A Silent Day

It was the light that woke him, but it was the terror that kept him awake. Now the silent day granted him absolute security.

The morning air smelled of burned grasses.

Last night he had made an improvised torch out of the human tibia and a rotting cloth worn on it.

They were afraid of sunlight and fire. They were nocturnal creatures that had evolved for millennia from an extraordinary human hybrid. At daytime, they lurked in the ruins of buildings.

Now the sun hung just above the hills. Inside those hills were remnants of civilization eaten up by ground with overgrowth as centuries passed. Twenty yards off him were bloodstained grasses and ground and scattered torn space suits and guns and dead creatures. Around him were ashes of grasses. Behind him, a hundred yards away, was their ship which had crashed, almost buried.

He looked around and remembered how he ended up there.

… long-limb creatures were chasing them. They ripped off and consumed up his companions. He knew they were afraid of fire so he got into the bushes and looked for something flammable. They were preoccupied with their butchering using their sharp talons and angular teeth. They moaned in exaltation when they got the hearts of their victims.

One of the creatures noticed him. His hurrying had caused the leaves to ruffle. It took its dinosaur-like run towards him. He pointed the laser gun and shot the creature, but it incredibly dodged. The others saw the violet flash and they all rushed to him.

He enkindled the torch with his laser gun and blazed up the bushes. It got hotter so he ran to the nearby clearing and ignited the grass around him to form a ring of fire. Then, he settled inside the ring.

He could see them circling. He shot them repeatedly but they moved swiftly.

At last, his continuous firing killed three of them.

They thought they could not get him because of the barrier.

He looked at them trudged like monkeys as they left. He was not complacent, though. He was very exhausted and afraid but he managed to guard himself until his eyes gave up and the fire gradually burned out.

Now he was awake staring, nauseated, at his companion's blood and the dead monsters whose scale-like skin glittered against the sunlight.

A bright light in the sky winked in his sleepy eyes. It was the Rescuer they had phoned in. It touched down in front of him. The hatch slid open and a ladder came out. He trod towards it and stopped before he could take one step up. He looked back lamentably at the place. Beautiful and calm. A silent day, he thought. He went up inside and moved over to the vacated console to read the instructions on the screen.

The atmospheric probe is terminated for a week until another research crew will arrive from Saturn. Meanwhile, heal and take your rest in Bradbury Station on planet Mars.