The Dark Side

Chapter 4

My eyes widened. I let go of Joe's arm and walked out of the shuttle, and I floated in the air. It felt weird, It wasn't like when the gravity was off in the shuttle. More like falling slowly with every step. Before I touched the ground Joe pulled me back in. He pointed to a small pile of containers, then picked up four of them. James picked up a lot and left me with only two to carry.

We walked to the foundation were we are supposed to build our camp. Joe and James dumped their containers on the ground.

"You wait here Mell and we will get the rest of the supplies from the shuttle." Joe said.

I shook my head, I didn't wan't them to leave me by myself, but they were already walking off. "Wait!...Come back!" I yelled, but they didn't hear me. My radio must have been broken. I was about to run after them until the containers started floating away. Now I know why Joe wanted me to stay.

The containers were flying all over the place It was hard to keep up with them, and I was getting tired out. So then I got an idea. I gathered some moon rocks and put them in the containers. The rocks weighed them down. After I was done I stared towards the direction Joe and James left, and just waited for them to came back. I sat impatiently, thinking how weird it was for the skies to be dark and the land so bright.

Soon after a couple moments I saw them walking over a small hill carrying big cases of supplies. When they came over I punched Joe in the arm. "Ouch!... What?" He yelped. I crosses my arms. He stopped and thought for a moment. "Oh, sorry." He said. "Why don't you just say something?" James asked. I knocked on my helmet, and made a phone figure with my hand and held it to my ear. "Her radio must be broken." Joe guessed. I gave him a thumbs up. "Well I'll help you fix it later, but for now we got a few hours of air, and we need to set up base." said Joe.

It was mostly James' job to do the most in building the base. He was the architect and pilot. I'm just the engineer and co-pilot, and Joe is the medic and our captain. We helped him out because time goes by quickly and taking the shuttle to the ship will be a one way trip, so couldn't do much.

About three hours in, and the base was almost done.  We began to hurry because time was running out, and we still needed to finish up putting the airlock in, and we needed to secure the walls to make sure there were no holes or spaces. Soon, we eventually finally finished with three minutes to spare. I felt the air going away quickly. It was like sitting in an old car with no air condition on a hot summer day. I was about to throw up.

When we got in, Joe had to take off his helmet first to make sure the air was stable. He checked each room. Is it really a good idea to let the medic do this. I thought. "We're good!" said Joe, coming out of the small bathroom. I took my helmet off, and stretched my arms out.

"I... can't-"

Suddenly James fell to the floor right beside me. Me and Joe rushed to his side. I could hear him making choking sounds through his radio. His helmet was stuck and he was already out of air. Me and Joe were hurrying to get his helmet off but it was screwed on too tight, and his suit can only be opened from the inside. I looked through the big cases to see if I could find anything that would help. "Hurry Mell!" yelled Joe. I dug through the cases faster and found a pocket knife. I ran over and slit James' suit open, but he had already fainted.

"Dang Mell, I thought you were gonna kill him with that knife!" said Joe.

I shrugged. "That was too close." I sighed "Poor James. He's passed out." Joe carried James to his sleeping bag. I sat cris-cross on the floor and hung my head catching my breath. Joe walked over and sat next to me. "Are you Ok?" Joe asked. I wrapped my arms around Joe and laid my head on his chest. "What if that happened to me?" I asked. Joe brushed his fingers through my hair. "I'd switch places with ya." He said. I looked up at him and he smiled at me. "No you wouldn't you liar." I said. Joe laughed. "Yeah, you're right."

I pushed him over and he just laid there, like a lazy cat. I looked over to James, he was still in his suit. I had to close that hole in his suit, but we had to get it off him first. I didn't want to touch him cause he is always farting in his sleep. "I'll take care of it." Joe insisted. Joe slipped James out of his suit. I picked up his suit and got out some equipment to sew up the hole I made.

"Ya gonna have to melt some plastic or somethin' on it after ya done stichin', so no air will get through." Joe advised.

Once I finished stitching, I made the last knot and melted some plastic wrap over the hole with Joe's lighter. "There, I fixed it." I said. I looked over to James, he was just sleeping. "Now you owe me twenty bucks." I said.

Joe came over and gave me a drink. I haven't eaten for a long time and I was starving, but all we had was water bottles with water flavor packets. I prepared my drink and chugged the hole thing within a few seconds. Then I felt woozy. "Hope you liked it." said Joe with a wicked grin. I smiled sleepily. Then every thing went dark....