The October Music - Day 28

The Final Countdown
10. Settle into the seat. Put the belt on. Get ready for liftoff. This is easy. This is the easy part. They’re going to take care of everything. You don’t need to worry about numbers or switches or dials or anything like that. That’s the crew’s problem. All you need to do is sit back and relax and sooner than you think, space is right there, waiting for you to plunge into it.

9. The crew is whispering. It’s nothing to worry about. Nothing to get concerned over. They just have something they need to talk about without the passengers knowing. It could be only a minor issue, but people need to believe that things are going off without a hitch. You understand, of course. Nothing can be perfect and you didn’t go into this whole thing expecting perfection. Still, the worry etched into the lines on their faces is a little discomfiting, but it’s probably nothing.

8. They’re arguing now. Not loudly but loud enough for you to hear them. Granted, you’re eavesdropping, but they aren’t being all that quiet. You can only hear snippets of what they’re saying. Scaled. Giant. Food. None of the words sound nice to you, but you’re taking them out of context, so they’re probably nothing to worry about. Isn’t the seat comfortable?

7. Yelling now. They don’t seem to care who hears. The phrase ‘suicide mission’ is pretty common and the cute little rationalizations you had been making disappear. It’s tougher to ignore what they’re saying now and it’s clearly an issue happening. Is something wrong? What is going on?

6. A fistfight has broken out. What in the absolute hell is happening? This isn’t according to plan anymore. There’s no way. You try to remove your belt, but it’s locked. You are trapped.

5. You don’t want to but you start to panic. You’re strapped in to something that has no intention of letting you go. Your struggles are starting to draw attention from the other passengers. Good! They should be worried as much as you are. Are they not seeing and hearing what is happening?

4. Panic is seeping through the passengers now. They see your flailing. They see the fight. Something is wrong and people are struggling and screaming to get out of their chairs. They can’t. Whatever this is cannot be stopped.

3. The engines start to rumble as the ship prepares to take flight. You howl in frustration.

2. The ship launches. Your body compresses as the ship hurtles through the air, punches through the atmosphere, and slides into the deep, dark nothing of space.

1. You’re not alone. Something is out there. You can see it through the window. Well, you can see parts of it. The crew wasn’t wrong. It has scales. It’s dark and rippling. And it is very, very big.

0. The ship rattles as something halts its progress. The lights have gone now and everything is screams and swearing.
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You see teeth close.