The Phugwak planet: A Journey To Another Possibility

by Ayman Ghalit

  Clark and his rebels witnessed the dreadful crop of their deeds, but no guilt, nor qualm did they feel. Rather, they victoriously smiled knowing that the fiendish family is finally dead.

  ***

  Mendoza, who managed to flee with his family without being caught, fled Narbiz to a cousin living in a coastal city, for he wanted to take refuge there till things get clear. But unfortunately, he was rich, yet he didn’t know how to remain as one. That cousin whom he threw his trust upon, betrayed him after seeing Olivia’s unbelievable stone. He shot Mendoza in the back of his head while he was washing his face at a golden basin. He killed Mendoza’s son and wife moments after. Mendoza’s cousin drank from the same cup he had handed. He got backstabbed by another wealth, women, and power seeker … Olivia’s mighty stone; that values the annual budget of ten countries in the Phugwak Planet, traveled from a backstabbing murderer to another, till it reached a naval General, who tightened his grip on it, vowing “If it is not for me, it shall never be for another.” And after being cornered, he threw it in the middle of the ocean, to be lost for good.

  And as for Arthur and his comrades, they were plotting to go to the Python’s Eye to seek asylum. And if everything went smooth, they were planning to discard JuMaDa in one of its gigantic blazing stars. But Henrik didn’t grant him that, rather, he sent a surprising military fleet after luring Arthur into the point of no escape.

  JuMaDa was in no good condition to fight, nor did it had the proper manpower to do so. Arthur was surrounded, and even if he tried to slip through the enemy lines with lightspeed, it will turn into an endless tail-chase, and eventually he will get captured. But he and his friends agreed to die as freemen, rather being captured by such a deceitful man.

  They were too proud to seal their glorious past by such humiliating end. Moreover, the idea of JuMaDa being the only megaship to be captured and controlled by another being, is something Arthur will never allow, saying that Chlodwig, The Pledge Sentinel, is not better than him.

  He and his whole crew acknowledged and swallowed the fact that they are done. It is either honorable death or shameful captivity. Thus, they agreed to venture forth and die with honor. He ordered them to aim the ship toward the same star that melted KuMa, and to set off with lightspeed toward a fitting end.

  ...JuMaDa melted 500 miles before reaching the star.

  ***

  No one believed their stories of being lost in space, landed on a planet of gold that have another intelligent and free willing lifeform, and being captured by Arthur. Instead, they seriously questioned their mental status. And with that amount of disbelieve that they have encountered, they thought for sure that it was nothing but hallucination. But they gathered up once more with Gael and elaborately reviewed the incident they were in and concluded that there is no way for it to be a lie. Carl provided them with the concrete evidence as he showed them the pictures that he took of the Phugwak Planet, and assured them it was all true.

  Volume 5

  “After the parting, my eyes did witness.

  No thanks from you, nor God did bless.

  If your heart would provide remembrance,

  then, you would see who cared much less.”

  Nostalgic End

  Things went smooth for Kaiser several months later. He went on a blind date with Clare, whom his mother eagerly urged him to do. And surprisingly for him, they perfectly clicked together! Despite her ordinary physical appearance, he found with her comfort, especially with her fun, intellect, and caring personality. She was clearly the one for him. He didn’t know why though. Maybe because his standards somehow got lowered? Or maybe he didn’t place any high expectation on her? Or maybe his inner arrogant and selfish desires just died out? Wherever the reason was, he feels content and absolute acceptance towards her. And after graduating from college, he found a good paying job in a tiny company that specifically manufacture Arcade Stick Restrictor Plates.

  Life is never uneventful; a saying Kaiser know exactly what it means. One day, he woke up to find three text messages on his phone from his former beloved girl; Emily. Slowly, his eyes observe it as he awakes. He didn’t bother text her back instantly, rather, he went to take a shower. And when he returned, he found seventy-three short-texts from her after she knew that he read the first one, beginning with “What’s wrong? it’s me.” And escalated quickly to “Who the fuck you think you are!”

