Last Resort

(By Zack Halper-Johnson)

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

― Albert Einstein

Chapter 1

   My eyes blinked open softly, revealing the ice cold cave that I lay in. I was on my back, lying atop a pile of snow, unable to move, due to pure shock. A hole in the rocks above me revealed what looked to be a dark and starry sky, with snowflakes as the backdrop. As I slowly regained bodily function, I sat up, realizing the helmet and body armor I wore, were there. The phrase "2045, remember, the cradle is where we begin" echoed through my mind, as I crackled the joints in my armor around. Now that I was mobile, I had to focus on my amnesia. Nothing made sense, how had I got here? What did these words, scraping themselves against my minds walls mean? As I tried to recollect my whereabouts, I "gracefully" climbed my way out of my residence of slumber. A breeze, cold enough to be akin to death, hit me, and I reeled back as if I had been struck. "Where on Earth am I?" I thought, as I trudged through the unforgiving terrain, towards my first goal: a distant hill, in which to see my surroundings. As I awkwardly transcended, thinking too much about my memory, to care about my legs, I reached the top. Shivering not because of the temperature, but rather what I saw, not even the armor I was wearing could protect me from the psychological terror before me; two moons, one much bigger then the other, was shining brightly over me.... and the frozen place I had just called home.

   Slowly my early memories came back, as I sat huddled under whatever cover I could find from the below-zero wind. As I pried my mind for any information on how I had got here, I was granted a memory as confusing as my environment. In the memory, I sat in a chair, made of the same sleek carbon fibers that I wore on my body in the present. "Jason, Jason Verfor?" a man said above me, staring into my eyes, with a scar ridden face. "We'd like to talk to about a fresh start, on a new world.” The second man beside him, shuffled, "You'd be making a difference." Just like that, as abruptly as the memory had come, it was gone. I was left to only my icicle bound reality. I stood up and stretched, still stricken by the shining veil above me, very similar to the northern lights back on Earth, I thought. As I continued on a journey with no end, I pondered why I remembered so much about where I came from, what everything was, and so on, but I could not grasp even the simplest of my own back ground. As I thought about every possibility, I came around a ridge, and snap backed to attention. There was a faint, what appeared to be red light, in the distance, enticing me with its glow. As I dashed as fast as I could across the icy field that lay between me, and what I thought was for sure rescue, my childlike curiosity was brought to a halt.

   The rumbling in the ground beneath me was the first sign of its ascent. The second sign was the emerging of it from right under me. The sound of ear-piercing screeching filled me ears, as I angelically hung in the air above it. What looked to be, a giant, reptilian mouth shot straight for me, as I directed my descent elsewhere. I hit the ground, covered in as much fear as I was snow, gasping as It took another gnaw at me, this time, missing by an inch, biting at my heels as I sprinted in the direction of the light. "What on God's green Earth is tha-", before I had time to finish my inaccurate thought, another screech, this time in an octave I had never heard, filled my head with insanity. I kept running, knowing my only chance was the small hill, 100 meters ahead of me, black rock revealed up its side, like dresses worn by patrons at balls. About 15 meters from my salvation, the rumbling beneath me started again, this time with its jagged appendage (close to a tail) jutting out from under me. I was sent in an arc towards where I wanted to be, feeling the scaly flesh zing up my torso, as the pain shot up my body, I hit the hill, with full vertigo. I quickly regained my senses, thanks to my obviously superb fight or flight instinct, long enough to see it hit the hill face below me. Screeching chaotically, and trying to reach what it thought was its next meal, it bashed its 40 ft. long body into the rock, repeatedly. "I'm hungry too, buddy! Just find another source of protein!" As if I thought it would understand me, I lay there, finally letting myself breathe. Hell had really frozen over.

