Angus E

The bell chimed in his ears. The rest of the class cheered. Cooper suddenly remembered it was his birthday tomorrow. He detested lunch. Cooper had always been an easy target. Tyrone, the school bully, teased and taunted him continuously about his dream to be a famous astronaut. Pupils enjoyed crushing his dreams of becoming just like his father, who spent every single cent they had, paying to become an astronaut at university. Since they had little money, their house was wood and old rusty nails put together by his father. This was another source of entertainment for his peers. They didn’t care that Cooper’s Mum passed away when he was born and that the only thing he wanted more than becoming an astronaut, was a friend.

After another hard day at school, Cooper trotted home in the soaking rain. Things were going from bad to worse. The next morning his Dad spoke sadly: “I’ll miss you son, I hope you’ll be okay. I’m going up to the International Space Station for a couple of weeks.” His Dad left for the space exploration centre and Cooper couldn’t believe his Dad was going to miss his birthday.

“Hang on, Dad is going to ISS? If Tyrone thinks I’m too weak to go to space then now is my chance to prove to that bully that I can,” Cooper thought. Bang! Bang! The loud knock brought Cooper back to Earth from his dreams. He answered the creaky door.

“Your house is illegally placed on government land and we are evicting you and whoever is in there. This house will be destroyed immediately.” Without a second thought, he ran. He had the Space Centre in sight, just as his Dad arrived at the door. He sneakily clambered into Dad’s travel bag to get through security.

“May I have a look at your bag sir?” a big guard said.

“Sure!” Dad spoke politely.

The guard toppled over at the weight of the bag, obviously not knowing that there was a small child inside. Cooper tumbled out and ran away, the guard chasing him closely. He made it out of the bag, which to him, meant a lot. He didn’t have time to savour the fact that he was inside the space exploration centre centre. He could hear the footsteps of the guard echoing right behind him. He tucked behind a small corner.

“Who’s there?” the big burly security guard said.

The guard crept closer and closer. A bullet ricocheted off the wall towards him. “Phew!” Cooper gasped. It just missed him.

“Sorry, kid,” the guard said sarcastically, as he dragged him outside. He saw a conveyor belt with his Dad’s travel bag on it. Using all his power, he charged towards it. The guard’s grip tightened on him almost crushing his hand.

Cooper managed to escape and dived into the rocket’s cargo bay. He thought he could prove the bullies wrong by going to space, he couldn’t mess up this golden opportunity.

“Ten minutes,” boomed the computerised voice.

The door for the cargo bay started to close. He found himself a comfy duffel bag to lay his head on. He thought it would be best to get some sleep. He was awoken from his slumber by a loud sound.

“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one...” the monotonic voice screamed.

Smoke filled the air as the speed of the rocket forced him backwards. At least that comfortable bag saved him from badly injuring himself. He blacked out for a couple of minutes, not that he noticed. He woke up with some saliva floating around.

“Hang on, how am I breathing in space?” he questioned. He gazed at his surroundings.

He was amazed at both being in space and being able to breathe without equipment. “Prepare for intercept with the ISS in three, two, one…” Suddenly, there was a huge flashing, red light and a voice saying: “Warning! Engine failure. Warning!”

He stared out the window as the ship shot past the ISS towards a big red planet.

“Uh oh,” he thought. He quickly completed the calculations in his head. It would be another six minutes until they would hit Mars. He was worried. He could see the rocket gaining speed, out of control due to the engine failure. The huge ball of rock crept closer every second. SMASH! The impact of the rocket hitting the ground was immense. He saw the cockpit of the rocket, being pulled down by Mars’s gravitational pull. Copper knew his Dad was inside there.

“Great! now I’m an orphan,” he thought to himself with mixed emotions of sadness and irony.

The pieces of the remaining rocket were scattered everywhere. Out of nowhere, it started raining. But, it was raining acid. The hissing of the sulphuric acid droplets that fell from what looked like the sky echoed through his ears making his spine tingle. The only shelter he could find was a nearby cave. Cooper made for the cave instantly.

TSSSS!

“Aarrgghh!” Cooper screamed with agony. The acid had got to him, blood was seeping out of the large gash that the acid had burned into his arm. He kept moving forward towards safety.

