Stories Collide - A Stuart Gibbs Story

Chapter 5 - Argument on the Moon

Perspective Switch: Charlie Thorne

Charlie was starting to get fed up with Dash.

They had been arguing for the past half an hour, and Charlie just wanted to straighten things out. They were both being honest with each other, but they seemed to have different versions of reality.

"See, Charlie," Dash said, pointing to a SlimScreen. "It says the time, date, month, and year right here. It's May 22, 9:40 PM, 2041. You see? Right there."

"No," said Charlie. "The time and month and date are correct, but the year is wrong."

She pointed to her watch, indicating that it most definitely was not 2041. "It's earlier than 2041."

"But your watch is wrong!"

"No, it's not. Yours is wrong."

Dash bonked his head on the wall a few times.

"And," Charlie continued. "We already had this discussion. We will see what happens on the rocket tomorrow. Because according to you, we're on the moon." She turned away and forgot to walk softly across the room and ended up banging into the ceiling.

"The only thing that is moonlike here aside from that window and the bleakness is definitely the gravity," she muttered angrily, getting up and rubbing her head.

Charlie had never been this grumpy since solving Darwin's clues about evolution. She trusted Dash, but she just wanted to understand. And Dash was not making it easy to understand.

Though Charlie repeatedly denied that they were on the moon, she was slightly convinced. Not that it made any sense, but she didn't know what else to believe.

She wasn't about to admit that in front of Dash, though. Gosh, she thought. I wish Dante were here to be his usual stubborn self and whip some sense into Dash.

Charlie smiled at the thought of Dante being his usual stubborn self. Though she didn't always get along with him, she missed him and Milana. She missed the earth. But as far as Charlie was concerned, she might have been on earth. She didn't know at all.

That was the main thing Charlie didn't like about this situation at all was that she didn't know exactly what was happening. Being a genius, she was incredibly smart and usually had at least a moderate idea of what was going on. But ever since she had mysteriously arrived in this moon base, she felt things were out of her control. Charlie would never admit it, but she was a little scared. She had been arguing with Dash for a while and nothing had made sense. The reason Charlie had never really been scared in her life was because she had always had a good understanding of what was happening. Even when she had been chasing Pandora and Darwin's clues and had ended up in danger many times, she still had had a sense of calm. Most of that was probably due to knowing where she was most of the time. And now she didn't.

Charlie turned back to Dash and said, "I have an idea. It's a bit far-fetched, but it never hurts to try. Sneak me on to that rocket tomorrow."