Followers

Friday 24 October 2008

MULTIPLY Creative Challenge #24: A Desperate Voice

“Hello, Hello – is anyone out there. Speak to me, you must be there.”

Mazzz was near giving up. Trying to find other beings was difficult. Perhaps there was no-one there. He was trying to make contact through the radio with colonialists that had landed on this planet a year before, but received no answer. His spacecraft had landed on this planet two days ago. He and his crew had disembarked the ship and started exploring, but they found nothing, everything was just empty. There was no sign of vegetation. However part of the crew had already left the ship to explore the surroundings.

“Let us return to our home planet” said Rozzz, the engineer. “There is just nothing here, no population or animals, everything is so barren and empty. Our earlier colonists seems to have disappeared.”
Mazzz was not going to give up so quickly. He was sure there must be some sort of civilisation. He remembered it was not the first space ship to visit this planet. Every year ships had visited, to return again after a while.
“We might have landed in the wrong place Rozzz. Our instruments on the ship registered movement on this planet and certain gasses in the atmosphere to prove that a civilisation exists. After all we are not the first of our species to arrive here.”
It was then that they heard a desperate cry for help.
“Did you hear that Mazzz?” Rozzz asked
“Yes, although it seems to be coming from far away. We will proceed in the direction of the voice. It sounded as if it was one of our people calling. Our search troop may have met with a problem.”

Mazzz and Rozzz started to march in the direction of the noise they heard. They climbed a small hill and found that there was vegetation behind the hill. A green bush was growing. Looking further they saw more plants and bushes. They decided that the ship had landed in a deserted part of this world, instead of where there was life. They were now concerned as the sound of the voice calling for help was getting nearer.

“Please help me” it called and as Mazzz and Rozzz walked further they saw where the noise was coming from.

There was a huge creature with eight legs hanging in a maze of threads. It was even producing more threads itself from its mouth. One of the crew had caught himself in this construction. The other members of the space ship travellers were gathered together looking up at their unfortunate colleague who was trying to free himself. Mazzz had heard of such creatures before and knew they were the most dangerous species in this world. Mazzz and Rozzz were a bit unsure what to do. If they tried to free their colleague, they too would be trapped and if they sent members of the crew to help, the result would be the same. There was just no way to help. Mazzz and Rozzz flew over to their colleagues to see if together they would find a solution. It was then that the sky on this strange planet became very dark and a loud noise could be heard in the distance. The crew became worried. Mazzz told his beings to hide behind the bush where the creature’s construction was and wait to see what would happen. It was then that water drops came spilling out of the cloud onto the ground, covering the bush and the brave crew.
“Colleagues take cover where you can” called Mazzz “this strange planet is pouring water out of the sky and the drops are very large.”
“But Mazzz, look” said Rozzz the drops are tearing holes in the creature’s formation and our colleague has been able to fly out of the web.”
“Thank goodness for that – crew gather together, we will proceed further on this planet. We must be careful where we tread."

And so our brave pioneers continued on their way. It was then that Rozzz started sniffing in the air.
“I can smell food Mazzz. Men come here and sniff the air, something delicious is nearby.”
It was then that they saw a glass bottle laying on its side.
“It seems that the smell is coming from the bottle” said Mazzz. “We need a volunteer to enter the bottle.”
“I will go” said one of the crew members and all stood watching as he flew into the entrance of the bottle. It was then that he remained still and started to taste the sticky contents of the bottle. He left the bottle and came to the other members.
“Reporting back Mazzz” he said “the contents of the bottle are ideal, I would suggest that we take a rest and enjoy a meal from this bottle on the planet.”
Mazzz decided to have a taste and found that this food was ideal so the crew of the ship had their meal on the sticky contents of the bottle. The crew did not realise there were letters on the side of the bottle. A large “C” and “o”, “c”, “a” and others, but our beings could not read of course.

Eventually night fell and they gathered together and slept protected by the leaves of a plant that was growing near bye. Mazzz had decided they would continue to explore the next day as this planet seemed to offer more than they first thought. He also intended to tell his crew to keep clear of creatures that had threads on their mouths.

The next morning they were awakened by a bright light coming from the sun on the planet. As soon as the crew were ready they decided to continue on their way.
“Rozzz I think we would move a lot faster by flying”
“You are right Mazzz” and so our group of brave beings made their way by flight. On the planet where they came from all of the inhabitants were equipped with wings.

After a while they came to a halt and landed on an upright object which they could easily climb, their feet being able to stick to vertical surfaces.
“Follow me colleagues” said Mazzz “I can smell something appetising to eat” and sure enough there was an opening on the way up and Mazzz flew through the opening.
“After me” he said and the crew flew behind Mazzz. They landed on something sticky once again. Sticky and red.

“Joey eat your breakfast” said his mother
“I don’t want to, look what’s sitting on my bread and jam. A fly!”

and Joey’s mother took a fly swatter and brought it down with a crash onto the fly. Mazzz was instantly killed, the other flies flew away and Rozzz eventually lead them back to their ship.

They decided it was time to go home again. They postponed their next visit until a year later in the Summer months. It was just one of the facts of a fly’s life that there were victims now and again, especially when they settled on food belonging to the human inhabitants of the planet.



Big Fly

Creative Challenge #24: A Desperate Voice

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