Apollo 19

The Apollo program abruptly ended in 1972 with Apollo 17, allegedly due to budget cuts.  This, of course, was a cover-up.  Unbeknownst to the public, NASA discovered strange caves and geologic anomalies on the moon, in a region that was believed to be rich with valuable minerals, including gold and uranium.  The American government didn’t want other countries finding out about these potential lunar assets, so they secretly sent Apollo 18 to investigate the geologic discoveries.  Shortly after Apollo 18 landed on the moon, mission control received some bizarre and horrifying radio transmissions from the astronauts about alien contact.  The spacemen’s panicked voices turned into blood-curdling screams just before they mysteriously vanished on the lunar surface.  Desperate for answers, NASA sent Apollo 19 to search for the missing astronauts…

It was an eerie moment for astronauts Dustin and Mike as they stood at the base of the abandoned Apollo 18 lunar lander in their gleaming-white spacesuits.  The spacecraft was perfectly intact and it was obvious that the missing crew members never returned to it.  Apollo 18’s boot prints were clearly visible in the powdery-soft lunar dust, and the one-way tracks further confirmed that the spacemen never returned to the abandoned spacecraft.  “Let’s follow their tracks” Mike advised over the radio, built into their space helmets. Unfortunately, NASA withheld the alien details about Apollo 18’s disappearance, so Mike and Dustin were oblivious to the danger they were now in as they began to follow the tracks.

Dustin found it odd that the Apollo 18 astronauts chose to walk towards a dangerously unforgiving area of the moon filled with rock formations, deep crevices and jagged boulders with razor-sharp edges.  “Why would they explore this area?” Dustin asked.  “I was wondering the same thing” Mike replied, “it’s extremely hazardous.”  

They had to be careful not to tear their delicate spacesuits on the jagged boulders, which would mean certain death in the oxygenless-vacuum of space, and Dustin began to wonder if that’s what happened to the missing spacemen.  Their Apollo spacesuits were made out of a soft, bright-white nylon fabric and there was an American flag sewn neatly into the left shoulder of the suits.  Oxygen quietly hissed through the white air hoses that supplied the oxygen to their suits from the PLSS packs.  Although the suits were quite bulky and clumsy, they were actually quite comfortable to wear.

Mike and Dustin were breathing laboriously as they made their way through unforgiving terrain in their cumbersome moon-suits as they continued to follow the tracks.  Shortly after traversing through the boulder field, the astronauts were shocked to discover that the tracks mysteriously ended at a dark and foreboding cave entrance.  Instantly, the cave gave both of them the creeps.  “They…they went in there?” Mike skittishly questioned with a gasp, befuddled and astonished.  Dustin didn’t reply because he was equally surprised.  Mike’s heart began to race and Dustin began to feel an ominous feeling wash over him. 

“Houston, come in Houston” Dustin said over the radio, but his transmission was met with radio silence.  “Houston, do you read me?” Mike tried, unsuccessfully, “HOUSTON.”  Strange radio malfunctions began to plague the astronauts, who stood out vibrantly in their bright-white spacesuits against the dark-gray boulders.  Their radios were their lifeline with Earth and a slight panic began to set in as they attempted to reestablish communications with mission control.  Unbeknownst to Mike and Dustin, Apollo 18 experienced the same radio anomalies just before the aliens found them.

Creepy static and eerie clicking sounds could be heard by the astronauts in between their desperate attempts to contact mission control.  At first they thought it was just radio interference produced by the boulders, but as the static subsided the clicking noises became louder.  Chills shot down their spines as they began to realize that clicks sounded like some kind of language, similar to what dolphins use to communicate.  The astronauts were freaked-out even more when they realized that the noises sounded like two or more entities communicating with each other.  Perhaps what was even more frightening was when the strange language seemed to taunt them whenever they tried to contact Houston.  Mike and Dustin began to feel incredibly vulnerable as they began to realize something horrible happened to the Apollo 18 astronauts, inside of the cave that they were now standing in front of.

