Blorp
“Ahhhh!!” Aly screamed,
the little thorns digging into her skin through the chinks in her PowerArmor. The tentacles wrapped around her, making it hard to aim. She fired blindly, and heard a screech. She felt the strong tentacles drag her off the control tower, and fired again. And again. Then she felt something tightening around her neck as she fell. Her vision went black, and the last thing she saw, was the creatures climbing up the tower, in their hundreds, and Grayson taking off, and circling and circling.
Grayson couldn’t believe it. Aly was gone. Disappeared. The Armored types were swarming all over the control tower, And Grayson could now see many other’s in the city below.
The green one had gone down the tower with Aly and vanished. No trace. Grayson didn’t dare fire into the Control tower in case Aly was somehow in there. He looked down at the City. Not a trace of Aly. He gunned the engine, and flew towards the front of the massive ship. He wasn’t sure what to do. Then he had an idea. He’d fly to one of the Domes in the center of the ship, and make his way back towards the Tower.
He aimed the ship upwards, and flew higher, until he could see the whole ship. There were two layers. One top layer, where the dome’s were. There was also the control tower, which was on top of two more layers. On the bottom layer, there were the laser cannons, and the main housing area. Grayson flew towards the dome closest to the tower. There was a gaping hole in it, so Grayson carefully flew through the hole. He landed inside of some kind of greenhouse, with a myriad of plants. He put on the armor that Aly had picked out, and put the visor down on his helmet. He sat down on the top of his ship, and cooked his dinner. He looked at the trees. And sighed. Aly would be ok. He was sure of it. But if she couldn’t find him… He turned off the no smoke setting on the cooker. A pillar of hazy white smoke streaked upwards into the night sky. He was alone. He watched as the smoke slipped through the hole in the dome, at the same place as the sun came in. The plants glowed in the evening sun, And a small stream pouring through the greenhouse chortled and gurgled happily. As if oblivious to what had happened.
Aly was aching all over. By the time the creature had dropped her when it died, she was covered with scratches and bruises. She groaned and sat up, the visor on her helmet cracked and scratched from getting dragged across the ground. Aly coughed, and licked her dry lips. She looked around. It was almost dark, and she was standing in a pillar of light. She still had the pack that Grayson made her take, full of food and survival supplies. Plus medical stuff of course. Good old Grayson, Aly thought, always so cautious.
“Ok, first things first. Let’s light this place up.” Aly said to herself.
Aly took out a portable glow lantern, and turned it on. Light filled the room. It was a small storage room, with a extra thick metal door. Dust swirled around Aly’s feet as she stood up. There was a small blob of something circular, and and lots of metal shelves. They had lot’s of beige Atlantis® Ship Money, now worth nothing with now people to buy it from. Along with a huge pile of ship newspapers. There was a box of tools in the corner, and there was a peeling poster on the wall that said “Stay Informed! Buy In Ship NewsPapers!” There was a ventilation tube, which was where Aly had fallen from. The metal grate was on the floor. Aly sighed. “Oh well. What next?” she looked around. The little natural light from the tube faded, and Aly was left with the light of the lantern. She yawned.
“I’ll worry about getting out of here tomorrow.”
She got out an inflatable bed, and put on the floor. She grabbed her blanket and fell asleep.
The next day, she woke up starving. So she made herself some food. Sausages and eggs. Then, as she was eating, the blob in the corner moved. Almost imperceptible, just a little jiggle. Aly stopped mid chew and rubbed her eyes. Then it happened again, a little more this time. Aly got her gun out and shakily aimed it at the blob. She watched as it jiggled and wigged. Then it burst. A little blue creature slithered out of it. It looked like a miniature version of the green creature. It’s little leg shells were made of cartilage like stuff like the green one, and it had two tentacles instead of six .She aimed at the creature as wriggled and slithered.
She thought of the terrible groan the other creature had had made when it died. This little thing was a baby. Completely innocent. Maybe, not all of those crazy creatures were bad. Maybe some of them were peaceful! She couldn’t kill it.. But what should she do? Aly put her gun away and knelt next to it.
“Uh… Hi little… uh what should I call you? ”
“Blorp?” said the creature, looking curiously at Aly.
“Um, Blorp it is!”
“Blirp” said Blorp, and jumped on top of her.
“Ahhh-!” Aly started, before it curled up and fell asleep. She took her extra blanket out of her backpack, and made a little bed for it. She picked up Blorp and set him on the bed. Then she sat down and read one of the ship panflets lying around. She nearly drifted to sleep, when Blorp, still on his bed, was licking her with his long tongue. “Ugh! Blorp!” She said, wiping the Blorp slobber off her face.
“Blurphy Blorg Bloop!” It declared, scuttering over to Aly.
Aly’s belly gurgled loudly.
“Oh!” Aly said, forgot to eat. Blorp happily devoured the sausages, and purred happily.
She sadly remembered Grayson flying off. She wondered how he was doing. But everything was great! She felt so happy! So joyfull! She looked down and saw Blorp had his tentacle on her hand.
“Blip!”
She realized that emotions and images were flowing from Blorp’s tentacle into her mind.
It was such a foreign thing, that no human had ever thought was possible
“Oh!” Aly said, holding Blorp’s tentacle “So that’s how you communicate”
She felt a feeling of confirmation, and a bit of annoyance, as if Blorp was thinking “About time!”, as he hopped around excitedly.
