Tiny Tales Tuesday: Crash

Once again, a 5 Minute Fiction entry, though this time around I didn't make it to the finals. Still, I like this story. The great thing about writing Flash Fiction is that it's just a snapshot of a larger story. There are many questions left unanswered. It's almost like a teaser. But you never get the whole thing, because this is it. I love that. It leaves the answers up to the reader.

And I think this this week's Tiny Tale is perfect in this respect. So, enjoy Crash.

********


“Get out, quick,” Richard said as he slammed his shoulder into the door. His force worked and the door jared open a crack, light flashing in from the outside. Weather it was daylight, or more fire was hard to tell. I didn’t hesitate to find out, though, the fire inside the shuttle was more than enough to convince me that I needed to get out.

Richard was right behind me, pushing me slightly in his rush to get outside.

“Keep running!” he shouted, which was unnecessary given that we were communicating through our helmets. But, I nodded and chased after him. We ran as hard as we could, which was difficult given both the terrain and the slightly lower gravity. After w few moments, we reached a rise, and we both turned to look back at the shuttle. The fire had spread to the outside, and the only place not burning as we watch was the cockpit we just escaped from.

I turned away from the wreckage. The crash was horrible enough, and I flinched at the memory of a piece of hull piercing through Hobbs. Instead, I turned my eyes towards the landscape before us. It was a lush jungle on the other side of the mountain, purple leaved trees with what appeared to be round, yellow fruit hanging from them. I wondered briefly if there were any animal noises. It would be impossible to hear through the helmet. I didn’t want to take that off to find out, though. The sensors before we crashed indicated that the atmosphere was poisonous.

“Well,” Richard said, finally turning away, “that’s it then. I managed to save some equipment, but not the radio. We’re stuck here.”

“I hope the signal got through,” I said. “Otherwise, getting out of the shuttle only delayed the inevitable.”