Wipe it Out

in #story7 years ago (edited)

space.jpg

Four months... Four long months. That's how long it has been, right? It was hard to tell anymore.



The concept of standard Earth time had fallen away as soon as Jevive had touched down on the godforsaken rock known as Cersa 4112. C-4112 is a small planet that had recently, and quite inexplicably, formed not too far outside of our solar system.

And not a moment too soon, if you would ask most. To say that Earth had fallen in to disrepair was a monolithic understatement.

Welcome to Earth, don't forget your portable O2! Yeah, just... uh, step over the rubbish, it'll break down. Eventually.



Jevive had a hard time remembering exactly why she had volunteered for the mission to scout the potential planet for population by the sickeningly rich. I mean, the money factored in, naturally. She could make enough to possibly have a little terraformed slice of nowhere up here for the risk, easily. And man, anywhere had to be better than the Earth-That-Is, that was true. Waking up in the middle of the night from night terrors to finding she had depleted her air tanks and had to gulp that bitter, dusty, lifeless air as she struggled to hook up a new one. At least here, there was air. Metallic tasting air, but air.

Somehow, these reasons didn't seem like enough to flee the planet on their own.

She left to flee the memories. In that small steel box that had served as her home for years, that son of a bitch lingered. Though physically long gone, it was like the smell of his clothes and rank breath still hung in the stagnant air. It probably did. She would rather slowly smother than spend one more night, dreaming of the things he did to her.

Jevive ripped open her last meager rations pack. She was down to the emergency supply now, and the drop ship was running a week late. It definitely wasn't enough to give her energy to get over the last small rise on the horizon, but she had to try. The dried protein tasted about as good as she imagined the soil samples she was absentmindedly collecting would.

"Collect the dirt, stick the sticker, put in pack." she said in a mocking singsong, thinking of the smug assholes that trained her like a monkey. They were real bright, but would they risk themselves for the samples they wanted? Hell no, they just wanted the credit. And the money.

The soft, red sand sifted quietly over her trough. The silence of the desert sucking up any small sound it could find and bouncing it back into her ears deafeningly. The lilting hiss of the grains sliding and grating making her grit her teeth.

The whole place sounded like a stern hush. It was painful. She shook her head and dug down another two inches like she had a thousand times before while choking her way through a mealworm cracker.

thunk

"The fuck?", she thought.

THUNK

THUNK

THUNK

THUNK



The resonating heartbeat of sound making her eardrums vibrate in ways they hadn't in months, sending her hands to her head to soothe the foreign agony. Her vision blurred as the hollow echoes finally worked their way to the other side of the planet to pester who-knows-what.

She hadn't seen anything yet, and was somewhat reassured that since the planet was so new, it was empty. But she watched those Sci-fi movies and who could say.

Jevive looked down between her slender thighs to see what had had hit the metal of her tool, tilting her head curiously. A small dusting of her hand revealed something... brown? Like the water at home. It was strangely solid, rough to the touch, and barely held in place. It was a... what was that word? Root.

The bits that come out of plants in the special hydroponic domes. It never occurred to her that they could be like this. Growing in dirt instead of suspended in air. She took the root delicately in her hands and ran her fingers over it. She could almost feel the life in it. A thrill ran through her.

She lifted it, scanning the horizon, searching wildly for a source. A sprig, a stem, a fallen branch. The barren land laughed at her, laughed at her like he had so many times. A cold, prickling rage rose in her, like frostbite on the back of her neck. She held tight to the root and pulled, shook, rippled it. Daring it with silent inward screams to show itself. The hushed shrieking in her head, accompanied by flashes of his wicked face, somehow more painful than the reverberating silence of the empty planet.

With one last heave, the last of the sand fell away. Jevive hoisted the root and cracked it like a whip, panting despite herself. The sound bouncing off the surface no longer even processing as the static of desperation to forgot turned to white noise in her ears. Anything to wipe it out. Wipe it out. Wipe it out.

She refocused her eyes, and what lay before her was one long, mild serpentine. Snaking it's way across the landscape, through a dune, and above the rise she needed to cross before resting. She scrambled to her feet, and looked around. What she was looking for, she wasn't sure. Approval? A sign? Like a root on a newly formed planet wasn't sign enough already of what to do.

