He lunges at me, and knocks me over. I push him off, and grab my long dagger. A back up as Mike gets up, and prepare myself for the attack. He is older and slower than I am, but there are also more of them. Mike shoots at me, and I dive to the side. I roll up, and see that Steve is now facing me. He shoots an arrow at me, and I dive away. The arrow sticks in the ground, and I roll to my feet. I break into a sprint, and tackle Steve. I stop rolling when I am on top, and pin his hands down with my knees. I bring the dagger up, and slice it across his neck. The lower gravity causes the blood to spirt out higher than normal, and it hits me in the mask. I am temporarily blinded, and go to wipe it off. Blood has now covered my shoes and gloves, turning them red. The blood will make my grip slip, but I can't take them off. If I take them off my hands will be hurt badly by the atmosphere. Steve goes limp, and I stand up. I hear a scream, and see Lucas a few feet away.
He is laying on the ground, and there is blood flowing from a cut in his chest. Ryan is standing over him, smirking down at him. Mike shoots his gun, ending Lucas's struggle Lucas goes limp, the look of betrayal showing all over his face. Ally screams, and shoots an arrow at Ryan. It hits his shoulder, and he staggers back. I run forward to help her get Ryan, but am blocked. Scott, Mark, and Mike surround me, and I take a step back. Mark slashes out, and I jump back. Mark slips behind me, and slices again. The katana comes towards me, and I jump. The lower gravity helps me jump higher, and the blade catches my leg. It cuts under my knee, instead of my neck like Mark was trying to do. I land, and Scott shoots me. The bullet hits my arm, and the force knocks me back. As I stumble back, Mark slices out and cuts my back. A huge gash appears, and blood pools out. Scott and Mike walk back to Ally, and Mark looks back at me.
He reluctantly leaves, and heads over to Ally as well. Ally has tackled Ryan to the ground, and has an arrow in her hands, above her head. She brings the arrow down hard, but Ryan moves from under her. The arrow pierces his oxygen mask, and cuts his skin. He starts to bleed, but no major damage is done Ally curses, and takes out her gun. Ryan tries to force himself up, but Ally is too fast. She shoots him at point blank, and he is killed immediately. Ally stands up, and Mark run towards her. I get up from the ground, and limp towards him as fast as I can. He hears me trying to follow, and turns. He reaches into a slit in his suit, and pulls something out. I hear something wiz towards me, and I dive to the side. I feel a sharp pain in my foot, and I look down to see what it is. It is one of the small vials with the purple liquid in it. I pull it out, and it tugs at my skin. I pull it out too late though, and the liquid has already drained into my foot. I growl, and run back towards Mark. He throws again, but I don't move in time.
The vile plunges into my shoulder, and I stagger backwards. Mark runs the rest of the distance to Ally, and tries to slice her with his sword. She dive rolls away, and gracefully stands back up. She runs away from Mark, just to run into Mike and Scott. She doubles back, but Mark has closed the gap between them. Mark slices down hard, and the blade plunges deep into her stomach. Blood pools out, and she falls forward. Mark stands over her, and growls, "See who's the best now, captain. I told you I was the best." He then spits on her mask, and walks away. Ally doesn't get up, and I know that she is dead. I collapse to the ground, and my hand fumbles to reach the second file. I grab it, and pull it, gritting my teeth as it pulls hard on my skin. I throw it on the ground, and convulse in a fit of coughing. I turn over, right as I vomit up the purple liquid. I'm wearing my mask, so it pools at the bottom. I can't take the mast off, so it will have to stay. Mike, Mark, and Scott walk up to me, and Mike pulls his gun on me.
"Just leave her," Mark says, "She'll be dead soon." He bends down and looks at me. He stands up, and they walk away towards the ship. I lay my head down on the ground, and my eyes slowly close. I open my eyes, and immediately tell that I am dreaming. I am back in Juneville, inside the high school. I am standing on the stage, and get the message about the planets. I relay the message, and break everyone into their teams. My team leaves the building, find people and tell them to get to the school. I end up at a house with two small children. I pick up the young girl, and the older boy takes my hand. We run towards the school, but we are too far away. The boy lets go of my hand, and bolts. He makes it inside in time, but me and the small girl don't. We are about five feet from the door when it is locked.