“Ok!” Aly said, hands on her hips, “Let’s get out of here!”
“Bleep-blop-blooperduckle!” garbled Blorp wildly, grabbing her leg with his little claw.
Images flashed through her head. Blorp in an egg, rolling down the chute. Him looking out a little crack in the egg, and seeing a huge creature, with hundreds of tentacles, some of which had some kind of natural blade at the end. It’s huge mouth opened, and a screech like no other echoed in Aly’s head. The scene switched. Aly saw the giant thing snap at others of Blorp’s kind, and they hissed, afraid, and ran off to do the creature’s bidding. Aly saw the goliath smack Blorp’s egg with it’s tentacle, and send him and multiple other egg blobs into the tube. She saw images of him rolling, and the other eggs gradually turned down different tubes
“So that’s why you’re down here!” Aly said, and walked towards the grate in the ceiling.
“Blorgishdoophle!” said Blorp again, and another series of images popped into her head.
The armored creatures dragging her and Blorp into the main chamber. The massive thing crushing them and tossing them out of the ship.
“Oh!” Aly said, picking up Blorp. “You’re scared! That’s ok, you’ll be fine.”
Aly knew that the creatures were dangerous, but Blorp was so harmless!
“Just stay close, you’ll be ok.”
So Blorp wrapped his long tail around Aly’s waist, and hung on with his tentacles, and poked his head over Aly’s shoulder.
“Bleeephee!” Said Blorp happily, licking her face with his long tongue. Aly realized that Blorp probably could understand what she meant when she talked. Somehow. Actually, Blorp and his kind were able to understand talking because they understood the emotions and memories in the words.
Aly strapped on the backpack, and grabbed the two survival knives Grayson made her take. Blorp on her back like an extra backpack. She stabbed one into the top of the grate and pulled herself up. Then she did it again, and again. Her arms trembling, she kept going.
When the ventilation tube leveled out, she pulled herself shakily up and layed there for a second.
“Blorph!” Blorp said, worriedly licking Aly’s face. She looked at her hands. They were blistered and raw. Blorp gurgled worriedly, and curled his tongue around Aly’s hand. Aly’s hand immediately felt better.
“Wow blorp! I didn’t know you had a healing tongue!”
I know right? Blorp seemed to say. I’m awesome! Aly laughed and pushed him over with her finger .Aly was getting better at interpreting Blorp’s random images and feelings into actual meanings.
Aly sighed, and stretched.
“I wish Grayson had thought of packing some gloves...”
Who’s Grayone?
“Grayson. And he’s my friend.”
Friend… Like you?
“Yes Blorp, exactly like that!”
Happy! Blorp said, excited to get something right.
Food?
“Fine.” Aly tossed Blorp a sausage.
Foodstring! Blorp declared, holding up the sausage.
“No, Blorp, it’s— Forget it”
I like Forgetit! Blorp said, devouring the sausage with his almost seamless mouth.
Aly laughed. “Ok Blorp, let’s get moving.”
Blorp crawled up onto Aly’s head, using his tentacles to hold on, like a floppy Blorpy hat.
Aly got on her knees, and crawled along the dark tunnel. The tunnel gradually slanted upwards, untill ally was staring into a shaft with a ladder up the side. Aly could see light far above, and below her… Aly couldn’t see the bottom.
“Well Blorp?” Aly said, standing on the first rung, “Let’s climb!”
Meanwhile, Grayson was flying over the ruins of atlantis, looking for a place to land. The closer he got to the front, the skinnier it got. There was some kind of barrier made of laser net over a hole in the ship. Cheap wire that had lots of colorful semi-transparent spikes or blades that appeared when it was turned on. There were a couple mounted laser cannons below. Grayson flew closer. He saw that the laser cannons were each manned by two people. They pointed at Grayson’s ship in surprise, and one of them waved at him, gesturing for him to land. Inside the pit, Grayson saw movement, and many people walking along. A group of three people came out of the pit. One of them sunglasses and a huge anti-aircraft missile launcher Aly would have been jealous of. The other one had a ripped shirt and a Stun Cannon.
Grayson slung his Pulse Rifle on his back and opened the door. He took a deep breath and looked towards the command tower, just a little speck in the distance. This ship was truly massive, Grayson thought.
“Oy!” Ripped shirt said, his assault rifle like weapon in his hands, “What ya doin so far towards the Hex Hive? And where’d you get that sweet ride?”
“Uh” Grayson said, stepping out of his Skyhawk, the air vibrating from the engine’s heat. “Whats a Hex?”
Ripped Shirt nearly jumped in surprise. “Who are you? Where did you come from? You’re not living here.”
“Eh, Um, I came from the Exo 3”
“The Exo 3, huh? Did it land here?”
“It kinda… Crashed.”
“That’s funny, The Atlantis got shot down.”
“WHAT” Grayson said “By who?”
“I think you need some explanation” Said rocket launcher dude. “Jeff, I’ll take him to the chief. Make sure this Skyhawk gets stored in a hangar.”
Jeff walked away “Sure Rye, whatever you say”
Rye led Grayson down a ladder in between the laser wire.
Grayson saw what used to be a greenhouse, now outfitted for survival. There were long food boxes on the wall. The food was genetically modified so much you could almost see them growing. There were puddles on the floor, and the laser cannons mounted in the middle. Four tunnels went farther into the ship. Rye led Grayson to one of the tunnels. Two boys with binoculars passed them as they went farther into the tunnel.
