Pain. That’s all I could feel when I woke up. The last thing I remember was the captain shouting and the feeling of dread in my stomach. I tried to get up from where I was laying, but I couldn’t move.

What was going on?

I looked down and saw my legs covered by a large sheet of metal. Using all my strength, I tried to move it. It didn’t even budge. I would not be able to get out of this on my own, I’ll have to wait for help.

With nothing else I could do, I looked around to assess the situation. I was in the cockpit, which was barely in shape. We must have crashed, but how? Everything was in working order, and nobody was attacking us. At least, not that I can remember.

Suddenly, I heard a loud bang from outside the cockpit. They were trying to get in, but the door was locked. If they were members of the crew, they would be able to easily open it, unless their keys got damaged during the crash.

The banging continued for a few minutes but eventually came to an end. I wanted to shout to let them know that I was still in there, but I hesitated. How do I know I can trust them? I have no way of defending myself, so they could easily take me out if they wanted to.

I decided to wait until the banging continued. Then I would shout to them, to ask them for help. But the banging never continued. There was no way to know how long I sat there, stuck on the ground with no way to escape. I felt the feeling of dread returning to me.

It could have been minutes or hours that I waited. I tried to keep track of time, but it was no use. I decided to shout this time, even without the banging. I don’t want to die like this. I would rather have them come and kill me themselves than just stay here and rot.

I yelled. I screamed. I cried. Nothing came from the door. I waited too long and was completely alone. My throat was almost dead by the time I heard a loud bang from outside the ship. I suddenly grew silent.

The bang grew into a large scraping noise coming towards me. My feeling of dread grew into hope and desperation. With all the noise I could come up with, I let out a silent plea for freedom.

“Please.”

With that, the scraping noise stopped and turned into a growl. The door was slammed open by a large claw. Once I saw it come towards me, I knew I was finally free from the pain. The last thing I felt was the pain growing to an unbearable extent, then to nothing. It had freed me.