As mysteriously as the syntactic sounds began, they abruptly ended in radio silence.  “Houston, this is Apollo 19, do you read?” Dustin tried again, but there was still no response from mission control.  The astronauts could talk to each other over the radio, but the transmissions to and from Earth were somehow being blocked; it seemed as if “something” was intentionally controlling their equipment, instead of it just being a random malfunction.  

The creepy lunar shadows cast by the jagged boulders combined with the eerie radio silence made the astronauts uneasy.  “Something’s wrong” Dustin said.  “We need to get out of here” Mike replied, trembling in his space boots.  “Yes, let’s get out of here!” Dustin promptly agreed.  But no sooner than the astronauts had taken their first step, they began to feel a powerful vibration rumble through the thin rubber soles of their white boots.  “What’s happening?!?!” Mike screamed.  The intense vibrations quickly subsided as the horrified astronauts witnessed something that, wasn’t supposed to exist, emerge from the darkness.  

Mike and Dustin gasped in terror as a large triangular-shaped craft emerged from a nearby crater.  The massive, jet-black craft emanated a foggy-blue light and the astronauts could see dark silhouettes of humanoid beings through what appeared to be windows in the side craft.  There was no mistaking the alien spacecraft for something that humans could have built; it was immediately clear that the craft’s technology was far superior to anything that NASA engineered.  Dustin stumbled backwards in his clumsy suit as both of the astronauts were instantly struck by the feeling of doom. The menacing black craft began to approach them, causing Mike to lose control of his bladder.

“RUN MIKE!” Dustin screamed over the radio.  It took all of Dustin’s might to turn around in his bulky spacesuit and start running away from the black alien spacecraft.  While Dustin’s feet were motivated by fear, Mike was paralyzed by it.  He couldn’t move his feet and it felt like his legs were filled with lead.  All Mike could do was stand there and scream as he watched a powerful beam of light shoot down to the lunar ground from the bottom of the triangular UFO.  The twenty-foot wide beam of light surrounded Mike and it instantly burned his eyes as he looked up into it, causing him to scream even louder in pain.  His feet were no longer in contact with the gray lunar ground as the craft’s gravity emitter began sucking him up, much like a bug being sucked up by a vacuum cleaner, and a pulsing-sensation traveled through Mike’s body while he was inside the light beam.  The terrified astronaut felt weightless as he helplessly flailed his arms and legs while being sucked up into the bottom of the spacecraft.

Dustin could hear Mike’s blood-curdling screams over the radio, which seemed to resonate inside of his space helmet- filling his heart with terror, which was beating so fast it felt like it was going to explode.  Dustin felt horrible for running away from Mike, for abandoning him, but he knew there was nothing he could do.  The gravity on the moon is one-sixth of what it is on Earth, which caused Dustin to float in between steps during his desperate attempt to run away from the alien craft.  As he floated in between steps it felt like an eternity to Dustin before one of his feet would make contact with the ground, adding to his feeling of helplessness.

“MAYDAY HOUSTON, MAYDAY!!! WE’RE BEING ATTACKED!” Dustin screamed over the radio as the craft approached him from behind, casting a large shadow over the unfortunate astronaut, “SOMEBODY HELP ME!!”  He knew that he was next.  Dustin could feel the power of the gravity emitter as the UFO got closer to him.  The time he spent floating in between steps increased as the craft drew near and it felt like there was a powerful tornado directly behind him.  Soon the beam of light consumed the astronaut, just as it had with Mike; Dustin’s desperate escape attempt was futile.  “NOOOOOOO!!! Dustin screamed as he helplessly kicked his feet while being sucked up into the black craft.  It took less than a second for Dustin to travel from the ground to the bottom of the UFO inside the beam of light.  The light was so bright that the horrified Apollo astronaut couldn’t see anything but he felt something grasp firmly onto the thigh of his spacesuit and drag him into the craft.

