S.O.S

• Jake Johnson, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2017

LOCATION: 30° NORTH, 60° EAST ON MARS - SPACE CRAFT: OLYMPIUS STATUS: DISABLED - DAYS SINCE EARTH TAKEOFF: 268 - SURVIVORS: UNKNOWN
"DANGER! DANGER! OXYGEN LEVEL CRITICAL!" astronaut Kenny's computer system said. Starting to wake up, he slowly realised what was happening. Kenny shook his head, looked down and unbuckled himself from his seat. As he wiped the dust off his touch screen COM that was attached to his wrist, he noticed it only had 12% of oxygen left. He had to get moving.
Struggling to stand up, Kenny's left leg cracked and he fell to the ground. As his helmet started to fog up, he knew he needed to calm down. He limped around the cockpit and managed to find some duct tape and a steel rod. He used them to make a splint. Kenny was in a lot of pain but he ignored it and moved on.
"HELLO, ANYONE THERE?" shouted Kenny. He went into a decontamination chamber and put on a new suit. He walked to the command bridge and pushed the ON button at the computer. "No power, knew it,” Kenny said with a sigh at the end. He thought to himself, 'Maybe the backup generators still work?’ So Kenny limped down to the engine room. It was pitch black. All you could hear was the sound of heavy wind clashing up against the hull of the ship. He snapped a glow stick in half, making it light up. He hopped over to the backup generators. Kenny flicked some switches and pulled a big lever down.
'Silence,' he tried again, but still nothing happened. "Are you kidding me? No! This can't be the end!" Kenny shouted in anger. In rage, he punched the generator and suddenly it started up and the lights came on. "Yes!" Kenny said in delight.
He limped back up to the command bridge and went onto a computer, he wiped off the dust to see the screen. Kenny checked the hanger stats. It said 'ALL SPACECRAFTS IN HANGER HAVE BEEN DESTROYED'. Just as Kenny thought all hope was lost, he saw that there was one more escape pod. He thought, 'Yes! I can use this to get to MARPOST (Mars Piloted Orbital Station)'. Kenny reached the escape pod, started the count down and put the coordinates in for MARPOST. He suddenly felt a bit drowsy. Then he got a tremendous pain in his left leg. He cut open his pants and saw all of the blood he had lost from the crash. "Oh no,” Kenny said softly.
The escape pod blasted out of Mars's atmosphere. Kenny got out his COM and said, "MARPOST this is astronaut Kenny Rolland, requesting immediate assistance."
"Don't worry American, we got you!" said a Russian astronaut.
"Oh, good," whispers Kenny with relief and then passes out.
Later Kenny wakes up in a bed. "Who are you?" asks a Russian astronaut with curiosity.
With pride, Kenny answered, "My name is Kenny Rolland...last survivor of Olympius." The end