Chapter 1: The crash

 “How is the engine?” I asked. “Don’t worry, it’s doing fine. We should be there soon!” said Alice. We were going to a space station on an expedition to do some research for NASA. We are currently 560 million miles away from earth. “You have the coordinates set right?” I asked. “We don’t want to get lost in the universe when were so close.” “Yes Ma'am. “Alice said. I have the coordinates set best-friend!”  
     I laughed and it took some of the fear off my chest. “I don’t even know why we’re going,” said Jonathan. “This trip is pointless, and NASA doesn’t need us. They just want to get rid of us because Tom and Robin keep messing up!” “Shut up Jonathan!” said Tom. “You know robin is sensitive!” 
 
     “Oh please!” yelled Johnathan. “She’s asleep and even if she heard me, I wouldn’t care.” They both bickered and argued. Alice and I kept trying to break them up until... 
     “OH.MY.GOD!” yelled Robin who just woke up. “THERE’S A GIANT ASTEROID HEADING STRAIGHT FOR US!” 
    “EVERYONE BRACE FOR IMPACT!” I shouted. Darn it! We have a low chance of surviving, but I am going to do everything I can to make sure we survive! The asteroid hits us and we crash into a strange planet. 
    “OH...” moaned Jonathan. “where...where are we?” “I think were on... I actually don’t know where we are.” said Alice. 
    “Um... Guys!?” yelled Robin. “What’s wrong Robin?’’ I asked. “We have no power, and we have limited oxygen!’’ cried Robin. My heart clenched inside my chest. Oh no... Please God! Save us! 
    “Wait so let me get this straight...’’ said Jonathan. “We’ve been hit by an asteroid, we’ve crash landed in a strange world, have no power, we have limited food and oxygen, and are millions of miles from home?!?” No... No! How could this happen! Everything that has happened is my fault! Everyone started panicking and arguing. 
   “Man!” yelled Tom. “This is all your fault Jonathan if you hadn't of insulted me and Robin, NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED!”  “My fault?” said Jonathan. “This is all your fault! If you had woken Robin up and if you had not tried to test me this would not have happened! Face it, you two are worthless, stupid, ugly los-” 
    “SHUT UP! ALL OF YOU, SHUT UP!” I screamed while hot tears streamed down my face. Everyone stared at me and got quiet. “Everyone...” I started. “This is my fault. My fault your arguing, my fault we crash landed, my fault the ship is broken-” 
   “SHUT UP!” screamed Alice. “None of this is your fault so please...” She placed her hand on my shoulder. “Let’s figure out what our plan is!” She smiled at me. She is right. Okay. This may be my fault, but I am going to do everything I can to make sure that we get home. 
 
 
      
Chapter 2: We need to get home. 
     “How much longer do we have to walk on this stupid planet?” moaned Jonathan. “Just a little bit longer.” I whispered. After everyone stopped arguing and got off the ship, we grabbed a plastic cover and threw it over the ship until we found a way to fix it. “Ah!” Something shouted in the distance. 
      “Um...” started Tom. “What was that?” “I don’t know, and I don’t care!” yelled Robin. “We need to find some shelter before nighttime.” THUD! 
     “I think it’s too late...” said Tom. “What are you talking about Tom?’’ I asked. “Plus, why do you look so pale?’’ “Just slowly turn around and don’t make eye contact.’’ said Tom. “And please...DON’T SCREAM...” “Okay...” everyone said. I slowly turn around... WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT!? I see a tall black figure with reptile skin, sharp razor claws, no eyes, and no sign of knowing that we were there. That is what I thought.  
     “What do we do now?” asked Alice. “Just run!” whispered Jonathan. “Can’t do that,” I whispered. “They’ll start chasing us. Even though they don’t have eyes, they can still hear us. We will back up slowly and quietly for now. Then we could run if it were far enough from us. Okay?” Everyone nods. We slowly went back away, but then the aliens started inching toward us. Then... CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH! I slowly turn around and I see an alien eating human flesh and bones. OH.MY.GOD! That is when things took a turn for the worst. “Run!” Jonathan yelled. All of us take off running. Behind us I hear alien screams as well as galloping noises.  
     “They’re gaining on us!” yelled Tom. While running as fast as I can, a couple of feet away I see a hole for us to hide in. 
