The short story collection

The moon

It's 1969 and you have just landed on the moon. You get an alert from command "Critical engine malfunction. Sorry, you are stranded. You cannot be saved"

Buzz tapped his headphone to check it was working, sure that he must have misheard. He'd been part way through putting his space suit on, after helping Neil into his and getting him out the door.

"Do you copy?" This time he heard NASA loud and clear.

"Yes, I copy. Critical engine malfunction. We will initiate plan B." Buzz turned and disconnected the radio to Earth, they'd rehearsed plan B several times. It had been decided that no one from the Earth should have a record of their demise.

"Neil, did you copy that?" Buzz carried on putting his space suit on, ready to join Neil on the moon.

"Yes, how long until you join me? I've got a great view of the Earth from here. It's not such a bad place to die".

Buzz made it out the door 20 minutes after Neil had delivered his iconic speech to the Earth. He walked up behind Neil, putting his hand onto the backpack that contained the suits life support.

"Are you ready?" Buzz knocked on Neil's back.

"Yes, do it" In a quick motion Buzz enacted plan B, he pulled Neil's carbon dioxide absorber out of the backpack, and threw it on the ground crushing it beneath his boot. He turned and waited for Neil to do the same to his.

Plan B had been fulfilled, it had been decided the most painless and quickest way for them to die on the moon was from rebreathing their own carbon dioxide.

They sat next to each other watching the Earth, the place they would never walk on again. They were the first living men on the moon, and now the first dying men on the moon.

They never got to hear the speech that announced their fate, they never knew that the world as one looked up to the moon to salute the men who gave everything to make a giant leap for mankind.

"Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace".