THE END

Chapter 8

We wait, huddled in the corner of the tin building, for what seems like hours. It's definitely longer than any bombing on Earth lasted.

After some time I'm aware of the silence. I don't how long it's been since the bombs stopped coming, but they did. "It's over." I breathe, opening my eyes. We stand up and walk out of the skyscraper, to find that the planet looks much as it did before. No major destruction. I find it surprising at first, but it's not like there was much for the bombs to destroy. Everything is underground besides the skyscrapers, few of which got hit. 

We make our way to the trap door. Neil pulls on the handle and finds it still locked. Not knowing what else to do, we knock. After waiting for a couple minutes, I sit next to the trap door. "They've got to come out sometime." Neil sits beside me and we wait for any sign of life to come and retrieve us.

The planet is entirely silent. The first sound startles me. Footsteps. They're  coming from below, from the city. "Someone's coming!" Neil says, and the trapdoor opens. A head pops out, an elderly man with silvery hair and gray eyes. He pushes the trap door all the way open and climbs out to stand beside us. We stand up and he offers his hand.

"I'm Allon Starboard, Jupiter Rebel Number 11." He says. We shake and offer our names. "Are ye' both alright?" Neil looks at me and then at Allon, nodding. "Good. Sorry we had to lock ye' out, there, we jus' couldn'a put all them others at risk. Keepin' the door open would'a let smoke in, and maybe bombs."

"It's alright..." I say hesitantly. Suddenly I hear steps again, coming from below. Natalie climbs up and comes running to Neil. She pulls him into a quick hug.

"Oh thank god you're both okay. I didn't know what the bombings were like on Earth or whether you were used to it and could find a place to hide. I asked them to leave the door open just an extra second but they couldn't."

"Y'all better get on down stairs before another bombin' hits. That's why everyone was below when ye' first arrived; we was expectin' the bombing." Allon says. So we follow him down a metal staircase that leads down and down and down with no sign of ending.

"That's why it took us so long to get there after you knocked; the staircase is huge." Natalie says. Suddenly the stairs stop and in front of us is a huge opening. It's like someone just scooped out a giant chunk of the planet and we're left with one, giant room, miles wide.

There are metal buildings, tents with small beds inside, metal tables all around for eating and working, metal little houses,  shops and restaurants, street vendors and stands, and much more. It really is a city. It's big enough to easily house 5,000 people, although I think only about 2,000 live on Jupiter.

Neil whistles, "You rebels have sure outdone yourselves."

"And that's not even the whole thing," Natalie says. "There's another layer underneath us, a giant room like this, but filled with weapons and food and all kinds of supplies. Plus of course there are the skyscrapers. We call those the Metal Heads, after some people from the olden days that liked heavy metal music. Something like that. I don't know the whole story."

"So who bombed us just now? Was that earth?" I ask.

"That was Mars, defendin' Earth and Venus from us. But what we do here, at least that there is honorable. We try to bomb away from major cities, so we scare 'em more than we hurt 'em. And usually we only bomb to retaliate after they bomb us. Them officials on the other hand," Allon shakes his head. "They play like they was the heroes, but they bomb us whether there are innocent people in the way or not. They don't care where they hit us, whether people die or not. It's a game to them, and all they care about is stampin' out the rivals. Us 'rebels'."