   It must have been an hour before, the creature that had so viciously tried to eat me, slithered back into the nightmarish deep it had came from. The armor I was wearing must have saved my life I thought, staring down at the skin deep scratch across my torso. I rose up from my resting place, and finally continued to the little light, I had risked so much for. As I got closer and closer, I could make out debris of some kind, along with something lying within it. Hurriedly, I jostled my way to what I hoped was finally another human being. Stepping up to the wreckage, I realized that among the frost covered metal was a woman, lying with her face to the sky, as I had been. Her hair was auburn, shoulder length, a contrast to the snow that lay beneath her. Familiarity seemed to be written across her face, and as I checked her pulse, something extraordinary happened. Her piercing green eyes shot open, transporting me back to the ponds on Earth that I so longed for. I braced for screaming, but it never came, instead she spoke in a confused, quiet voice, "This is way too cold to be Egypt". She smiled at me, like we had known each other since childhood. "That's a weird looking helmet. Are you Special Forces or something?" I was at a loss for words. "I.. I um, can't remember exactly, I-", "Come to think of it, neither can I!" she yelled over me. She looked over me, and around, "this isn't Antarctica is it?" "No, I think...." Again she cut me off. "Tell me your name.” I sat blankly, beginning to wonder why she did not seem concerned with her odd situation. "My name? It's, Jason... I think. Even that's hard to remember.”  "I'm Sarah, Sarah Cantrin, and I can't remember where we are, or how I got here, but I think I know a hell of a lot more then you.”.

   Sarah explained to me that she remembered fighting, and a kind of structure, close to an obelisk. "It was a technology I hadn't seen before!" she repeated, trying to convince herself more then me. "And I remember coming here.... sort of; it wasn't a bright light, more of a flush of grey into darkness .” As we picked through the wreckage of what she thought could have been a vehicle, she said, “I guess teleportation isn't cliche after all?" I laughed using muscles in my face, that I was convinced had frozen over. After what I thought was about 40 minutes that had passed and as the cut on my torso was growing more painful, we found the source of crimson light. "It's some kind of lens, probably for scanning," she explained touching, the circular object that lay before us. "I'm surprised the temperature here, hasn't affected it. Well, it was built for this kind of co-," she stopped in her tracks."I don't know how I know that.” She smirked at me slyly, revealing dimples, and in turn, stopping me as well. I couldn't place her, but I felt something for her, almost as if I knew her from another life. As I stood star struck, she snapped her fingers in my face, bringing me back to wherever this was. "What is the cradle?" she asked, staring at me through soft drifts of snow. I thought back to the first words that had bounced in my head ever since I ended up here. "I'm not sure, but when I first woke up here.... I heard.....or remembered...... I’m not sure, but it was someone saying, that it's where we begin.” Almost immediately the red lens starting flashing, stronger then ever.

   Perplexed, I reached my shaking hand towards the device. "I'm already done for surprises today," Sarah whispered beside me, "Tell me about it.” As I touched the source of it, it faded away. One second passed, the only sound was our staggered breathing, and only our darkest thoughts. A red light shot out of the horizon, into the sky of two moons, creating a light show like no other. "Woahh...." Sarah seemed more awestruck than me, and started to wander as if she were a corpse brought to life by the dazzling currents of light. I grabbed her arm, "What are you doing? You don't know what that is!" But she wouldn't listen to me. "It feels right Jason, I know that this is what we need to do, just trust me, I know it..." she kept walking, and I was forced to follow her. Sarah seemed to be a light-hearted woman of faith, but I kept to me logical roots. "It could be anything. It could be a rescue team, or it could be another thing on this god-forsaken planet that wants to kill us!" A storm was starting to kick up, and I was soon running after her, trying not to lose sight. Just as the last strand of her hair was lost, I reached where Sarah was headed to and to what Sarah had believed in, although, to be fair, we were both wrong.

   Before I knew what hit me, my mind was lost to memories, trying to swim its own way out, and I drifted out of consciousness. As I tried to piece them together, I was transported to one of my early childhood memories. Sun bristled off the warm grass that I lay on, next to a tall, middle aged man I knew so well. I could hear myself saying, "But Dad, I'm telling you, I'm going to go there someday!" He smiled down at me, and messed up my young hair. "Only they get to go. But Jason, if you want to, I know you'll be the first one to, the first one to-.” Before my Dad said anything more, I was taken out of that part of my life, whisked away by my own subconscious, trying to save me from myself. Suddenly I was back in the room with the two men. "Jason, Can you hear me?” I struggled to speak, still half in the memories from moments ago. I saw two men sitting in chairs. "I'm telling you now, Corporal, if you accept this, there's no going back and the cradle is all that we have.” Before I could ask anything, my brain shut down that memory, as a sense of vertigo engulfed me and subsided to the void of true unconsciousness.

