Chester's Unlucky Day
This had not been a good day for Chester Garios.
He had spent the last two hours running from a strange creature that appeared to be half human, half dog on a deserted space station orbiting Earth and he was getting pretty tired. Actually he’d been tired for some time. As he made his way into a large dining chamber reserved for the rich travelers aboard the spaceship he looked with vague interest out the windows to the planet below. He stared down at the beautiful blue sphere, the swirling fluffs of clouds, and the vast stretches of land… He would make it back, he knew, if it was the last thing he did. He hoped it wouldn't be.
He shook his head. He didn't have to time to think about Earth. The dog-thing seemed to have lost his trail and he had to think about just what he was going to do. Chester was not a good problem solver. In tense situations his mind seemed to freeze up and he was lucky if he could mumble a few words even vaguely related to the dilemma being faced. Nor was he a very athletic man. Not unhealthy by any standards, but not really that healthy either. Thinking back he had no idea how he'd managed to survive on this stupid space station as long as he had.
Without thinking he walked to one of the tables and sat down. He stared down at the white table-cloth, then at the red floor. It was a very nice shade of red. He wished he could just be sitting here, eating a juicy, delicious steak. Other people surrounding him, noise filling the large room and echoing off the high, chandeliered ceilings.
But he couldn't. He was alone. At least he wished he was alone. But he was with the dog-thing too. And he needed to be away from it.
Abruptly he scooted his chair out and it made a loud noise that echoed throughout the room and probably outside the room as well. He cursed under his breath knowing he'd probably just alerted the dog to his presence once again. He darted to the wall of one room and up a large stair-well, his body silhouetted by the planet below. Just as he made his way to the top he heard a door burst open directly below him. He looked down to see the dog entering the room from the door under his current position. He watched with interest as his wolf-like head scanned the room for any sign of movement. Then his large, furry, muscled arm moved up to his snout and he seemed to be scratching his nose. The thing shifted to a position that would allow him to see more of the room, moving his equally muscled legs that were covered by a man's trousers. A drop of perspiration fell down Chester's face and it seemed to remind him that he should get moving before he was spotted. He inched his way backward to another door, then silently raised himself up and opened it.
Only to be greeted by an extremely loud creeeeeek. "God damn these stupid old-fashioned doors!" he thought as he ran into the next room. The dog-thing ran up the stairs to retrieve his prey then launched through the door in a grayish-brown blur after Chester.
Chester found himself in a corridor that shown the stars shining brightly through windows on either side of him and realized he must be at the bottom of the ship. Suddenly an idea burst into his head like none had before. The airlock! The storage facilities and docking bay! That's how he could get off the ship! His mind raced furiously trying to grab the layout of the bottom floors of the station from dusty corners of his brain. He tried not to pay attention to the clacking of claws against metal behind him that seemed to be getting rapidly closer. The corridor's windows were now gone to be replaced by annoying fluorescent lights all around him. That meant he was coming closer to the docking bay where ships loaded their valuables for the large space station. He rounded a corner and he could hear the heavy breathing/panting behind him that told him that the dog was close. How he was going to pull this off he didn't know, but he knew that he would. What other choice did he have?
Finally the corridor ended at a door marked "Docking Bay Entrance - Authorized Personnel Only." Chester just hoped he didn't need some sort of keycard to get in or this whole idea would fizzle out pretty fast. But the door whizzed open in front of him and he was safe!
The dog-thing dove and landed on top of Chester just as he entered the docking bay, and they both slid on the polished metal floor into the center of the huge room. Chester recovered himself as best as he could but the dog threw a punch that connected painfully to his jaw. He slammed onto the floor once again and he could taste blood in his mouth. The dog grabbed him by the shirt and lifted him to a position that would allow him able to pummel the man easier. But Chester, using speed and ingenuity he didn't know he had raised his arms up and slid through his shirt so that he was now only wearing his dark baggy pants and black boots. He gathered all his force and slammed head first into the dog's stomach sending the both of them flying into a stack of empty crates. The dog was momentarily dazed and Chester used the opportunity to get as far away from it as he could. He ran to the opposite corner and to a ladder that led to a catwalk near the ceiling of the room. The dog was quick to recover and was soon heading up the same ladder. Only when Chester got to the top of the catwalk did he realize what a stupid idea it had been. He would have far less area to move around in and a far longer area to fall down to. But before he had time to wallow in self-pity over his situation the dog was up and faced him in some sort of dog-thing's idea of a fighting stance. The beast hesitated a moment then lunged at Chester knocking him on to the cold metal of the catwalk. Oddly enough he actually paid attention to how nice it felt on the metal after being very hot and sweaty. But he didn't have time to enjoy it as the dog had soon grabbed him up with powerful hands and sharp claws so that he could continue the fight. But fight was the last thing Chester could see himself doing as all the running of the past hours seemed to catch up with him in one instant. He vaguely felt pain as the dog belted him over and over again, bloodying him up and bruising him thoroughly. Maybe breaking a few bones too, at this point Chester was having trouble figuring out what was going on. With his last ounce of consciousness he took a feeble stride towards the dog pulled his arms forward and shoved him.
The dog staggered back ever so slightly seeming totally unphased. Unfortunately for him he staggered right into a pipe hanging down from the ceiling. He hit his head with a loud clonk! And looked up in disgust. Momentarily off guard, the dog didn't even notice as a half-dead Chester grabbed his feet from under him and sent him flying down to the hard floor below in a mess.
Hardly able to believe what had happened it took Chester a good 20 minutes to actually get down to the floor and inspect his opponent. Feeling the pulse he realized that the beast wasn't dead but merely unconscious. This seemed to awaken some of the life in him as he realized that he still had to get off this stupid ghost ship. He looked around and wiped some sweaty blood from his eyes to see better. He found a suitable airtight storage container that could safely hold him. He groggily limped over to a cabinet that had a remote that could control the airlock door. He climbed into the container half-awake and almost fell asleep before he had even finished lying down. He closed the box and pressed the remote control. His box flew out of the room along with all the air, crates, tools lying around, and of course, an unconscious dog-thing.
As Chester's little box flew through the vacuum of space he breathed a sigh of relief as he realized he was going home. But then another thought occurred to him. This small box would barely hold any air. Certainly not enough for him to make it to the surface of the planet. Then another thought occurred to him. The impact of flying into Earth would crush him instantly and if he landed in an ocean he would just float around and starve. That was another thing. He had no food or water. He didn't know how long he'd be out here… Then a final chilling thought occurred to him. He wouldn't even make it through the atmosphere of the planet before he was burned to crisp. This last thought was very distressing indeed because, he realized that he would reach the atmosphere in just a few minutes.
Well, he thought, he did get off the spaceship. And it had indeed been the last thing he'd done. He allowed himself a sad smile at that thought.
And, he thought as the walls began to heat up around him, at least I didn't get killed by that damn dog-thing!