As it got hotter, the air began to feel like that of an open stove’s. Even so I squeezed my brother tightly, and he hugged me just as tight. We would probably melt that way.
We stayed in that hole for a long time. We sat there until the screams I thought were perennial were silenced, until the unbearable heat cooled. Until the noises of the Earth breaking apart were only distant echoes.
My arms were tired of being squeezed around my brother, but I was too scared to crawl out of the hole. Scared of what I would find. I knew my brother wouldn’t let go until I did, so after a moment more, I let go and began to try and stand. My brother did the same.
I shook the dirt off myself best I could, and looked out and around us. Rubble. That’s the best word I could use to describe what I saw of the landscape around us. As far as I could see, there was wood and bricks and glass and rubber and all types of trash that used to be my neighborhood, scattered about.
I couldn’t believe that the city, the place where buildings shot to the sky and maglevs could be heard daily, was now eroded to nearly nonexistence, the only sign of someone having been there were the piles of debris, that was barely over ground level. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
The sky was the most surprising part. There basically was no sky. Black, thin clouds hung over us. Behind them was a vast purple sky, filled with millions of glowing stars. There was even that big, rainbow-colored fog up there. Pink and orange emission nebulae could be seen. Why was the air suddenly so thin, like… I could hardly breathe!?
“Kapow, where is our house?”
I jumped and whimpered. I turned and noticed it was Crash who had asked the question. His poor, black eyes stared up at me, white dots floating around his irises.
“Our house was…blown up.” I whimpered. Water came to my eyes.
“Mom! Pop!” I yelled, tears sliding down my cheeks.
Me and Crash yelled until we couldn’t anymore, our breaths too short and not enough air around us to continue.
“Kapow, are they dead?” Crash asked, near tears himself now. I wouldn’t answer him. For his sake or my own. Even though I knew the truth.
We would die here. We would run out of air, wither up, or maybe die of radiation. Who knew? All I knew was that this place was a wasteland, and nothing in our lives would be the same, or even ‘normal’ again.
If only I had done what Pop had said… if only I had just gotten along with Crash while Pop was around to make him happy. Now I’d never see Pop again…or Mom…
“Crash, we have to stick together…” I told him through my cloudy crybaby voice.
“I know. I know, we’re family. I’d never believe you behind.” He assured me. I heard him sniffle.
That’s when a shadow started to cover us, a weird, huge shadow.
“Oh, no!” I screamed and started to run, hopping back into the whole, covering dirt over myself. “Crash! come! Quick!”
“But Kapow, it’s just a-”
Now I was in a rage. He wouldn’t listen to me. Even after our parents died, he still wouldn’t listen, and it would get him killed. Then I would be all alone on a near-deserted planet.
“Crash you idiot just come!”
“Kapow-”
“I don’t mean any harm!”
I heard the weirdest voice I have ever heard in my entire life. It sounded… muffly. Like a voice made from the very back of someone’s throat.
I slowly lifted my head out of the crater to see a huge black, wet nose. That nose happened to be connected to a white muzzle, which had a head, two dark brown eyes, and half-circle ears on either side of it.
I screamed and slammed onto my butt back in the crater, and the creature stretched a paw out to me.
Hmm. His paw pads were black. He must be a polar bear.
My whole hand could fit in his middle paw pad and still have room for like, two more hands. He curled his paw around my hand and pulled me out of the whole.
“Don’t worry, you’re safe now.” He told me, and I looked at my brother.
Crash nodded. “He’s help! And he’s got transportation!” He pointed over to a huge whale that was levitating off the ground. It had a string coming out of its forehead with a bright light at the end of it that hung above his eyes like a fishing pole. There was a banner on the side of the whale that read Exploding Planets Rescue Team.
“Oh. I should have listened to you,” I turned to my brother, who only blinked and gave me a reassuring smile. I smiled back at him.
“I have to search more of the planet for more survivors, so let’s get in the whale!” the polar bear yelled, and began to walk his way over to the flying creature.
On all fours, I was only to his neck. I shivered.
I was glad this guy was on our side.
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