“Phew,” he panted with relief.

He had made it to the rocky entrance of the cave. From there he edged closer, slowly towards a luminous figure. The figure woke with a groan.

“Who are you? And, why did you travel to this horrible place? Go back to where you came from,” the creature spoke softly.

“My name is Cooper,” he responded, timidly.

“Sorry about that. My name is Smaul,”

“Here, come in. Let me get you something to eat or drink,” Smaul muttered. “I will need to teach you what is and isn’t edible here Cooper. Look for a purple bendy thing, that is edible; same as this green squishy thing,” he said. Cooper was confused. No one had ever been nice to him before.

Cooper smiled, and said, “Smaul, that is the nicest thing I’ve heard all month. Isn’t it strange that I have to travel to Mars to find someone who is kind to me?”

“It is nice to have a visitor, I’m a lonely guy; friends?” Smaul questioned.

“Sure,” Cooper accepted happily.

“Yay! It’s my birthday and I’ve finally got someone to keep me company,” Smaul exclaimed.

Cooper couldn’t believe it. It was his birthday today too! Smiling, he sat to eat what he thought resembled a cake.

“Scrumptious!” Cooper said while licking his lips.

After cake, the pair sat and enjoyed one another’s company.

“It’d be good if we both got some sleep,” Smaul said

“Okay,” Cooper agreed. He walked to the entrance to the cave.

“What’s that city on the horizon?”

“No, don’t go there,” the alien answered worriedly.

“Why not?” questioned Cooper.

“That, my friend is a city of danger, especially because of the fairly new and absurd lord; I call him the Lunatic Lord. His name is Gorx the Freak. That is why I left that filthy city,” Smaul said persuasively. There was a long pause. “Please promise me you will not enter the borders of that city, and especially, don’t go into northern district seventeen.”

“Why?” questioned Cooper.

“That’s where the Gorx lives and there is an immense amount of security,”

“I promise,” Cooper whispered.

“Oh, and happy birthday,” Smaul said while presenting a small gift wrapped neatly.

He opened it eagerly.

“Oh, Wow!” Cooper spoke, astonished.

He quickly snuck out of the cave without Smaul noticing and ran for the city. He had always been too curious for his own good. Smaul’s warning only ignited his interest and he felt compelled to see what a Martian city was like. There were UFOs darting around everywhere above his head.

“Whoa,” he muttered to himself. “Oww!” he said after he made it over the fortified wall. He ran for the centre of the city.

“Intruder, intruder!” a large alien bellowed. It wasn’t long before Cooper was found, caught and locked up. He couldn’t help but think that Smaul had been right all along!

The jail cell he was being held in held was minging. He was forced out of the filthy jail cell. Suddenly, uniformed blue aliens came out of nowhere and took him to a large palace that Cooper assumed was a court.

“As Lord of this planet I, Gorx, declare this intruder… guilty!”

“Send him to the entertainment centre,” all the other aliens chuckled. Cooper didn’t like the sound of their laughter. They knew that this was not a fun place. It was only called the entertainment centre because Gorx found amusement in tormenting his victims.

Bang! The doors of the flying truck slammed closed. After a short journey, the guards opened the doors and Cooper jumped out. He glanced at the ragged terrain and the… It looked like the start of a race.

“This young earthling will face off in a battle for survival. Find food and you’re lucky; if not, you’ll just starve to death. Oh, and the other aliens have laser cannons,” Gorx said, giggling villainously.

“Good luck! Hang on? Why would I wish you luck?”

“Go!” said the alien with a cap gun.

Cooper stumbled off the line and ran in the exact opposite direction of the other aliens and looked for food, he was starving. He found a half-buried piece of map with a riddle on it. Written on the map was the following:

It is located dzrs of the great canyon and up a small hill. It is buried twenty centimetres underground; this stone gives the chosen one psychic powers to be able to see ten minutes into the future.

Cooper managed to sneak into an army base camp and was looking to retrieve a map. “Aha!” Cooper said happily. He snatched the map and ran. He searched it for the great canyon, it was nowhere to be seen. He did find the entertainment center and dashed towards it. It was in sight as he gazed at the map for the second time.

