Leviathan

Each count of his breath was as painful as the last. With every second, to him, minutes. The corners of his eyes brought dread. A fading conscious… a fading mind. He had forgotten how long he had been drifting. The ship was wrecked... its crew dead. It was instantaneous if he remembered correctly. They were the lucky ones.

He continued his count, taking into regard how little he was taking in oxygen. John lost a quarter of his tank through a breach. A rough patch job earned him about a few hours left of oxygen… provided he rationed it.But those few hours were already long gone. A fusion of anxiety and fear shortened his lifespan. And in those moments he was close, close to what he believed would be his inevitable fate. 

Death did not scare him, however… John was afraid of dying. He was afraid of being alone in his last moments… afraid of dying alone and dying a slow, helpless painful death. Never in his life had he imagined this was how it would end. It was his worst fear come to life.

John drifted further and further into the dark unknown. Space… the great black shroud had enveloped him. Through the transparent veil of its fabric were the doting stars that spread across his vision. All so far away. He had never realized how far he was from home since the accident over Centauri Prime. 

Everyone thought they were dead. They probably thought John was dead too…his biometrics gave out long since then. Even if it was functioning, the explosion propelled him far beyond orbit for anyone to read. No one would have been able to detect him. John was left to die unwittingly. How much of his life did he truly enjoy? How much did he spend his waking moments living? How much was there that he missed out on?

Mind clouded… thoughts disjointed… voices whispering in his ear as he tried to focus. The lack of oxygen… it was affecting him. That much he was sure. No he couldn’t leave it like that… he wanted a clear mind… needed a clear mind.

Fifty minutes passed. Fifty long agonizing minutes… everything was painful. He cried. So close to collapse with so little air left, he wept. He wept and he wept until his eyes turned red. He cried until his face was hot, until the headaches start, until the ringing in his head began to vibrate throughout his skull. So much left to do… and he was dying.

There was nothing but fear. Fear… and despair. All that was will end… all that will be, will never begin. This was the final stop. Darkness filled his vision. But in his delirious state, he did not notice the shadows that loomed over. Shadows… they shouldn’t exist so far out here. There was him… but all he saw was stars. One by one however, the stars were blotted out. 

The looming darkness stretched across, blinding him in the abyss. Rather than his own oxygen deprived state blinding him to the cosmos, the black figure cloaked his gaze leaving only total darkness. There was a pull… a great force. He felt himself being drawn in. He could feel… heat… he could feel… something… something that was alive. Alive and breathing. A new fear formed within. There was no noise in space. Nothing. Total emptiness. A dark vacuum between one start to the next. All that he could hear was his own breathing. So why was he hearing the breath of another? Why did he hear the rumbling that shook his very being?

John’s blurred vision only caught a glimpse of what he saw. And he saw light. Light dotted atop of a pale white surface, stretching across his sight. From his left, to his right. One end to the other. And the lights continued further up until the blur ends. The white pale surface was an enigma of that itself. But he saw the separation of it. The surface separated horizontally… bringing with it a terrifying breath as though someone was sucking air.John‘s heart was racing. He watched in helpless stupor as the unknown entity moved and groaned. A drawn of breath… and it was as if he was going to be swallowed whole.

 A moment passed, and John felt himself descending into the maw of unknown beast. As he did, a sense of relief overcomes him. Oxygen started to flow; something was forcing air into his tank.

His sight returned; vision clear as daylight. And there was as light in the maw of the beast brighter than any other star. Utterly massive and utterly incomprehensible. As was the structure of the beast’s mouth. A living ecosystem.

Once more John closed his eyes and realized that he was going to die. This time, he felt sure of it; by the maw of a great beast than that of oxygen deprivation. As he felt the pressure and weight of an incoming object driving down, the sound of heavy rumbling groans echoed throughout the maw. And in an instant, everything was black.

Nothing but darkness. Nothing… nothing at all.

All that existed was his breathing… and the noise of this abominable ecosystem. Unlike before, it sounded like there was movement. Movements, and unintelligible whispers that came from every direction.He refused to open my eyes to see. The lights within the maw grew dark. And the noises grew louder.When he did open, John only saw darkness. Absolute darkness. The voices grew disturbing; groans and whispers in its incomprehensible tongue pitched and sped. Louder and louder… hushed yells and voices that chilled John more than the cold depths of empty space ever could. Flesh touched his very being; heavy breaths beat against his body from deep within the maw of the beast. Humming joined the whispers; smacking flesh with movements. A great stench from the breath of the beast assaulted all his senses, in due part of the breach. Then, for a moment, everything stopped. John had passed out.

John felt cold again. He felt cold and he felt lost. Yet… there was an odd bit of comfort to it. When he finally awakened from unconsciousness, he found himself amidst the field of grass. The sky was blue, the sun was bright, and clouds dotted the landscape. An incredulous turn of events, one that was impossible given the condition he was in. It was disturbing, to be sure. And maddening.
So many questions with no answers.

Yet… he felt grateful for it all. Without hesitation, the man reached up and threw off his helmet, breathing in the great warm air he had missed so much. One that was more sanitary, or safe. Then his suit, until there was nothing but his jumpsuit left to wear. He fell back, gracing his body against the grass once more. Bare hands spreading across the surface. There were many questions in his mind. He felt as though he was home. Maybe he was. There was a city in the distance. Centauri Prime Capital perhaps. Yet it was as though nothing had changed since the time he left.

Was this merely a hallucination? Or was this heaven? The feeling was real… his suit still on, the breach visible as well. But the memories, they were very much real despite the impossibility.

Then he cried. Of all the pain, the death of his crew, the overwhelming sensation of guilt of having to survive despite the impossible odds weighted heavily on him, and the horrors of the beast. The beast… that had probably saved his life. And he never knew why. After contemplation, John accepted what happened.

He was trapped in the moment of serenity, forgetting but a moment, when his body had the stench akin to that of rotting fish.