The Final Expedition

Day Seventy-Four

The red haze from outside the capsule obscured our vision outside as we began our descent through the Earth’s atmosphere. The heat shield on the underside would be glowing bright red as the hull temperature soared. I glanced across the tiny interior at my two companions. Karpov was at the capsule’s controls, while Natalya was seated on his far side. It was pretty cramped as we were all in our bulky pressure suits. Even through the helmet’s visor, I could see beads of sweat running down Karpov’s brow, which I was pretty sure had nothing to do with the heat outside. Karpov’s jaw was clenched and he seemed completely focused on the task at hand, while both Natalya and I looked on nervously. She caught my eye and I tried to smile, but instead I just grimaced. I felt as scared as I had ever been, and looking across at the obvious anxiety in the faces of both of my fully trained Cosmonaut colleagues did little to calm my fears. With mission control’s assistance, this was dangerous at the best of times, without mission control it was virtually suicidal. We all knew the risks, but it was either this, or a slow death in orbit. Sooner or later, we had to attempt to get back to Earth. We had decided to draw lots and attempt to return to Earth as soon as possible to reduce the drain on the station’s resources. That way, at least Morrison, Aki and Flynn had the maximum possible time remaining. The others had spoken optimistically about it giving us enough time to mount a rescue mission to recover them, but we all knew deep down that we were deluding ourselves. The human race would have been knocked back to the dark ages at best. There would be no launches into space for many years, if ever. I looked over again at Natalya, who now had her eyes squeezed tightly shut, her mouth moving silently, perhaps praying. I had been relieved when she’d pulled a long straw, even more relieved than pulling a long straw myself, as my own was tainted with guilt when I saw the ashen faces of the others with short straws in their hands, knowing they had been condemned. Looking again through the tiny window, the red haze had dissipated now and we were plummeting through the air towards the landing site. We had been aiming for the usual landing site in the deserts of Kazakhstan, but without mission control, we would settle for a land mass of any description.

“Deploying parachute in ten seconds.” Karpov told us. “Prepare yourselves. 3… 2… 1… Deploying!” My guts felt like they had been scrambled as for the first time in months, our bodies were subjected to the force of gravity. Instinctively, I threw a hand up to my mouth, my glove thumping against my visor as I felt an overwhelming sense of nausea. Squeezing my eyes shut, I gritted my teeth and after a moment the feeling subsided. The massive parachute high above the capsule would slow our rate of descent now until we touched down. My heart thumped as we watched and waited in silence, trying not to think of all the things that could go catastrophically wrong. Each second seemed to last an eternity and I realised I was holding my breath, waiting for the impact as we landed. Just when it felt we never would, a jarring thump heralded our arrival back on Earth, our bodies violently shaken in our seats. We sat there for a moment in silence before Karpov exhaled deeply.

“Well, we’re on Earth.” He commented. “Let’s see exactly where on Earth we are.” He reached for the hatch above our heads and operated the mechanism. The hatch unsealed with an accompanying sharp hiss as the pressure equalised. Karpov grunted as he swung open the hatch and began to clamber out. We unstrapped ourselves and followed him, climbing awkwardly out of the circular opening, our bulky pressure suits nearly as big as the narrow aperture. Karpov reached up to help us as we both clambered down the outside of the scorched surface of the capsule. We took a moment to get our bearings. Our landing site was a park in the middle of what appeared, judging by the tower blocks all around us, to be a small city. The grey skies were raining a gentle snow of ash and dust and the ground was caked in it, our boots leaving footprints behind us as we hesitantly moved forward into this strange place. I glanced back at my first footprint, which in the grey ash, reminded me of the famous photograph of Neil Armstrong’s footprint on the moon. The grey sky and ground combined with the concrete sides of the buildings gave everything a strange monochrome look.

“Can you hear that?” Karpov asked.

“What?” I replied.

“Exactly. I can’t hear a thing. No birds in the trees, no sound of cars in the streets, or footsteps, or talking, not even a whisper of wind.”

“Eerie isn’t it.” Natalya commented, nervously looking all around her. “Do you think the whole city has been evacuated?”

“Makes you wonder what the radiation levels might be.” I mused, wondering morbidly if we had already absorbed a lethal dose. We passed a children’s play area with a slide and a set of swings. The ash had fallen and settled up to a height of several inches on the swing seats. Beyond the play area, we approached a great pile of ash, towering above us. Almost like a hill, but too artificial in shape to be one. Our pressure suits were weighing us down, slowing our progress, but I knew they would at least afford us some protection from any fallout. The ash had already begun to cover them, swiftly changing the colour from brilliant white to grey, just like the landscape all around us. As we reached the pile, I realised with a start that charred limbs were protruding out of the ash.

“My God.” I murmured.

“It must have been a mass grave.” Karpov commented. “A giant funeral pyre.”

“Look at all these poor souls.” Natalya remarked. “There must be hundreds of them. It must have been hellish down here.” Despite my abhorrence, I found myself approaching the heap of burnt corpses. The bodies seemed to have been fused together by the heat into one huge mass of charred flesh and bone. One corpse at the edge of the mound was face down with arms outstretched, almost like it was trying to crawl out of the bottom of the pile. I bent down to examine the victim. Suddenly, the two bony arms reached for my legs, grasping my ankles in a vicelike grip, pulling them out from under me. With a cry of terror, I crashed down onto my back. The hands clawed at me, dragging me towards the pile. An eyeless skull covered in remnants of crispy flesh was level with my head. It raised its skeletal claws before bringing them crashing down onto my visor, which shattered all over my face. I screamed as the dead face loomed over me, its teeth glinting in a skeletal grin…

“Shit!” I woke up, flinging my arms out and wincing as they hit the sides of my sleeping compartment. My entire body felt clammy with sweat and my heart was racing.

“Carter? Are you okay?” A voice called out. It sounded like Flynn.

“Yeah, I’m okay.” I called back, embarrassed. “Sorry Chuck. Just a nightmare.”

“No sweat, Carter.” He replied gruffly. “I have them every night and they continue when I open my eyes in the morning.”

“Okay.” I replied, not wanting to get drawn in to Flynn’s dark chain of thought. “I’ll see you in the morning then.”

“You will.” Came the abrupt reply. The exchange apparently over, I mopped the sweat from my brow and attempted to get back to sleep, hoping for a more peaceful remaining few hours of rest.