LUCAS’S P.O.V
“What… the… fuck..,” The creature said, starring into my eyes.
In a panic I moved my hands to get my pistol, but the creature saw this. It launched itself backwards out of the closet and went scrambling towards the table.
I lunged out of the closet with my pistol in hand, but I didn''t make it very far. The creature was standing tall in front of me, and it had its arm held out holding a shiny metallic gun pointed directly at my head.
We both froze. I was too far away from the creature to do anything, and if I moved I was afraid I would get shot.
“WHO ARE YOU!” It yelled, shaking vigorously. “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE!”
“My friend-” I said, trying to point towards the kitchen.
“STOP MOVING!” The creature yelled again.
“I don''t want to hurt you!” I toldl the creature.
“Then why did you break i-” It said, but suddenly paused
“What are you wearing” it said as it pointed the gun at my flight suit.
“It''s a space suit” I tell the creature.
“Wait, you''re an astronaut?” It said,
But before I could answer, Garrett and Vita bursted back into the room with their pistols drawn.
“DROP THE GUN!” Vita barked.
The creature saw this and stepped back in surprise. It was now outnumbered 3-1.
It slowly crouched and placed the gun on the floor before rising back up.
“Who are you!” The creature yelled at Vita.
“That''s not important, Now tell us what the heck you are!” She said back.
“I''m a wolf, okay! Just put down the gun!”
Avera lowered her gun and looked at Garrett, “I''ve never heard of a wolf before,” she said in confusion.
“Neither have I!” Garrett yelled, pointing his gun at the wolf''s head.
We all stood there for a couple of tense moments, unsure of what to do. I came to my own conclusion once it felt like no one else would.
Violence shouldn''t be an option.
“Garrett, put the gun down” I tell him, but he refuses to budge.
Avera gets the message and tries to help. “Put the gun down,” she said, “That''s an order.”
Garrett looked at her, unsure of what to do.
“Give me your gun right now.” Avera said.
After a couple seconds he lowered the gun and handed it over to Avera.
I spoke up, “...Okay, I''m sorry we broke in, but we had to. Our friend was going to die if we didn''t.”
“Okay…” the wolf said, “Then can you tell me why you''re wearing a mask on your head?”
“Oh,” I say, “This isn''t a mask… It''s a visor, and it is my face”
“So you''re not a…” the wolf says quietly.
“We aren''t, we are protogens. We''ve never seen or heard of wolves before.” Says avera.
The wolf backed up to the sofa that was in the room and sat on it. “Okay then… you''re not gonna shoot me?” The wolf said.
“If you''re not hostile towards us, of course we won''t,” Avera said.Stolen novel; please report.
The wolf took a deep breath and looked at us, it''s green eyes staring in curiosity.
I slowly walked towards the couch. Once I got to the table, I stopped and set my gun down on it. Then I took another step towards the wolf.
It continued to stare at me, unsure of what I was doing. To be honest, I didn''t have much idea of what I was doing either.
I stretched my hand out towards the wolf.
“I''m Lucas, You guys do handshakes, right?” I said.
“Oh! Um-” The wolf said nervously. “You can call me Winter,” the wolf said, slowly shaking my hand.
Then out of nowhere, Vita came out of the dining room.
“Is everyone okay-” she says, before noticing winter.
“Jesus christ!” Winter yelled out, drawing our attention.
Vita looked confused, “What''s that thing?” She said, gesturing towards Winter.
“How many of you are there- and why is that one so tall?” Winter said, jumping up off the couch.
“That''s a wolf, and it''s name is Winter.” Avera said to Vita.
“I''m a she, not an it” the wolf frowned.
Garrett quickly wrote this down when Winter said that. Since this was an intelligent species we''ve never seen before, it was probably a good idea to be writing these things down.
“So is everything good in here?” Vita asked, surprisingly chill with the situation.
“Yes everything''s fine,” Avera said.
“Okay then,” Vita said before walking back out of the room.
“what?..” said Winter, confused at who that was.
“That was our medic Vita” Avera said.
“Then what are your names then?” The wolf asked.
“I''m avera, mission commander, and this is Garrett, mission specialist.” she said, “Then there standing next to you is Lucas, our pilot.”
“Who''s the 5th person?” Winter asked.
“Michael, who we had to borrow your kitchen for.” avera said.
“Can I see him then?” the wolf asked.
“Yea just don''t touch him,” Avera said.
We all made our way into the kitchen where Michael was still recovering from the surgery.
Winter made her way up to him and stopped near the counter. “What happened to him?” She asked.
“Space debris…” Vita said.
“Our flight engineer was killed,” Avera said, “It forced us out of orbit and we ended up landing here”
“I''m sorry to hear about that…” Winter said, looking down at Michael. “You guys really don''t mean any harm to me, do you..”
“Thank you,” Vita said,
“So… where are you guys from?” Winter asked, standing by the fridge.
“Aureon” Garrett said, “That''s where we thought we were when we landed.”
“Where are we, anyway?” Vita asked.
“Earth,” Winter said as she began filling up a cup of water using the fridge.
Winter took a sip of water and began to chuckle. She started to laugh harder and harder until she suddenly stopped. “This is a crazy dream”
“Huh?” I said in confusion.
She laughed, “A bunch of weird looking astronauts break into my house..”
“I can assure you we are real” Avera said.
