Moon Time | Teen Ink

Moon Time

May 6, 2016
By Nico.C BRONZE, Boulder, Colorado
Nico.C BRONZE, Boulder, Colorado
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Hungry. So hungry. What else would you expect after being imprisoned on this barren desert they call “The Moon?” I was banished here and was forced to stay until I die.
49 days earlier, I see them and I can taste their fear. They know this is it: the end. Is it right though? Are the credits worth it? Should I have agreed to the job? That shady person never did tell me why.... No. It needs to be done. After this, no more killing. I'm done. Remembering the shrill screams of each of each one makes me shudder. But at the time I grinned and laughed like it was some game. The green blood and ash of the body's splashed all over me.
Nine days earlier, as I was on trial, I had looked around at glares and sneers of those in the audience and it reminded me of what I had done, and that the only way out of this is death. I will pay.
After my trial I'm shot into space in a bizarre green ship that seemingly constrains me, I slide to the back of my ship to check on my supplies, my food looks to be only enough to last me nine days. I blast through space at hyper speed, and abruptly stop in front of a small moon as I fly to the front of the ship and smack into the windshield, the ground is coming closer, I grab on to the ship's controls and try turning it around, but quickly discover I am not in control of the ship. The ship starts to burn like a meteor, I look around frantically for any means of escape but can't find any. CREAK, BOOM .... I wake up, my body aching all over and try and salvage what’s left of the ship.
Sigh. As I walk into my scraps of a ship, I check my food supplies, and alarmingly they’re almost all gone. The footprints of men cover the ground.  Why my food? Don’t they have their own? I’m sure they do. If I can find their hiding spot, I'll get my food back. If I’m lucky, I'll get their food too.
Just stop it you, You’re a superior species and you need to cut this out! Thunder? Thunder on the moon? No, it’s my head roaring with headache of planetary size. I groan. Am I going insane? The lack of food is making me hallucinate weird things like grass and floating fish. If I keep on seeing these I might just start eating everything in sight. Every last moon rock is starting to look delicious.  Come on, think! How can I make more food? I could just take the hallucin-o-fish out of stasis and eat them. That may not satisfy my hunger though. The rocks are a bit gritty. Hmm, I guess I'll go with option one, get the men’s food … No, my food and I want it. Now!
Where to look first? It’s the moon, there’s a lot of here here. The tiny man prints go toward that old crater. Will that be where they are hiding? No, I remember I already checked there yesterday or was it tuesday hmm well either way it's gotta be somewhere I haven't been. This mound. Maybe that’s it.  Ah ha! A light. The mound is actually their cave? That’s a bit impressive… for men. The cave’s aroma is enticing. I can taste the food already. Oh yeah, I’ll check there.
My feet crunch on the ground, and it reminds me of a very yummy meal I once had. Crunch, crunch, yum. Crunch, crunch, mmm. The vast desert taunts me as I crunch closer and closer to the cave. My eyes smell man. My skin tastes the food in the thin atmosphere. Lots and lots of food.

 

As I try at sneaking into the cave through the roof, the men start to swarm me. No! No, no, no, no! I need that food. I knock them back and squirm through their narrow tunnels toward their ship.  The food, I hear it calling me. Inside their ship their little contraptions. If I wasn’t so hungry, I would really try to talk to them about the aesthetics of their design principles. All these lights and buttons? So busy and there is barely any room! But I am hungry, and I feel like they’re trying to bite my feet. Ow! The pain focuses my attention. I’ve gotta find that food.
I squeeze from one compartment of the ship to the next, motherlode! My food, their food, food of types and phases that I’d not seen since home. I will feast. I will. The men keep biting at my feet with their loud metal things. I don’t care. I’m eating. As I slide out of the ship’s hatch, I notice something. What’s this kind of food? It tastes… Spicy. Spicy and what is that flavor? The ship starts bleating and screaming these weird noises. Was it alive? Was the spicy goo it’s blood? I can’t speculate any more. The ship locks tight and separates from the man tubes. The rumble I feel, for once is not my hunger. The ship is firing up.
Wait what? Is it going to take off? Am I going to be free? The grey sandy prison on the far end of this galactic arm is receding into the distance. I am free! But as I am enjoying my short lived success, I notice my spicy take-out is also disappearing. More bleating and screaming by the ship and I squeeze to a portal to see what’s going down. Well, It might be me. Knew I shouldn't have eaten that wire, I’m decidedly falling toward … ugh another rock? This one at least is green and blue and surprisingly large. The pull is getting stronger, and the ship is getting a bit warm. As I plummet, I think I can make out the faint aroma of something tasty.
Please let there be food.


The author's comments:

Moon Time is a piece about an alien banished because of murder and is trying to survive on a foren moon. It is a short story that is a quick and fun read.


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