THE END

Chapter 4

"This is all my fault." Neil said. "I should have tied the rope tighter, showed you how do ease your way down so it doesn't snap. I should've gone down at the same time as you to watch your rope. And now you're going to die down here because of me-"

"Neil." I cut him off. "This isn't your fault. None of this is your fault." A sudden idea striking me, I say, "Check your duffle, do you have a patch?"

Patches are exactly what they sound like. They're these little stickers that you place on your skin, and each one is engineered to do different things. Scientists made one that can heal. It's not perfect, and it's certainly not magic, but it would surely lessen the pain.

"Maybe." Neil said. "Let me check."

And so for the next few minutes he rummages through his bag, only to come up empty handed. "Try my bag." I say. He searches and searches and then suddenly stops, jerking his arm out of the bag.

"I found it!" He says. "You actually had one!" And then he rolls me over and pulls up the back of my shirt about halfway. I'm in too much pain to be embarrassed. He sticks the patch on my lower back and immediately I feel better. My legs feel completely fine, as if I never fell. My back pain is cut in half, and my headache is gone entirely.

I roll back over and sit up. "I feel better already." I give him a hug and he seems surprised but immediately hugs back. "Should we try climbing back up?"

"You aren't healed enough for that, I don't care about the patch. You need time to rest. Try holding onto my back like a piggy back ride and I'll climb up."

"Are you sure? We still have the duffels; I don't want you to have to carry all that."

"I'll be able to handle it." He says, lifting one duffel onto each shoulder and me onto his back.

"Be careful!" I tell him.

"Hold on tight." Is all he says. He walks to the wall of the ravine, makes a loop in the rope, and throws it up over and over again until it catches on a rock about 3/4 of the way up. He tugs on it to test its strength and then begins to climb. We're wobbly at first because of the awkward weight of me and the duffels, but soon he balances out. He climbs in steady rhythm with what seems like impossible strength, and soon we make it to the end of the rope. There's about 10 more feet to go.

He unties the rope from the rock and tosses it up until it snags on another rock, and then he begins climbing again. Once, he loses his footing, and we almost fall. I shriek as rocks tumble down below us, but soon he rights himself and we make it to the top. He practically falls up onto solid ground, exhausted from carrying so much weight.

I immediately give him some water and sit beside him, wishing there was more I could do. He rests for about ten minutes, panting because of the polluted air, and then we start moving again. We keep going for about two more days before reaching the Optillar. Neil insists on carrying me the first day, but then he lets me walk.

On the way we pass through old, forgotten towns, and fields that used to be kept up, now grown over with wild weeds. We pass more old train tracks, so rusted and corroded that you can barely tell they used to be metal. We pass unruly forests, ponds run over with wild life. We see plants literally growing out of old buildings, and we see a few things that we think are automobiles, now rusted and broken down.

Everything we pass by is dilapidated and old. I imagine what it all must have looked like, centuries ago, when people were everywhere and the sky was clean and clear. When you could see stars every night, and when shiny new cars still roamed the streets.

Earth is a sad place now, compared to what it used to be.

Eventually we reach the Optillar, an underground airport that's always busy. People and machines everywhere, no one seeming to know where to go. Before we enter, I tie my hair up so it looks short, and we each swipe a pair of glasses from a shop. That'll have to be a good enough disguise.

It's strange not being able to see the sky, just a metal roof and metal pipes everywhere. The artificial golden light casts an eerie glow on things. There are people going every which way, ducking into shops and rarely stopping even for a moment. Every once and a while an official appears. We pass by with our heads down, trying not to be seen. We keep our eyes peeled for an opportunity to steal two tickets, but most people don't just keep them in plain sight.

Up ahead I see a couple talking, with two tickets sticking out of the woman's pocket. I see that one of them says Jupiter. I can't read the other, but it's a risk worth taking. I feel bad stealing, but it's our only chance. We have to get off Earth or we'll die. We have to get to Jupiter to find Neil's family.

As we walk by the couple I casually slip the tickets out of her pocket and into my duffel. We make it about twenty feet ahead of them before she notices the missing tickets. We walk slightly faster, but she doesn't suspect us. We've gotten far enough away that we're in the clear.

We duck around a corner and I breath I sigh of relief. "That was too close." Neil says.

"Yeah. Now how do we get a pod?" I ask.

"And not just any pod, it has to be one scheduled to go to Jupiter." Neil adds. We walk to the dock, where all the pods are kept, and take a look at our tickets. Apparently we're Martha and John Belliard. "If they ask, we're brother and sister. We're a bit too young to be married." Neil says with a wink. I blush and let out a laugh.

We approach a pod in the Jupiter section and see an official standing near it. Thankfully it's a Saturn official, who wouldn't recognize us. We show him our tickets and he raises an eyebrow in question. "Husband and wife?"

"Brother and sister." Neil says with a laugh.

The officer visibly relaxes and says, "Right this way." He leads us to a pod about 5' by 5', a metal sphere that's painted a dark blue. He opens the door for us and we step inside. "Now, the ride to Jupiter will be about 24 hours. I know it's a long flight, but it's far away. There are snacks in the compartments and a small toilet in the back. In the case of your pod going off track, there's a radio built in that you can use to contact nearby pods to help you. Any questions?"

We can't think of anything so he says, "Enjoy your flight!" And shuts the pod door. We place the duffel bags between our feet and strap ourselves into the seats. Neil takes my hand and the metal roof of the Optillar opens. I see the sky above through the clear ceiling of the pod and then we're off. We shoot up through the sky at top speed, the sunset all around us.

"We did it we did it we did it!" I shout.

"Whoooooooo!" Neil lets out a holler and I look outside. This is the last time I'll ever see Earth.

The bombs filled the sky with black clouds of smoke, and so much of it rained down into the oceans that they're black as well. The sunset casts eerie, blood red rays between the clouds and everything glows with sort of a golden light. It's an experience like no other.

The pod passes through the black clouds faster than I can think and within minutes we're going through the atmosphere. I question how we aren't burning up, and how the pod has enough oxygen for us, but the scientists know what they're doing. They built the pods just for this.

We break through the atmosphere and suddenly we're in space. We're in space! "Look! Look!" I shout to Neil as our speed slows and stabilizes. We float through space at a steady speed, surrounded by stars and planets in the distance. There are far off nebulas and super novas, I see the moon in the distance, and it's like we're surrounded by the most dazzling light display in history.

I look down at the Earth and it just looks gray. No blue, no green, just... gray.

We really made it out. We're going to survive!

Neil throws back his head and shouts, looking more excited than I've ever seen him. "We're going to Jupiter!"