Psychosis

by G-TFD-V

What do you do when you are isolated, alone and with no way of going home? Derek found out...

Psychosis

CHAPTER 1

Derek awoke to the whisper of flowing water coming from the nearby bathroom. His eyes fluttered open reaching over to the bedside table searching for a small round button along the edge of the table. His fingers finally found it and as he pushed it there was a quiet whirring sound as the room was flooded with artificial light from two rows of fluorescent light tubes embedded in the ceiling. Derek rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand at the initial brightness of the light slowly pulling himself up into a sitting position and burying his face in his hands. He took a moment to collect his thoughts before looking over his shoulder at the empty space in his queen-sized bed next to where he had been laying. The pillow was askew and the sheets kicked to the end of the bed. He looked up slightly at the large window that stretched from one end of the silver-painted wall to the other. The window shutters were closed with only a fraction of natural sunlight peeking through. Derek looked across at the large flat screen embedded into the wall at the opposite end of his bed. For a moment he considered pushing the button on the edge of his bedside table to turn the screen on, but decided against it. Another typical morning, Derek thought to himself, as he looked around the bedroom. He reached up and traced his fingers along the silver links of the necklace around his neck finding the pendant, etched in black with the tracing of a pair of dolphins, and pulled it around until the pendant rested against his chest. He wiggled his toes into the soft white carpet under his feet and held firmly onto the black metal frame of his bed as he stood up. Derek stretched out his arms and swung them back and forth a few times to warm up the muscles in his body. Wearing nothing but his black briefs Derek walked straight past his wardrobe without thought of putting on any clothes and pulled open the bedroom door.

The living room was quiet except for the flow of water from the shower coming from the other side of the bathroom door to Derek's immediate left as he stepped out of his bedroom. To his immediate right was the door for the toilet. The living room opened up as Derek reached the end of the small hallway. Derek reached up with his right hand to find a small switch on the wall turning on the lights in the living room. Artificial light filled the room as Derek looked around at the hexagonal design of the room. To his right the living room opened up into the dining area with a large mahogany table and matching chairs set for six people with a window along the wall. In the corner of the room beside the dining table was a small set of drawers with a vase filled with a beautiful arrangement of pink, purple, red and white flowers with a similar floral arrangement sat in the centre of the dining table. Next to the dining area was the kitchen enclosed by a black marble counter with a silver two-door fridge placed against the back wall beside a pantry. A row of cupboards hung up on the back wall alongside the fridge contained complete sets of plates and drinking glasses enough for a dozen or more people along with various pots and pans of varying sizes. On the right hand side of the wall was the oven and along the section of counter separating the kitchen from the dining room was the sink with a set of draws set into the counter beside the sink containing cutlery and cooking utensils. Directly ahead of Derek was another small hallway which lead to Derek's workspace and the front end of the house. To Derek's left was the living area with two large vases of beautiful green ferns in either corner. On the far wall hung a framed oil painting of an 18th Century Galleon sailing through stormy water hanging above a synthetic fireplace. On the left wall was another flat screen embedded into the wall, this one was almost three times larger than the one in the bedroom almost taking up the entire wall space. It was surrounded by an arrangement of two identical dark blue leather couches facing towards the screen with a third couch placed beside them facing towards the fireplace. Positioned behind the two couches, facing towards the fireplace, was a treadmill. Derek jumped up onto the treadmill and pressed his thumb into a small slot on the handgrip. The treadmill whirred as it sprung to life as the console lit up and the words "Welcome, Derek" scrolled across an LED display. The treadmill began to move beneath Derek's feet at a steady pace as Derek picked up two sensors off the console and placed them on his chest. A new display appeared on the LED screen showing Derek's heart rate and distance travelled in kilometres per hour. Derek started to gradually increase the speed of the treadmill until he was at a steady jogging speed and after a few minutes begin to increase the gradient of the treadmill.

