The Moon and June

If you read/heard the first version of this, you can skip forward to the paragraph starting ‘The explosion had taken Juno by surprise’ but only after inserting the following three sentences into your memory after the barmaid’s wobbling jellies.
                 
                ‘Don’t get too excited. You’ll need your inhaler.’
         
                 Den responded with one finger.

Words 1000

‘Wow, did you see the moon tonight?’ Gary was wiping foam from his lips as he set his slopping glass onto the table.

‘It’s a supermoon or something isn’t it?’ Den took a coaster and carefully scraped the surplus beer to the floor.

‘Geez, Gary, watch it,’ Biz said as Gary lowered his sixteen stone onto the chair, unaware of where he ended and the rest of the world began. ‘Anyway, you’re probably just seeing it near the horizon. It makes it look bigger.’

‘No, really.’ Gary leaned on the table causing the others to grasp their pints. ‘That’s the moon illusion. This is different. I’m telling you, something is going on.’

‘Come on Gary, not the aliens again.’ Biz went silent and stared at his beer as the barmaid leaned over the table collecting the empties, her creamy bosom inches from his left ear. Gary was oblivious and rattled on. No one was listening. Den looked up.

‘Evening June, how’s your Mum?’

‘All right thanks, Den. It was only a cyst.’

‘Glad to hear it. Say hello for me.’

‘Will do,’ she said as she swept off favouring Biz’s red face with a smile and a panoramic view of her décolletage.

‘Them Georgies,’ said Den, shaking his head.

‘What?’ said Gary.

‘No chance,’ said Biz.

‘I might give that a try,’ said Den, his eyes following the barmaid’s buttocks wobbling like jellies on a tray.

‘Don’t get too excited. You’ll need your inhaler.’

Den responded with one finger.

‘Anyway, no, look,’ Gary had entered warp mode ‘I just saw it online. The Russians are doing something. That last mission. It’s not just minerals. And I read that ...’ his voice trailed off as a hush lapped over the room. The television had been turned up and the announcer’s voice had that edge normally reserved for mass shootings and the death of pop royalty.

’Western leaders including Britain’s Prime Minister have universally condemned this latest move.’ On the screen Farage goggled like a hyperthyroid frog and spittle flecked his lips as he barked, ‘Britain will not stand idly by while Russia unilaterally breaks internationally agreed protocols for the exploitation of resources that belong to all mankind.’

‘Yeh, right,’ said a voice at the bar, ‘We’ll send our rapid deployment boy scouts up there.’

‘Fuck me,’ said Den. ‘What? We’re going to declare war on Russia? They wouldn’t even notice.’

‘I told you,’ Gary was breathless, ‘they’re going to blow the thing up.’

‘Don’t be stupid,’ said Biz, but he was looking at June who had stopped midway to the bar with an armful of glasses, her eyes clamped to the screen. She screamed and dropped the glasses. At the same instant the television flashed and then darkened. The room went completely silent till sudden blinding incandescence swamped them. It penetrated every molecule and rendered walls and skin alike transparent. Two people dropped dead straight away, the rest panicked but many were now blind and tumbled, screaming, over each other.

Den recovered first and made his way to the barmaid. She pushed him away and walking slowly across the room, took Biz’s hand and led him to the stairway.
 
The explosion had taken Juno by surprise and her first response belonged to the twenty-year old earthling barmaid that formed her outer cover. Recovering she looked over to Bismillah. He hadn’t activated. This was going to be difficult, but she needed him. Striding over she knocked the human Den aside. He was clearly intent on mating, but she couldn’t waste energy neutralising him. Taking Bismillah by the hand she led him to the opening. It was still shaped like the stairway but already an electric blue halo glowed round the edges. He stumbled and gasped as she pulled him past the inert body of the fat one.

‘Gary, mate.’

‘Come,’ she said, ‘we must hold the gate open. It should not have happened yet but the Russians ...,’ the curse she issued was unintelligible but the seething contempt was clear in any language.

‘What? We can’t leave him.’

‘Yes. He might be useful as fuel.’

‘Fuel?’

She waved her hand, and with a sound like the last of a milkshake being sucked through a straw Gary’s bulk reduced to the size of a mouse. She tucked him between her breasts where he wriggled before emitting a mouse-like sigh.

‘Quick, stabilise this end while I open it all the way,’ she said and stepped into the electric void beyond where the stairs had been.

Bismillah took hold of the sides of the gate but turned his head when he heard Den, plaintive as a small child discovering his parents having sex.

‘Biz, what are you ...’ then perhaps realising there was no possible answer he could understand, ‘where’s Gary?’

‘Den, Gary’s ah, ... safe. He’ll be OK,’ then less sure, ‘I think.’

A stab of command came from the sparking gateway: ‘Bismillah, keep it open.’

Den’s face had turned blue. He collapsed to his knees and was clutching his chest. He was trying to talk but it sounded like a car that wouldn’t start. Leaving the gate Bismillah rushed over and caught him as he collapsed.

‘Your stuff Den. Where is it?’

With panicking hands he frisked Den’s pockets till he found the canister and pushed it between his friend’s lips.

Behind him he heard Juno’s anguished scream. It merged into the rushing sound of hurricane winds which began to churn the contents of his vision in a whirlpool of sound and colour.  The room whisked ever smaller till with a last glug it disappeared.

And was replaced by the bar of the Prince Blucher in full indignation at the latest Russian antics on the moon. No one noticed Gary reappearing with a slight pop and a dreamy smile.

June looked down at the smashed glasses. Den and Biz simultaneously leapt from their chairs to help.

‘Thanks boys,’ she said to both of them, but it was Biz’s eyes she looked into.

There has been some editing but I am still not happy with the last part where time reverses. Is it obvious enough? (The repeated word 'sound' will disappear.)