Chapter 1
I was running like Milkha Singh , even faster than him . Not because of Olympics .NO. because of FEAR!!!!!! I look behind my back but they were not there , actually there was nothing !! An eerie silence combined with the echoing of my running . And suddenly. I stopped because my legs hit something . something COLD and SOLID. I looked down and saw my parents dead bodies . I started screaming , searched for any living being with a bit of humanity in heart , but unfortunately there was no one except them . My brain can’t handle , I feel light headed and then everything was black .
BEEP..... BEEP ....BEEP ... BEEP....
I was startled awake from my short sleep. Looking everywhere, I found I was in my chair . So it must be a dream . AGAIN. I have been having such dream since I was 10 . I still remember the night clearly , like it was yesterday.9TH JUNE, 2009.....but today, 9TH APRIL, 2019, is not the day to remind myself of them . Today is the big day . Today I am going to do what others haven’t achieved yet .
!!! I am going to be the youngest astronaut in the whole world history !!!!!
I stood up from the white chair and went to the head of department ,
Mr. shin , he’s quite an intimidating man with his expensive suits and shoes , but to us he is a great man with gentle voice full of sarcasm. Even at age of 50 , he is well built and quite tall with 6′3 inches , rough jet black hair with baldness at a few sides. He has been like a father figure to me since he found me outside the centre of ISRO at that night . 9TH JUNE , 2009 . THE WORST DREAM OF A KID.
As I approached him , he gently smiled at me knowing that now I have to board the bus to the space shuttle, which will take about 2.5 hours . He patted my back with proudness , I instantly thought of my parents , if they would be here then they would have been so proud of me . I am just 20 years old , and now I am going to be the youngest astronaut of world after Gherman Titov, who went into space at the age of 25.
I went to the bus, in my heavy suit with NASA logo embedded on it . YES everybody, I am a NASA astronaut !!! Pretty great, huh!!! My chest swelled with pride at the thought and with that I stepped on the bus. I was just going through every single instruction given to me by everyone , through the bus ride, when the bus came to a halt.
I stepped out of the bus and was escorted to the space ship . I was told that after I settled into the space shuttle the countdown will start from 10 . I am so excited , hope my parents would be proud of me and are watching me from wherever they are . I entered the shuttle ,got settled and the countdown started
10....9....8....7....6....5....4....3....2...1... TAKE OFF !!!!
I started the engine and did as I was told . Soon I was off in the air , I went through troposphere , above the cloud. WAIT. I thought I saw something on the clouds, through the tiny window of this shuttle , huh!!! I guess it was a mirage, anyways ,...stratosphere ... mesosphere ... thermosphere and finally into exosphere . I was feeling light weighted. I was in a state of free fall , I was so elated, happy to be in outer space. I saw myself as a great astronaut and trainer for future... But as they say don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched ... my happiness didn’t lasted longer.
I heard weird sounds from the engine and soon the space shuttle started to go down !!!! IT LITERALY WENT DOWN!!! It was my last day I was officially going to die and meet my parents. I tried to connect with space station ..but everything went in vain. It was going down , with increasing momentum, all my hard work was going downhill, I was pushing all possible buttons on the head desk for a miracle , but nothing happen. I was going to DIE...DIE...DIE!!! soon the shuttle felt so hot that I thought it was going to set on fire. And suddenly someone heard my plea , I landed with a soft thud, and went out to see if I am already in heaven or actually have been saved. And what could not be described as anything but MIRACLE !!!
I saw WHITE everything was pure white. I touched it, thinking it would disappear but it actually felt solid . I stepped on the ground or whatever it was and looked around . There was nothing there, I was feeling really hot in the heavy spacesuit . I tilted my head upwards for the source of heat and saw the blazing, red hot ,SUN. It was quiet a weird sight . I wandered around a bit to know ,what place is this ?, because I seriously believed that I am dead and this is heaven .
I walked on the white ground-like thing aimlessly . When something or should I say someone, caught my eye . I quickly took a double take and saw a girl wearing shimmery gold knee-length dress with no shoes , spraying something on the ground. Suddenly she jerked her head up as if feeling my stare on her honey coloured hair. She saw me and for a moment watched me intently but the next second , as if realized something , started screaming . And not just any scream but a real loud scream !!! I covered my ears to save them from suffering from permanent hearing damage . She screamed so loud that a person sitting even thousands of mile away can hear her dreadful scream . I tried to cover her mouth with my hand but was unable to do so as she , flew away? Is she flying???? Like really FLYING? Oh GOD OH GOD OH GOD , she is a damn witch !!, she will kill me. I have to Run . So on instinct I started running as far as I could , I ran only a 1-2 feet away from her when suddenly I was surrounded by lots of people ...lots of shimmering people !! They quickly captured me in a circle ... I was terrified at the sight . They were all flying , but with shoes on. I was zoning out, when I hear someone say with a bold voice ,” what are u doing in Cloudaniya ? ” what ? Cloudaniya? ...HA, what a pun ! I was going milky way and came to this misty way . And then totally oblivious of my zoning out , he came near me with something in his hand, I don’t know ..a stick? A gun? God knows what because then, I went to snooze-villa , surrounded by black .
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