Stardust Prolouge

Prologue: Mack

Mack wasn't ready to die. Cold, naked, and shivering in a corner made him realize he still had so much life to live, he'd never even been off of Ceres, until he was taken. He wasn't necessarily a good person, had bad grades in high school, drank, and dicked around with his friends all the time. But at a young age of sixteen, he still wanted to live.
He was drinking a new kind of beer, Nova Darius, With his friends behind a shitty bar on the lower wards.
"It tastes like green." Tara says with wide eyes.
His friends, Tara and Michelle were sitting together, Tara's head on Michelle's shoulder.
"Girl, you're high as shit."
Ed was sitting next to Mack with his own bottle in his fist.
"Honey, I think you've had enough." Michelle tells Tara, and takes the bottle from her.
"Okay." She agrees and closes her eyes.
"Good shit, for sure."
Mack turns to his other friend, Evan, having already drunken a bottle, next to him. Mack giggles. He was also high on something Tara had given him.
"Green is a color, silly."
Tara is unresponsive, breathing silently on Michelle's shoulder. Mack takes a sip of his drink and savors the pumpkin and apple tastes exploding in his mouth. Mack giggles again for no reason and sees a man standing across the street from him. He stands wearing a black jumpsuit and has a few curly hairs on his shiny head. His glare travels to Mack and his group. Mack looks at him and tries to reciprocate the glare, but fails and ends up giggling until he drops his beer. The liquid splashes on the ground and Mack gives a shrug. He smiles at the man and gives a friendly wave. The man says something into his wrist and quickly stomps away.
"Whadda prick!" Mack yells, waving his fist.
"I have a prick." Evan says, as if he just now came to the realization.
"I think I might too!" Tara had woken up and sat in a daze.
"I can attest that you certainly don't." Michelle told her.
Mack felt something his stomach. It was hot and steamy. He let out a loud and obnoxious fart into the groups smell zone. Mack let's out another bout of giggles, and this time everyone joins him. They laughed and laughed for no reason until they almost cried. That's when they were taken.
Out of nowhere five men came charging toward the teenagers. Mack couldn't see clearly through the alcohol and drugs. He registered black figures coming toward him and assumed it was he drugs. A pair of meaty hand locked his arms behind his back and he began to panic he struggled n kicked behind him to loosen the hold. He heard his friends screaming around him and saw other people taking hold of them too. He assumed it might be TBA operatives after him. Last week he'd spray paint the phrase "Earth Rules" on an alleyway wall. He was high at the time and didn't think much of it. He hadnt meant it and didn't want his friends to go down for his mistake.
One of the advantages of being on a space station like Ceres is lower gravity. Stations like Ceres have about 0.3 gravity, a third of earths. Mack used that to his advantage.
He planted his feet on the ground and kicked up as hard as he could. That sent him and his attacker five feet into the air. Since it wasn't zero G, they fell to the stations floor within a few quick seconds. He landed flat on his ass and felt pain shoot up his rear. Mack ignored it and ran for the allys exit. A big black man was waiting for him but Mack quickly dodged him and sprinted onward. He looked back for a quick second and saw his friends struggling and being injected with something. A needle went into Ed's neck and he quickly went limp. He wanted to help his friends but knew he couldn't do it alone. He needed to find the station police. As he ran down the empty street, he ran a map of the station through his head. The nearest police station was ten blocks away, past a residential zone. He made a beeline for the tunnel leading to the stairs, zooming past empty and abandoned homes. He was almost out of breath and was regretting how bad his physique was. When he reached the tunnel entrance, pain shot through his heel. He screamed in agony, and fell in a slide. He looked down and saw he'd been shot. The bullet had gone clean through, taking bone and blood with it. He grabbed it instinctively and grimaced. A man was fast approaching him, with something in his left hand.
“Please”
Mack pleaded as he approached.
“I didn't mean it. I didn't!”
The pursuer stopped a foot in front of him and shook his head.
“It'll all be over soon kid. Just be still.”
The last thing Mack remembered was a sharp prick in his neck, and a throbbing pain in his heel.
★
When he awoke, he was naked. He was lying on a metal floor, cold as ice. The atmosphere felt different. Strange somehow. The gravity was heavier.
Am I not on Ceres? He wondered.
If he wasnt, where was he, and how long was he out?
On one wall was a five by five foot window made of reinforced glass. He couldnt see on the other side, only his reflection. A one way mirror. Someone was watching him. He could feel a presence on the other side of the glass. He pounded his fists on the window. “Hey!” He yelled. “Let me out! Let me out!” When no one answered, he continued to pound and scream. He kept at it until his hands were bloody and his throat raw. He began to cry and sat against the opposite wall, his knees in his arms. He wanted to go home.
★
For two days he was led in that room with no food or water. He had pissed and shit himself and now smelled like a sack of shit. His own fluids were smeared on himself and the floor. He felt dizzy and weak. A few hours before he had gotten an awful stomachache. And wasn't sure if it was a disease from his waste, or starvation and dehydration. The only noises he ever hear were the sounds of the air recyclers in the walls.
★
On the morning of what he assumed was the third day, he began to beg. He clasped his hands together and beg at the window to let him go. He promised he would be better and even join the TBA if that's what it took, just let him out. He cried and prayed to the Christian god, the buddah, and any deitys that would listen to his pleas. He was broken and just wanted to go home.
“Please!” Tears soak his face.
“Just let me go!”
Shit covered his hands that were wiping tears away. “Ill be better...Please...”
The door opened.
★
Macks Head jerked up at the sound of an airlock turning. The door slid upwards, and Mack stood up.
“H-hello?” His voice came out as a raspy whisper.
An object came flying through the door and Mack flinched backwards. It pounded the floor and the door shut behind it. Mack ran to the door and pounded his already bruised fists on the cool steel. “No!” He screamed. “Come back! Come the fuck back!” He quit pounding when he heard a noise from the object behind him. He swirled around and saw a metal crate lying on its side. It was a small six sided cube, with one side made of reinforced glass. The glass side was facing him and he watched the contents of it move.
It was a blue puddle, with something like even lighter blue fireflies buzzing around it. Mack cocked his head in amazement as it banged on the glass, turning part of the substance into tentacle like appendages. It smacked and punched the glass until it began to crack. Mack began to slowly back up, afraid of what was about to happen. “What the hell?” The glass broke and shards fell around the crate. The thing slithered out, around the broken shards. It maneuvered slowly toward Mack. He tumbled back into the wall. He was quivering in fear and whimpering sadly. “What the hell! Get away!” He kicked at the blue thing and made contact. When he pulled his foot back, he realized it had lathe onto his leg. He cried out and tried to pry it off with his hands. Then his hands were stuck and he was crying. The blue hing slithered across Macks body, spreading across and through every orifice. Mackland Jare was no longer recognizable. He cried and screamed as the substance broke every single bone in his body. There were loud cracks and crunches, and a single, bloodcurdling scream. It consumed Mack and grew. His last thoughts were those of fear.