Apocalypse: The Beginning of the End

Chapter IX: Chaos

Apollo Drakos

I couldn't blame Phoenix for collapsing. This news was too much for anyone to bear. Ajax went over to him and said that he was fine and would be up in a few hours.

I felt like collapsing too, but Melissa held my hand, which always made me feel better. Though not so much this time.

I left her hand and walked away from her and collapsed onto a seat. Then I looked outside my window and stared at Earth. Here it was, once a beautiful and colourful planet on which we lived, now just a ball of heat, lava and mysterious yellow clouds.

It looked like a mixture of Mars and Venus a mixture of the worst things on both the planets. It was sad to see it that way.

Suddenly, the window had disappeared and all alone, I drifted right towards the Earth. In no time, I was walking on lava, where I saw huge metallic creatures heading right towards me. They were breathing fire. I tried to dodge them, here and there.

Then I jumped so high that I was on a piece of land in the air that was flying.

"That's how you dodge," said Dad coolly.

And then a metallic monster charged straight at us and blew the land to pieces...

I opened my eyes and felt sharp pain. Then I was thrown in complete darkness. And then something hit my head.

"Wha-?" I managed to say before being hit by something else.

"Wuzz goin' on?" I cried as I finally got to take a breath.

"Youch!" someone screamed.

"Woz happening?" I cried out loud.

"Too late, genius!" said Phoenix. "I hate this stupid bu-bulb!"

"How long have I-" I began but something fell.

"How long have I been out?" I shouted, annoyed.

"Thirty- ah hours!" cried Melissa.

"Thirty hours?" I exclaimed, before my head hit another thing.

"Thirteen, genius!" she cried.

I slid to the front and banged my knee.

"AAARGH!" I cried and looked at my knee. I could feel the blood on it but I could not see.

"What?" cried Phoenix. "You care about how long you were- ah- you were out? How can you be so calm?"

"I'm not!" I said, as I was knocked to the window.

I had one glance outside but that was enough to tell me what was going on. There were at least a dozen ships crashing into each other including ours.

"Where's A Jack?" I cried. "I meant Ajak!"

The last word drowned as I screamed and banged my head once more.

"You really should strap yourselves to the seat, kids," said Mr Aetos.

"Protection!" came Ajax's mechanical voice, loudly. "It's my job to protect the three of you! I'm covering the ship with titanium!"

Then I managed to get onto a seat somehow and tried staying there, but it was no use. I fell off and hit my head against something squashy, which I suspected was the seat.

Then someone grabbed my face and their grip was strong.

"Woah!" I yelled.

"Sorry!" Melissa shouted in my ears.

All of a sudden, the shaking slowed down drastically. That does not mean it stopped. But at least, it was not unbearable. So we looked out and still saw the ships there but did not understand why the shaking had reduced so much.

"How did that happen?" exclaimed Melissa.

"Protection!" came Ajax's voice from somewhere in the front. "I added titanium to the ship. It's ninety-seven percent protected."

Then I spotted a light source. As it brightened up, I realised it was Ajax's eyes. Then I looked at the ship. It was a mess.

"The fuel has been turned on," he said.

"What?" I exclaimed. "I thought that it would... explode if it hit anything too hard."

"There's the titanium for that," Ajax replied.

"That's a weird robot," said Mr Aetos.

"What about the other three percent of the protection?" said Phoenix. "And yes, that one is."

"We cannot be a hundred percent secure," said Ajax.

"Hey, Ajax," I said. "Are we going off course?"

"Slightly, sir," said Ajax. "A little turning shall ensure a safe landing. There is also a slight increase in speed."

"Thank goodness," I exclaimed.

"You were lucky," said Ajax. "But we need to hurry."

"I knew it," said Phoenix, softly.

Just as he finished his last word, the turbulence began yet again. I didn't understand how this was possible. Ajax claimed he had added extra protection. Maybe things were getting worse outside.

Every part of my body was aching and it felt like I was on fire. Ajax's light intensity reduced slowly as he went to fix the ship.

There wasn't a single crack on the wall, the floor or the ceiling of the ship. Yet everything was being tossed around inside. I also noticed that breathing was getting more difficult.

Meanwhile my body was just being thrown everywhere just like a ball that is in a room that never stops bouncing here and there.

Then all of a sudden it stopped.

"Are we still in the same speed as before?" asked Phoenix sarcastically and out of breath.

"No," said Ajax calmly. "We're faster, but I can slow it down, even though I'm not programmed to be able to. Direction is a little off. The disturbance is caused by the other spaceships which are manned by other machines."

Ajax turned on his light and to my horror, Melissa lay on the floor. She had clearly collapsed.

"I feel dizzzzzy," panted Phoenix as he collapsed too. "If I die, tell them I love sandwi-"

I realised I was dizzy too. My head began spinning, and my head was going blank. Everything blacked out.

It felt like only a second had passed, but when I woke up, I was staring straight into Melissa's heavily scarred face. My legs were hurting horribly.

"Oh!" she cried, squeezing me. "Thank goodness!"

The heavily-scarred Phoenix threw me a sandwich from somewhere to my right.

"It was the last and I saved it for you," he said.

"Fanks," I muttered and got up to my feet. My legs hurt even more. I had to climb onto the seat with my bare hands.

"Well," he said. "I'm really glad you're alive."

"Why?" I asked. "You thought I died?"

"Long story," said Phoenix.

Then I looked around and it looked like the event had never taken place. Everything was in its place. I looked outside wanting to see Earth, but it was no longer there.

"Yeah," said Phoenix. "We left the orbit, by the way. Long time ago. And I corrected our course."

I could not stand any longer. I settled down in a seat and Phoenix followed suit. Then I gobbled up my sandwich. Everything looked so cheerful that I didn't feel like our space journey was a burden. It was an adventure, an excellent adventure that Phoenix, Melissa and I were sharing.

"Wait, wait, wait," I said, realising what he said. "A long time ago?"

"Yeah," said Melissa as she came into view. "You were out for about thirteen hours before the spaceship crashing event. After that, Mr Aetos worsened your condition. We land on the Moon in less than twenty-four hours if all goes well."

"Mr Aetos?" I said, sitting up properly.