MoonBound: Part 12

By: nessdude15


After some time had passed, although he could tell exactly how much, Jeff saw Pippi wake up and emerge from the cave.

"Hey, Pippi, pull up a rock." Jeff said to her as she hopped up to him. She picked up a medium sized rock and set it down next to the one that Jeff was sitting on. "So what on you mind?" Jeff asked her.

"Nothing really. I was just wondering...how long can we last up here on the moon with the amount of oxygen we have?" She asked.

"Um...with the amount we started with, about a week. I guess that means we have about six days left" Jeff answered.

"Oh, okay. I guess we should get going then." Pippi said as she walked over towards the opening of the cave where everyone was sleeping, and woke them up. They responded reluctanty, but eventually gave in to Pippi's coaxing. After he had woken up, Ness strapped the extra supplies to his back, and walked out behind the rest of the group.

"Let's get out of this stupid crater already!" Picky said impatiently.

"Agreed." Ness added. "But how are we going to get back up there?"

"Well, I think one of us will have to climb up there with the rest of the rope, and tie to something so that the rest of us can climb it." Pippi answered

"I'll go." Ness replied promptly. He tied the rope aroind his waste, and began scaling the steep, sloping crater wall with all of the supplies still strapped to his back. A few minutes later he finally reached the top. He tied one end of the rope to a large rock near the edge of the cliff and threw the other end down to others. Picky was first to begin climbing the rope. He got up quite quckly with relative ease. Paula was next. She showed off her athleticism and reached the top even faster than Picky had. It was then Jeff's turn. He wasn't the athletic type, and made the ascent more difficult than it really was, but he eventually got to the top. Pippi went next and had the most trouble of all. She got scared half way up, revealing her fear of heights. Ness eventually had to go down and carry her up his self. Poo brought up the rear and basically reaced the middle in one giant leap, grabbed the rope, and pulled his self the rest of the way.

"Well, that was interesting." Ness said as he gathered up the rope, and turned towards the lunar terrain.

"So, how about we keep going this way?" Picky proposed.

"Well, that's up to you, Mr. chosen one." Ness answered.

"It's settled then. We keep going this way." Picky replied. So, they began half walking, half hopping in the same direction that they had previously been going. After a while of silent travel, Picky spoke up.

"So, Ness, How many sanctuaries are there going to be?" He asked

"Well, on Earth, there were eight, but the moon is so much smaller, there probably aren't that many." Ness asnwered.

"Oh...well then how will I know when I've gotten them all?"

"Oh trust me, you'll know. And you won't forget it for the rest of your life."

"Okay then. just one more question." Pippi said.

"Shoot." Ness answered.

"How come in the crater, you said you could feel the energy of the sanctuary getting closer, when it wasn't your sanctuary?"

"I lied. I was getting worried, and thought that we weren't getting anywhere, so I tried to keep your spirits and hopes high. You know, Picky, I'm actually really relived that I'm not the chosen one. It's like a burden lifted off of my shoulders. I'm glad that someone eslse gets to experience it." Ness said.

"Yea, and I'm really lucky. I have your experience and guidance to lead me." Picky replied.

"Yea I guess...I'll definately make sure that you don't make the same mistakes I did."

"Ya know Ness, I think we're going to make a great team." Picky said. Ness just turned his head, smiled at Picky and kept going.

"Man, this is getting depressing. We've been out here forever and it seems like we aren't getting anywhere!" Paula said with a hint of anger in her voice.

"Well, we will just have to keep going until Picky starts to sense something." Poo replied.

"Yea, I know you're right, but I can't take this much longer. I need some action!" She said.

About that time, Picky was zoning out, and not watching where he was going, which resulted in him tripping over a moon rock. He fell flat on his face with a grunt. Everyone began laughing at him, but he didn't find it funny. As he was getting up, he felt something hard and smooth beneath the dust. He bent down, and wiped it clean.

"Uh guys, isn't this one of those badges that starmen wear on their chests?" Picky asked as he held up the rectaugular badge that had a large triangle on the left side, and smaller rectangles to the right. The background was silver, and matched the starmens' metallic bodies, and the other shapes were made of some foriegn red metal. Jeff immediately snatched the badge from him.

"This appears to have been here for a while." Jeff said thoughtfully. "They must have had a base here when they attacked us last year."