    “Guys look!” I yelled. “Just slide and get down.” One by one, we each slide in the hole and crouch down. After 20 long minutes, the aliens finally went away. 
    “That was scary...” said Robin. “Yeah, but don’t worry. At least we all have each other.” said Jonathan. He was silent after that.  
    “We need to figure out a way to get home.” I spoke. “Okay, but how?” asked Tom. “I was thinking that at tomorrow at daylight when the aliens are gone, we can go explore to find parts.  
    “Sounds good.” said Alice. “But for right now, let’s get some sleep.” Everyone agreed. After I prayed, I tried to go to sleep, but I couldn’t. So, I stayed up all night and watched over everyone until daybreak. Can we really do this? Hopefully, we can find our way back home before it’s too late.       
    Chapter 3: Where have you been? 
    “Goodmorning.” I said to everyone. Everyone said good morning and got up.  
  “How many hours of oxygen do we have left?” asked Tom. “Not many.” said Alice. “We only have...76 hours. Or only 4 days until we run out of oxygen.”  
  “What?!” yelled Jonathan. “Oh... we’re going to die here!” “SHUT UP YOU FOOL!” yelled Tom. “If we preserve our oxygen long enough, we will be fine.” “Whatever” said Jonathan. After we eat, we get up and start exploring. Before we left, we collected all our stuff from the hole and started walking. While we were walking, I noticed that there was a space shuttle that crashed into the mountain ridge and it was BIG. “Guys look!” I shouted. “Maybe we can go get some parts to fix our ship from the space shuttle up there!”  
   “Okay!” exclaimed Alice. “Let’s do it! And if it gets dark outside, we can use that as shelter!” We sprint over to the ship and get out tools to take some of the parts. Out of nowhere, darkness falls over our helmets. “What’s going o-’’ I started. But then I passed out. When we all woke up, there were 5 people surrounding us with sharp pocketknives.  
    “You think they’ll talk?” a male voice whispered. “I think they’re friendly!” a female voice whispered.   “Yeah, until they try to kill us!” Another feminine voice whispered harshly. 
    “Hey!” yelled Jonathan. “You better untie us before you get hurt!” All of them laugh. “Sure, we’ll untie you...” a girl says. “When you tell us what you were doing in our ship!”  
    “Oh? That ship that’s in the mountain ridge that’s halfway crashed in?” asked Tom. “Sorry we were just trying to find parts to fix our ship that crash landed here a day or two ago.” They all looked at each other and then came back at us. 
      “I am the captain.” I started. “My name is Stephanie and I hope you guys can help us get back home to Earth. They all stare at each other and then back at us. “I don’t know if we can trust them.” a guy whispered. “Especially him.” He’s looking at Jonathan. Jonathan gave him a death glare. 
     “Bro,” said Jonathan. “Do not let me get out these ropes. Since you want to accuse people who have been through far worse than you could ever imagine!” “Been through far worse?” he asked. “We’ve been here for a year with no way home! We’ve been here since 2045!” 
     “2045?” I asked. “No, that can’t be right because we just left 6 days ago. It is 2055 not 2045!” “What do you mean?” a girl asks. “Time works different here than on Earth.” I spoke. “You’ve been gone for 10 years.” “What?” a guy asks. “How is that possible?” “I don’t know.” I spoke. “But what’s important is that we need your help to get home!” “Why should we help you?’’ a girl asks. “You’ll just leave us here.” “Look,” I said. “If you help us, we can get everybody home again. So, please?” I offer my hand. The man stares at me, but he does grab my hand “Okay.” they say, and their captain shakes my hand. “But you better keep your word on that.” “Don’t worry!” I spoke. “I will.” 
Chapter 4: How we got here. 
    “Untighten the screws here and there.” I spoke. The people we met were Thomas, Rachel, Alex, Crystal, and Jamie. They are cool and nice, especially Crystal. She is a kindhearted soul and has a peaceful state of mind.  
   “Let me tell you the story of how we crashed here.” said Jamie. “It all happened when NASA. What a joke! They sent us to go to Jupiter to send resources to the colonies that are situated there. But things didn’t go as planned...” he got silent for a minute.  
