“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.
Day Eighty-Two
I pulled myself into the Kibo module and was confronted by a pair of legs dangling down from the hatch in the ceiling.
“Aki?” I called out. The legs disappeared into the hatch to be replaced a moment later by Aki’s head, hanging upside down before me.
“Hello Max.” She smiled. “How are you?”
“Not too bad.” I returned her smile. “How’s our little space garden coming on?”
“See for yourself.” Aki pulled herself clear of the hatch and I propelled myself upwards and through the opening. I looked around in amazement. The walls of the storage module were now a mass of greenery, the tubs barely visible through the leaves of the various vegetables that were spilling out over the sides.
“Wow!” I grinned. “Fresh vegetables any day then?”
“Yes.” Aki replied brightly. “We have a bumper crop of lettuce, peas, radishes and a few other vegetables to harvest. While vegetables have been grown in space before, it’s never been done on such a large scale. I look forward to publishing a paper on a successful hydroponics experiment when we get back, assuming there’s anyone left to publish it. Or read it for that matter. But yes, we should be able to add fresh vegetables to our limited menu in a few days.”
“I never thought I’d be so pleased at the prospect of eating my greens!” I chuckled, pulling myself back down into the Kibo module to join Aki.
“Well, we could all do with some good news.” Aki replied.
“That we could.” I agreed.
Day Ninety
“You mark my words, Wes.” Flynn fumed. “It will be Karpov, Varennikova and probably Takako leaving in that capsule and us left up here to die. They’ll be laughing at us all the way to Earth.” Morrison was running on a treadmill, the bungee harness around his waist holding him in position, while Flynn was floating nearby. I was also halfway through my daily exercise routine nearby, watching an old movie on one of the laptops fixed in place opposite the apparatus.
“I’m not having this conversation again.” Morrison replied wearily. “I understand why it’s on your mind, but you need to get past this ‘Us versus them’ mind-set. It’s not healthy! The Russians haven’t been our enemies since we were both in junior high.”