“That job interview is really getting to my head, isn''t it?” The wolf said. “Maybe if I get some sleep this will end.
The 4 of us stared blankly at the wolf in confusion. What the heck was it going on about?
The wolf set down the cup of water and walked out of the room without saying a word.
“Hold on-” I said, and I began to follow her.
“You''re not real. None of this is” she said.
Before I realized it, I had followed her to a staircase that went up to the second floor of the house.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
The wolf made her way up the stairs and ignored me.
I stood at the bottom of the stairs and looked up, still trying to process what had just happened.
It was probably best if I didn''t follow her and intervene further. I went back to the kitchen and explained to everyone what had happened.
“She thinks she''s dreaming,” Vita said. “This is a peculiar thing to come back to in the middle of the night.”
“Peculiar?” I said, “She almost shot me!”
“Since we broke in, I''m honestly surprised she didn''t” Avera said.
“Well I''d prefer to leave before she wakes up and does decide to shoot me.” I said.
“From a scientific perspective, I''d rather not leave,” Garrett said, “There is so much we could learn about this planet and their species”
“There''s that, and also Winter is currently the only person who can explain to us what is going on.”
“Okay then,” I say, “But what are we going to do when she comes back downstairs and realizes this isn''t a dream, that we are real.”
“We''re going to have to get her to help us,” Avera said.
“And if she doesn''t help?” I asked.
“I don''t know,” Avera replied.
“We''ll just have to wait and see,” Vita said, “and besides, chances are Michael will be waking up soon.”
6 hours later, ~8 AM
MICHAEL''S P.O.V.
There''s a light. I try to open my eyes more to get a better look, but they don''t respond.
Everything is blurry. The only thing I can make out is a reddish white figure in front of me.
“Michael!” someone shouts at me.
“Is he waking up?” says another voice.
“Hey buddy, everything''s okay” the figure says.
Slowly things became clearer, I realized it''s Vita standing over me. But her fur… It''s dark red. Why is it so red? Shouldn''t it be bright white?
Where am I? Why aren''t I in the EX-5?
Wasn''t I doing a space walk? Scott and I…
The last thing I remember, I was yanked off the EX-5. Then I hit the fuselage, and there was a distinctive pain when I did so.
After that, I can''t remember what happened.
“Where am I..” I mumbled.
“Earth” One of the voices said, I wasn''t sure who said it though.
..What is earth? I''ve never heard of it before.
There was a soft breeze that hit me. I looked downwards and realized I was almost completely without clothes, and I was only wearing my undergarments.
My chest was bloody, and half the fur on my body was matted down with blood. Could that have been what was covering Vita? Was it my own blood?
I struggled to focus my eyes but I could see a patch of bandages covering the side of my chest. One of my arms and legs had bandages on them as well.
What about Scott? Wasn''t he there with me? What had happened to him?
But before I could ask the question I was already given the answer.
“Scott didn''t make it,” one of the voices said, “And it''s a miracle you survived as well”
I tried to sit up, but Vita stopped me from doing so.
“Don''t move, if you get up, your wound will start bleeding again.” She said.
My whole body ached. I could barely feel my limbs… I guess you should expect that when you get thrown around like an empty can.
I moved my head around to get a better idea at where I was. It looked like I was in the middle of the room. And on one of the walls, I saw a stove.
Was this a kitchen? That''s not exactly the place you expect to find yourself after waking up after passing out in the middle of space.
I heard lucas start to speak, but I couldn''t see him. “It''s good to have you back,” he said, “I understand your confusion as to where you are.. We''re taking refuge in some aliens'' house, it''s a long story.”
“Aliens house?” I say, “No shit that''s a long story!”
“Hah,” Avera laughed, “It''s some species called wolves, they look a lot like protogens but without the visor, it''s kinda odd.”
“Are they nice?” I ask.
“Well, one of them almost shot me in the face last night,” Lucas said, “For some reason it- I mean she, thought it was all apart of a dream and then went up stairs, where I''m presuming she''s sleeping”
“When she wakes up.. It''s definitely going to be a bit of a shock for her” Avera said.
Go figure. I pass out and wake up in some alien’s kitchen.
“So where is Garrett?” I ask.
“He''s outside collecting samples, there''s so much undocumented biological life here, he almost had a seizure when he figured out this wasn''t Aureon.” Said Vita.
“Good for him,” I said jokingly, “What about the ex-5? How did you guys even land it?”
“We were forced out of orbit, and Lucas here managed to land us into a bunch of trees.” said avera.
“My piloting skills aside,” Lucas said, “The Ship itself isn''t in too bad of shape besides the damage from the debris impacts.”
“That''s good,” I said before getting cut off by a distant noise.
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap- a heavy tapping noise could be heard, it sounded like someone going down a flight of stairs.
“The wolf woke up!” Avera said.
Vita was sitting on the counter. “So we gonna take the casual approach or what?” Vita said, chuckling.
“What do you find funny about this!?” Asked avera.
But before Vita could give her answer, Winter walked into the kitchen, catching us off guard.
Her eyes went big. She froze in the doorway, “It.. was a dream..” She said to herself.
“3… 2…” Vita said.
“Oh my god..” the wolf said, before fainting.
Winter fell backwards and hit the floor with a thud.
“And that''s my cue-” Vita said before she hopped off the counter to go help Winter.