   “Basically,” said Rachel. “Freddie got infected by a parasite without telling us. He was our old captain... So, he tried to kill us. We crashed when he cut the power out. He died in the crash. We tried to get him out, but he told us to leave him. He said he’d rather die than be controlled by a parasite. The parasite ate his brain and crawled out his ear. We killed it and then buried him inside the mountain. That was the worst day ever. Freddie and I were supposed to get married.” She showed me an engagement ring. Rachel started crying. 
     “The only point of being born is to survive.” said Thomas. “If you don’t survive, then you die.” I cannot take this sadness anymore. “Okay yeah,” I started. “But what’s the point of surviving if you can’t live your life.” “Surviving and living are the same things!” yelled Thomas. I hit Thomas on the head. Really hard. “Surviving and living are two completely different things!” I spoke. “Living is when you get to enjoy life, love, family, hope, and faith. But you also must face challenges that will make life worth it. Look, I don’t know what you’ve been through, but I do know that everything will be okay, and you’ll be able to live life the way you want to, not what you need to do to survive.” “Wow...” said Thomas. “I’ve never thought about it like that...okay, I'll listen to you and start living my best life.” I nodded and he nodded back. 
     “Guys!” exclaimed Crystal. “The ship, it's working again!” “Yes!” Everyone shouts. “Now we just need to load up and get rolling before dark.” said Crystal. “We have a couple hours. Hey! We have 200 hours of oxygen stored here! Phew! For a second I thought we were going to run out!”  
    “Alright!” exclaimed Alice. “Let’s start packing the ship!” I spoke. Yes! The moment we’ve waited for! The moment they’ve been waiting for! We can finally go home. Thank you, God! Thank you for helping us! 
Chapter 5: We will come back for you. 
    A couple of hours later, we finished packing and loading the ship. Jamie starts the ship and sets up the coordinates. “Stephanie?’’ asked Alice. “Yes Alice?” I replied. “No matter what, we will always be together. So, best friends?” She holds out her pinkie finger to me to grab mine. “Best friends.” I grabbed her pinkie with mine and we both laughed. When we started walking over to the ship, I noticed that Crystal and Jamie looked scared and frustrated. They looked like they were having a hard time with the ship. “Crystal, Jamie, what’s wrong?” I asked. 
    “Stephanie...’’ started Crystal. “Yeah?’’ I asked. “We can’t fit everyone in here...” “WHAT?!” I shouted. “But how? How is that possible?” “I DON’T KNOW!” shouted Crystal “But... one of us has to stay.” “No...” I spoke. “There has to be another way...” “There is no other way.” said Crystal. “Trust me and Jamie have tried everything.” What are we going to do? There is only one way and I know I am the only one that can do it...  
       “Man!” yelled Jonathan. “We can’t leave anyone that’s on our team. One of you guys have to stay.” “Are you kidding me?!” yelled Rachel. “We can’t stay we’ve been here for ten years and were not staying any longer.  
        “Stop fighting!” I shouted. “All of you.” Everyone got quiet and stared at me. “I’m going to be the one to stay.” “NO!” yelled Tom, Alice and Robin. “You can’t stay!” shouted Alice. “Didn’t we just make a promise to each other. To be together. You promised...” “Yeah you promised Alice,” said Robin. “Plus, it is my fault that were here in the first place so I'm staying.” “NO, YOU ARE NOT!” I shouted. “I am the captain and this this is my responsibility. I made a promise to everyone that you all would get back home. And even if I must leave myself behind, I will fulfill that promise no matter what!” Alice started crying. “But...” she started. “You're my best friend. So, if you're staying, then I'm staying with you.” “No, you’re not.” I spoke. “They need you to lead them back home. Even if we don’t ever see each other again, I’m glad we were all best-friends.” Everyone runs up to me and hugs me tight.” I started crying silently to myself. Alice places a locket in my hand that says “BFF!” She gave me a hug for a long time then she let go. “I promise,” she started. “We will come back for you. No matter how long it takes!” I smile and give her one last hug before everyone says goodbye.  
     As the ship lifts off, I started crying and I collapsed on the ground. I stared and waved until I couldn’t see the ship anymore. All I can see is the dark, black horizon. Goodbye my friends. Hopefully you make it back home to Earth. I will never see you again. I am glad that I made the right decision to stay here and die. Go to find home and I will see you in the next life.