"Philosophy" (Nature)

=Chapter 11: Philosophy= Wells and Rosie had said their goodbyes to the rest of the crew and returned to their quarters. Sonia and the others mean while packed and loaded all their things on to the escape pod. They had taken their seats and strapped themselves in.

“Brace yourselves, this is gonna be a rough take-off,” Roger warned them all as he flicked several switches and prepared to disembark. “Alright, this is it everyone. Hold on to something – or someone,” he turned around, making sure everyone was strapped in. He faced forwards again, taking several deep breaths. “Three, two, one…” He pressed a button, prompting the escape pod to disengage from the space station. The others could all hear him counting under his breath.

“Nine, ten!” He pulled down a lever, “Thrusters engaged!” The escape pod then darted forward quickly, thrusting at a high speed. Though everyone was strapped down, the force pushing against them made them feel like they were going to fly back against the pod.

On board the space station, Wells and Rosie watched as the escape pod launched down towards Earth. “That’s that then…” He remarked, as he took Rosie’s hand. “It’s just us now, babe.” He put his hands on her face, as they moved in on each other to share a tender kiss in front of the window, the escape pod behind them still headed for Earth.

“Slowing down now!” Roger kept the pod under control, varying the speed, dependent on what velocity was appropriate. The rest of the crew held on tightly, fearful for their lives.

“Uh oh!” Roger made the one remark that no one wanted to hear. “Steady… Steady!” He struggled to keep the pod under control, “And, there!” All of a sudden, the pod halted to a stop – it was no longer being thrusted.

“What happened? What do you mean ‘uh oh’?” Kristina was stuck in awe. “We nearly overheated for a sec there. Luckily, I kept us under control. The best thing I could was deactivate the thrusters. Now, we’re simply drifting towards Earth. Everyone breathed out again in relief.

“How long until we actually make it to the ground then?” Sonia asked. “Ah, let me see.” Roger looked outside the pod, at the Earth, and then thought to himself. “Well, taking into account how far we’ve travelled away from the station, how much further we still need to go, as well as how much fuel we have left, and of course the inability to use the thrusters again… About half an hour.” He turned around, and quirkily smiled at everyone. “Great, half an hour…” Bertie didn’t sound too pleased. “Anyone wanna take it in turns to tell a ghost story then?” Kristina kidded with them, but Bertie took the idea too seriously, “Alright, I’ve got one. You’ll like this.” He cleared his throat.

“Many, many, many, years ago. There was a boy. A quiet boy, a shy boy. He wasn’t too quiet though. He had some friends who were just like him. They were all rather geeky, they all dreamed of going to space one day as well. After all, Space was a big thing at the school which this boy attended.”

Bertie noticed everyone was quickly losing interest, so he cut into the main part of his ‘ghost tale’.

“Things took a dark turn for the boy though. One lunchtime when he was just twelve-years-old, none of his friends were in school. They had all fallen ill. So this poor boy was entirely alone in the playground. People would pick on him even when his friends were around. But this time, he was completely by himself. A group of bullies in the senior years came over to him, making threats. One of them threatened to kill him if he didn’t hand over his money. All he had was a tenner which his mum had given to him. With shaky hands and shivering arms, he handed the note over to the bullies. But that isn’t even the dark part! Later that day, as he walked home from school, he was jumped in an alleyway by the same group of bullies. They beat him up, threw him against the fence, you name it. They did everything to him that was unbearable… Little did they know, he later died that night in hospital from internal bleeding. But the boy was far from gone. The next time those bullies met up, the ghost of the boy gave them the fright of their lives! His appearance was enough to induce heart attacks upon them!”

Bertie had become enthusiastic over his story, but looking around the pod, he noticed that no one shared his enthusiasm. “Bert, I mean this with the upmost respect, but… That was rubbish. Literally rubbish.” Kristina informed him. “Oh… don’t suppose you’ve got a better one then?” He raised his eyebrow at her.