Dustin screamed as he desperately tried to grab onto whatever he could to prevent himself from being dragged into the craft, but he couldn’t grip onto the slick metallic surfaces with his puffy-white space gloves.  The alien had a painfully strong grip on his leg and it effortlessly snatched its astronaut prey into a dimly-lit hallway within the spaceship.  As Dustin was dragged into the cylindrical corridor, Mike’s horrific screams immediately captured his attention and he caught a fleeting glimpse of an alien carrying Mike off into a dark hallway.  Mike squirmed helplessly and tried to grab onto the smooth hallway walls as he was carried away into the unknown; his terrified-cries for help echoed off the metallic surfaces as the alien vanished into the darkness with Mike in his arms.

Even though Dustin only caught a fleeting glimpse of the alien, the image of the creature was instantly seared into his brain.  What he just saw wasn’t supposed to exist, or at least that’s what NASA told him.  The alien was tall and incredibly muscular with scaly dark-gray skin; Dustin could tell just by glancing at it that the alien was built for power and speed, like a predator.  It was a humanoid-like being, in the fact that it had two legs and two arms, but it definitely wasn’t human.  Dustin didn’t see its face but he observed that the being had black quarter-sized bumps all over its body and that its hands and feet were also quite large but proportional to its body.

The nightmarish horror of Mike being carried away by the extraterrestrial creature caused Dustin to slip into a state of shock and his body went limp.  His brain couldn’t comprehend what was happening so it shut down.  Dustin faded in and out of consciousness as he was carried off into the spacecraft by one of the aliens.  As he faded in and out his eyes caught little snapshots of the strange hallway, which intersected with many other corridors and rooms, both horizontally and vertically.  The structure of the hallways was like the inside of an ant hill- a confusing maze of smooth tunnels that only the aliens could comprehend.  

As the alien neared the end of one of the corridors it slowed down to torture his astronaut victim with a horrific sight.  Dustin screamed in terror as he observed the dead bodies of the Apollo 18 astronauts hanging in some kind of twisted display case.  The dead astronauts were still in their spacesuits but they both had large holes in their chests.  Somehow they looked perfectly preserved and expressions of sheer terror were permanently locked onto their faces inside of their space helmets.  The astronauts were glued to the interior wall of the display with a strange spider-web looking material.  “NOOOOOOO!!!” Dustin cried out, horrified by what he just observed.

Tears of terror streamed down Dustin’s face as the alien looked down at him, carrying him past the display case.  Through the visor glass of Dustin’s space helmet the alien locked eyes with the crying astronaut.  It took pleasure in Dustin’s horror.  Dustin stared into the alien’s large, glossy-black eyes and was unable to break eye contact with it, as if the alien put him in a paranormal trance.  All of the sudden Dustin heard a voice in his head, but it wasn’t his own; the alien was speaking to him telepathically: 

“We warned your species not to return to our moon.  Your species is a disease to this solar system.  We have been here for thousands of years, watching you.  Humans are destroying the Earth like a cancer with your wars, weapons and greed, and we must keep you from spreading.  Your fellow Earthlings, the ones you call Houston, they knew we were here but they sent you anyway.  They betrayed you and now you and your friend will pay the price.  It is your time to die, astronaut.”

“No, NO! PLEASE” Dustin begged, “we came in peace.” The terrified astronaut continued to scream and beg for mercy as the alien carried him through a set of doors.  Bright lights momentarily blinded Dustin as he was brought into a large operating room.  As his eyes adjusted to the lights, he observed various surgical instruments laying on tables in the room.  In the center of the room, Mike was laying on his back on a strange operating table.  He was squirming as hard as he could in his spacesuit, desperately trying to get off the table that he was suctioned onto via dime-sized holes in the surface generating a powerful vacuum force.  The horrifying sound of a pneumatic drill plagued both of the astronauts with disturbing intensity.  It sounded like a dentist drill, only much louder.

Dustin was tossed to the floor by the alien, discarded like trash.  The alien then walked over to the corner of the room and grabbed the drill from another alien who had been preparing it.  The drill was attached to a long black cable and the drill bit looked like a large-diameter cylindrical blade.  Every time it spun in the alien’s hand it made a wicked pneumatic sound that filled the astronauts with terror.  The alien revved the drill as he walked over to Mike, torturing him with anticipation.  He glanced down at Dustin with an evil expression on his face before standing over Mike who continued to struggle on the vacuum table.  Dustin was frozen with fear on the floor; he knew he was about to watch his friend die and there was nothing he could do.

