Wall Breach

They say that, even in the worst circumstances, it's not so easy for someone to leave their home, and my life in the Ganymede City-State has taught me that lesson quite well.

I was born as a child of scientists who were among the first to come to settle the planet, approximately a hundred years ago, long before we had awoken the monsters that we didn't know lived underneath us.

I was a single child, both of my parents were soldiers, as per the City-State's Code of Citizens. I lost my mother to the earthquakes induced by the titanic isopod-like creatures when I was 17, and my father to the insect hordes no more than 2 years later.

It wasn't until last year that the United Planets Confederation had signed the agreement to evacuate all citizens of the city-state to safer colonies, such as Europa, or Enceladus. As war-plagued as these colonies were with the recent attacks from the various rebel colonies, or the pirates that tried to make the best of it to their advantage, it was still safer to evacuate them to the selected locations. At least, as told by the UPC Council.

Now, I'm all alone in my small studio apartment, rifle at hand, all doors and windows sealed shut. All of my neighbors, my friends, everyone I know, has called me crazy for wanting to stay here just because it's home.

But what does it matter?

I saw the escape ships that carried hundreds of civilians get overwhelmed by the giant wasp-like creatures, and not shortly after, burst into a fireworks show before they even got the chance to exit the planet's atmosphere. Even the ones that did make it out alive were not so lucky with the pirates or the rebel fleets.

Am I crazy? Of course I am, everyone on Ganymede is.

But at least, I know better than to believe in the UPC ever again. When the monsters first surfaced, UPC-GAF promised to "Thwart the monster attack in no time!" all over the posters on the city walls, which I just so happened to see on the same night that I watched the thousands of troops get overwhelmed by the monster hordes in mere minutes.

#

Today, Gate 12-C, my home, is breached.

The cries and the screams of the UPC-GAF troopers are drowned almost instantly by the crawling noises and the explosions of the ineffective battle-machines.

I can hear them getting closer.

I chose this, I wanted this, to die in my home, rather than to die in a spaceship as food to the monsters.

I hear my door break down.

I close my eyes for one last time.

Alper Ghuchlu (he/him) is a science fiction fan who spends too much time dreaming about being an alien. His works have previously appeared or are forthcoming in Star*Line, Eye to the Telescope, Daikaijuzine, and elsewhere.

Find more by Alper Ghuchlu in the Author Index.

Comment on this story in the Aphelion Forum

Return to Aphelion's Index page.