  Kaiser felt disgusted, and eventually, he blocked her without bothering to respond. He thought about his feelings for a moment, questioning, “How odd!? this is Emily, the one you wanted to kill yourself for! Emily! the stunningly beautiful one… hmm? What drove me to feel this resentful toward her? Why am I feeling disgusted? Where are the old fuzzy feelings that I had when we were together? Is it because she hurt me? or because I saw Alma, whom is way more beautiful than her? Or… might be my brain somehow programed itself after my stupid suicide attempt to consider her a threat to my existence, thus the chemical won’t ignite again for the sake of my survival? ... this is complicated.”

  He moved on, and several months later, he married Clare and lived a happy comfortable life. And after two years, he got blessed with an adorable daughter. Staggeringly for him, his wife proposed to name her Alma! Kaiser thought that she might heard him mumbling her name while asleep? But she said it is a name that got hooked in her mind from a girl names website…

  Several months later, Kaiser, Clare, and their little Alma, where shopping at a mall. He was pushing his daughter’s purple kart when his wife asked him to accompany her to a clothing store that she wanted. He did, and when he reached the store, he beheld a female-mannequin behind a glass-wall advertising a pair of clothes. It was the same clothes that Alma -the Phagwakian- were wearing in the wedding. He felt a flow of a puzzling Deja-vu feeling at first, but recognized it eventually.

  He sadly pursed his lips when a sorrowful nostalgic feeling coursed through him. Then, he felt something weird! The felling of a thousand warm and tiny needles penetrating his back. He beheld the mannequin glass-wall shatters in slow-motion before him! He started to feel hot and extremely heavy as he couldn’t move an inch. He then hardly fell on the ground to witness the flames devour his daughter in the cart while hearing her helpless and heartbreaking screams…!

  An opposing terrorist group took responsibility in a terrifying mall bombing, resulting in the death of Kaiser, his wife, and his daughter amongst other 600 victims.

  A sudden question crossed Kaiser’s mind as he slowly was seeing himself submerged in a dark and empty place before taking his last breath.

  Sinnerman

  Gael’s search for the profound and the philosophical meaning of life didn’t lead him anywhere. Rather, it left him in a depressing gloomy state for too long. Therefore, he forced himself to adapted a new way of thinking, which was; Live for the Moment.

  He accompanied his father to teach him how to run the family business and further its survival. He grew a good friendship bond with his dad that made him regret the days he acted childish toward him ... And after hearing the news, he felt too bad for Kais’s sad fate, and vowed to generously donate in the government counter-terrorism branches.

  Several months later, bad news stroked him as he has been diagnosed with stomach cancer. It was vicious and spreading fast, but his father’s money was faster, for he bought him a new stomach form a family of one of the ‘Brian-Dead Organ Donors.’ He went back like a healthy horse. His father consulted him after that to betroth Agnes Stoneheardt, the daughter of Planet Edgar ruler; Augustin Stoneheardt. In doing so, he will secure a safe haven for him if things went out of hand, for it only death that well cure Leonard’s sudden and hopeless illness.

  Gael agreed without a slight of hesitation. His father joyfully smiled, and said, “Trust me, son. You will reach a pleasing point in life where it will assure you that this is a right decision.”

  He betrothed her, and planned that his wedding ceremony will take place in Earth after five months. He felt
good and optimistic about this, saying, “It is time to say good bye to the life of singularity.”

  A month later, he went with a bunch of friends to Central Africa, which was the preferred place for him to practice an extreme sport that he started to like; and it was skydiving. A sport that gives him thrilling joy, and the physical feeling of being free and a live. And while he was tightening up his black skydiving suit, a song, strangely, started to echo in his head. It was Sinnerman by Nina Simon; an ancient Earthly song that he listened to it only once. His brain couldn’t get rid of it as it kept echoing...