Derek was only jogging for a few minutes and had barely broken a sweat when he heard the shower turn off. He hit the stop button and the treadmill slowly decreased the gradient and speed. The treadmill slowed to a brisk walking speed as Derek looked over his shoulder briefly when he heard the bathroom door open and noticed the quick movement of a shadow along the hallway wall followed by the sound of the bedroom door closing. Derek hit the stop button again and the treadmill came to a complete stop and he stepped off the back of the treadmill.

Derek walked across the room towards the kitchen, pausing for a moment as he looked down the hallway at the closed bedroom door. He pulled open the fridge doors looking up and down at the selection of fruit and vegetables that filled the shelves. The top shelf was sorted with rows of apples, pears and bananas; the next shelf down had grapes, cherries, plums and peaches, there were mangoes, pineapples, and oranges. The bottom shelves were packed with carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, a few heads of lettuce, corn, zip-lock bags filled with peas, broccoli and more. Derek sighed in annoyance, tired of having nothing but fruit and vegetables to eat. He grabbed a couple of apples, oranges, grapes, a mango and a pineapple putting it all down on the counter beside the sink closing the fridge door behind him as he went to the cupboard to grab two white plastic bowls. Derek placed the bowls on the counter beside the fruit and opened up the top drawer next to the sink grabbing two forks and a knife to cut the fruit with. Derek began cutting up the fruit with speed and grace from several months of practice quickly filling both of the bowls. Every now and then his eyes would gaze away from the fruit and tried to look down the hallway at the bedroom door. When he was done Derek picked up all the fruit scraps and opened a small cupboard door built into the counter between the stove and the fridge. Derek dumped the fruit scraps into the large metal bin inside the cupboard that was built into the floor. On the side of the bin was a small red button which Derek pushed and for a moment could hear the whirring of the disposal system just before he closed the cupboard. He turned back to the counter and picked up the knife he had been using to cut the fruit turning on the tap and wiping the knife clean in the sink with a sponge he kept beside the tap. Derek opened the second drawer and pulled out a red and white square-patterned towel to dry the knife before he placed the knife back in the top drawer. Before putting the towel back in the second drawer Derek wiped down the counter making sure it was clean. When he had finished cleaning and had put the towel away Derek picked up the two bowls of fruit and the forks and placed them at the end of the table before going back to the kitchen. He grabbed two glasses out of one of the cupboards and filled them with tap water. Derek walked back to the table and sat at the end facing towards the kitchen taking a sip of water before placing his glass down. He picked up his fork and started sorting through the pieces of fruit in his bowl until he decided on a piece of apple. As he bit down into the piece of apple Derek felt the soft touch of a woman's hands on his shoulders. The hands slowly moved down his shoulders and down his chest until the woman's arms slowly tightened around Derek's chest and he could feel her breath on the side of her neck.

'What did I say about wearing clothes at the table?' the woman whispered into Derek's ear.

'I didn't think it would bother you,' Derek replied.

'We might be completely alone out here where no one can see us, but I'd still prefer it if you would at least put some pants on when we sit down to eat.'

Derek reached up to take the woman's hand as she pulled her hands away tracing the fingers of her right hand along his back as she moved into his view and sat down in the chair beside him. Derek put his fork down for a moment as he looked up from the bowl of fruit in front of him and looked into the eyes of the woman sitting beside him. She stared back at him through chocolate brown eyes as she ran her fingers through her fair blonde hair, which draped down over her shoulders and appeared to have just been straightened after her shower. Derek's eyes moved up and down examining her body dressed in a light blue singlet top and black skirt. His eyes moved across to the bowl of fruit he had prepared for her noticing that she hadn't touched it yet.

'Not going to eat?' Derek asked.

'I don't feel all that hungry. I might save it for later,' she replied as her head tilted up towards the fluorescent lights in the ceiling. 'I'm tired of this artificial light. It gives me a headache. Can we open the blinds?'

