Space Camp

                        Chapter 1 

     Nobody can hear the screams of a person in the vacuum of space, or so they say. I wouldn't know. I've never been to space. I was merely walking from the exit to the entrance of building nine when the announcement came over the loudspeaker, informing us that we would be practicing our drills for the next round.
     Space Camp was my mother's idea. Something to get me out of the house instead of being a twenty year old teenage girl, (I know. Typically it's the boys but my case is different) living in the basement of her mom's house. I was studying Astrology that summer, alone inside my thoughts, preparing for an upcoming exam that would take me to the next level of human/space interactions.
     Mom came down the stairs just as I was finishing up my practice exam to tell me "all about this Space Camp that is being advertised in the papers" and how I should look into it. She didn't think Astrology was a real career and only "wanted the best for you, honey." Sigh. Mom's. What can you do?
     Just to humor her, I looked into the idea and told her I would think about it. It was something to do for the summer and maybe I could get more insight on how Astrology works, no matter how disappointing it might be to my mother. So I went to Space Camp.

                      Chapter 2 

     It was the first week at Space Camp when I started to hear the rumors of individuals who had attempted to reach outer space but had never returned and no one could explain why; they just disappeared. I was to be among the next crew to "escape" the camp; we say escape for the simple but accurate fact that none of us were entirely too excited to be there, so any way out of this place was basically an escape for us. With my summer being interrupted already, I was anticipating being amongst the stars to study more upon the astrological beings I was soon to be surrounded by.
     Well, the rumors going around Camp were that it was mind controlling alien spiders that could bend your mind with their many psychic eyes to do their will and then, BOOM, mind literally blown away; whoosh! It was a ridiculous rumor, of course, but the unspoken theories were far more disturbing; the spacecrafts engines failed and the spacecrafts were merely floating somewhere in outer space and the passengers all suffocated due to the lack of oxygen; the spacecrafts engine blew and caught fire along with the passengers inside of them; an asteroid hit the spacecrafts and disintegrated them. All of these theories and more were very plausible, but to keep the rest of us from disobliging from the experiment, the camp directors all tried to maintain a positive attitude, acting as if nothing had gone wrong and the disappearing campers simply finished their duties and were sent home. Nevertheless, we were curious as to what was in the great beyond outside of Earth, so we agreed to partake in this experiment either way.
     There were five of us in each of our makeshift astronaut crews. One was to be the pilot; one was to be the co-pilot; one was an astrobiologist; one was to play housekeeper and I, of course, was offered the job of researching the outer areas surrounding our spacecraft, since that was to be among the theoretical chosen field of study. Mom wasn't going to be too happy about it, but I could surely add to my resume about how I was allowed to explore the constellations outside of the aircraft while I was tethered to a hose attached from  the airlock.

                       Chapter 3

     It had been several years before anyone from Space Camp had ventured on a journey such as we were about to take, with the last crew having disappeared, so the whole camp was a buzz with nervous energy, crew members taunting each other on whether or not the speculations were true.
     "I don't know why you all want to do this, you know you're not going to return. And besides, we make for a better crew anyway".
      Another one musing,
     "Is it spiders, do you think? Imagine getting to see giant brains eating spiders!"
     Speculating murmurs were heard all throughout lunchtime. A cackle here and there. A nervous giggle from another teammate about the absurdness of the whole situation; others excited to be traveling to outer space, believing the whole situation to be made up. 
     SueAnn, a fellow crew member of mine, walked up to me inquiring about my own thoughts, as I was more or less lost in a dream world.
     "Oh nothing", I replied, not trying to give away how anxious I was to get out there and return quickly.
     "I'm just thinking about how excited I am to be amongst the stars", I said to her.
     "Well, don't dwell on it too long", was SueAnn's reply.
     "We have much work to do. Come along and let's get started on our breathing exercises".
      We were to be the first crew to go up and she was my Captain, also my bunkmate, so I did as I was told and followed her back to our barracks.
    
                           Chapter 4