A Slice Of Life, Death And Everything In-Between

The Red Twins (Together In Death)

This was inspired by the recent passing of the Mars Rover, Opportunity. She was the longest running Mars rover ever created and she will be dearly missed by everyone on planet Earth. Rest in peace, Opportunity, human kind loves you very much.

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Peter watches, his soul drifting through the empty vacuum of space, as the Mars rover, Opportunity sends her last message to the blue planet they both had once called home.

My battery is low and it's getting dark.

Peter watches and he isn't sure how. He has no body, no flesh and blood. No bones. Nothing.

My battery is low and it's getting dark.

He feels for the robot. He too, knows what it's like to die on a red world, to feel the dirt thats not your own sink under your weight, a trillion stars above you. If Peter had a face, he would be crying. If he had lungs, he would be screaming.

For Tony. May. Ned. Anyone.

His still heart goes out for Opportunity, for the struggles she went through and the fact that she, like him, was blown away by an alien wind, harsh and bitting and stinging.

My battery is low and it's getting dark.

Reluctantly, Peter leaves. Is forced away by an unknown presence so that his soul can continue its way across the galaxy, skipping around planets and rocks of ice. He never is allowed to stay in a single place for too long.

Too many times he has wondered if there's a Heaven. Somewhere out there, in the vast blackness of space, just out of his reach. Just beyond the next planet, the next star, the next galaxy.

If he had arms, he would grab on and never let go.

He spots, beyond the red planet under him, a small spec of blue and green. Like a marble, it floats and spins in the blackness. Then, almost as soon as he sees it, a tug in his chest has him turning away.

Peter's body wants its soul near, the stone wants his soul trapped.

Peter just wants to go home.

He shoots across space in a streak of invisible light. He digs his heels in, he claws at the empty air around him, opening his nonexistent mouth in a scream as his soul is forced away.

His head feels empty and his stomach is in knots. Peter passes by the asteroid belt, ducking under exploding and imploding rocks, before sailing off into the never-ending blackness around him. His invisible tears leave a trail behind.

My battery is low and it's getting dark.