Lost On Mars Read online

  LOST ON MARS

  WHEN AN ASTRONAUT BECOMES A FUGITIVE ON THE RED PLANET

  THIS PAGE IS INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK

  CHAPTER ONE

  Every inmate began murmuring at each other when the army arrived. They watched them through the exercise yard’s fences. The army came along with eight trucks and about eighty soldiers, each holding an AK 47 rifle. The colonel stepped out of the first truck. He had a fair skin, blonde hair, muscular and a shaved beard. He looked up at the sun with a crinkled nose as he stepped on the ground and then placed on his army cap. Accompanied by his soldiers, they met the prison officers waiting on the large prison compound. Immediately he got closer to the officers, they saluted―the military way. The general looked at the fenced exercise yard and nodded. He looked back at the officers and whispered, “We came for the inmates we scheduled for―the dangerous ones”

  The officers looked at each other briefly and handed the general a board containing all the names of the dangerous inmates. The general twisted his mouth with a smile as he looked at the prisoners on the fenced exercise yard.

  Meanwhile, the inmates were watching whatever the prison officers and the colonel were doing, a little far behind the fence, even though they couldn’t hear what they were possibly talking about.

  “This won’t be good―when the military gets involved, it means danger, it means something will soon go wrong” Donnie said to the other inmates beside him. Donnie had just put the dumbbell down, sitting on the seat with his face dripping down with sweat. He had olive skin, a little muscular with his black wooly hair and a shaved beard. He was bare chest whiles he sat.

  “What do you mean?” an inmate asked.

  “I mean, wherever the military goes apart from the warzone, it means bad news. Trust me, I have been there before” Donnie stood up, grabbed his shirt and began to put it on.

  The inmates saw the soldiers heading into the yard, clasping on their guns and in a posture that seems they were on a battlefield.

  “We better get out of this place” Donnie whispered to the inmates around him. As they made an attempt to run out of the yard, the soldiers fired teargas which quickly fumed everywhere. Chaos ensued as the inmates tried to fight back.

  About half of the inmates on the prison yard started to run into the cell blocks. They were being shot at on every corner.

  Donnie took a dumbbell and connected it into the head of a soldier. He grabbed his gun and started shooting at the other soldiers. The bullets wasn’t made to kill but only gave it victim temporary seizure.

  Before Donnie realized, a real bullet struck into his leg.

  “Argh!” he screamed and fell on the ground. He could feel the pain in his left thigh. He raised his head to see the colonel with a pistol clutched in his hand and coming his way through the smoke. He quickly crawled back to his feet and disappeared into the smokes.

  Donnie limped straight into the cell blocks. He could see many inmates fighting with the soldiers in there.

  The soldiers immediately retreated out of the cell block. As they got out of there, they sealed every door, leaving the inmates standing alone.

  “Where did they go?” the inmate panted through his words. No one answered his question. They stood in a posture, ready to fight anything the soldiers might bring their way.

  In the inmates was Donnie’s all time rival and leader of the opposing gang―Julius Byrne. He was a Chinese American, a little short and a little muscular than Donnie.

  Donnie glared at him. He looked Donnie back in the eye, but this time he wasn’t looking like he wanted to fight him.

  “This is not the time man. We have to work together or we all fall” Julius said.

  “But Holmes, we haven’t done any wrong. We are just cool in our cells. What do they want with us?” a short Mexican inmate among them asked.

  “We don’t know but whatever they came for, they never came for it in peace” Donnie answered.

  Soldiers, wearing gas masks appeared on the upper floor of the cell block.

  “The fuck!” an inmate yelled, looking up at them with widened eyes.

  The soldiers shot teargas on the lower cell floor where the inmates stood.

  “Shit! Shit!!” Donnie shrieked.

  They quickly took off their prison shirts and tied it around their noses and mouths. Donnie glanced around hastily as the fumes were diffusing round them. He ran into a cell, tossed off the mattress and grabbed the metal bed. He carried it back to where the inmates huddled in a tight group.

  “Hey! Help me― let’s smash this door open with this metal bed”

  Julius didn’t hesitate like he expected he would. He grabbed onto the other end of the metal bed. He looked at Donnie and nodded.

  They went forward to the door and started smashing it with the metal bed.

  After several minutes of switching inmates and smashing, the door fell open.

  “Let’s go! Let’s go!” they yelled to themselves and rushed out onto a corridor, clear, with no signs of soldiers or teargas fumes.

  They cheered “Whoooooo!!”

  “Yeah, this is what am talking about― come on, let’s get out of this busted prison!” an inmate among them cheered.

  They slapped on each other’s shoulder with a smile, thinking this will be their ticket of escaping from the prison. Donnie and Julius led them as they ran along the corridor.

  On their next turn, they got a surprise meeting with the colonel and a couple of his men. They had their weapons pointed at them already. The prisoners halted all of a sudden, drowned in surprise. Donnie clenched his jaw, took a look behind and then looked back at the soldiers, holding them at gun point.

  “It’s over. You got nowhere to go now” the colonel said with a glare.