He did see big a ravine northwest of the entertainment center. He headed off to the ravine while suddenly remembering that only the chosen one could use it and all the other aliens went in a similar direction. He quickly weighed up the pros and the cons and finally decided to try to find the stone. Even if it didn’t give him those powers, it may come in handy later. As he sprinted he thought about the fact that his father was dead.

“Whoa,” he muttered under his breath. Rocks tumbled down the large canyon and made a big noise as they hit the bottom.

“How am I going to get across?” he thought. “Oh, great,” Cooper sighed as he climbed down the face of the cliff. Halfway up the other side of the canyon, his grip loosened on a crumbling little hold.

“Aaarghhh!” Cooper shrieked as he fell from the wall.

“Ooff,” he said in lots of pain. He had cuts and grazes all over him as he tried to climb it yet again. He heaved himself over the top only to see aliens following him, holding laser cannons. He stumbled towards a giant mountain

“Come on, a small hill?” Cooper moaned.

He started to hike up the enormous mountain. Sweat trickled down his forehead as he slowly journeyed up the mountain. It was probably another few kilometres until the red, dusty summit of the tall rocky dagger sitting on an angle sticking out of the ground. He was at least halfway up the mountain now and there were gale winds of about a hundred kilometres per hour. On the ground there lay what Cooper wanted most, food. He gobbled it down as fast as possible. And it looked like he had some birthday luck after all, because he found what looked like a little mini blaster. He grabbed it eagerly and tried to fire it. BAM! The force of the gun pushed Cooper into the sharp, jagged rocks behind of him.

He could hear the footsteps of the other aliens behind him. Wind whipped over the surface of the mountain, he was nearly at the top. He could see the orange ground of the summit.

“No! Where is it? Can’t find it,” Cooper gasped, searching all around him.

“Yes, found it!” he whispered weakly, as he found the buried stone.

He charged down the mountain while holding the stone, seeing into the future just as the map stated. He saw an alien run past him and started shooting like a madman at him. He luckily didn’t get hit. He put the stone back in his pocket, he was now back in real time. He heard a voice calling his name. He could see some kind of alien down at the base of the mountain, the alien flew up to him, it was Smaul! He was in a rocket ship.

“Jump in,”said Smaul.

“No way!” Cooper said fearfully, as he quickly backed away from the edge to get a run up.

“Am I going to fall and die or make it to the ship?” Cooper thought.

“I’m taking you home,” Smaul said.

“Okay,” he said calmly even though he wasn’t calm at all. He jumped. He hit the metal. He was dangling from the ship.

“Pull me in!” Cooper squealed. Smaul heaved Cooper up into the car and shot off into the distance.

“It will be nineteen hours until we reach Earth, you better get some sleep,” Smaul said. Cooper smiled at him reassuringly. He still couldn’t believe that Smaul has come back to rescue him from Grox. He dosed happily.

Cooper woke up to the roar of the engines.

“We’re entering the earth’s atmosphere in two minutes, brace yourself,” Smaul said.

The spacecraft was wobbling and shaking causing him to feel nauseous as he entered the atmosphere. The outer shell of the spacecraft was starting to melt and it was getting hotter inside. He was worried that he would burn up with his new and only friend. Cooper snatched a blanket in case he fell.

The ship began to split in half and he was separated from Smaul

“No!” Cooper sobbed as his one and only friend was burning up in the atmosphere right in front of him. The ship was pretty much gone just like his friend. He started to drop from the sky like a pebble. He used that blanket to slow his fall. He couldn’t get over the fact that his only friend had just died and he could do nothing to stop it from happening. He hit the ground gently only to find a charred, singed envelope. Curiously, he softly opened the letter and read it aloud to himself.

Dear Cooper,

I am sorry this unfortunate event occurred, but if you explore the real world you will discover that it isn’t that bad. Sure, it may seem horrible but there are people who have gone through the same and will understand and respect your situation. It may seem full of bad things but you, my friend are one of life’s highlights. Maybe you could become an astronaut, and if not, at least you will have a friend; me. I will be with you, for your whole life and even longer.

Smaul.

Cooper wept.