"But that means that the base should still be here somewhere." Pippi replied. "We should try to find it. It might have some useful stuff inside."

"Let me see if I can locate it. It can't be too far from here." Jeff said as he pulled out a device that looked like a pair of large pair of complicated binoculars.

"Wow, you must have every gadget ever imaginable." Ness said.

"No, just most of the useful ones." Jeff replied as he began searching with this new device he called a "terrain scanner". "Got it!" Jeff said shorly after. "A little over a mile to our west is a small group of uninhabited buildings." Jeff said pointing towards the west where these buildings supposedly were.

"Well, I don't see them, but I belive you. Let's head that way then." Picky said, as he turned to the west and began hopping along their new path. About ten minutes later, Picky still saw nothing, and began getting worried. "Uh, Jeff, I still don't see anything.

Jeff stopped, pulled out his scanning device again, and looked through it again. "Oh they're there. Trust me." Picky sighed and kept going.

Fifteen minutes after that, no one saw anything and began to doubt Jeff.

"I think you may have made an error." Pippi said to him.

"Yea, all that's ahead of us is that giant rock!" Picky added.

Jeff pulled out his device one last time. "they're there. About fifty feet ahead of us."

Ness and Poo began walking towards the giant rock. They hopped on top of it and looked down. "The buildings are, here guys. Behind this rock." Ness said to them.

"Told you I was right." Jeff said, grinning.

Picky began walking to the far side of one of the rocks, and began to walk around it. Pippi, Paula and Jeff followed him. Sure enough, on the other side of the rock were three medium sized dome shaped buildings that had apparently served as the aliens' base. Ness and Poo jumped off of the rock and joined their friends in front of one of the building closest to them. Jeff walked up to the circular door, studied the panel on the side of the door, and pressed a few buttons on it, and the door slid open. Inside they found themselves in a small room with nothing inside except for another door at the other end.

"Must be an airlock." Pippi said.

"I guess so. Jeff said as he clsoed the door they had just came through using a panel on the inside of the door. Pippi then walked up to the new door and opened it. Everyone walked inside. Jeff pulled out another one of his devices and turned it on. After a few seconds, a green light on it began to flash rapidly.

"This place has air pressure. The air might be a little bit stale, but at least it's here." Jeff said. Everyone proceeded to take off their strange looking space helmets and begin breathing the not-so-fresh air.

"Looks like they abandoned this place pretty quickly." Picky said, looking around at the clutter. There were strange gadgets, used oxygen tanks, and other various alien objects scattered across the floor.

"Doesn't look like there's alot to see in here." Paula said. "Let's go look around in another one of the buildings."

"Fine with me." Jeff said. "Everyone put your helmets back on." After they all did, he opened the first door, waited for everyone to get through it, and closed it. He then opened the door leading to the outside, everyone went through the doorway and then Jeff closed it.

"So, which one next?" Pippi asked.

"Let's just go to the one closest." Picky replied. No one objected, so they began hopping towards the next alien building. It wasn't far away, ten yards at most. When they arrived, they went through the same procedure. Jeff opens door, party enters. Jeff closes door. Jeff opens next door, party walks through, Jeff closes door, party takes off space helmets. The contents of this buildings was quite a bit different than that of the previous one. It was quite organized, and held numerous useful items. The one item that caught their eyes was the abundance of extra oxygen tanks. The air was unpleasantly stale, just like the last building, Picky couldn't help himself, ran over to the oxygen tanks and began trying to set one of them off.

"Ghaa!!! open you stupid thing!" Picky yelled as he lost his patience and began bangin the oxygen tank against the floor. Pippi walked over to him, took the tank from him, and flipped a switch on the top, releasing, pure sweet oxygen into the air. Picky stood over it, eyes closed with a broad smile on his face breathing in the oxygen treating every breath like it was his last. Pippi had told them before they left the crater that they would need to save their oxygen while on the moon because they didn't have enough extra, but now everyone, especially Picky was relieved that this would not be nessecary.

"Well, this is definately a stroke of luck." Ness said.

"Yes it certainly is, but I'm still curious to see what the next building has to offer." Jeff said. "Poo, Picky and I will go over there and check it out while the rest of you stay behing and collect some of these useful items." he added.

"Fine with me." Paula said.

"It's settled then. Let's go guys." Jeff said, motioning for Poo and Picky to follow him out the door.