  He pointed to Donnie and Julius. “I have heard a lot about you two. Causing gang fights in here. The ex-assassin and by his side the ex-drug cartel and spy―you would make good recruits” he held his waist, nodding with his head hung low. He raised his head back at them. “Welcome to NASA”.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “You know, we came for only twenty prisoners” the colonel paused. “But looking at both of your performance, we just found what we came for” the general turned his back and gestured his right hand up as he walked away.

  The soldiers cuffed Donnie and Julius and sent them right into one of their trucks.

  Nothing more to remember, they soon found themselves on a highway, going back to the NASA headquarters and sitting with five soldiers at the back of the truck. Donnie sat opposite to Julius.

  “What are you going to do with us?” Donnie looked at the soldier sitting by his side.

  “You will know when we get there―now be quiet” the soldier answered with a straight face.

  “Really? We should know what we are being signed up for. We don’t need no military bullshitting us!”

  The soldier slowly turned his head and scowled at Donnie. Donnie threw his head back with a taut jaw. “What?” he asked, pretending not to know what the soldier meant with the look on his face.

  “Did you ever hear about what I did to the Russian drug cartel on the Mexican border?” Julius cut in and they quickly turned their attention to him.

  “I bet you don’t know, looking at your faces” Julius chuckled. “I cut of his balls and made him chew it”

  “No way!” Donnie acted astonished. The soldiers weren’t showing any expression of surprise, they just sat there with straight faces.

  “Yeah Donnie. Tell them what you once did in your days of being an assassin”

  “I killed five super spies with just one walther P99 pistol’s bullet”

  “Ohh” Julius laughed. Once they were enemies back
in prison, but now, they acted as friends. “Then I bet these men won’t last a minute with us?” Julius mocked.

  All the soldiers looked at each other’s faces, showing no signs of fear or anger, just emotionless.

  Donnie hastily stamped the soldier opposite to him in the face with his underfoot. Julius without hesitating, head-butt another soldier. They jumped out of the truck, rolled to the side of the highway to avoid been run over by the moving trucks.

  They laid on their backs, laughing.

  “Man, this is gonna be great” Julius said. They forced themselves up, still with their hands cuffed. They began running into a field next to the highway.

  Donnie looked behind him, all the trucks had pulled up, the soldiers coming after them with guns.

  “Hey! Good job back there” Julius told Donnie.

  “Thanks man, you did same”

  The general stood next to the trucks on the highway, both his hands on his waist. He narrowed his eyes at the two escapists almost far away from his men.

  “Sniper” he ordered with his right hand stretched by his side to receive it.

  A soldier shoved the sniper into his hand. He took stun bullets and inserted them into the sniper.

  “Let’s see what you’ve got” he muffled as he climbed to the top of the truck he stood by.

  He squatted and aimed it at Donnie, pulled the trigger and there he fell to the ground.

  Julius halted as soon as Donnie fell. “Hey man what’s wrong?” He looked at the stun bullet stuck on Donnie’s back.

  “Oh fuck” a stun bullet struck into his shoulder. He glazed and then everything went dark.

  “Hey wake up― hey!” Donnie heard a voice. He jerked up as he felt cold water splash on his face. His eyes opened towards Julius, holding a bucket of water.

  “Man― we’ve been brought to NASA. This damn place is heavily guarded that I can’t find any loophole to guarantee our escape” he tapped on Donnie’s shoulder and looked him in the eye. “We may be tough Donnie but this time, shit got real”

  “That bullet stunned me real hard” Donnie reached out to his back and pulled the halfway bullet out of his body.

  “Yeah” Julius smirked.

  Donnie glanced around the all-white square room with only one shiny steel door. “Is this place some kind of prison or what?”

  “Don’t really know―just woke up ten minutes ago to find us here. So I guess we gotta wait to see what comes up next”

  Just a second after Julius ended his statement, they heard footsteps approaching. Julius looked down at Donnie, held his hand and pulled him up from his sitting position.

  “You can’t be sitting down when the fight comes”.

  Donnie looked at him with a chuckle and nodded, then turned his attention to the steel door.

  The door opened slowly and two armed soldiers walked into the room.

  “Okay― did you come here to fight or what? Cause if you did, we are ready for you!” Julius shrieked.

  “Follow us” one soldier instructed whiles they turned their back to walk away.

  Donnie looked at Julius with a creased brows .They both shrugged in confusion and followed behind them.

  They entered a room, looking like a modern mini theatre, everything there was white. The two soldiers stood and watched Donnie and Julius go a little past them. They went out of the room and latched the door shut. They turned quickly as the door closed behind them. Before they could speak, a voice said “Welcome” sounded like a programmed voice.

  They turned to a lady standing on the raised platform, fair skin, blonde hair, skinny and wearing white office clothes.

  Donnie and Julius walked to the front seat and saw two other men, both had bandholz shaped beard and cuffs on their hands. They had nasty smiles on their faces as they looked at Donnie and Julius.

  Donnie and Julius took their stare to the lady and sat down.

