the unknown space

chapter 4

It's been a few weeks since we have crash landed on the planet. The commander never called us back. We began to wonder if he had been found out and captured. I never told Karen of the figure I saw, she was already under a lot of stress. The last thing I wanted to tell her is that we aren't alone. I wanted to go back home. Karen wanted to go back home. We started to wonder if this was going to be our new home.

I went off to find some more Bonngle Berries. Karen went to get some new fresh water, I didn't like the thought of splitting up. Karen said it would be better because we needed supplies before dark.

A few hours passed and my bag was full. I went back to the pod, put the bag down and sat on the doorway of the pod. I waited a few hours, the sun was going down and Karen was not back yet. I was getting worried.

The sunset was beautiful, all the colours faded into each other. The purple with the pink orange with the red, all fading into the bright middle. I sat in peace as the sun warmed my face.

I looked at the horizon and saw a human figure walking towards me. I picked up the closest thing to me, which was a rock. I didn't know what this creature was but I was ready to attack. I threw the rock.

"Hey!" a familiar female voice spoke. It was Karen.

"Oh! Karen I thought you were-" my voice trailed off.

"What? An alien? Never thought I would look like one," Karen laughed.

"I'm sorry I just couldn't tell it was you, the tails and ears are quite deceiving. It's hard to tell if you are a human or not..." my voice drifted off as I stared at the sponge like ground.

"Are you ok?" Karen asked.

"Pfft why wouldn't I be," I responded, looking around at the trees.

"Oh I don't know. Maybe because you threw a rock at me you've been looking into the woods like you saw a monster." Karen said.

"Nothing is wrong," I said trying to avoid looking worried and making eye contact.

"Stop." Karen yelled.

"Stop what?" I asked.

"Lying!" Karen snapped. "I can tell that there's something wrong and you aren't telling me what. I know you like me," I made eye contact with Karen. She had a smug look on her face as she crossed her arms.

"What in the world made you think I like you!" I questioned.

"Oh please! You can't stop looking at this beauty," said Karen as she struck a pose like a model.

"Who suddenly gave you self confidence?" I asked her to copy the pose Karen made.

"Oh my gosh! You look fabulous Evander!" Karen said but obviously sarcastically.

"You know I once was a five star model," I pretended to whip my 'long flowing hair' over my broad shoulder.

"You wish you fat gum!" said Karen

"What does that even mean?" I asked

"Well you obviously don't watch Anime," Karen paused trying to think of another comeback, "and I'll hit you with a throwing dart," before I could say a word a colorful blur hit Karen in the face. She screamed as she fell to the ground landing on the squishy floor. The blur ran off and started to sprint around Karen in a circle. Karen jumped up still shrieking and started to yell. "Evander! Help, get it away!" The blur stopped running and I could make out what it was. It was like a lizard, but it had long bunny ears, or so I thought they were ears. It was red, It's belly was orange and yellow, It's back was colored with pink, blue and green with black spots scattered on its tail. The tip of his ears were beige colored. Its face was gray, and its eyes were light blue and yellow.

Karen stopped yelling and looked at the small creature. "Aww it's so cute!" she squealed, "Can we keep it? Can we, can we please Evander, it'll be like our own little family!" Karen begged, making a sad puppy face.

"Are you insane? We have no idea what the heck this thing is for all we know it could be trying to kill you! We can't keep this thing!" I said frantically waving my arms around.

"But Evander it looks completely harmless!" Karen insisted.

"Yeah, looks. We don't know anything about this thing. There is no way we are keeping it," I demanded

"Maybe this is why we were sent here, to test, to see if Dart is harmful!" Karen said cheerfully.

"Dart? No, no, no, no, no, NO! Don't tell me you named it Karen! Ugh," I grabbed my head in frustration.

"What! You don't like the name Dart? I mean he did jump on me when I said I'd throw a dart at you, I think it's fitting!" Karen joked.

"What, no, it's just if you name it you get attached to it and if you're attached to it you won't get rid of it." I sighed.

"You're right, I'm not getting rid of Dart," Karen said.

"Fine," I said after a few seconds. "But you are feeding it, getting it water, cleaning up after it, and whatever else you do to take care of a weird alien pet thing." Karen nodded enthusiastically.

"Deal!" Karen shouted as she leaned down to Dart and held out her hand. "Here Dart, come here, Dart, I will love you and love you and love you and love you!" she was whispering. Eventually, Dart started to inch closer to her hand before leaping onto it and running up on her shoulder.

"Great, now you have a useless pet alien. Let's get back to the house. I don't like being out here, it feels like something is watching me," I said, feeling a shiver go down my spine. I looked behind me into the trees. As I turned I saw some leaves shift and was almost positive that I heard a stick crack on the ground. However, when I looked back at Karen she was smiling and clearly hadn't noticed anything unusual. I pushed the thought that maybe something had been watching us to the back of my mind and started to follow Karen back to our shelter.