Writing Prompt Short Story
The Prompt:
Our ship landed. Door dramatically opened up and before we could step on the planet, a white mist entered the airlock. Three of us were already suited up so that was not a concern, but as we stepped on the solid ground with much less gravity than Earth, we were stunned to see human figures walk towards us.
‘What the fuck! Our scans showed this planet was sterile right?’ I yelled into the comms. We took a defensive stance. ‘We needed guns.’ That is my last message before these things killed us, I thought.
‘We mean you no harm.’ The taller and slim old man spoke to us in perfect English. There was another younger man. Both wore perfect white suits that matched the mist on the planet.
I looked at my mates, puzzled. ‘What are you doing here? This place does not seem to have any life.’ I said.
‘That’s because this is heaven. No one is really alive here.’ the old man spoke. I noticed he had white silky hair and a slur as he spoke.
‘What do you mean “This is heaven”?’ I scanned around. It flashed in front of me that this place looked eerily similar to the heaven portrayal I had seen in movies.
‘Heaven. You know the place. Where good people of Earth come after they die.’ The old man gave a disarming smile. I relaxed my stance. My teammates followed me.
Something felt wrong. It felt like a dream. Was I dreaming? I bit my tongue, the classic test. Nope. It wasn’t. I tasted the dullness of blood in my mouth.
‘I don’t believe you.’ I said and regretted it. I should not have pissed off these natives.
‘As you wish. You are welcome to wander around and see for yourself. The daily feast is just over yonder if you walk with us for five minutes.’ The old man said. I noted the other man give a smirk.
I smelled something fishy. But there did not seem anything unusual to put my finger on. I decided to test him.
‘You go on ahead and we will be right there with you.’ I said. I expected him to resist and stay with us and keep an eye on us. But surprisingly the old man shrugged, turned and walked away in the direction of the feast. The other man followed him with a smile.
‘There is definitely something wrong with this place. Am I dreaming?’ I said to my mates. I saw their wide eyes and shaking heads.
‘We saw them too,’ came the voice from inside our ship. I took a sigh. So it was not something only the three of us saw.
‘Upload the video feed, Gary and start a live stream of everything to the server.’ Gary was inside the ship. ‘Deepa, you go back into the ship and get our weapons for us. Don’t ignore the airlock just because these bastards seemed to be breathing well.’
Deepa turned and walked back towards the ship. Mark stayed by my side.
‘Frida, deploy a drone behind us as we walk ahead. Deepa, stay with the drone as you bring our weapons.’ I ordered. We should have deployed the drones first, I thought.
‘You don’t mean you are going to go to the feast or whatever?’ Frida squeaked through the comms. I could feel her tremble behind her controls. I smiled feeling her love for me.
‘I… we have to, baby. We shall explore this place as long as nothing goes wrong. You will be with us through the drone.’ I said.
I and Mark began to walk toward the feast. I am glad I had taken note of the direction relative to our position. The mist enveloped us on all side and this giant planet only felt a few feet across.
‘Gary, test the air, quick.’ I said walking. ‘Is this breathable for us? How are they breathing?’
‘On it.’
We did not see the two white-suited men ahead. It was as if the mist consumed them. Soon we saw more human outlines. They were wandering around and many were sitting at tables, everyone dressed in elegant white suits or flowing dresses. A large buffet was arranged in the distance and I and Mark stood in our places. No one seemed to notice us. The people in the distance blurred away into the mist. It felt like about a hundred people were gathered on this strange “sterile” planet right in front of our eyes, breathing this foreign air as if they were on Earth.
I heard the whiz of the drone over my head and then Deepa walked over to us with our guns.
We took our guns and got ready. Even that did not seem to gain anyone’s attention.
‘This shit is fucked up.’ I said.
‘No kidding.’ Mark said in his deep growl.
‘Shit. Sir, atmospheric test completed. The air has a significant proportion of DMT, the hallucinogen. All these people are high.’ Gary said.
‘What the fuck. Everywhere?’ I asked.
‘Yes. Even the drone is reporting the same concentrations from your location.’
‘We should head back.’ Mark said. ‘Why did we get the report that this place is sterile in the first place? There is something seriously wrong here.’
‘Yup. Let’s go. Be ready to engage, but on my command.’ I expected resistance. The old man may pop out anytime out of the mist and deny our return.
But no one resisted. We reached our ship, went through the airlock and took off our helmets.
‘Get us out of here Frida.’ I said.
She initiated her sequence, but a low alarm blared through the ship. ‘What the hell?’ she blurted.
‘Low fuel?’ I stomped over to Frida to check with her.
‘NO FUEL!’ she yelled.
Everyone scrambled over to us and their collective panicked voices blended in my mind preventing me from thinking clearly.
A loud rap startled all of us. We turned around to the ship’s western window. The old man was back, his smile pasted on his stupid face. It was not disarming anymore. I turned on the external microphone.
‘What’s going on?’ I said trying not to leak any anxiety in my voice.
‘We all wanted to invite you to our feast. We know you don’t have much food in there. Come on out and join us.’ The old man said. Behind him were hundreds of the people smiling at us as if we were their long-lost children.
The old man lifted both his arms up to create a cross and everyone boomed in unison: ‘Welcome to Heaven!’
Link to the prompt: https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/ijfviv/wp_thousands_of_years_after_humanity_discovered/
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