Sample of SPACE SPHERES

by John Adams Theibert Jr

I found myself in an old wooden chair sitting there and looking out the porthole in front of me. It looked like I was on a military ship. It was a long way down past the porthole. There were small waves in the bright sunlight. What am I doing here? I thought. My nerves went on end with confusion, fright.

The rust covered room was empty except for this chair. The walls were coated with flaking and bubbling aquamarine paint. The rounded rectangular heavy steel door was open and it creaked and made that high-pitched metal on metal sound, as it swung back and forth about six inches or so with the sway of the ship.

I was dumbfounded about being here. Cautiously, I got up and crept into the hallway. “Hello?” I shouted; scanning the dimly lit hallway. It looked like puddles of oil wherein random locations and some smeared or sprayed on the walls. The hallway smelled musky, sort of like an outhouse. I slinked down the hallway, careful not to step in the puddles or touch the walls.

There were no signs of life. What the hell is going on? I thought. My face flex with anger. There were some grated metal stairs leading up to the deck. A fluctuating column of light partly lit the stairwell coming from the swaying partially open door, revealing the dust in the air. I ascended the stairs to investigate. My boots clanked on the metal as I climbed. I rushed to get to the top of the stairs. The heavy tightening feeling of panic started to creep from my chest into my throat. I swallowed deeply.

As I reached the top I opened the door and saw the deck of an aircraft carrier.What the freaking hell am I doing on a carrier? I thought. I felt my jaw tighten with rage and my fists clench. “Is anyone out here?” I yelled hoarsely. I looked down at my clothing and saw I had white navy duds on, only they were all ripped up and stained with large brown blotches and spackles. I tried to rub the stains off, but they were hard like dried blood.

Oh crap, I must have been in some kind of an accident. I thought. On the deck, I could see clear evidence of obvious carnage. There were body parts in various places with pools and streaks of blood nearby them. I gasped when I realized the devastation. I started to hyperventilate and shake. I put my hands over my mouth and nose and coughed.

After I recovered I noticed that the deck was clear of jets and choppers. I walked out onto the deck careful not to step near any body parts or in any blood. I looked around carefully and saw someone on the far end of the flight deck. I felt a slight headache from the bright-light reflecting off the carrier’s light-gray surface. I braced myself against a strong crossed-wind gust.

“Hay!” I shouted, but I did not receive an immediate response. I walked towards him some more. He turned around as soon as the sound reached him and started running towards me. I saw him a little clearer as he approached. He was a black guy; big, clean-cut, and sort of muscular wearing a gray jumpsuit.

“You’re alive! Where did you hide?” he said.

“I don’t know what you mean. I just…” I replied

“Never mind; come with me. Where are those pus things? Did you see where they went? Come on!” he said, as he started leading me down to the other end of the ship.

“What do you mean ‘pus things?’ What happened here? Who attacked? Where are the aircraft?” I asked.

“It was those pus things, man. Everything just went crazy. The pilots crashed all the planes and choppers. Those pus things were eating people. I just watched it all from here. I was too scared to move until you came out. It’s crazy; something just attacked us… Something, I don’t know what. Like some kind of slime, but we’ve got to get out of here! Didn’t you see it?” he shouted. He was somewhat out of breath and dazed.

“What was it? What did you see?” I questioned.

“I saw it all. Everyone was on deck for a ceremony, and then we all came under attack, by some kind of slime falling out of the sky. The slime landed on some of the crew, it made huge sores on their skin that got as big as basketballs and even bigger. The blisters fell off the guys and started rolling around the deck of the ship, and then attacked. Somehow they grow teeth and a mouth.

“I saw them biting off arms and legs. Some of the blisters got bigger by eating people and started exploding covering others with that slime. Some guys turned orange and started acting crazy, and other guys had big blisters growing out of them.

“All the blister things rolled down into the ship. I could hear screaming and yelling, but the rest of the crew were all orange and didn’t do anything to stop those pus things. The crew just helped the pilots take off and crash out there like they were all insane,” he said.

He didn’t ask my name for some reason, “I’m Dag. What’s your name?”

“Dag, you got to be joking,” he said.

“What do you mean, I don’t know you, and I don’t even know how I got here?”

“You trippin’!? You got to be kidding. Let me look at your head,” he said and looked at the back of my head. “Wait! You got bloodstains on the back of your shirt too, and you got blood in your hair. Whoa, you got a really big gash on the back of your head. Are you telling me you got amnesia? What!? You can’t remember me? Dang, Dag it’s me, Keef.”

“Yeah, I swear, I can’t remember,” I said.

“Yeah right, man, you trippin’,” Keef said and chuckled and shook his head, and motioned for me to follow. I followed him to the ship’s island and down multiple flights of stairs that went into the ship. There was some light coming from a door that led down into a large main hangar deck.

“Oh no, nothing! Dang, is everyone just completely insane? Everything is gone,” Keef said.

I heard some sounds come from the gallery deck up the stairs.

“What’s that?” I said.

“It’s those things! They must be tracking us. Get down!” He shoved me down to the floor and he ran.

“Hey, what are you doing?” I got up and ran after him. He must be crazy. I might have to restrain him. I thought. I chased him up an adjacent flight of stairs to the flight deck. I caught up with him and stopped him by grabbing his jumpsuit. He struggled and then pulled his knife out and cut me under my left arm. I held on to his jumpsuit with all my strength, but the cut he gave me weakened me, and I lost my grip.

“You’re one of them, you pus thing!” he yelled and tried to cut me again and then I passed out from the lack of blood. When I came to I was out in the ocean. He must’ve thrown me over the side of the ship. The gash must have been deep because I started to black out again. Just before I blacked out I saw the ship moving off farther away, and I saw something on the runway. It looked like lots of light and dark colored brown or tan round objects moving all over the place. I didn’t recognize them except for what Keef said. They must have been those things he was talking about… then darkness.

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