Moon Landing 

We evacuated earth as swiftly as possible. It wasn’t the way we’d originally planned it but we decided that it would be the quickest way. The spacecraft we’d expected, came in trailing behind a comet, and we’d launched ourselves onto it, heading we thought, for a new solar system. Imagine our surprise when it took us to Earth’s Moon instead.

We were a party of thirty nine souls and with that number we could nearly fill up the Moon Dome that had recently been built there. Even though it wasn’t the future we’d planned, it could be interesting. It had been the hope of our group that we’d be elevated to a level higher than that of mere mortals. We thought we would achieve enlightenment outside our solar system among the stars. So far I couldn’t see any elevation among my fellow travelers. In fact some seemed to be faring badly.

I gazed at the others and thought we looked like some kind of futuristic convicts in our identical black shirts and sweat pants along with our brand new black and white Nike wind runner athletic shoes and armband patches. There were women with us but they were dressed in exactly the same way we were. It wasn’t an attractive outfit for them, but it didn’t matter to me since I was one of the select ones who had undergone castration in order to better serve. They had called us a cult on earth but we had known the true way. Our arrival here was proof of that. Others had said it was all fantasy and couldn’t be done. We’d proved that we were right and they were wrong.

I cleared my throat which was still burned by the fuel that that had brought me here. We’d used a concoction of Phenobarbital and vodka as well as cyanide and arsenic mixed in pudding to launch us toward the space ship that trailed after the Hale Bop comet. Our armbands proudly portrayed our name which was Heaven’s Gate. In our pockets we each had a five dollar bill and three quarters, the magic number required to enter the spacecraft. Our youngest was twenty six and our oldest member was seventy two. Age didn’t matter in the new world. We were children of the next level.

The Great Comet had been exceptionally bright and had totally amazed us. Everyone had gaped in awe. We had believed but then again, we had failed to believe as well. Our faith had fluctuated. When we had ingested the poison and laid ourselves out on our funeral beds, we had felt like we were a part of something much bigger than ourselves. Of course we’d been told that the comet was trailing a spaceship behind it that would take us to another world, but had we really believed it? I don’t think I did. I was just ready to go on to the next adventure, to see what it was like on the other side.

I see tall man like beings through the mists of the moon. They are ushering us into the huge Moon Dome, rushing us even.  What is that about? When I delay, I’m shoved hitting the next man in line and sending him spinning forward. Soon all of us are pushed inside the Dome. I hear the slam of the mighty iron doors as they click into place locking us inside.

“What’s going on,” I ask.

My voice can’t be heard above the wailing of the others.

“What are they doing,” I demand.

No one answers.

Later a loudspeaker tells us what is going on. I shudder as I hear:

“You’re here today because you left earth in an untimely manner. In an effort to avoid the normal life span planned for you, you took your own lives, grabbed onto the spacecraft towed by Hale Bop and the rest is history. However, it’s not that simple. You can’t circumvent the power of the heavens. Your lifespan must be served, if not on earth, then it will be served here in this prison of your own making. Although you may have heard that purgatory is somewhere inside the earth’s core, that is no longer true. Purgatory has been moved to the Moon’s surface now with all new accommodations.

Welcome to purgatory!”

Tears welled in my eyes as I realized that instead of entering Heaven’s Gate as promised, I had entered Hell’s Dome. I cried for all I’d been promised and cheated out of, for all the sacrifices I’d made to fit in with the group, and for time lost to me. I’m the youngest one here so I suppose that means that my normal lifespan may cause me to serve the longest sentence in this place of doom. If only I’d known. You don’t follow others if they jump off a cliff and you don’t follow them when they hi-jack a space ship.

If you do, like me you may end up in purgatory one of the saddest men on the moon.