'Sure,' Derek said as he got up from his seat swallowing a piece of pineapple. He walked over to the window and pushed his thumb down on a small silver button on the edge of the metallic windowpane. The blinds slowly rotated on a horizontal axis and began to fold up into a small recess along the top of the window. Natural light began to fill the room and the normally white walls were tinted red. Derek took his thumb off the silver button pausing for a moment to examine the familiar mountain and rock formations that rose and fell like waves across the barren desert landscape. Derek returned to his seat and started picking at more pieces of fruit without another word.

'What's bothering you?' the woman asked as she placed her hand, smooth to the touch with long polished fingernails, upon Derek's hand.

Derek paused for a moment as he was about to go for another piece of apple closing his eyes for a moment as he enjoyed the feeling of her hand on top of his, her thumb tracing back and forth along the ridges of his fingers. He opened his eyes and looked up into her concern-filled eyes. 'It's nothing,' Derek lied.

'Sweetheart, I know when you're upset, why won't you just tell me what's wrong?'

Derek placed his fork in his bowl and turned away to look out the window. 'All I see every day is nothing but a barren wasteland of dirt and rock. I just miss being able to look out the window and see a tree or a lake. I guess I'm just a little home sick.'

'We knew what we signed on for when we agreed to move here. You know how important our work here is,' the woman reached up with her free hand placed it on Derek's cheek as she turned his head to look into his eyes. 'This is our home now. Our home is wherever we are as long as we are together.'

Derek once again closed his eyes as he reached up and held her hand to his face feeling the warmth in her fingertips spreading through his cheek. He opened his eyes and stared into her eyes as they darted back and forth across his face; her pupils dilated.

'I need to cool down,' Derek said as he leaned forward slowly and kissed her on the cheek. 'I'm gonna go have a shower. Can you clean this up?'

She didn't reply or say anything she simply smiled back and watched as Derek stood up from the table and walked around the corner into the small hallway. Derek opened and closed the bathroom door gently behind him taking a deep breath as he leaned back against the door. He reached up and rested his hand over the pendant of his necklace taking deep breaths as he tried to slow his heartbeat. Derek calmed himself down and reached up to his right to turn on the lights as he stepped away from the door to look at himself in the mirrored door of the medicine cabinet hanging on the wall above the sink to his right. He rested his hands on the counter the sink was built into for a moment as he looked himself in the eyes before he grabbed turned on the tap and splashed several handfuls of cold water onto his face. Derek turned the tap off and looked at himself once more in the mirror. He turned around and reached down to pull off his underwear and placing in the laundry hamper in the corner beside the sink. Derek opened the sliding frosted glass door of the shower and stepped inside wiggling his toes against the dry floor. The water was ice cold as it poured from the showerhead taking almost a minute before it finally warmed up and steam began to fill the room. Derek rested his hands against the walls looking up into the showerhead as the water poured across his face.

She didn't make a sound as she stepped into the bathroom opening and closing the door again without the faintest whisper of a sound. She began to pull the clothes off her body and let them fall to the floor. Derek barely noticed as she slid open the shower doors and stepped inside. A sudden shiver ran through Derek's body and he took a deep breath as he felt her arms wrap around his chest, her naked body pressed up against him as she lightly kissed his back.

'I thought you already had a shower?' Derek almost whispered as he reached behind him with one hand and placed it against her thigh.

'You weren't in it,' she whispered in his ear as she placed another kiss on the back of his neck.

Derek turned slowly in her arms until he stared into her eyes placing one hand against the small of her back, pulling her waist in close to his, and placing the other hand against her cheek as he leaned in and placed his lips against hers kissing slowly at first until passion and desire took control of their bodies as she forced her lips against his more aggressively. Derek twisted his fingers into her hair pulling her head back as he kissed the underside of her chin and moved his lips down across her neck sliding his hand over the smooth curve of her buttocks resting on the backside of her thigh pulling her leg up and around his waist. Slowly she lifted and wrapped her other leg around Derek's waist as he carefully rested in a sitting position on his knees. Her fingers pulled at Derek's hair as she passionately kissed him rhythmically moving her waist against his. She pulled her fingers from his hair and rested them on his shoulders, as he rested his hands on her back as he she leaned back and Derek moved his lips down her neck to gently kiss her breasts as she rocked back and forth building her pleasure moaning with ecstasy. Her moans became louder and louder, her fingernails digging into Derek's back, until her body erupted with a sense of pleasure. For a moment her grip on Derek's shoulders relaxed as she moved them back up and tangled them within Derek's hair as she passionately kissed him. Her lips traced across his cheek and down the side of his neck until her head rested upon her shoulder, breathing contentedly as he held her in his arms. They sat there on the floor of the shower, the hot water pouring over their entwined bodies, for what seemed like hours until she lifted her head off of Derek's shoulder and gave him a softer, gentler kiss on the kiss as she stroked his cheek with her hand.