  He went in the plane that reached a 4Km altitude as it began to let him feel the adrenalin course through his body, coinciding with accelerating and throbbing heart beats. His blood vessels tensed as he started to feel the thrill showers him. He and his friends freely fell from the airplane, observing the beautiful terrains of Africa while rapidly accelerating by Earth’s gravitational force. They did a trick or two before opening their parachutes. Everyone did open it, except for Gael who tried so hard to do so, but couldn’t succeed! He tried his spare, but it wouldn’t open either! He relentlessly tried and tried, but nothing happened. The song, Sinnerman, grew louder in his head, and when it reached the lyrics “Power!” he desperately asked God to help him open the parachute. And surprisingly… it did!

  But it was too late, for the altitude was too low for a safe landing. He badly hit the ground, resulting in the breaking of both of his legs as one of his thigh bones were showing through his black skydiving suite.

  Though, he was badly maimed and soaked in his own blood, he somehow was alive and conscious. Moments later, while faintly grunting in pain, Gael witnessed a flock of vultures circling above. Then, he overheard the hasten foot-tapping of a group of lions approaching him. He closed his eyes to sense them breathing and sniffing all over his face. He took a glance through his heavy dying eyes at one of them to see the one sniffing him exactly the same as the Lion-Headed-Donkey he killed in the Phugwak planet with the same scar on its face! His eyes widened in disbelieve when he recalled that. He wanted to scream out loud for help, but that lion clamped its big jaws on Gael’s throat suffocating him to death.

  Help came late as the Lions ate half of Gael’s body. And for a second, before he dies, the same question Kaiser’s had, popped up in his head as well.

  Fated Betroth

  Jack felt really bad for what had happened to Kaiser and his family. But life goes on no matter what, that was what he realized.

  Six months after Kais’s death, he woke up, washed his face at the basin, and stared at his reflection in the dirty mirror. He began to see the lines on his face getting clearer by the day, and his hair started to slightly falls as a depressing color started to appear on his hair. He let out a tiresome sigh, saying, “I am not too young anymore... I have to take my full chances with Nora.”

  Nora was his beautiful and beloved women, whom was too hard to get. She was the daughter of a fanatic, religious, nationalist, and a xenophobic leader who strictly forbids his followers to welcome any outsider. All the marriages of this religious group were preordained since birth by its elders. Nora was one of them, and her destined near-future husband was a fanatic to the core as well. She hated and damned her life for this birth-curse, but little could she do. She met Jack who showed her another realm of warm feelings. She loved him despite knowing that reaching the universe boarder is more possible than marring him. She was too numb by his love just as he was. They met couples of time in secrecy. It was exquisitely tempting, and surly was delightful and a tasteful achievement for both of them since it was too critical.

  He decided, after seeing his depressing reflection, that it is the time to be together with her forever. He called and told her that they have to run from this planet and declare their innocent love to the whole universe.

  She thought about the meaning of being a free-willing one, and realized that it is her life, and she can do whatever she wants with it. She was feeling that the weight of the world is painfully resting on her shoulders. She wanted to get rid of this weight forever. It was a hard decision, but she courageously agreed to escape Earth after several days to live her life the way she want to.

  Three days later, when Jack was exiting a grocery store, he got a text-message that he smilingly looked at right away, for he surly knows it is Nora, because of the ringtone he specified for her… the text reads “Jack, run!”

  His smile slowly fades as the text left him in puzzlement. Moments after, he got startled by a loud screeching of a black-truck tires that aggressively barked in front of him. Then, four big grown-up men exited the car and approached him with scowled faces. And without a former warning, one of them twisted Jack’s arm behind his back while the other swiftly hooded his head with a black bag! And forcibly, while Jack trying to resist, they bundled him inside the car and sat-off immediately. Jack, yelled and angrily roared in threat, but a punch and a kick assured him that this is not a joke. Later, after feeling the car is no longer on smooth surface and was frequently turning left and right while sometimes it goes up and descend down, he frighteningly asked, “Where are you taking me?”

  One of them chucklingly answered, “You are going to find out soon, lover boy.”

