Red Devils

Adjust, adjust, adjust! Michael raged in fury. The ship was buckling under the immense pressure of 111,600,000 miles per hour per second as it entered Earth's atmosphere. He switched the controls on his board and thrust the throttle to full speed. '' Houstan, this is Explorer 360, will be requesting permission to land soon, do you copy? '' He said into his microphone. To his horror, what he saw now would haunt him for the rest of his life. The sky being a dark chemical ash cloud, the oceans being a murky solid black moiling ball , tsunami's and fierce waves splashed on each other in a game in who was the strongest, storms raged into the oceans.

'' Houstan, this is explorer 360, do you copy? '' No reply came from the voice-over box.

'' Houstan, do you copy? '' The NASA astronaut repeated.

There was no reply.

He checked his co-ordinations while tapping onto the LED screen on the tablet built into the command board. It responded with a titillating screen flashing up. It showed the latest image of Earth's map.

'' "Flor-i-da. Co-ordinates: sixty-five point thirty-four seventy-five point ninety-nine." It responded in a robotic voice.

'' Florida? ''

'' Take to me KSC , Houstan, Tablet, ''

'' KSC does not exist sir, '' It responsded slowly

'' What? What da ya mean it doesn't exist? ''

'' Safest destination, Florida, Astronaut. ''

'' Florida....all...righty.... ''

The ship came closer to not green areas, but to lands swallowed up by grey ash. Tree's were demolished, almost nothing stood of them. Volcanic ash fell from the sky.

'' Hell no, '' Michael knew exactly why he said that. Volcanic ash made serious devastation of aero planes, and space shuttles, as his, fitted into the same category. It began tearing apart at his ship. Scrapes of Iron and paint began to tear away from the tiny pieces of glass grazing at the ship.

'' Damn! ''

'' Tablet, set co-ordinates to Houstan city, I repeat Houstan city, ''

The tablet responded in its robotic voice.

'' Co-ordinates set to Houstan city, Astronaut Michael, ''

'' Goddamn it! '' Michael cursed as half of his engine began to fail down. The navigation circles went flying.

The ship buckled and moved so fast that Michael couldn't control his ship. Exhausted, with a final effort, he pushed the lid over the red button, which said on it, Full speed. He pressed it and the ship launched itself like a catapult, going as fast as the speed of light. Michael's face lifted off as the pressure of a thousand volts hit him.

'' Warning, Warning, Systems malfunctioning.Systems malfunctioning. '' The voice-over began saying.

Flashes of lights could be seen of all colors, green, red, blue, as the ship went on.

Then the flashes exploded into a brilliant white. Michael found himself unable to control the ship as it plummeted down to the ground.

'' Why....won't....you... '' He said through exasperated gasps.

Desperately he tried to move about him, but the gravitational pull was too greater to let him do anything. The ship crashed in an instant, causing Michael to fall over. Within seconds he collapsed into unconsciousness. And the days passed. No one came to his help.

A group of roughed up and gagged men wearing cowboy hats on horses advanced through the blistering desert. The leader of the group sweated under the serious bombardment of heat rising through his dirty stained clothes. A few of them fell from their horses, but they managed to get themselves back up again. A few shrubs of cactus blew into the desert wind, bouncing over the tiny grains of glass that pretended to be like sand. The sand blew through the blistering desert. Barren of life, it didn't seem very ideal to even in habitat in.

'' Hey , homie, when we gonna get back home? '' asked the second outlaw.

'' We're supposed to be there, Frederick, we're somewhere now, '' The leader said.

'' Yeah right, and where the hell are we? We're in the middle of a damn desert full of damn scorpions and rattlesnakes. Texas ain't like this back then. You people had to go here, I said no, but did you listen? Never, you wouldn't even listen to your elders, you all sour on this damn desert, '' The oldest of the group said.

'' Why, papa, won't you shut up? '' The leader raged.

'' Hell no, you ain't gonna tell your father to go back to the saloons where them blacklegs hang around over there, you know me, and you will shut- ''

'' You ain't gonna do anything while I'm in charge, old man. ''

The oldest pointed to the broken wreckage of a large white machine. The cowboys horses began trotting in fear.

'' What da hell is that? ''

'' Well I'll be dammed by god, it seems as if we've stumbled onto something, ''

'' I don't care what the hell it is, we'll go out there and check it out, I want to find something worthwhile to plunder. ''

'' Damnation! huh! '' The oldest said.

They spurred themselves to the broken and wrecked machine, seeing the dark blackness of the shattered glass on the broken sand. A few of the cowboys spurred around it, checking it out, seeing what this monstrous thing was. Then a sudden white glove appeared out of a small broken hole. The group jumped back in fear as more of the white glove began to evolve. It seemed almost like a human. It moved its arms up, to the visor. He pressed a button and steam emerged from underneath its head. He took the helmet out and gasped, breathing and moving around.

'' Ah do not see anything plundering, you goddamn fool! '' His father said, observing the man in the white suit.

'' Take him, take that damn thing of his off, Ah'll see to it we'll take him to Jeremiah's city, now hup! '' The Leader told them. They took hold of him, taking his suit off, and then placing him one of the horses. The Leader struck his horse with the whip and off they set, to Jeremiah's city.

Michael woke , feeling the taste of dry ash and sand in his mouth. He coughed and almost fell to the ground from the bunker he was sleeping in. The same cowboys gave him a look of excitement and at the same time, fear.

'' Who the hell are you? '' asked the Leader.

'' I wanna know everything about you.. '' spurred the drunken father.

'' I...I....where am I? '' Michael said, confused. It was as if he had been transported back in time to the Wild West.

'' We found you in that big metal machine! '' exploded the third cowboy.

'' I was....flying in a space ship, '' He said.

'' A what? ''

'' A space ship, flying, '' The cowboys looked at each other and began laughing.

'' Hell, I don't know what you drank , but you ain't certainly from around here at all, ''

Michael rose from the dusty ground and walked out of the shack. All he could see around him was miles and miles of stretchless desert that seemed to never end. Like an ocean of waves, like an ocean of sand. There were a few large canyons around him. Apart from that he was stranded here with a group of cowboys that he didn't know about.

He went back into the room the next thing he knew he was being taken to a town. Hell, when he looked at it, it seemed as if it were outta a 1950's cowboy town set. Everywhere he saw were shacks of buildings. The sheriffs prison was just a walk away, the town having its mansion in the middle. People were wearing all the familiar suits of the old damn wild west. With bowler hats and watches clinging onto their belts.

They took him off, parking their horses near the Sheriff's back wall. The cowboys seized Micheal as if he were a darn toy to play with. A heavy foot clinked onto the doorway. The Sheriff was a high and imposing man, a strong bulk. He had a finely trimmed moustache on the lips touching near to his nose. He had a crooked nose and eyes that suggested he'd fought in the wars.

'' Now, what you fella's