Adventures of the Space Pizza Delivery Guy

Chapter 12: To Be Saved by A Pizza

Realizing he only had a few seconds to react, Ethan jumped up and started running the opposite of where he came. 

At this point, Ethan had no idea where he was or how to get to the backroom from there, but he knew he would eventually reach the point where he split off from Captain Smith. 

While running, Ethan thought to himself if he just should have destroyed this timeline, as the Time Keeper indicated. 

But then again, the Time Keeper must have given them the chance to try saving it for some reason, have faith. Ethan thought to himself as he sprinted through the corridors yelling and shouting for Captain Smith.

Ethan heard a screeching noise coming from behind him, and it was closer than he would have preferred. 

Instinctively Ethan turned to see what the screech was about. As Ethan looked behind, he saw the giant Salamander lunging at him. 

At that spec of a second, Ethan could swear he was going to die and fade out of existence. 

Would that even have mattered? 

Wouldn’t it just be like whenever he left a timeline he lived in? 

If he died at the hands of this alien Salamander monster, he would simply cease to exist like all the other times he left a timeline. 

This one spec of a second felt like a lifetime to Ethan.

Before Ethan could realize what happened, something massive hit the Salamander and sent it flying at the end of the corridor. It was Captain Smith. 

“Yo, kid! Still okay?” Captain Smith asked loudly. Ethan could not see the Captain’s expression, but he was sure he was grinning towards him. 

Captain Smith had heard Ethan shouting a while back and followed his yells to track him down. 

“What was that?!” Ethan asked instead in between gasps. 

“A solid iron pipe, it’s going to keep him down for a while. We can’t waste any time here,” The Captain explained to Ethan. 

Ethan agreed and before he could reply, the Captain added. 

“I have the pizza here with me, and this is as good of a time as we’re going to get now. Once it gets up now, it’s going to be far more dangerous. An attack like this won’t affect him anymore,” Captain Smith said, urging Ethan to start working.

Even though Ethan was dazed and confused, he instinctively got to work. 

He took out a slice of pizza and started scattering it along the way to lure the Salamander to the escape pod. 

Making their way while leaving a pizza crumb trail, they could feel the air getting heavy. 

They could feel themselves getting heavier and heavier, and it was difficult to walk now. Chronna had been better than anyone expected in keeping them alive thus far.

Upon the cockpit, Chronna did as she said. 

She held onto the steering wheel of the ship for her life. Chronna wouldn’t have let go of the steering wheel, even if it meant ripping her arms off. 

Chronna knew their lives were at stake there, and they could only come out alive if she kept the ship steady and constantly kept redirecting its direction to avoid going straight into the asteroid belt.

The noises and the screams didn’t faze Chronna one bit. She believed that the Time Keeper of Cloud Atlas wouldn’t have left it up to them to destroy the timeline if he didn’t believe there was even the slightest bit of chance that they would come out successful there. 

Chronna hoped to Dear Lord that the slightest chance would come in their favor. 

While she was thinking these things to herself to stay focused, she heard Ethan and Captain Smith around as they made their way to the backroom. She felt relieved knowing the duo was still alive.

“Ethan! Captain Smith! Oh, thank goodness you’re still alive!” Chronna yelled with a wide smile on her face.

“Yes, we are still alive, Chronna, for now. That is amazing driving, by the way,” Ethan yelled back. All three of them felt a sense of relief after that exchange, but work was still to be done.

“Keep going, Chronna. It won’t be long now!” The Captain yelled with unmasked urgency. 

Chronna smiled and replied cheekily, “Aye-aye, Captain!”

Their little reunion was interrupted by a series of squeals and grunts. 

The Salamander had awakened again, and now it was much stronger than before, but the promising part of all of it was that it seemed to have picked up the trail of pizzas they left and apparently seemed to like it.

“We’re in business,” The Captain said in a hushed voice. He added, “We can’t waste any more time, let’s go into the backroom, Ethan! Now!” 

Ethan and Captain Smith ran towards the backroom to prepare the escape pod for its final ever passenger. 

The room was a small one, with two tables to put tools on, and the walls were filled with different tools, weapons and space gear. 

On the far end of the room, attached to the wall, sat the escape pod.

The Captain rushed to the escape pod to inspect it and open its entrance. 

They could hear the grunts and squeals of the Salamander getting louder and louder each second. 

“Aha! There! It’s open!” Captain Smith shouted with relief.

“Here, captain, the last slice of pizza,” Ethan said as he passed the last slice of pizza to captain smith to set the trap.

“There, it’s done, now we know we just have to press this button to close the door once the creature enters the pod,” Captain Smith said as he put the finishing touches on his trap.

The squeals were now so close they could tell the Salamander was only a few feet from the door to the backroom.

“It’s here! Hide!” Ethan said frantically. His expression was unmasked anxiousness. They could only do this plan once. 

Immediately, the Captain found a place to hide.

Without wasting a second, the two of them took shelter under the tables that were planted in the room. 

From under the table, they could hear the salamander walk into the room. It seemed to be wandering around the room, looking for its prey or the food it had been trailing all this time. 

Within minutes it seemed to have taken notice of the slice of pizza placed inside the escape pod. 

The Salamander slowly made its way towards the pod and went inside to eat the slice of pizza.

“Now,” Ethan whispered at the Captain, urging him to press the button.

Giving one glance at Ethan, the Captain jumped from his hiding place under the table to press the button. 

When the ship jolted yet again and sent him flying to the side of the pod. This made the Salamander aware of what was going on as it tried to turn around and attack. 

Ethan leaped from under the table and blasted the Salamander with a high-powered plasma gun that sent it flying into the pod again, and seeing this opportunity, the Captain ran and pressed the button to seal off the now badly burnt and damaged escape pod.

“Let’s see if it still works or not,” Captain Smith said with concern as he let go of the escape pod.