  “My name is Lisa Gyene―and am going to tell you the main reason why you were brought here. We personally selected you men because of how skilled and strong you are. We went through your files and looking at your pasts, you are the right people for this mission. We have also performed tests on you and the results showed you are all fit. One week from today, you will be sent to Mars. You men are going to be the first humans on Planet Mars. This is a top secret mission, but try to survive, because your returning price is five hundred million dollars―even if one of you comes back alive. Good luck”

  She smiled and walked out of sight.

  “This is crazy” Julius lowered his head and whispered to Donnie.

  “Everything about this place is crazy”

  They raised their head and turned to the other two prisoners to find their reaction to the news. They still had that evil smile on their faces.

  “Try to survive Punks” both said with a loud bark of laughter.

  CHAPTER THREE

  After days of intense training, they soon found themselves in the space shuttle. They wore their space suits, ready to launch from earth.

  “To the red planet” Donnie said to Julius next to him. He smiled, but showing a little bit of nervousness. The two other prisoners, Gardener, dark skin, tall and muscular and Raynin, a little short, fair with his beard now shaved, sat behind Julius and Donnie.

  “I got my eyes on the return prize!” Gardner shrieked.

  “We all do. It isn’t only you” Julius replied, followed by a loud bark of laughter by all of them.

  A computerized voice from the central room got their faces to change with dread. They were all silent as the countdown to launch began.

  “Ready to take of in ten, nine, eight, seven―”

  They sat calmly, their seat belts tightened and ready to make history.

  The voice continued “Six, five, four, three, two, one―”

  The rocket launched up into the sky with a loud booming noise. Their faces sweat whiles their body shook repeatedly with the motion of the rocket.

  Within minutes, they began shouting for joy.

  “Yeeyy! We did it!” they cheered.

  “We are now in space and ready to proceed on the next mission” Donnie said to the NASA officials in the control room back on earth. He could hear them cheering too. He took off the microphone over his mouth and turned his head to Julius.

  “We finally made it buddy”

  Julius nodded with a smile, then pressed a button and made the two rocket boosters to explode off the rocket and the gas tanker too in minutes later.

  Earth shrunk as they got further into space. They all felt weightless and everything in there was floating.

  Gardener and Raynin loosed the grip of their seatbelt and began floating.

  Donnie and Julius turned their heads. They laughed. “We only see this on TV” Donnie said.

  “Yeah, we did” Raynin replied. “But now we are the ones experiencing it”

  “Am loving it already. I think I will become a full time astronaut when we get back to earth” Julius said.

  “Whoa, you are enjoying your new job already?” Gardener mocked and they all laughed.

  They flew through space for days till the red planet finally came to view. Inside of the rocket was quiet. They were all asleep, except for Donnie who was still piloting the rocket. He narrowed his eyes at the first sight and then it widened seconds later. He slapped Julius’s shoulder and shrieked. “Hey look! Mars”

  Everyone woke up instantly.

  “Holy fuck― this is another one of your Mars prank. Can’t you let us sleep in―”

  “No buddy, look over there. Mars!” Raynin interrupted Gardner.

  Gardener looked through the windshield. He threw his head back in awe. “Damn― we made it” he looked at his friend.

  “That means” Julius said with widened eye.

  “We are getting the cash real soon” they both said in unison, smiling through their statement.

  “Okay―everyone, ge
t in your seats and tighten your seatbelts. We are landing”

  A minute after everyone was settled, Donnie directed the rocket into the atmosphere of Mars. They could feel the vibration as they were descending. They got past the atmosphere and crash landed on the surface. All the lights went out. Everyone was quiet, listening to the sound of their breath.

  “Ouch dude, who taught you how to land a rocket. You almost killed us” Raynin broke the silence.

  They clicked their seatbelts loose and fastened their helmets on.

  “Now we are here, who is going out first?” Gardner asked.

  “We all are―no one should try to be smart”

  Donnie walked towards the door and twisted a handle .The door swung up with a fuzz sound. He felt his heart racing out of terror and nervousness. They have finally entered and landed on the surface of Mars, now what? Donnie wiggled his hands and took a deep breath out. The door was completely opened, Donnie looked at the red soil below the rocket floor.

  Suddenly, Gardner pushed him to the ground.

  He quickly jerked up upon landing and yelled “What’s that for?”

  “Okay, the ground is safe for us too” Gardner said to Raynin with a chuckle.

  Julius glared, also pushing them out of the rocket. “Now it’s safe for me” he mocked and jumped to the ground.

  He gripped Gardner by the suit. “If you ever do that to one of us again, I will make sure you never see earth again”

  “Man, get off me” he pushed Julius’s hand off.

  They quit the argument and turned their attention to the wasteland they stood on.

  “No one is here. No plant, water, animal, just rocky mountains and desert, this is a wasteland―there is no life here after all” Raynin said.

  “No aliens are here too. Those media bastards always lied to us” Gardner shook his head.

  Donnie climbed back into the rocket and came back minutes after making the mini rocket ready to launch in an hour soon.

  “Alright―we can’t just stand here and say we came to Mars. If we would get that millions of dollars, then we need to show them we came here” Donnie began. “Come on, let’s search around if we can find anything important”