“Well, not a bullshit campfire story, no. I’ve got something even better. My philosophy! Who wants to hear all about me? Where I came from, what I did before we went to space, anyone?”

Sonia rolled her eyes, “You know you’ve already told us your story. The very first thing we all did when we arrived on the station was share our philosophies with each other.”

Kristina remembered this to be true and nodded, “Oh yeah, you’re right. Sorry,” she laughed – Except this time, it wasn’t prompted by the space dementia in her mind.

Sometime had passed since anyone had spoken. Everyone was bored out of their minds. “How long’s it been, Roger?” Sonia leant back against her seat. “Only fifteen minutes.” Everyone looked up at him in shock, “Fifteen minutes?!” They all called out in unison.

“Feels like it’s been fifteen hours!” Bertie added.

“Feels like it’s been fifteen years!” Kristina added.

“Feels like it’s been fifteen lifetimes!” Sonia finished. “Can’t we turn on the thrusters and go a little bit faster?” She suggested. “No can do; the thrusters are completely burnt out. The only thing I can do now is activate the parachute, but that’s used to descend our fall. If we use it before then, it’ll screw up our landing procedure.” Sonia understood, “This is a really shitty escape pod then. I can think of four flaws in its’ design now!” She didn’t intend for her remark to be taken as comedy, she was being serious due to how bored she was.

“What do you guys really think’s happened down there?” Kristina looked between everyone’s faces for their answers. “Tell you what, we’ll do this like a little gameshow thing. I’ll ask you a question, give you a few seconds to think of an answer, then I’ll look at you one at a time to hear what you gotta say. Sound good?” She was surprised to hear everyone’s positive responses – they were all up for it.

“Alright then, what do you think has happened on Earth?” She first looked to Roger: “An epidemic.” She then looked to Bertie, “A virus made by the government.” Then finally looked to Jane, “I think it’s a pandemic,” she emphasized the word ‘pandemic’ to point out Roger’s mistake of referring to it as an ‘epidemic’.

“Interesting. Alright. Do you think this is really the apocalypse? Is this the end of the world as we know it?”

All three of them nodded together. “If it wasn’t, it would’ve been dealt with by now. This is the end. This is Judgement Day. It’s what we all had hoped would never happen.” Sonia reasoned.

“I agree with her,” Bertie nodded to Sonia.

“It’s the apocalypse, but it’s not the end of the world. You see, there’s been extinction events before. Like when the dinosaurs were wiped out, or the end of the ice age. That’s what this is. Humanity is wiped out in this civilisation, but a new species will rise up in its’ place. Cockroaches, tardigrades, anything which is still alive. Eventually it’ll evolve, it’ll dominate the planet.” Roger seemed to be less concerned about the apocalypse than the others.

“What do you think caused it? The virus, the pandemic, whatever you think it is. What caused it to come about?” Kristina looked intrigued by the crew’s answers.

“Well, like I said, it’s a Government-made virus. They want to eradicate the population because they’ve got secret deals going on with the aliens living on planets all around us.” Bertie’s answer prompted the others to think he was mad. “Just you watch. They’re coming. The Martians. The Roswell Greys. Oh, they’re coming. The next dominant species come from another world…”

Sonia tried not to laugh. She evaded this by giving Kristina her answer. “I honestly have no idea. Some nights though, I have bad dreams, I have nightmares, about that news broadcast. Seeing that news reporter choke to death… and all the terrified civilians suffering the exact same fate… I have no idea what could cause that kind of a hell, let alone on such a global scale.”

Roger shrugged, “I don’t know either to be honest. But I doubt the government could create something like that. Maybe it’s something released into the water? Or the air? Is it a toxic spore perhaps?” He deduced several things amidst his answer.

Their conversation was interrupted by the blaring lights on the dash board of the pod. “Roger? What is it?” Sonia was eager, she became excited upon seeing Roger turn around, his face completely lit up. “We’re going home everyone…”