Part 6: The Crash
“Do you trust me?” Xander said, looking at Courtney across the cramped front seat of the old pickup truck.
“Ye-yeah, I trust you” Courtney replied nervously before reaching out her hand and placing it gently on Xander’s’ “I just want to let you know, with everything going on, if I don’t get another chance to say it...if this is the last moments we spend together, I just want to tell you that I love you and I always have…”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, me too baby” Xander mostly ignored her heartfelt comments as he continued to try to unzip the back of Courtney’s dark purple prom dress. “Now help me with this thing will ya?”
“Uhm, excuse me?” Courtney pushed Xander away as her tone quickly changed, “did you hear a word I said or are you too busy trying to get laid to pay attention? I’m confessing my love for you here!”
“Oh it’s not like that, it’s just...I promised I wouldn’t have you out late and we’re already parked out in this field and…” Xander began rustling around in his tuxedo pockets as Courtney grew more and more angry. Soon, Xander revealed a small orange package and motioned towards her with a smile on his face, “...I bought condoms and everything.”
“Ugh, you pig!” She kicked him away, opened the door to the truck and hurriedly climbed out into the countryside darkness, “I knew you were up to something! I thought maybe you were different, but Momma was right, y’all only want one thing…”
“Court? Come on...” Xander followed her out into the darkness but he couldn’t get a word in edgewise.
“And what were you gonna do huh? Get in my pants on prom night and go brag to all your buddies how you got my V-card? Ugh I can’t believe you!”
“Uhm Court!...” Again he stammered but she wasn’t letting him chime in
“I’m sorry Xander, but I ain’t that type of girl, you ain’t just gonna bring me out to the farm and have your way with me in the front seat of your truck like some bad country music song….ugh you’re still not listening.” It’s true, he wasn’t listening, his attention was instead drawn to a shadowy figure making its way towards the pair.
“Courtney, be quiet.” Xander tried to get her to calm down but the mere idea of her being quieted by him made her more angry. She began to scream all sorts of obscenities before Xander pulled her close and put a hand over her mouth, “shhhh, there’s something over there.”
Courtney paused her rage as her eyes fixed on the figure in the distance shuffling towards them. She whispered to Xander, trying to see if he could make out what it was but he simply shushed her and they watched as the odd shape made its way closer and closer to them. Xander motioned for Courtney to get down by the side of the truck as he reached into the cab and turned on the headlights to illuminate what was coming towards them. When the lights came on his initial worry changed to confusion, he expected to see the old farmer with his shotgun, angry at teens parking on his property and hooking up, instead he saw two female astronauts, their suits charred and tattered, their faces speckled with blood.
“Oh thank god! Please help!” Captain Davies called out from across the wide open field, Adamson’s limp body was over her shoulder. She picked up her pace running towards the truck and with Xander’s help they lay Adamson down in the truck bed. “Quick, give me your cell phone!”
“Xander, what is going on!?” Courtney called out, standing up from her hiding spot beside the vehicle and peering down at Adamson in the truck bed. She had clearly sustained a lot of injuries, a bone in her leg was protruding through her bright orange space suit and her face was severely burned.
“It’s okay baby…” Xander reached for her, “wha…what happened?” he stuttered, gazing at Davies.
“Cell phone, now!” Davies just screamed back as she frantically wrapped a flannel shirt from the bed of the truck around Adamson’s leg. But it was no use, Adamson was dead.
“Sorry lady but no cell phone is going to work out here, you can use the CB though...” Xander explained, pointing at the inside of the truck. Davies jumped in the front seat and turned the dial on the CB radio to channel 9, the emergency band, and started rattling off details.
“Hello! Is there someone out there? This is an emergency communication from Captain Miranda Davies, United States Space force and acting Captain of the USS Calypso. We have crash landed somewhere outside of Davenport Iowa, coordinates…” She fumbled to look at a large armband with a cracked screen on her arm “...41 degrees 28 minutes 33 seconds North, negative 91 degrees 34 minutes 22 seconds west, this is a class 4 event, I repeat a class 4 event…”
She continued rattling off coded details over the CB radio as Courtney cried quietly against Xander’s shoulder. “What the hell is going on lady? What the hell is a class 4 event?” Xander demanded. Suddenly the static from the CB radio stopped and the headlights from the truck shut off engulfing them all in darkness. From the distance, roughly where the astronauts had stumbled from, a load guttural roar tore through the quiet.