She reached into her bag and hastily pulled out her carbon gloves, slinging her pack over her back, and holding firmly to the root as if the whole world would fall away if she did not. She began the hard trek through the soft, but cumbersome, sand. Sinking, finding her footing, and pulling her way along the mysterious vine.

Hours that felt like days passed as every inch of the fibrous rope mocked her.

"Little further darling, that's a good girl..."

Wipe it out. Wipe it out.

Wipe. It. Out.



By now the exhaustion was taking hold, she trudged, eyes unfocused. The silence hissing over her like endless waves. With every step her pack gained a pound, when she suddenly felt the ground incline under her boots. THE RISE. She had finally reached it!
Rejuvenated energy surging through her body, Jevive brought her knees high to her chest, running, feverish, an answer right on the other side of the crest. The crest that her weak and journey weary body tumbled down.

Somersaults, flips, slips, skidding, like a child at play, her body rag dolled down the steep drop into the dark red dune. She closed her eyes and pretended she was spiraling away from all of it. Every small impact taking the breath from her like a jolly laugh. She barely remembered what laughter actually felt like anymore, this was the closest she had been in years. Her lips almost curled into a smile when a cracking impact knocked her away from the revelry and into a harsher, more painful reality.

She had crashed against something far less forgiving than the sands of Cersa 4112. She drew a raspy breath and ran her hand up the intruder as she rolled to her back to stare at the empty sky.

"You deserved that, you asked for it."

With a wince, Jevive's eyes wandered over the sight of a much larger root towering above her. Reaching into the foreign sky, with gaping arms, like they intended to grasp the stars themselves and pull them down. Small pink orbs hung from it's hungry fingers, bobbing from her rib shattering impact. She marveled, with a rattling gasp. She had seen these before, and tasted one only once.

A peach.

Her thirst and hunger rallied to take the place of her pain as she reached to one that had fallen next to her. The smell. Oh, the smell. Such a small thing you take for granted in a wasteland. She held it in both hands, and brought it to her face, brushing her lips against it like one would a lover. Everything else in that moment melted away.

The fine hair tickling her, jolting a hitching laugh from her bruised and broken body. She gently pressed her teeth to the flesh, feeling it give way to her like a passionate kiss. A flood of sweet washing over her tongue and lips. Her eyes fluttered, every single past violation slipping away, replaced with the succulent taste and smell of virginal fruit. Washing her spirit clean, feeding her, wetting her insatiable thirst... filling the void in her for something... pure.

It's fleshy meat, swirled with her tongue, crushing under her teeth, scrubbing away all the angry words that called that cavern their home. Sliding down her throat and reclaiming every time he used it, pushing down the bile and the vile after taste. Leaving in it's wake a sweet syrup of innocence. A rebirth formed in hunger that flourished in a clay colored desert.

A hiss like the sands, like the planet itself, crept and shook from her lips. Rattling and beating it's way from her shattered chest. The metallic taste of blood rising to meet the sweetness of the meaty fruit. She closed her eyes and let the slithering embrace of ever-after wrap her and wind her in it's roots.

Jevive uttered one last rattling sigh, for once, a sigh of purity. Of release. From the tethers that held her so taunt and grounded to Earth and memory and pain. The last taste in her mouth, not the bitter wash of hatred and abuse, but instead of summer's that once were.

It was finally, and sweetly, all wiped out.



I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading! This one was for @sammosk!



HTML tutorial

Sort:  

written story is so much wonderful. Good work.

Thank you so very much! I am really glad you enjoyed it!

This post received a 5% vote by @netuoso courtesy of @sammosk from the Minnow Support Project ( @minnowsupport ). Join us in Discord.

Thank you so much for this story! For a few minutes, I was there, together with Jevive, completely swept away from Earth and lost in your amazing tale.

And now... there is this urge.. It's strong, it's compelling, it's the craving for a juicy peach.

Thanks for that.

I am elated that I could sweep you up in the little blip of her world!
Also... get yourself a juicy peachy peach, you're worth it!

