Chapter 6: SMILE/STARS

"I couldn't make it in time…" She looked in shock, hands covering her mouth as she stood in front of me.

I still couldn't move, I tried my best but my muscles wouldn't budge. I could feel the smile that was stuck on my face, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't stop. I was scared for my life, my heart started beating even faster. Was I going to stay like this? Was I going to die?

"No! No! No!" Tears started running down Mira's face as she ran up and hugged me. "This can't be happening!"

"I'm not going to die, am I?" I managed to slip those words through my grin. This was the first time I saw her like this, which made me start to panic a lot more. "If the thingy blows up I'll be okay right?!"

"I'm sorry…" She didn't move, just held me in her arms.

"I'm going to be okay right?" She avoided my question again. "If the thing explodes you said-"

"I know what I said!" Her grip got tighter. "If we blow up the rift, everything should go back to normal-"

"Then just blow it up and I'll be okay right?" I don't get why she was so panicked about this if everything would be fine.

"Everything will go back to normal…" She pulled away and looked me in the eyes. Tears were running down her face. "Except for you…"

"Why not me?" I asked. "If everything goes back to normal-"

"You were directly involved with the closing of the rift!" She said, as she looked away. "Whatever effects it had on you will stick even after…"

"But you have a plan right?" I asked one more time, hoping for any slimmer of hope.

All she said was: "I'm sorry…"

It really was a mistake putting my trust into someone I barely met a couple of hours ago. I couldn't believe it…This is how I'm going to die…

If this was it, I guess I had to accept my fate. Tears started rolling down my eyes… I don't want to die, I thought to myself as I slowly closed my eyes and waited…

"No!" In the pitch darkness I heard her yell. "This isn't supposed to happen this way!"

I opened my eyes to stare directly at the ground. Mira was holding me over her shoulder, carrying my body with her as she ran.

"I'm going to save you no matter what!" She was surprisingly strong despite her slim figure.

We continued down the hallway, her pace sped up as soon as we heard footsteps behind us. It was starting to get harder to keep my consciousness. My vision was getting blurry and I could barely see anything in front of me. Darkness was overtaking me.

"We're almost there!" I heard Mira say as she opened a door and ran through it.

"What's going on?" I didn't know where we were, I couldn't see anymore. My vision was gone and so was all my other motorory functions. All I knew was I was standing still now, and the only thing I could do was listen. My ears still worked barely but I could tell that that wouldn't last long either.

"I'm going to fix you…" She sounded like she was concentrating on something. I heard the clinking of glass and machines whirring.

"How?" I asked. "I thought you said there was no cure…"

"There isn't!" She responded. "But that's why I'm going to be the first person to invent one!"

Her voice seemed worried but also had a hint of excitement. But was she really smart enough to make a cure for an unknown virus? I barely knew her and the rest of my life depended on this moment.

"Should be easy enough!" She didn't sound very sure of herself as she spoke those words. "If I just use the data they already have and build on top of it…"

There was a loud bang on the door, and a couple of screams. It seemed to be some foreign language I couldn't understand.

"Shit!" She said banging the table. All I could hear was her steps moving frantically all around the room. "What is it? What is the missing link?"

The banging on the door was getting louder. I can hear the screech of the door slowly being forced open.

"What is it?" Mira kept repeating those words to herself.

My consciousness was slowly starting to slip now. I would fade in and out, so I could only hear parts of what was happening. Everytime, it felt like I was being pulled deeper and deeper into a trance. A soft voice was calling my name. It sounded so familiar and warm, telling me to just let everything go.

The voice, it sounded like a woman's. Her soft voice whispering to me to forget about everything, that life would be easier if I let it all go. I want to listen to her, to let go of everything. I was feeling some sort of peace. I could see a light, shining in the dark. A certain warmth was drawing me towards it. I reached out my hand-

"BINGO!" Mira yelled, breaking me out from that trance. "I did it! I figured it out!"

I felt a warm liquid being poured down my mouth, and going down my throat. It tasted bitter like an even bitter version of cough syrup. There was a burning sensation in my stomach, but I was slowly starting to regain my vision again.

We were in some sort of lab, there were a lot of test tubes scattered around, along with screens and different scientific looking machines.

"Jae…" Mira was kneeling in front of me with tears in her eyes. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"How?" I was finally regaining control of my limbs again.

"I tried over a million different possibilities- combinations, trials, and retests…" She smiled brightly. "It finally worked!"

When the guards finally got in we were already long gone from the lab. We took the backdoor out and fled down the hall. Reaching the hangar bay we were once in front of, Mira stuck out her arm and stopped.

It was a large hangar bay, filled with lots of different kinds of spaceships. The kinds of stuff you would see out of your favorite sci-fi movies. All lined up evenly, with enough space to take off.

"Where is it?" She was looking around at the different ships in the hangar. Her eyes seemed to catch one. "This is the one!"

"Really?" I asked in disbelief. There were dozens of cooler looking spaceships in the hangar, but she chose the worst looking one. The size of it was the size of a one story house, but compared to the others it was small. The color was an ugly dull green and on top of that it was rusted all over, it would be a surprise if it even managed to fly.

"Yep! This is it!" She put her hands on her hips and smiled in triumph. "This here is Starla!"

"Starla?" Even more disbelief. Her taste in names was almost as poor as her choice in spaceships.

"Yes…Starla!" She repeated. Taking my hand she ran up to the backside of the ship and pressed a button. The door descended from the underside of the ship, and acted as a ramp.

She pulled me along past a couple of rooms in the ship and straight towards the cockpit. The doors opened to reveal the controls for the ship along with four seats. Mira sat immediately in the front left seat with the steering wheel in front.

"So this is where you've been…" She takes off the bracelet from her wrist, and gently places it in a slot that matches perfectly. The engines on the ship started to whir and the panels lit up. Mira took hold of the steering wheel and yelled: "Hold on tight!"

The ship lifted off the ground, and turned straight for the giant blast doors. And with a jolt it blasted towards the doors.

"We're going to crash!" I grabbed on to the nearest seat as I was jolted back by the momentum of the ship.

"No we're not!" Mira slammed the horn of the steering wheel but instead of a honk, two laser beams shot out from the wings of the ship and directly towards the door. The blast door exploded open and we flew through safely.

The ship emerged from the 13th floor on the side of the office building we entered from. Thinking about it now, the whole entire facility somehow managed to fit inside of a twenty story building. But in retrospect, it was nothing as crazy as the kinds of things we saw afterwards.

"And now!" Mira yelled as soon as we emerged from the building. She pressed a button on her bracelet, and as soon as she did- BOOM! The 13th floor of the building erupted into flames. "There we go! Everything should be fine now!"

She looked back and smiled at me, grinning from ear to ear. The ship kept accelerating towards the night sky. I was able to climb into the seat and strap in. It was hard for my kid-body to move around freely, I was amazed at the time how Mira could do it with such ease.

The ship reached past the atmosphere, and there we were… in space!

It was beautiful. The most beautiful scenery I've ever seen at that time. There were stars everywhere, as far as the eyes could see. It looked like a scene straight out of the movies. It was always a dream of mine to see stars this close up. Ever since I heard of stars from fairy tales my mom used to read me.

The ship came to a halt, and I immediately hopped out of my seat. My mouth dropped in awe. Mira took notice and stood by my side.

"The whole universe…" With a bright smile she waved her hand in front of her. "And we can go anywhere we want…"

I looked over at her when she said that. Our eyes met, and I saw the sparkle in her eyes as she gave me a wink.

"So where do you wanna go first?"