The Isolation

I gave up counting a long time ago.

It wouldn't have mattered, the day/night cycles here don't match my home, they're longer some days, short others, and there's three suns...it makes it difficult to keep track.

So I gave up. I gave up keeping count, I even gave up trying to find help. No one was coming for me. I was alone. Abandoned and forgotten.

So I just kept myself busy trying to survive. It was hard at first, not much to live for on this desolate planet, but I refused to give up my life. That's the one thing that I could still have some control over.

I stayed close to the ship at first, but when I couldn't get the signal out, I abandoned it with only the remaining supplies, setting out in hopes of a better environment. This planet wasn't big, less than half the size of my own, and it felt...barren, with very little life sprouting from the grey ground. It felt dead.

I eventually found a good area, surrounded by some alien trees and even a small pond where I settled. There were no animals that I could find, nothing I could eat, so I was forced to try and grow my own food, most of which failed in the alien soil. But I still tried.

Eventually, some grew and I was able to have some food, if not enough to ever fill me, at least enough to keep me moving and alive. I scouted the area and searched for game, but I never found anything.

I was truly alone on this planet it seemed.

I had nothing to do with my life except try and survive, so I planted my crops more often than I ate them, in hopes of growing more, and I trained. I ran and made items that I could use to lift weights. I was used to expertise, needed it if I were to become a space pilot, but this was more than I ever did with my training.

I'm not sure when it happened, but I started seeing flickers out of the corner of my eye. Small movements like something running or ducking out of sight, but when I looked around, I found nothing. Solitude can drive one insane, is that what was happening to me? Has it been so long that I've been on my own that my mind can no longer function as it should?

I started making weapons, just in case it wasn't all in my mind, simple sharpened sticks only as there wasn't a lot of materials I could use and I didn't want to cut down the trees unnecessarily.

The sounds came next.

Usually at night, when I was trying to sleep, they would shift and scuttle around, like something moving in the sand, like it was trying to be quiet.

Night never lasted long here, and it was so dark that I could barely see my hand in front of my face. I started lighting fires, which I didn’t like as it meant cutting more trees down. Sure, there was a small forest, but it felt like it was getting smaller by the day.

I never saw anything at night in the light of the flames, nor did I ever see anything during the day when I woke up, no tracks even.

So that means it was all in my head, wasn't it?

I don’t know, it all felt so real. I started using my sharpened sticks as a barrier around the area where I slept at night, to keep out whatever was moving around, and to give me access to a weapon.

Days were bright and hot, the suns beating down on me relentlessly.

I tried swimming once in the water of the pond, but it was near boiling hot and would only cool down if I removed some to drink. Maybe naturally heated? But to such a degree it burned my skin.

I had some essentials from my ship with me, which thankfully included a bucket, which allowed me to scoop up water to drink and wash myself with, but that was as far as I would go near the pond. I even made sure to keep the fire and bed of leaves and old blankets I had made away from it.

As one night started falling, I gathered material and started building my fire when I heard the movements again. It was earlier than they usually start, so I took this opportunity to look around, but I saw nothing.

It was pitch darkness around me only.

Starting the fire, I lit one stick and sat, waiting and listening until I heard the shuffling again, immediately tossing the burning branch in that direction.

It lit up...something. Something small and such a deep purple it was almost black, but that was all I could see before it screeched a sound so high-pitched I thought my ears would bleed, and hurried back into the darkness.

I stared after it in horror. It hadn't been in my mind, whatever was out in the darkness was real!

I was too scared that night to sleep, so I sat awake and held another burning branch, but there were no more movements, like the fire had scared the creature away completely.

When morning came, I moved the sharpened sticks that ran like a fence around my sleeping area and paused. Where I had tossed the stick yesterday was nothing, no stick, no tracks, like it had never happened.

I frowned and walked closer before walking around my entire area, even among the poor, but growing food, but I found nothing charred and nothing that would have indicated I had thrown a burning stick at it, or chased something off.

Sitting back on the ground, I stared up at the bright sky. It hadn't happened?

Several of these night/day cycles passed and I continued to hear movements, continued to see things, but I never once found anything. I was starting to think I really was going crazy, it was the only explanation that I could think of.

I started sleeping less and less, too scared that it was real and I would be attacked at any moment, but I couldn't stay awake for long, my body growing more and more tired. I started eating less as I grew convinced whatever was stalking me was tampering with my food, and I became sure that the trees surrounding me were lessening as well. I know this. I counted!

One day, while the suns were all in the sky, I sat next to the pond, staring at it, my stomach growling and my body pained, when I saw movement under the water.

I didn’t know what it was, couldn't make it out, but there had never been movement in the pond before. It was as dead as this world was...but there were creatures here, in the dark and at the edge of your sight, so maybe there was in the water too?

I got up to my wobbly knees and crawled closer, looking into the water, but only saw my reflection leaning forward.

The water really was hot.

X

"Subject 81 has failed the simulation. Got too close to the water source even after exposure proved to be painful and dangerous. Subject 81 proved more sensitive to presence of the probes in the area, look into this through a brain dissection, it could be something to the creature itself that could be implemented into another instead. But also upgrade probes for future research projects, we are running low on those we can test, so we are running out of time. Estimated time until end of project, in case of lack of subjects, three months. Captain log end.”