20 In 5 -- Vol. III - Ticket To The Moon

By Brian Middleton, Jr.

Finding the right spouse...
truly priceless.

They told him that he was crazy when he went to the Maker with a request. “I need a rocket that can get me to the Moon,” he said with a confidence completely unwarranted. The Maker just smiled.


“I’m the best at what I do, Caulvin, but you know I can’t get you to the Moon. Leastways, not alive,” he explained.  He did his best to sound sympathetic as he explained a truth that every villager knew.

“I don’t have to make it there alive,” Caulvin said. “I just gotta make it there.”


The Maker smiled. He understood Caulvin’s fervor, as each of the villagers would. Each of them had known someone who had been lost to the villainous space creatures who daily snatched men and woman away to the moon to feast upon.  


The Maker acquiesced, and did his best with what he had at hand, for time was of the essence. Of course, his best was the best in all of the land, for, like each of the villager’s, he had a gift. Where Caulvin was good at being stealthy and sneaking about in all manner of environments without being seen, the Maker had been gifted with the ability to make miraculous things.


“This is the best I can do in the allotted time, friend,” he said, his voice filled with sorrow as he handed off the jetpack. “Getting you to the Moon is no problem,” he explained, “It’s an oxygen supply and protection from the cold hells of space that I cannot do. Not with only a day to work.”


“It’s cool, man, I got this,” Caulvin said with a smile. He strapped the pack on, and looked up into the starry night. The Moon filled the sky, and its bright light was a luminescent waterfall upon Caulvin’s face. “I’ll be back,” he said. “Don’t touch my stuff,” he said with a casual smile.


He flipped a switch, and an instant later he was in the stratosphere, the cold fingers of space touching his unprotected body. He felt the air slip from the lungs, and his body grew numb. His brain screamed out warnings to his body in a language that had no words. A second later, with both feet and a large portion of his torso in the grave, he spotted the building that the village folk had seen too many times through their giant telescopes. With his last brainwave praying to count for something, he aimed his jetpack-propelled body towards the gray building and gunned the engine.


Inside the building, Rohena waited patiently. She had been stolen away, along with four others, only four hours ago. The first of her fellow villagers, a timid red-headed man named Tomas had already been eaten. She and the remaining humans would be food enough for the beasts of Moon until the satellite again grew full in the villager’s sky. But Rohena would not see that day. 


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Or would she? To read the finish of "Ticket To The Moon," you'll have to purchase a copy of the new edition of "20 in 5." Currently available directly from Smashwords in a variety of e-book formats. Or you can purchase it from the Mis Tribus eBook Store. 


Included are the ending to "Ticket To The Moon" along with 19 other flash fiction stories. Brought to you directly by Mis Tribus.