'I love you,' she whispered.

'I love you too,' Derek replied as he stared into her eyes.

She gave Derek one last kiss as she slowly stood up and stepped out of the shower closing the door behind her. Through the frosted glass Derek watched as she grabbed a towel off the rack hanging on the wall to his left and wrapped it around herself. She picked her clothes up off the floor and slipped out the bathroom door almost as soundlessly as she had entered.

Derek reached up over his head and turned the shower off sitting for a moment to let his body cool down. He felt tired, but it was still early in the morning and he had work that needed to be done. Derek pushed himself up off the floor and stepped out of the shower grabbing a plain white towel of the towel rack and drying himself off. He wrapped the towel around his waist as he opened the bathroom door and stepped out into the hallway. He briefly looked out into the lounge room and dining room. She wasn't around, he thought, and the bowls of fruit were still sitting on the table where he had left them. Derek turned to his right and quietly opened the bedroom door. There she was sitting in bed with the covers pulled up to her waist, wearing the same blue singlet top she had on before, reading a book titled, "Olympus." She briefly looked away from her book with a smile as Derek walked to the wardrobe. Derek pulled a pair of black denim jeans and a plain white button-up shirt and tossed them down on the bed. He changed in silence while she continued to read, occasionally looking away from the page to look at Derek. He couldn't help but smile every time he caught her watching him as he got dressed. When he was done he grabbed the towel he had dropped while changing and took it with him as he walked out the bedroom door, catching one last look over his shoulder at the woman in his bed.

Derek slung the towel over his shoulder as he walked out into the dining room and grabbed the two bowls of fruit off the table. He carried them into the kitchen and pulled the fridge door open with his foot placing the bowls inside. He didn't want to waste any of it. Derek closed the fridge door and proceeded around the corner into the hallway and opened the door on his left. Inside was the laundry with a washer and drier standing side by side and an empty laundry basket in the corner. Derek lifted the lid off the basket briefly as he dropped the wet towel into the bottom of the basket and put the lid back on. He stepped out of the laundry and closed the door behind him. Derek continued to the end of the hallway and opened the door at the end leading into his workspace. As he opened the door Derek searched the wall for the light switch and flicked it on. The fluorescent lights came to life with a buzz and lit up the room. The room was almost twice as large as the living and dining room with every inch of wall space occupied by large computing towers reaching from the floor to the ceiling. Derek walked slowly around the room looking up at the cooling fans in the ceiling making sure they were all working. The computing towers generated incredible amounts of heat required numerous fans, both internal and external, to prevent the systems from overheating. At the other end of the room was a glass door leading out into the garden where Derek grew the fruits and vegetables. In the center of the room was a large arch-shaped desk adorned with shelves full of folders and textbooks with a small filing cabinet standing beside the table. At the center of the table was a series of three computer monitors arranged side-by-side wirelessly connected to each other and all of the computing towers in the room. Derek took a few minutes to walk around the room checking each of the computing towers to ensure they were functioning at full capacity and operating at normal temperatures before taking a seat at his desk in an ergonomically designed mesh chair. With a push of a small button on the underside of the center monitor the room buzzed with a whirring sound as the system sprung to life.

