His Throne

9 - Lurking Within

Martin and I landed on the ground at the bottom of the cliff.  Everything is definitely so dark down here that we can barely see everything.  The good thing is that we have lights on our helmets.

"Jennifer?  Are you there?" Martin called.

Her voice came up.  "Yes.  I'm here."  She is sitting next to the web-carved wall with her legs forward and is near us.

"Oh, thank God, you're okay." I sighed.

"No.  I'm not." Jennifer shook her head, "My leg.  It's sore.  I can't get up.  The controls are damaged."

Martin and I look at each other as she moaned in pain.  I look at the controls for her jetpack.  Yeah.  They definitely are damaged.

"Here.  We'll get you back up." said Martin as he lifts her up by the armpits.  "Okay?  How are gonna get back there?"

I didn't hear what he said.  My vision is showing something.  I don't know what is happening but it looked like a man.  I stepped closer towards him and I can see the same man.  The same guy from my dream.  He walked away and as I follow him, he slowly vanished.  I'm surrounded by darkness and my anxiety starts to rise.  Just then, I heard another man's voice.

"You better not be messing with me, you little girl!"

I turned around and saw him.  It's my father.  He has a bushy beard, a large belly and he wears glasses.  He seems angry at me like I did something.  My tears dripped as I back away from him.

He continued.  "You're just a little brat.  Are you?  Huh?  You wanna feel sorry now?!  Huh?!"

"N-no.  Please." I uttered, "You're not real."

"You called me an idiot!  Did you?!" He yelled as he walks towards me with a fist, "What a selfish moron you are!"

He then throws his fist right towards me as I shield myself with my arms and shut my eyes.

I screamed. "Stop!"

I opened my eyes and looked.  He's gone.  It's just my mind playing tricks on me.  I shook in fear as tears continue to drip out of my eyes.

"Alexa?!  Are you there?  What happened?!"  It was James.

Martin ran up to me with the worried look on his face.  "Why did you scream?!  What's your problem?"

I didn't say anything.  Some of my words have drowned and drifted away.  Martin hugged me by the shoulder hoping that everything is going to be fine.

"It's okay.  We got you.  You're okay." He turns to James on the walkie talkie, "Alexa just wondered off and I found her."

"Okay.  That's good." James replied, "We're getting Jennifer onto the vehicle.  Where are you?"

Martin is about to answer but we suddenly heard a noise coming from outside our helmets.  As we look around, Martin tells James.  "There's something here with us."

"What is it?"

"I don't know.  But it sounds unknown." Martin shuddered.

"Don't worry.  We're coming." James replied.

I don't know what that thing is but I saw it ran past the rocks.  It is much clear now I can see it up close.  It looks like a rock with six legs and lobster claws.

"Did you see that?"

"See what?" Martin asked.

James came to us.  "There you are.  Come on.  Let's get out of here."  But his eyes widened.

Martin and I looked back.  There is nothing there.  I turn to James.

"Did you see what I saw?"

James uttered the words.  "It's here."

"Where is it?" Martin gasped.

We look around to see where it is but the sounds of the thing is around us.  There is then silence.  I see it and called out.

"Behind you!"

James turns around and jumps back away from the creature.  It's claw pushes over the lunar soil towards him.  It's face.  It has the mouth of a mantis and four eyes.

"Oh God!  It's huge!" Martin screamed.

We ran away from the creature and fled up past the rocks above us and on top of them.

I checked the GPS on my right lower arm of my suit and the rover is a little far away.

"Guys.  Let's go."

We ran across and over the rocks and towards the vehicle in a hurry.  We keep looking back to see if it's behind us but it's nowhere to be seen as we arrived to the rover.

"What's going on?" Taichi asked.

"It's here with us!" I panicked as we hopped onto the vehicle.

Jennifer is already on the vehicle as Tha scanned something in the distance with her camera.  "There is an unknown life-form here at forty feet away."

Taichi gasped.  "What?!"

The creature crawls towards us as Martin shouted.  "Go!  Start the engine!  Hurry!"

Taichi starts the engine and we flew up out of the canyon and back onto the surface.  We breathed heavily in fear and I looked at the edge.

"Okay.  What was that?" Taichi shuddered.

"I don't know." I sighed, "We better find the Moonbase so that we can check her leg."

"Agreed." Taichi nodded, "Hicpa.  Where's the Moonbase located?"

Hicpa scanned and then replied.  "Moonbase Olympus is thirty miles away from us."

"Okay. Thanks." Taichi nodded again, "Okay.  Hang on everyone."

He drives the rover across the gray rocky landscape as I checked Jennifer.  She seems to have feeling like we have and her jetpack has a big dent on the bottom right corner.

"Jennifer.  I'm sorry about what happened to you."

Jennifer looks up at the stars and then back to me.  "It's okay."

I replied.  "Don't worry.  We'll get you better."

It is a long ride to get to the Moonbase and I hope that Jennifer will be okay.  I can see that we are okay but I still don't know what that creature was or why it's on the Moon.  I hope that someone will help us out when we get to the Moonbase Olympus.  If there are people living and working there, then we will be lucky to have help with Jennifer.