“That is a class 4 event…” Davies quickly tossed the CB radio aside and hurried to the back of the truck where she began rummaging around for anything that could be used as a weapon, Courtney and Xander got inside the truck, huddling together and peering out the windscreen. A dark figure in the distance was limping towards them.
“What the hell is it lady?” Xander questioned as his trembling prom date clutched onto him tightly.
“Not sure exactly. We found it drifting in space so we brought it aboard our ship. We thought it was dead, but it came alive and...and it started eating my crewmates,” Davies explained before reemerging from the back of the truck with a handful of makeshift weapons, “here, you take this hammer and come with me. Prom queen, you stay here and if that thing gets close you hit it with this hatchet.”
“Xander I’m scared” Courtney clutched onto Xander’s arm as he tried to get out of the truck, dark streams of makeup ran down her pale, freckled cheeks.
“It’s okay baby, everything is going to be al-” His words were cut short as a skeletal creature pounced out of the darkness onto him. Courtney screamed in utter terror as the creature ripped and pulled at Xander’s flesh. Captain Davies rushed to his aid and began clubbing at the monster furiously with the tire iron she had armed herself with, but the blows had no impact on the beast.
The creature paused from ripping Xander’s skin to strike Davies with a blow that knocked her ten feet back before rising to its feet. Once again, muscle fiber and skin began to grow over its multicolored bones. The creature then turned its attention to the fallen Davies.
“Oh Miranda, you’ve been quite the irritation.” The menacing figure walked slowly towards Davies who lay sprawled in the dirt. Harsh orange eyes peered hungrily at her. “I knew you were stubborn but I never thought you would crash the ship…”
“Fuck you!” Davies, ever defiant, cursed the beast as it knelt down next to her. Davies reached for the hammer quickly but the creature swatted it away.
“Such foul words for such a fair maiden. Your death will be the sweetest in centuries.” It reached and grabbed Davies by the throat, then opened its mouth as long, sharp fangs began to grow out of its gums. It lurched its head forward preparing to sink its teeth into her neck, but suddenly a rusty hatchet was driven into its shoulder. It roared in agony and turned around to find Courtney looming over it. Dark, purple smoke began to ooze from the wound in its shoulder. Courtney drew back the hatchet and delivered another blow to the creature’s shoulder. Then another, and another. The creature screamed in agony as its left arm was cleaved off from his body.
“No! This can’t be!” The bit of flesh that had covered his skeletal form began to melt off as the thick purple smoke continued pouring out of the wound. The creature tried to crawl away from the onslaught of blows but Davies grabbed it by its foot.
“Take off its fucking head!” Davies yelled as Courtney drew the old hatchet high above her head and drove the blade through the neck of the creature, severing its head from its body.
The skull tumbled on the ground and unleashed an ear piercing scream that caused both Davies and Courtney to frantically cover their ears. The sound was so loud it caused the windows of the truck to explode and the ground beneath them to tremble.
Then the scream abruptly stopped. The headlights from the truck flickered on and the static from the CB radio began to buzz once more. Courtney reached down and helped Davies to her feet and the pair stood in silence over the body of the creature. They held each other close as the patches of vibrant color faded from the creature’s bones before they dissolved into dust in front of their eyes.
“Is...is it dead?” Courtney asked of Captain Davies as she gripped her hand tightly in the darkness.
“Sweetie, I don’t think it was alive in the first place.” Davies said coldly as she turned away from Courtney and started limping towards the truck and the buzzing CB radio that now had faint, serious sounding voices coming over the emergency band. As Davies limped away, Courtney rushed to her side, slinging her arm over her shoulder to help the wounded captain back to the truck, “you know what prom queen, you’re pretty tough. Have you ever thought about being an astronaut?”
“No, no I haven’t and my name is Courtney, Courtney Nowak”
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