User blog:Gracchus Mccarthe/Benson and Roister: Escape from Thera

     Just seconds after Rex, A.J., Ray, and Carl exited the lab, Cecil and Troh came sprinting out of the other building. “Run! Run!” Cecil shrieked.

     “Why!?” Rex asked.

     “Shut up and RUN!!!” Cecil yelled back.

     “Did you shut down the defense grid?” called Ray.

     “Yes! Now RUN YOU BLASTED MORONS!!!”

     Before any of them could ask what the problem was, the problem was made clear: A very large, black zombie came crawling out of the building at a surprising speed!

     “OH SNAP!” Rex screamed. He fired at the oncoming monster, but it seemed to ignore the bullets that hit it.

     “You can’t hurt it! We tried!” Troh warned.

     The six of them fled with the zombie in hot pursuit. A.J. contacted the drop ship, and he let out a short sigh of relief as it passed overhead and landed on a parking lot that was nearby.

     The soldiers reached their ship and hurried on board. The large zombie kept getting closer as the pilot lifted the shuttle off the ground. The soldiers removed their helmets and put their weapons down.

     “We’re about thirty feet up. I think we’re safe now.” Carl said. But he was wrong. With a mighty leap, the zombie reached the ship and dug in its claws. Metal shrieked as the zombie tore at the door.

      “If that thing destroys the door, we won’t be able to go into space!” A.J. hollered. “Open the door!”

     The pilot complied, and A.J. hoisted his gun. When the door was fully open, A.J. fired several rounds point-blank into the monster’s face.

     With a howl of agony, the enraged zombie swung hard at A.J. and knocked him clear across the shuttle into the wall.

     “Goodbye!” Cecil shouted as he stepped up and emptied his bazooka onto the attacker before it could latch its hand back onto the ship. The force of the two blasts knocked it loose. Cecil grinned wryly. “Get some, sucker.” he muttered as the zombie fell nearly a hundred feet before splattering on the ground. The pilot closed the door.

     Carl had already gotten to A.J. “He’s injured pretty badly. That was a really hard hit. Too bad you already had your helmet off, A.J.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “You shoulda let me fire the first shot.” Cecil admonished.

<p class="MsoNormal">     A.J. smiled weakly, “I couldn’t let you take all the glory.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Besides,” Rex said, “it would’ve had both hands holding onto the ship, so it wouldn’t have fallen off. Its attack on A.J. left its defense weak.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “We’re a little bit behind schedule.” the pilot warned. “Expect a really bumpy exit.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     The soldiers strapped in after helping A.J. into a seat and securing him.

<p class="MsoNormal">     Their trip through Thera’s atmosphere took about four and a half minutes. The co-pilot used this time to plot the ship’s course back to Aartis. A short while after clearing the topmost layer, the crew on the shuttle saw the Jolt Ship maneuvering into position a long distance off.

<p class="MsoNormal">     “If we can get as far away before the explosion as the Jolt Ship is, we’ll be safe.” The co-pilot stated.

<p class="MsoNormal">     The following minute and fourteen seconds (the remaining time before the annihilation of Thera) seemed like hours to the eight SAS in the small, fleeing shuttle.

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Look.” the co-pilot said, pointing. “See that bright light? The sequence is starting.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     The soldiers stared in awe as the light became brighter and brighter. If not for the super-duty glare shields infused in the windows, they would have gone blind!

<p class="MsoNormal">     Suddenly, the light went out. Then the co-pilot started counting down. “5, 4, 3, 2, 1…”

<p class="MsoNormal">     The light came back, though much brighter than before. The Jolt Ship spawned a gigantic beam that glowed blue and white.

<p class="MsoNormal">     In seconds, Thera was gone. “I can’t see too well.” Troh declared. “Everything is pretty much black. Pilot lady, please tell me you didn’t watch the explosion.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “No, I didn’t. Don’t worry, I can still see.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     Suddenly, they all heard multiple loud pings. The Jolt Ship vaporized nearly 80% of the planet’s mass, but the rest was thrown out as debris.

<p class="MsoNormal">     “The computers have finished plotting our course back to Aartis.” the co-pilot announced. “We’ll start warp-cruising in about half a minute.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     Debris from Thera continued hitting the shuttle. Most of the pieces colliding with the ship were small, but it did get hit by a few larger chunks.

