Exploding fish party

Max's POV

 

I was hungry, tired, thirsty, and freaking sore. But since whatever "genius" designed these pods thought it was a good idea to NOT include food and water, unless I find something soon, I'm screwed; plain and simple. Most of the wildlife here was probably edible. what was it they said in Zombieland? Ah, I remember: Nut up or shut up. Why am I thinking of gory zombie comedies at a time like this? Well, I guess its better than slowly slipping into crazy-town. I opened the lower hatch of the pod and pulled my mask on as I sank into the cold water.

 

There was a bright moon tonight so it was decently easy to see, and thank goodness it was. I've never liked the ocean in general, but a dark and cold ocean on a foreign planet? How should I put this: LOLS NOPE! Something bright caught my eye. At first I thought it was a swimming animal balloon, but I realized it was a fish. A bright white air-sack-like fish. Y'know what? That's what I'll call them: Airsacks. They swam really slowly so I easily caught two. That should be enough, two fish for dinner. Too bad Don can't eat food, but then again, these might taste like crap.. Screw it, I need food.

 

Narrator's POV

 

Don was twiddling his non-existent thumbs as Max shoved the hatch open and tossed two balloon animals inside. No wait, those were fish.

 

"Do I even want to know.." Max shrugged and pulled herself into the pod, closing the heavy door behind her.

 

"No you probably don't," Max answered nonchalantly. She was flipping through the recipes on the fabricator when she stopped. "Wait a sec..."

 

"Everything okay over there?" Max nodded but her expression said otherwise.

 

"I thought this was a newly discovered planet, how is there this much information on the resources on the planet if no one has been here before?" Both castaways jaws hung open. That was true; if this planet was new how is there this much knowledge? It shouldn't be possible. Popping the fish into the tray, Max decided to not worry about it and deal with the "question of the day" at a later date. The blonde's eyes widened at the fabricator and she nearly screamed in joy.

 

"These things are a source of drinkable water?!" she squealed, a huge grin on her face. Don smiled at her enthusiasm.

 

"According to the computer, they are!" Don did a little dance on the screen as Max was jumping around the pod with joy.

 

Not long after that the two friends were talking until they grew tired, and Max's stomach was happy since it had been fed and hydrated. Not long after that, both of them were asleep with grins on there faces.

 

TIME SKIP UNTIL MORNING

 

Max's POV

 

Don wasn't up yet so I grabbed my stuff as silently as possible and lowered myself out of the hatch. I wanted to investigate those pods today and the sooner I got that done, the better. I found a trio of said pods on the bottom of the shallows; about 15 feet down. On the way down I noticed my ears weren't popping. In fact, I wasn't feeling any water pressure at all! Well, this is an alien planet, so to speak, so the gravity probably isn't the same as earth's.

 

I was about a meter and a half from the middle pod when it opened and a red fish with wicked sharp teeth shot out snarling at me. Instantly panicking, I jolted upwards. Before I broke the surface, a clear BOOM could be heard below me. Not a crazy nuke BOOM, like a firecracker kind of BOOM. I glanced under me to find the fish had disappeared.

 

Did it just blow itself up?!? What kind of planet is this?! A freaking FISH with a SELF-DESTRUCT MODE? What the heck?! I dove back down to see if it had doubled back, but instead I found two more of those fish with their stupid toothy grins. And sadly the self-destruct mode was correct since they exploded when they got within five feet of me. My ears were ringing now and I felt dizzy. I sank a few feet before trying to inhale water and shot to the surface coughing and wheezing. Why would things like that exist?! Y'know what, never mind. Check the pods for anything useful and you can stay in the pod for the rest of the day. 

 

I hesitantly swam to the now open pods to find a fine, red powder at the bottom of each one. I grabbed a handful and swam back to my pod, trying to shake the dizzy feeling I'd gotten. 

 

Don had been waiting for me to get back and looked extremely relieved when I poked my head into the escape pod. 

 

"WHERE WERE YOU?!?! I WAS WORRIED!!" Don practically screamed. I sighed out of exhaustion. 

 

"I was at a party for exploding fish, where else?" I huffed, showing my AI companion the red powder. His eyes widened. It didn't take an Einstein to figure out this stuff would work in our plan. 

 

"How about we worry about the technical parts of the plan today? I am not going out there again without something to shoot those things with." I grumbled, making Don laugh. He nodded and filled me in on the rest of the plan. Oh yeah, this was going to work!