Messummer

Chapter V: Hoverscooter 23

        It felt like the meteor shower would never end. I pushed through it, narrowly avoiding the rocks from hitting my wings, and said to Dan, "We need to get you back to PPMC."

"Becca, we've got to help those dinosaurs." Dan still did not understand my lingo. He pointed at a herd of long-necked creatures below. They shook unevenly on their four legs, which led me to believe the earth was shaking. "Becca, please," Dan begged.

"Daniel!" yelled his wrist box. "Hoverscooter 23 is coming up on you from behind."

"It is?" he asked.

Something swooshed over my head. My flight and fight response told me to duck under it. It was a red, oval-shaped, floating figure with white stripes at its front and back.

Before I could move out of the way, one of the flaming rocks smashed into my left wing. I did not dare look at the severity of the wound. The smell of my sizzling membrane was enough for me.

"Becca!" Dan said. The rock's impact chucked him over my crest. He dropped down toward the group of long necks. The strange, oval-shaped object chased him. I barely caught a glimpse of "Hoverscooter 23" on its side. Then I, too, started to plummet.

My membrane sizzled and sizzled; there was no telling when it would stop. The Valley of Green looked closer than it was supposed to be.

The oval-shaped object caught Dan and lowered him onto the field's dirt. I used my remaining strength in my right wing to help me land.

The group of long necks Dan saw rushed to take shelter in a cave at the end of the field. Smaller creatures running on two legs followed close behind.

I moved out of the way when a dead flier crashed next to my bad wing. He was nothing more than bones. I assumed the flaming rocks incinerated him, just like my poor daddy.

"Becca!" I heard Dan call. He slid off his object and came toward me.

The heating ground under us shook. It was so powerful and unusual–like no earthquake I had ever felt. A fissure appeared between Dan and me. The ground broke apart. New rocks burst out of the surface. They pierced the red heavens. I noticed a giant cloud coming toward the valley. Different-colored lightning flashed in it. The closer it approached, the hotter it became.

Dan noticed it, too. "The ejecta cloud!" he said. He was drenched in sweat. His eyes rolled over to the creatures piling in the cave, but then he saw another enormous, flaming rock in the sky. It headed straight for the shelter. "No!" he cried.

What was he doing? Was he insane? He hopped onto his oval-shaped object and zoomed forward.

I leaped over to a piece of land still intact to the ground when another rock rose out of it. The smell of smoke filled my nostrils. "Dan, stop!" I screeched.

Dan brought his floating object to a halt in front of the cave. He gestured the creatures out. "Guys, please, listen to me. You need to get out of there. It's too dangerous." Both he and I gasped at the sight of the rock drawing closer. The singed smell grew stronger, and then the woods surrounding the area burst into flames. The Clumped Woods. Gone. Just like that.

"Get out!" Dan screamed.

One of the long neck's jaws dropped. He took one step forward, but the asteroid smashed into the cave. Dust and smoke from the impact zone blocked out the sun.

I lost Dan in the cloud. "No, no, no!" I said. "Dan!" My claws hit the ground with so much force that I lost one of them. That did not stop me. I leaped into the dust and searched for my friend, stepping over rocks and dead long necks in the process. The fire quickly spread into the field. "Daniel!" I called. There he was.

He lay on top of the bloodied head on the long neck who tried to escape, knocked out cold, with his floating object next to him.

I hurried toward him, desperate, but then I heard a loud sound behind me. Powerful feet. A brown-skinned, sharp-toothed beast leaped into the dust cloud. Rows of sharp teeth filled his powerful jaw. His beady eyes bore into mine. He scooped up one of the smaller creatures, who had been hiding in the cave, and swallowed it whole. Its blood stained his lips like tree sap. Roaring, he swung his powerful tail back and forth.

Dan stirred behind me. He coughed and lifted his head off the long neck. "Oh, man, what happened?" he asked, rubbing it. "For a second, I thought I heard a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Ah!" At the sight of the monster, his eyes almost popped out of their sockets. "I did!" Clearing his throat, he said in a sarcastic voice, "Kids, don't trust your spaceship to take you on a trip through a wormhole. Somebody always gets hurt."

That was not the time to be cracking jokes. Dan tried to crawl away, but the monster leaped over my head. He shook the ground in front of Dan when he landed. The poor boy screamed again.

"Leave him alone!" I said. I was a large, powerful creature myself. The beast had no right to pick on somebody smaller than him. Just like him, I jumped, and my head smashed into his light underbody. I knocked him onto his own piece of land the fissure created. I reached for Dan, but he slapped me away.

"It's okay, Becca. I've got this." He pressed something at the end of his floating object. At his command, black, rounded feet, like what PPMC had, appeared under it. Two red things that looked like branches left the object's front. Dan lowered the rounded objects on his head over his eyes again. He pulled up the object's feet and grabbed the branch-like structures. Once he was ready, he started forward.

I painfully flapped my wings and followed him. We left the field and entered the heart of the disaster.