<p class="MsoNormal">     A particularly big piece of rock grazed the side of the ship. As is rocked, the co-pilot said, “We got lucky. If that had hit us directly, we might’ve lost control for a bit.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     Soon, the main computer screen stated, “Engines ready. Engaging warp-cruise.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Here we go!” the pilot said as she adjusted some small levers. Then she pulled a large slider and the ship began accelerating.

<p class="MsoNormal">     In seconds, the shuttle was going faster than the debris that had been thrown out by the explosion of Thera. The computers had calculated the paths of large pieces of debris that the ship might hit while accelerating, but it ignored small pieces.

<p class="MsoNormal">     The drop ship charged through several chunks of Thera’s mass, but they weren’t large enough to cause any real damage.

<p class="MsoNormal">     By now, the shuttle was going so fast that all the pieces of what used to be Thera were only blurs. Shortly, the ship hit warp power 1.4.

<p class="MsoNormal">     After the planetary explosion was too far away to pose a threat to the soldiers, Rex picked up his RIA 313 from where he had left it earlier: under his seat. “I hope I never forget to take this on a mission again.” he announced. “I have some skill with a knife, but I don’t-“ Then he snapped his fingers. “I forgot to pick up my knife!” he shouted. “I hate myself!”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “You’re just missing a knife.” Carl said. Then he pointed at A.J., “He has a couple of snapped vertebrae, fractured ribs, bruising, and other, more minor injuries.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Yeah.” Rex replied thoughtfully. “Guess I’m not as bad off as Cap.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “That’s an understatement.” A.J. moaned.

<p class="MsoNormal">     After a bit of awkward silence, Cecil piped up. “I have a name for that thing we encountered. The black one that I knocked off the ship.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     The others looked at each other. Then Troh looked back at Cecil. “Let’s hear it”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Necrosis.” was the reply. “Cool huh?”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “I guess.” Carl responded. “What’s it mean? Or did you just think of that because it sounds cool?”

<p class="MsoNormal">     Cecil shook his head. “It means ‘death’ in some extinct language.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Works for me.” A.J. stated quietly. “I think I’m just about dead.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     The others couldn’t help but laugh softly. Ray apologized. “Sorry, A.J. We’re not trying to make light of your injuries, but that did sound kind of funny.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Don’t worry about it.” A.J. told him. “I’ll survive.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     A while later, the shuttle was within communicating range of Aartis. The pilot unholstered a walkie-talkie from the control board. “This is Shrike-9 contacting Aartis SAS Base 12, over.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     No response.

<p class="MsoNormal">     “This is Shrike-9 contacting Aartis SAS Base 12, over.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     Still silence on the other end.

<p class="MsoNormal">     The pilot began the message again, but she was interrupted midsentence by Commander Morris’s voice. “Stay away! Don’t land here on the base!”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Why not?” the pilot inquired anxiously.

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Zombie outbreak. Don’t land here.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Oh no…” the pilot gasped.

<p class="MsoNormal">     The soldiers onboard looked at each other. Finally, Carl asked the question that occupied everyone’s mind, “How did the virus get to Aartis?”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “I don’t know.” A.J. spoke, louder than he had in the last half hour or so. “But there are survivors on the base. We need to help them.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Agreed. But we can help them; you can’t.” Rex said flatly. “You’re too injured.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Injured, yes. Too much? Not a chance.” With that remark, A.J. rose from his seat and picked up his weapon. “I can stand and fire, and that’s enough.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “The commander ordered us to stay away from the base.” the pilot reminded him. “You heard him say that, right?”

<p class="MsoNormal">     A.J. nodded. “Yep, I heard it. But I don’t care. We’re going in there to save as many people as we can.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “I control the shuttle.” the pilot pointed out.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “We can mutiny.” the captain returned. “I can pilot this thing, just so you know.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “All right, but I’m not part of this.” the pilot insisted.

<p class="MsoNormal">     The co-pilot raised his hand. “Neither am I.” he said quietly.

<p class="MsoNormal">     A.J. grinned. “I never said you were.” Then he turned to the other five soldiers. “Boys, it’s time to screw the rules!”

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