Eden Undone

The crash was horrendous and Jodie died on impact. Jason, Emily and Ryan covered her with a blanket and turned to look out the small window near the control board.

“NASA, this is Space Quest 11. NASA, how do you read?”

“NASA, this is Space Quest 11. NASA, do you read?”

“Jason, I’m not getting any response,” Ryan said.

“Don’t panic Emily. We may have just damaged the radio in the crash,” Ryan reassured her after seeing the concerned look on her face.

Jason fiddled with the radio and got nothing. No static. Nothing.

“Well, let’s go out and look around. Get a better idea of where we landed. We certainly didn’t hit out our planned landing spot.”

Ryan and Jason helped Emily with her helmet and they opened the door and stepped out onto the ladder. When the door of their spaceship closed, it locked behind them denying them re-entry.

“We can worry about that later”, Jason declared.

The ground felt squishy under their feet. There was a small grove of trees in the distance and they moved toward that. A small pond stood at the edge of the grove. There were three little rodent type creatures in the shallow water. Four legs fuzzy with yellow hair, big black eyes and humanlike hands. They were covered in a goldish shade of hair that ran down to the fuzz on their legs. Their teeth stuck out a little and the four in the front looked nasty with the ability to injure, but they were so little, they couldn’t do much damage. They skittered away as the adventurers got closer.

“Do you suppose this environment is compatible with human life?” Emily asked.

“Only one way to find out”, Ryan said as he unclipped the edge of his helmet.

“Holy shit, Ryan. What are you doing?” screamed Jason.

“This is the quickest way to find out”, Ryan said as he took a deep breath and exhaled.

He turned and smiled and helped Emily remove her helmet.

Jason closed his eyes, took a deep breath and smiled at the other two adventurers.

“So, here we are. Adam and Eve and Adam without his Eve,” Jason said.

Jodie and Emily were to help populate this new planet. Jason and Ryan their intended mates to start a new world.

The heat was almost overwhelming now as they realized they could remove their space suits. NASA jumpsuits would be the dress of the day, week, month and probably year.

They set up camp near the grove of trees so as to have access to the water, which they discovered was potable. This new planet which they had dubbed “Eden”, was extremely compatible and made their mission that much easier.

Around midnight, Earth time, Ryan saw something out of the corner of his eye and realized that the little rodents, which the three now called Hazzies had come back to the water.

He went back to sleep only to awake in the morning to find Jason missing.

“Emily, wake up. Where’s Jason?”

“I don’t know, I was sleeping,” she grumbled.

Ryan walked to the edge of the grove and looked as far as the eye could see. No sign of Jason, just the next grove of trees way off in the distance.

Emily suggested that they walk to that grove and see if Jason was there scoping things out. There might also be more water and maybe even food. She was growing tired of the NASA meals. Vegetables, rice and something they tried to call meat.

As they approached the grove, they saw that the ground had turned deep red.

They moved the branches of the trees to discover what was left of Jason on the ground near the water. His left arm had been ripped from his body and had large gnaw marks on it. He had been completely skinned and his legs were bent backwards at an angle that suggested he could have been tortured. His throat had been torn out and his eyes were wide open and dead.

Emily’s panic kicked into full gear. She began to run back toward “home”.

Ryan covered Jason with the sand and mud from around the water and walked away.

When he caught up with Emily, tears were flowing down and flying off her face as she ran as hard as she could.

He grabbed her arm. She spun around and fell to the ground like a marionette whose strings had broken.

“I’m scared, Ryan.”

“Me too a little”, Ryan answered.

“Let’s get back to camp and try to figure out what’s happened,” Ryan suggested.

“Can we get back into the ship? Emily asked. We would be safer in there.”

“It locked behind us and I don’t think there’s any way to get it open again,” reminded her.

“Could we try please?” Emily pleaded.

They trekked back to the ship and to their surprise the door looked ajar.

As the got closer, they realized they could smell death in the ship where Jodie had died. They covered their faces and entered only to find Jodie’s body in pieces. She had been torn apart. One leg here, the other over there, half gone. Her head been cracked open and the contents were hanging out. Her eyes were gone and she had been gutted.

Emily, in an effort not to puke, left the ship.

Nightfall arrived and they huddled close together by their fire at the edge of the water. They realized that there was something here on Eden, not friendly, but vicious. Meant to destroy and devour.

Ryan kept watch all night as Emily slept fitfully.

Eden had turned out to be Hell and the next morning, they chose to abandon their camp and return to the ship where safety was more likely.

As they were cleaning the ship, Emily looked out the window and shrieked.

“Ryan, the hazzies we saw were just babies.”