  After half an hour that is filled with doubt and fear, the car stopped in a hidden and a faraway mountainous area. They dragged him out of the car, as he began to hear a surrounding murmuring crowed. One of them unmasked him to see a heart-breaking and freighting view!

  Nora was weeping on the ground, bleeding, and with messed up hair that was clearly being aggressively pulled. The bruises over her face, were visible from a distant. And not far from her, was a bile of heaped and aligned wood, with one vertical log fixed in the middle. And more frighteningly, the gasoline smell pervading the zone, assured Jack that he is fucked up badly this time. Nora looked him through her tired heavy eyes, and hardly said, “No… Jack!”

  He looked around him to see uncountable group of men, young and old surrounding him. He made eye contact with the one elder setting in the middle with fanciful bright colored clothes and a long cane in hand, and angrily shouted, “Cowards!” After that, a tall, muscular, and handsome man jolted his way through the crowds, and frowningly hasted with eyes glittering with vengeance toward Jack. He pulled him by the collar and pinned him down to starts punching him. Three men pulled the man out from him shortly after.

  The man, who was the preordained husband, dragged Nora by her hair to Jack who lost a tooth or two and was coughing blood out from his mouth. And with tears filling his eyes, the fated husband said, “Is this the one you favor? This pest!? …You did the wrong, woman!”

  Nora kept sobbing without responding.

  “You sullied my flag and destroyed my reputation. You don’t know how much I was waiting to be with you, yet you chose the unworthy over me! I swear, it is not a problem for you to live in cult like this, but it is the delusional feelings of being different and unique that you always seek. It is your arrogant desire that led you to such infidelity and betrayal.”

  The preordained husband shed a tear, and went on, saying, “I loved you, Nora. I truly did. I thought that all my gifts and my innocent massages meant something for you, but how much of a stone heart you bear is beyond my understanding.”

  Nora looked her preordained husband in the eyes, cracked a ridiculing smile, and said, “How oblivious and naive a man can be, is beyond my understanding as well! It is not our cult that is the problem. It is you… I never liked you, nor will I till the end of time.”

  His eyes widened in disbelieve, then he turned furious and dragged her by her hair to the bile of wood, tied her up to the log, and showered her with gasoline. After that, he approached Jack, pulled out a gun, and shot his knees, shoulders, and hands. He then squeezed Jack’s face by his foot, saying, with a smile on his face, “It is profound, and it is truly puzzling for me... No matter how much of a stubborn and arrogant a person is toward you, you will find him quite t
he opposite with another. Nora for example, was so stubborn, stern, and hard to get-along with for me, yet she was so submissively fine with you!? She was clearly so numb, and I do swear that she would bow for you! I do confess that I envied you ... I was feeling lucky, and was so drunkard from her love, but sadly, she didn’t even try to take a sip of mine. Lots said to me when I complaint, “This is how women are. They like to play hard to get.” I believed them despite the fact that deep in my heart I can feel that our matter is different... I saw you steal a kiss from her a weak ago. A kiss that I couldn’t even take. *chuckled* She can’t keep a low profile from me, especially with her poor masquerading skill... That kiss cracked my heart in two, forcing me to literally consider suicide. But I am not the one who cheated, nor the one who sinned. It is both of you. Therefore, you will both die right here, and today. You are not a man. You are a pathetic misfit who separate a woman from her man. You knew that she is my betrothed, yet you wanted her. I know why, it is because she is harder than anyone else. That gives you the joyful thrill, no? ... Alas, it led you horribly astray.”

  He left him to ignite the gasoline. The three men forced Jack to watch her burning while hearing her saying, “Am sorry Jack for dragging you into this shithole, please forgive me… farewell, my love.”

  They burned her at the stake. Jack, who couldn’t bear the painful and heartbreaking screams of her, started to weep and cry in denial. She died as the smell of the burnet meat reached his nose. Moments after, Jack suddenly started to laugh out loud! They thought he surly went mad, but he spat on the preordained husband when approached, saying, “She died happy knowing that she will never be with a sniffling loser like you.”