Apocalypse: The Beginning of the End

Chapter VIII: A New Machine

Phoenix Drakos

Let's go back a few hours now and see what made Apollo say that he doubted whether he would be able to live in peace again, or whether he has actually developed a sense of humour after all.

When he slept, Melissa decided to sleep too. I felt wide awake, so I just looked at what had happened to the planet where all of us lived. Dad was still somewhere there, but we couldn't be sure. He could be dying right now, without us knowing it at all.

Otherwise, I felt extremely bored. I wanted to do something fun. When I was a little kid, I used to imagine flying through space, seeing its beauty. It never felt boring. But here I was. If there was anything I could do... but no, I couldn't.

So I just watched the new Earth and the endless void for what felt like an eternity. But I also kept checking how far we had travelled.

It wasn't long before Mr Aetos woke up.

When he saw me, he asked casually, "What did I miss?"

"Nothing," I said.

There was something off about him, so I didn't really feel like telling the truth. However, he raised an eyebrow, almost as if we knew something.

"All of this must be boring?" he said. "Very boring."

"Yeah."

"Did you bring a game?"

"No."

We were a little more than halfway around the globe when Melissa finally woke up. That was a little more than six hours.

She went to the drawer where there were sandwiches, still yawning. She looked at the drawer and had the last sandwich. She began eating. Once she finished, she glared at me.

"How many did you eat?" said Melissa sternly and suddenly, making me jump.

"Just one," I said widening my eyes and not blinking at all.

"LIAR!" she screamed. "TELL ME THE TRUTH!"

Goodness me, she did have a temper.

"Well," I said avoiding her eyes. "Maybe three."

"There were so many sandwiches. WHERE DID YOU HIDE THEM?"

"Calm down," I muttered. "Calm d-"

I stopped because of the murderous look she gave me. I instantly realised I could have said anything else.

Mr Aetos smiled.

"Kids," he muttered.

Her voice was always scary when she screamed. It used to scare the daylights out of me. I don't know how, but it did. Maybe it was because I knew how powerful she was. Eh, some humans are weird.

"Here," I said softly and pointed below my seat.

She grabbed them at once and hid put them in the drawer.

"Don't you dare steal sandwiches again," she threatened, her voice dangerously soft and her eyes narrowed and deadly. "Or you'll be dead before you know it."

Then she had another sandwich. Meanwhile, I looked right at Krazyworld. Well it was Earth, but to me it looked like Krazyworld, so it was that, I don't care what you say.

Suddenly our spaceship shook and it went all dark. A moment later, the lights came back on and it stopped shaking. I fell. Melissa, however, managed to stand, wore her spacesuit and went out the inner door to check what had happened.

A moment later, she brought in a one-inch-long robot. It was quite thin and looked like a miniature man. It looked like it was knocked out.

A piece of paper said "From Dad" in Dad's handwriting, and it was stuck on the stomach area of the robot. There was no mistaking that. I could almost smell Dad's scent on him and there was no mistake that Dad had written it. Either forcibly or otherwise.