  I finally awoke, to Sarah's face, staring back at me through the beginnings of a snow storm, concern riddled throughout her expression. As my senses came to be, I realized we were next what looked to be a big box, riddled with all sorts of electronic instruments. "Wha.. What happened?" I asked, pausing with surprise as a man walked out from behind the machine, wearing a suit close to the hazmats back on Earth. With the exception of the helmet to go with it, he was clad in very protective scientific wear.  "This is Norman..." Sarah said after helping me up. His boots crunched in the snow as he walked over to shake my hand. "Norman what?”, I asked. “That's not important right now, do you remember what the cradle is?" I stared at him blankly, wondering if he could finally provide some answers as to what was happening here. "How do you know about that, and where did you come from? Why am I here, how did we get here? Why di-.” "Stop, stop, stop, stop," he exclaimed, grabbing my hand and leading me to an opening of a small cave. I turned to look at Sarah, "Do you know what's going on?” She hesitated before  stating "Go with him, he doesn't know everything, but I think he knows enough." He pulled on my hand and I finally let this strange man lead me away.

   I was lead into a small cave, dug out from side to side, creating an effect close to an igloo's. Norman let go of my wrist, and bounced towards a wall with what looked like coordinates. "Do you know what year it is?" he asked staring at me through giant round glasses, gone out of style long ago. "No... I don’t  “. "Remember?" he laughed, pacing about in what looked to be his make shift home. "It is somewhere around 2045, and you sir are on another planet." I gained a smirk of my own. "Thanks for info, but I had already figured that much out.” As I chuckled, he looked less amused. "Well, good then I can get to the interesting part. You, and I and that woman out there are all here for a reason, one set up for the betterment of our species." "Am I supposed to get anything out of this?" I asked, quickly shut up, by a glare from him. " I was dropped or rather "spotted" here, just as you were, not too long ago, confused and dazed and such. But through salvaging, I've been able to piece together why." I sat down on a make shift chair, packed together using snow and ice. "We all have specific, jobs, or skill sets. You, look like a soldier, I myself am a scientist. And the girl you have out there", he pointed the opening, "she is an outlaw. Now from what I gather, this planet, is not just snow and sleet, but much like Earth, we were just "spotted" to the wrong spot." As I was about to ask another questioned, he motioned at me. “ We were sent to not only live here, but to meet with other sentients, or "aliens" if you will.”

   "Why do I not have any memories, and why do I get flashbacks and even blackouts" I blurted out over all of Norman's mumbo jumbo. "I cannot figure that out..... “ “They did not want us to discover them" he said, staring at the ceiling now. "Who? The aliens?" "No, no, no, us, our government, our authority .” This was all too much for me; my brain was trying to comprehend what it was hearing. "Why did I pass out when I got here, and what was the beam of red light?" Norman pondered for a second, and placed his hand on another contraption of his. "The beam of light, was responding to the device I found with Sarah. It is some kind of communication signal, and there are many others, like us ." I stood up now, almost slipping on the icy floor "so there are more people out there, ones we can find?" "Precisely,” he yelled, trying to speak over the now growing wind outside. I looked outside, and watched Sarah pull herself through the opening."The storm out there is getting bad, thought I'd come join you," she said.  Before I could respond, Norman beat me to it. "Well, this is all stuff you've already heard, Sarah, but I was getting to our dilemma." Sarah looked concerned now. "What?, what dilemma? What do you mean!" The storm was really picking up outside, making it almost impossible to hear anything else. "The animal, you met it on your way here, that is the dilemma!" Norman's face was turning flustered as he yelled the sentence I wanted to hear least in the world. "I want answers as much as you, but to get them, we need to find more of us, to the south of here, right where that thing lives!"He pulled a knife out of his belt loop and smiled "that's why, we've got to kill it.”