. The news of it was everywhere. Billboards, radio ads, pamphlets and brochures asking the hard question: “Who would be the next hero to take on the challenges and endeavors required to rebuild our spirit and save the human race?”

The last hero never returned.

For weeks we all cheered and celebrated the one human bold enough to take us into the new world. He was strong and confidant, bold and unafraid. We paraded him around like a god, and then stood in horror as we watched him burn up in the atmosphere.

This was a cruel world, and we needed a new hope to escape the fate we found ourselves in.

It was 3 years to the day that we crash landed our ship on this plot of planet, that the attacks began. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure which one we were squatting on, before we were discovered by the former owners, who apparently didn’t approve of humans. After a few years of bartering and debating, they began their official war to eradicate us from their corner lot.

The attacks were becoming more frequent, more brutal and severe with each new encounter. We needed to regroup and rebuild. We were weak, and our enemies knew it. Who would be the savior to lead us out of this war-torn universe into a new and improved realm of security?

Who didn’t want to be that?

We had heard all the hype before, the promises of a better tomorrow. All the unique opportunities to be more than we had ever imagined. Unbelievable lifetime chances to create a worry-free tomorrow.

All we needed to do was surrender to the unknown, go where no man had ever gone before, at least no where he had ever been able to mention. We just needed to show up.

So, we did.

We went naively, but bravely, determined to make a way, with the desire to leave a legacy worthy of our children. Blindly, we accepted what we were told. We chose to believe that we could make a difference and leave a mark on the world as we knew it.

Our mark.

We were like clay in their hands, and they molded us into “The New Human Form”, that is what they called us. It was their attempt to build confidence, unity and hope. To bring us together as one, believing we had a chance to thrive, and in the very least, survive.

Now, here we sit. Thousands of miles from any form of life. From anyone or anything we had ever known.

Abandoned.

Screaming that cry for help, that they told us would not be heard here, in the vacuum.

Struggling with the knowledge that this is where we would most likely spend our last days. Left like a poor decision, alone to die.

Leaving no mark, except the stains our bodies would leave on the leather seats we were strapped to.

(to be continued)