It only took a moment for the monitors to display three unique desktops with the left screen depicting a beautiful tropical beach, the right screen showing the beauty of the forests and mountains of the European countryside. Derek's eyes lingered on the centre screen captivated by a photo of the woman currently lying in his bed reading sitting on a park bench with a young girl, no older than the age of four with the same fair-coloured blonde hair and brown eyes shared by her mother, sitting on her lap with a gap-toothed smile. Derek stared at the photo for almost ten minutes before started pressing his fingers against the touch screen monitors searching through numerous programs and screens continuing his work from where he had left it the day before.

The hours passed as Derek calculated and input data received from a series of sensors placed at various points in the surrounding landscape. Nothing ever changed, Derek though to himself, as he double-checked all his calculations. It was barely passed midday when Derek was ready to turn in his daily report. He opened a new screen on the center monitor. It appeared black at first until Derek slid open a small port on the top of his computer monitor revealing a small camera. Derek was suddenly looking at himself on the monitor. He tapped the center of the monitor and a small box appeared reading: "Record?" Derek tapped the screen again and a small timer appeared in the top corner of the screen as the film started recording.

'This is Captain Derek Parsons, serial number 0744262, stationed at outpost forty-seven reporting in at twenty minutes past two o'clock on the 16th of April, the year is 2052 by Earth reckoning,' Derek paused for a moment as he looked away from the screen. 'Not entirely sure what I can report at this time. I don't even know if anyone out there is still receiving these packages. Atmospheric readings show that the initial success of the terraforming project has become inert and the atmosphere remains unsuitable for human colonisation.

It has been one hundred and twenty-two days since I lost contact with Space Station Axalon in Mars's orbit. I have lost radio communications with Central Command and all other outposts. I have attempted to locate some of the other outposts, however it is proving difficult. I have located outposts forty-one, thirty-two and seventeen. In all three instances the outposts appear to still be in working condition with gardens providing clean fresh oxygen and food, filtration systems still providing clean water, computer systems still operational, but the outposts' locater beacons had been deactivated. Wardrobes were still filled with clothes, but whoever lived there had seemingly disappeared without a trace. Computer systems show no trace of what may have happened. Log records indicate regular reports to the Axalon with the last entry occurring on December 16th, 2051, Earth reckoning. After that there is no logs of any kind reporting any sort of activity.

I have reactivated and will continue to reactivate the beacons of any outposts I find, but without a rover to speed my search I can only search on foot for as long as my water supplies last before having to return to the closest outpost in order to replenish my supplies. With no response from the Axalon my only hope is to find Central Command, but without the locater beacon active it may take me months, maybe even years, of searching grid by grid before I find it. I just wish that I could understand what has happened and where everyone has gone and why we're the only ones left. If you're still up there and you receive this message, we're still here; we're still alive. This is Captain Derek Parsons, signing off.'

Derek tapped the monitor with his finger and the recording paused. He tapped a small button that appeared in the top left corner of the screen labelled "Send." A moment passed and a message reading: "Package sent" appeared and the program closed down. Derek sat for a moment with his head resting in his hands. He began to shut off the computer systems and got up out of his chair switching off the lights as he left the room. Derek returned to the bedroom where he found her still reading. She looked up and smiled at him as he pulled off his shirt and climbed into bed beside her lying down on his side facing away from her. She closed her book and placed it down on the bedside table as she laid down on her side wrapping one arm around Derek's waist and propping herself up with the other.

'What's wrong, sweetie?' she asked.

'Do you think we'll ever go home?' Derek replied.

'Sweetheart, you know why we came out here. A fresh start. A chance to start a new life. What does it matter if we ever go home? We have each other.'

'Four months without a word. Four months without a fresh supply of meat living off of fruits, vegetables and supplement pills. How long can we really last out here?'

'None of that matters as long as we're together.'

Derek reached down and took her hand within his and locked his fingers between hers. 'I love you,' he told her.

She pulled her hand away from his and traced her fingertips up along his arm until her hand rested on her shoulder. She leaned in close, he could feel her breath against his neck, as she whispered in his ear, 'Does it bother you that I'm not real?'

Derek hesitated for a moment before he turned over to look at her, but before he could give her his answer she was already gone.