Life

• Jessica Bootsma, Grade 12
• Short Story
• 2021

The last thing I remembered was a thousand flashing lights and the ship screaming warnings at me before a loud crunch was heard as I made impact with the surface. I slowly blinked my eyes open to the absolute wreck that surrounded me. The ship had been turned to a twisted pile of metal that held a broken body in its clutches. It was the face I once saw in the mirror every day, the faint scar that lived on the cheek had now been hidden under dried blood. I sat there for too long to remember, time doesn’t matter to the dead that much. I did end up spending some time looking at my surroundings, crashing in a rather dark forest with monstrously huge trees tends to get someone’s attention. Yet I had never seen any other signs of life. When the body disappeared into a few bones lying on a bed of polished metal I headed out to explore the interesting new world like I had always planned to do.
The trees went on for forever, the forest floor was dark and empty due to the lack of starlight. As I travelled upwards towards the light, I saw some life. Weird birdlike creatures flitted between branches. They spooked easily and disappeared into the leaves at the smallest sound. Giant reptiles soared between treetops, their huge wingspans barely fitting between the trees. Furry creatures scampered up and down the tree trunks, jumping from one to another. I dropped back down to the depths of the forest where it was quieter, the constant chatter of living things had started reminding me of everything I had lost.
The base back home had probably given up on me after the first week, I would have been remembered as a hero there, someone who gave their life in the furthering of scientific understanding. I’m just glad I had no family left to worry about me, they would have talked me out of it anyway, I just wanted to do something with my life. A soft crunch of dried leaves snapped me out of old memories that meant nothing now. A giant figure stood in shadow, grazing on the lower branches of a tree. Small balls of blue fire formed at the tips of its branching antlers. They illuminated the face of the largest deer I had ever seen, deep red fur hung off its hulking form, black eyes glinted blue in the darkness. It turned to look in my direction, making me feel like I was being stared at instead of through.
“It has been a while since I have seen one of your kind.” The deep rumbling voice filled the air. “I’ll give you a second chance, you don’t belong here.”
I blinked, finding myself back in the ship, fully intact and definitely not dead. Checking everything to make sure the accident wouldn’t happen again, I turned the ship around and headed back to Earth, radioing home to let them know I was alive.