I bang on it, but no one will open it. I feel the wispy atmosphere curl around my body, and tendrils of it enter my nose, eyes, and ears. The atmosphere fills my body, and I open my mouth in a silent scream. As I open my mouth, the wispy substance pours out. I feel the tendrils seep out of my pores, and I drop the small girl. I am lifted into the air, and my arms spread out. My eyes bulge, and my vision goes blurry. More tendrils float out of my body, and I have no more control over my body. I feel my skin bubble as the tendrils let go. I fall to the ground and lay there in a pile of rubble. I shake my head, and the last few drops of atmosphere floats out. I hold up my hand, and shriek when I see what I look like. My skin has bubbled, and is a dark grey color. I stand up and walk to the school door. I place my hand on the door and the people shrink back. I pound my fist on the door and see a small crack appear. I continue to bang on the door, and see the horror in the eyes of the people inside. The people suddenly part, and I see someone walking towards me.
It is me, before my trip to the moon. There is a bandana covering my face, and people move away from here. She opens the door, slips out, and quickly closes it again. She turns towards me, and says, "Don't worry guys, I got this." She opens fire, and the bullets fly, hitting me in the face and chest. I fall to the ground, and blackout. I open my eyes again, but I am still dreaming. I am lying on a bench, in the middle of a park. I stand up, and look around, trying to see where I am. I am in the very center of the park, and I'm surrounded with grass. There are swings to one side, and monkey bars to the other side. There is also a slide behind me. I see shadows by the swings and decide to walk over. I see people on the swings, but their backs are towards me. I can't see who they are, but they all look familiar from the back. I walk up to the first swing, and tap the person on the shoulder.
She turns around, and I see that it is Olivia. She looks the same, but has cat bites all over her body. The wounds are still open, but there is no blood flowing from them. She turns back around, and the next person turns to look at me. The next person is Ava. She has the glass cuts on her body, and her eye is missing. She turns back around, and I look to see who's back. Alex is next, with a bullet hole in his head. I can tell that the next two will be Ryan and Lucas. Seeing them is too much, so I turn around. I walk back to the bench, and sit down. I hear some moans, and I turn towards the noise. I see that people are surrounding me. It is the people who have died in the past few months. They are all showing their wounds, but they are still alive. I tally the names in my head, as I see the injuries. I see Olivia, Ava, Alex, Ryan, Lucas, Ally, Ian, Steve, Nick, Sydney, Beth, Jane, Swarthe, and many others. They lean towards me, and try to get a hold of my skin.
They rip, and grab, trying to tear at me. I am forced to the ground, and they swarm on top of me. Right before I black out, I see two very familiar faces. I see Jade and Bri standing over me. My two oldest friends grab at me, and I black out. I gasp, and open my eyes. I am finally awake now. I am still on the moon, and I think my oxygen mask is running low. My back is wet with blood, and my mask has vomit on it. I stand up shakily, and walk over to the dead bodies. I check their pulses, and confirm that they are all dead. I start to stagger in the direction of the compound. I struggle on for a while, and finally end up at the doors. I put the code in, and close the door behind me. I make it to the infirmary, and one of the robots wheels in. It moves to get supplies, and I lay on a cot. I move in and out of consciousness as the robot makes its way over to me. It stops moving, and I get a better look at it. It is holding a tray of medicine, but has broken down.
There are bullet holes and slashes from the prisoners, and it is completely dead. I take the tray from the robot's grip, and bandage my wounds. I grab some painkillers, and take a few tablets. I drift off to sleep, but have no more dreams. I wake up, and rub my eyes. My bandages are dry, which means I'm not bleeding any more. My ear piece rings, which startles me. "Hello?" I say cautiously, hoping that it is not Mike. "Molly?" the call crackles, "Molly it's Jim, we heard about what happened, the ship just landed. We were told that a group of animals attacked and killed you, Ryan, Lucas, and one of Mike's men. Luckily we have someone on the inside who told us what really happened." "Wait who is it? Who is the person on the inside?" "I can't tell you over the phone, we never know when this line could be compromised. So our group is in two different locations now, just for safety reasons."
"Okay," I croak. "So Carly, John, and myself are in one location, and Gabe, Sean, and Jake are at a second location a few hundred miles away." At this moment the second group connects, and we are in a big group chat. "Molly?" I hear Jake say, "It's Jake, we just heard about what happened, are you hurt? Are you back at the prison?" "Yah, I was stabbed with a needle, and got my back sliced open. Oh and I got shot in the arm, and got a pretty nasty cut on my leg, you know just a normal mission. No but really I should be fine." "So we have talked to our people back at NASA, and we are trying to get a rocket to come get you. The people are very hesitant though, I don't know if it is because they think you're dead, or something else. Its all very weird, but we'll get you out soon." I hear a loud bang over the ear piece, and screams follow.
