Beyond the Moon

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. But has anyone thought to question whether or not you can hear yourself? And that's what she thought about as she stared out the small window at her only escape. As the space station floated through the endless void, she was alone. Well no, not completely alone. But maybe that wouldn't have even been much better than her current circumstances.

The station groaned around her like it was alive, and in pain. The control room was engulfed in flames when she tried to get inside of it. Someone had tried to kill the thing with a flamethrower. They had clearly failed because she saw the flamethrower attached to what had once been a body. A coworker, a friend, she couldn't tell who any of them were but it was all of them, so it didn't really matter. She didn't know which way to turn but was not certain that mattered either.

She almost started to cry but thought, 'what's the point?'. She started down the hallway. The noises of the station falling apart around her were deafening, there was no way to know if anything was coming up behind her or not. She saw a small ax laying on the floor. She kneeled down and picked it up. She rose slowly, putting her back against the wall. She slid her foot over and inched her way down the hall with her back to the wall, looking behind her every few steps. She couldn't hear her own breathing or heartbeat but she could feel her heart thumping hard. Her lips were trembling uncontrollably as her breath came out in gasps and whimpers. Her uniform was torn from the first interaction with it. The skintight space suit hung from her body in tatters. The mandatory tight bun in her hair was abandoned and laying over to the side limply, hanging on by a few hairs as the rest of her shoulder-length hair landed haphazardly around her head and neck.

She held the ax with both hands, up beside her head, she gripped and then regripped the handle nervously as she made her way slowly down the hall. She had no plan and no hope. She had seen the thing get Jamie, and she was only barely holding on to a little bit of hope that Jamie had gotten away. She finally got to the next hallway where she would have to turn a corner. She leaned her head back on the wall and braced herself before she turned her head and slowly peeked around the corner down the hall. The lights in the hall were flickering. They went out for several seconds and then would come on for only a second. The hall was clear, aside from the bodies. The kitchen was halfway down the hall. That was the last place she'd seen Jamie so that was her destination.

She took a deep breath and waited for the light to come on, she counted, in a whisper, "one, two, three." The lights flickered off and she started again. "one, two, three, four, five..." the darkness lasted for fifteen seconds. She waited again through another round and when she got to fifteen and the lights came on she made sure it was still clear and she quickly went into the hallway and backed against that wall. She moved with the light, when it was dark she stood still, so she wouldn't trip over someone's legs or head. She kept up her count as she moved. She was ten feet from the kitchen door as she stepped over lifeless bodies with her back to the wall as tight as it would go. Her lip quivered and sweat poured down her face. The light went out and she was so close that she kept moving slowly. She stopped when the light came on and a looming dark figure stood at the other end of the hall. She froze in place unable to move as it started to come toward her just before the light went out.

Her instincts kicked in and she started running for where she could only hope the kitchen door would be. She slammed her foot into someone's leg and went flying forward, landing on her stomach with a thud. The ax flew from her hand, she grunted and felt around and finally grabbed the ax as she pushed off the floor and dove toward where she felt the door would be. It was closed and she slammed into it with a moan. She growled and searched for the doorknob as she heard a low rumble behind her and then felt hot breath on the back of her neck. She nearly froze with fear but bit her lip hard to make herself move. She found the knob and turned, she threw herself into the kitchen, landing on her side. She felt for the door with her foot and kicked it shut. She jumped up and locked the door and turned around. The lights were off in the kitchen except for the one above the counter. She fell back on the door breathing hard.

She wiped her forehead with one hand and held the ax with the other. She looked down and saw a body, of course, she couldn't tell who it was except that it had been a female, and they still had a right hand. She closed her eyes afraid to look at the hand. She didn't want to see it. She finally opened them again and saw the tattoo of stars and the moon on the back of the right hand, the one she didn't want to see. She winced and cried out loudly, "ahhhh!" came out of her deepest parts in a broken voice. She sank to the floor and cried, tossing the ax aside. After letting herself cry for a whole minute, of which she counted down the seconds aloud. She crawled over and took the tattooed hand and kissed it softly.

"Beyond the moon, Jamie, we made it," she whispered and laid the hand back down, she stood up, "we just had to get on this damn space station."

She walked over to the counter and put her hands on it, dropped her head, and sighed. She opened a cabinet and got out a bottle of liquor. She turned and leaned back on the counter and opened the bottle. She tossed the lid on the floor as she turned the bottle up and took a long drink. She wiped her mouth as she heard the station start to crumble more, fires from different rooms coming from every direction probably. The station started to shake wildly. There was a pounding from the vent above her as it tried to get in. She chuckled, "go ahead, finish me off you bastard," she muttered as she took another drink.