“This will be excruciating” the alien coldly said to Mike, telepathically, as he stood over him revving the drill.  His cold black eyes revealed no mercy.  “NOOOOOOO!!!” Mike screamed as the alien ruthlessly thrust the drill into his chest.  The razor-sharp drill bit sliced right through Mike’s suit and plunged through his rib cage, cutting through bone and organs.  Dustin watched in horror as Mike flailed his arms and legs on the table while letting out the most awful gurgling-scream he had ever heard.  Mike’s red blood splattered all over his pristine-white spacesuit as the drill shredded his heart.  Soon Mike’s body was completely lifeless and one of his limp arms dangled off the side of the vacuum table.  His blood was also splattered on the wall of the operating room and across the alien's face, who was now looking down at Dustin.   

In that moment, Dustin noticed a hatch on the wall at the far end of the operating room.  His feet became mobilized by intense fear as he clumsily got up in his bulky suit and made a desperate run for the door.  He made it to the hatch and attempted to get it open but he couldn’t manipulate the alien controls, especially while wearing space gloves.  The hatch wouldn’t budge; it was as if it was welded shut!  All of the sudden his feet were no longer in contact with the floor and he felt weightless as the enraged alien snatched him up from behind.  Dustin desperately tried to free himself from the alien’s vice-like grip but his spacesuit provided the creature with an excellent grip.  The soft-white fabric wrinkled around the alien’s gray hands as he effortlessly carried Dustin over to the vacuum table.  “SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!” Dustin screamed.  No matter how hard the defenseless astronaut squirmed and struggled, the alien easily overpowered him.

With a swift and seamless motion of his arm, the beastly alien flung Mike’s dead body off of the operating table.  “Please, NO! Please…” Dustin begged.  The alien slammed Dusin down on the table and activated the powerful vacuum; Dustin was sucked down to the table on his belly, unlike Mike who was killed on his back.  As Dustin squirmed on the table, the alien went and got the drill, revving it as he walked back over to Dustin.  The horrified astronaut couldn't see the alien because he was on his stomach, and his field of view was restricted by his helmet, but he fearfully watched his shadow slowly approaching.  The shadow was so black it seemed to absorb the light and the alien’s large, muscular body eclipsed Dustin as he approached him from behind.

As Dustin was immobilized by the vacuum table he knew he was about to die.  He thought of his fellow astronaut, Kaylee, who was safely orbiting the moon in the command module awaiting their return.  Kaylee was a beautiful and brilliant astronaut, and a dear friend of his.  The thought of her being safe from the aliens briefly comforted him.  But just before the alien killed Dustin, he telepathically served him with some devastating news: “Your fellow astronaut who is orbiting the moon…Kaylee… we took over her flight controls and she is now on a collision course with the lunar surface.  Your technology is primitive and it was easy for us to control her spacecraft.”   “NOOOOOOO” Dustin screamed as the alien revved the drill.

Without mercy or hesitation, the alien drilled into the back of Dustin’s space helmet.  The powerful drill shredded clean through the helmet as Dustin screamed in sheer terror.  But his horrific screams were quickly silenced as the drill bit tore into the astronaut’s skull, slinging bone, brain and blood all over the inside of the helmet.  Satisfied with his sadistic work, the alien pulled the drill out of Dustin’s skull and helmet and paused to look at the astronaut’s lifeless body.  The other alien in the room began speaking in their extraterrestrial clicking language: “Two more for the collection” he said.

Mike and Dustin were glued into the display case next to the Apollo 18 astronauts.  After the dead spacesuited astronauts were secured in place by the aliens, the case was again sealed shut and filled with a vapor-compound that preserved the bodies.  Mike had the expression of terror permanently stuck on his face as the Apollo 18 astronauts, but Dustin’s face couldn’t be seen because of the blood splatter against the visor glass of his helmet.  The alien spacecraft returned to the crater and plunged deep into our hollow moon where other extraterrestrials live.  There, within the deep void of the moon, they wait for us to once again try to escape our isolated sphere in the universe we call Earth.