I hear Jake cry out, and more bullets follow. I don't hear anything else from them, and the line goes dead. It is quire for a minute, then I hear Carly talk quietly. "Molly we have to go, I'll talk to you later, stay safe." She cuts the call, and I get off the cot. I slowly walk to our room, and type in the code. I walk in, and see that the room is torn apart. Clothing is thrown everywhere, and the table that leads to the armory is open. I grab a bag of apples from the fridge, and quickly eat them. I go back to the infirmary, lay down on my cot, and fall asleep immediately. I sleep nonstop for about 24 hours, and wakeup to a call. "Hey Molly, we have a rocket on the way, it will be there soon." I hear a sniffle through the earpiece, and ask if everything is okay. The call goes dead, as my earpiece dies.
I go back to the room, and search through the dressers for a new earpiece. I clip it into my ear, and think about what my next plan is. I can't call Jim, because he called from an encrypted number. I have everyone's number from the room, and Dallas's number, that gives me a few choices. The list goes down when I cross out everyone who's dead. That leaves me with just Mark and Dallas. I sign, and call Mark. He answers, and says hello. He seems very confused, since it would say he is talking to Ava. I growl into the earpiece, and try not to yell. "Mark you know who this is. I will come back to Earth, and I will kill everyone who was on that ship." I hear him breathe heavily, and turn his earpiece off.
I figure that the rocket will be here by tomorrow. I will leave tomorrow morning, after I get more weapons. They took my weapons after they attacked me, so I'll have to get more. I'll also have to find a new suit. There is a large gash in the back and leg, so it won't work anymore. I feel my back, to see how the wound is doing. My back is hot, and gash has started to scab. I feel the skin around it, and it is bumpy and swollen from being exposed to the atmosphere. My gloves and boots are fine, but I will also have to replace my mask. I walk over to Ava's dresser, and open it. I pull out her mask and suit, and grab the sports bra as well. Mine is crusted with blood, so I should probably change it. I sip my ruined suit off, and look around before I take my bra off. That's when I realize that I am totally alone here. I quickly slip the new sports bra on, and it is a bit too tight. It will work though, and I grab the suit. I am a bit taller than Ava was, but the material is pretty flexible. I wiggle into it, and try to zip it. My back screams with pain as I stretch to zip the suit. I stop moving, and let the pain stop. I decide to go get my weapons, and zip the suit later.
I pull myself over the dresser, and start my way down the ladder. My back hurts, but it is bearable. My feet touch the ground and I look around the room. There are weapons thrown all around the room, and I can tell that they were trying to leave quickly. I carefully pick my way around the room, and find some nice weapons. I find two nice guns, and also grab a katana. Most of the knives are gone, so I decide on a katana instead. In the corner I see a nice sword, so I put the katana back and grab the sword. It is shorter, and will take less energy to swing it. I grab all of my weapons, and start the slow climb up to the room. I am two rungs up when I decide to go get the katana. I grab it and decide to bring it up with me, I may bring both with me, and don't want to make a second trip down. By the time I am at the top, my back is burning. I throw my weapons over the top, and haul myself out of the dresser. I lay on the floor by my weapons and pant, trying to catch my breath. I crawl to the closest bed, and pull the pillow down.
I take the pillow case off, and place it on my back. It will be a makeshift bandage for tonight. I lay my head on the pillow, and quickly fall asleep. I wake up early the next morning and take the pillowcase off of my back. The pillow has a little bit of blood on it, but not enough to soak it. I stand up, and remember that I have my test suit. I take Ava's suit off, and throw it on a bed. I walk back to the bathroom, and the suit is in a pile on the ground, right where I left it. I slip it on, and it morphs back to my body. I don't put the shoes or gloves on, since the suit will hopefully protect me. The suit is old, but will hopefully last long enough to get me onto the ship. I slide the hood over my face, but still put on my oxygen mask. I grab my weapons, and put the guns into their holsters. I grab the katana, and pull the sheath over my head. I secure it on my back. I slide the blade into the sheath, and deuced to leave the sword. I place it on a bed and get ready to leave. I walk out of the jail, and start to walk to where the ship came last time.
I walk, and decide to teak a break when I reach the rocks where the big fight was. I see the bodies of my friends, and tears start to well. I see Ryan a few feet away, and anger wells in my chest. I continue to walk, and finally reach where the ship was last time. I stand there for a minute, and look up at the sky. I look for the ship, but don't see anything. After a few minutes later I get bored, and sit down. I hear a noise and stand up, looking to the right. I grip the hilt of the katana, and slide it out. I feel something hit my back, and I lurch forwards. I fall to my knees, and stay there stunned for a minute. I finally push myself up, and look around. There are four cats in front of me, and one more behind me. They snarl, and dive towards me. I push my feet off the ground, and fly into the air.
YOU ARE READING
One Rotation
ActionWhen Molly, an aerospace engineer is asked to lead a mission to the moon, and lock the mass murderer Mike Sherling up, what will she do? Will she rise to the challenge, or will she fail, and let the murders rule the world?