Hi, thanks for your interesting post. Welcome to my blog @evgenya

@sammosk also sent me over here to read this and boy was it worth it. I'll be following and checking out your future masterpieces. Anything futuristic always engages this little black duck.

Thanks for creating and sharing. Upgoats for you!

Ah! Thanks for the upgoat!
I am thrilled that you enjoyed it! Most of my posts can get pretty silly, but I will be putting out more serious pieces like this in the future.

Glad to have you, and I hope you stick around for a long time!

@sammosk booted me over here. Said you had created a masterpeach. I have to agree. You did indeed create a masterpeach. There were some thoroughly enjoyable descriptions all through.

I am over the moon that you enjoyed my masterpeach!
Thank you so much for swinging in and reading my piece! You're welcome to stay, if you like. It gets a bit silly 'round here, though.

Sounds about normal for where I usually hang out and who with XD

Masterpeach hahahahahahaahaha 😁😂😂

God damn you have such a unique style of writing. Like a free consciousness picture formed by words and pacing. I don't know, like a drummer painting a painting. I don't know its rhythmic to read.

Rejuvenated energy surging through her body, Jevive brought her knees high to her chest, running, feverish, an answer right on the other side of the crest. The crest that her weak and journey weary body tumbled down.

The smell. Oh, the smell. Such a small thing you take for granted in a wasteland. She held it in both hands, and brought it to her face, brushing her lips against it like one would a lover. Everything else in that moment melted away.

A hiss like the sands, like the planet itself, crept and shook from her lips.

Honestly it sounds like drums to me.

Thanks for sharing, never stop, you're prolific AF.

EEEEE! Thank you! This comment is fucking amazing. <3 <3 <3

Have you ever read this quote, you created music :)

“This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important.”

― Gary Provost

My favorite quote about writing, you nailed it!

Wow! I haven't and now I am blown away!
I've been told my sentence structures are interesting and @soundwavesphoton just a couple comments ago likened to to drums!

Thank you so much for this amazing comment Julia, and I look forward to making more music!
(I also now need to save this quote.)

I heard this quote years ago and I wanted to hear it again bit couldn't Remeber the guys name and I typed quote about writing rhythm and it was the first one to come up. I couldn't believe my luck I thought I'd never find it! Please make more music!

yes, one of my favourite quotes too. Apart from "don't set the scene, put the characters in the scene"
or however it was expressed. I need to put the computer down and step away from the body.

What a great piece of writing that is. You're are a talented chick!
I thought I was already a follower however somehow not, WTF!
It's been rectified because this is the kind of work I hate finding at the 8 days mark and can't reward.
Keep it up babe.

Aww! Thank you, Percy!
And I could have sworn you were following me, as well! Maybe I better check my follows just to be sure I'm following you, too!
Pesky steemit.

Seriously, thank you for the compliments! You fill my little heathen heart with peachy love!

Seriously difficult to keep up with everyone, but I try.
There are so many great writers here now and you are the latest in that list. DM me in discord so I don't miss your stuff babe.

I would imagine it is! I have a hard time juggling steemit and discord and regular life, myself!

I am thrilled and honored to be on your list and will of course DM you! Thank you, love!

@sammosk sent me here and told me you created something wonderful I came I read despite being super blurry eyed and thought this was cool

Artsy! Thanks for dropping in and saying it is cool!
I am touched that you would struggle through the dreaded sleepy eye, especially for such a long post, and I thank you for it!
Sleep well!

Some killer prose here, Stitchy. You have a real gift for writing evocative images. This piece is so much more in line with what we do in the Workshop--we would LOVE to have you any time you want to bring all this talent and share it with us. :-)

Thank you to the moon and back for your constant encouragement and kind words! You've really helped rekindle my passion for writing and words fall short of the gratitude that I feel!

I'll have to pop in tomorrow or the next day! I would love to chat with you all! ❤

If you don't pop in to visit, I'm going to hunt you down. LOL! See you then!

Eeeeep!
Don't hurt me! :D

I'll see you over in fiction!

In the nonsense is the greatness. upvote you