The Last day on Earth

Below zero

Everyone wakes up with their backs sore not seeing a thing. Ava groans as she sits up and stretches, her back cracks loudly as it starts to feel less stiff. She yawns and stands up looking at the unknown landscape around her. Everyone else gets up and they all try to find their way to the door through the darkness, hitting a few bookshelves on the way there.
After getting a few more bruises and minutes of searching, Rachel finds the front door. "Ava, Izzy?" Rachel shouts to the library. There is a sudden thud and an "Ow!" from somewhere in the store. Books crash on the ground as Ava finally finds her way to the door. She rubs her hand against her head in pain after running into a shelf. "Are you okay?" Rachel asks, trying not to laugh. "Yep, fine." Ava says in an irritated tone. Izzy jogs up to them looking relieved to see them. "Finally, let's get out of here!" Izzy says, pushing past them to the glass door. She pulls the door open and walks out, eager to leave. Ava and Rachel look at each other and leave the building into the light of the moon that's covering a little less than half of the sky.
They look at the parking spot their car's in and realize they've made a mistake. The car melted, it had turned into a pile of metal, glass, and fabric. Everyone goes silent for a moment, staring at the car not knowing what to do. "Hey, look!" Rachel shouts, pointing to a store across the street. Everyone turns to face the store to see a perfectly fine car had crashed into a store. The roof of the store had shielded the car from the raging sun in the day. "That'll work." Izzy says as they all start walking towards the store. "Someone probably did this during the riots." Ava says, staring at the shiny black car. There had been riots everywhere once everyone found out that the world was possibly ending. They get to the store and avoid the shattered glass on the ground while they get to the car. Izzy goes to the driver's seat and opens the door, surprised that it was unlocked. "Everyone in!" Rachel says, realizing that they now have another source of transportation. Ava gets into the back seat of the car and Rachel gets in next to Izzy. She turns the car on and backs out of the store onto the road. "You do know where we're going right?" Rachel asks. "Can I see the map for a second?" Izzy asks, looking into the backseat at Ava. Ava opens her bag and reaches in to get the map. She holds it out to Izzy once she finds it and Izzy takes it from Ava's hands. She unfolds it and gets a good long look at it before handing it to Rachel and grabbing the steering wheel. She starts driving on the path to China at a fast speed dodging everything in the road, focused and silent.
Ava gets lost in her mind as she blankly stares out of the window as Rachel and Izzy have a conversation that she blurred out. She thinks of what space will be like and where they would go. Would they live in space, go to a planet, would they survive? The questions filled her head as she started to remember all of the books she had read about space and time.
"There are different realities than ours, it can be in the past, present or future. Scientists have not discovered how to get to the other realities but they have learned that it does exist." She had read. It was hard to believe, but it was very interesting. What would I be like in another reality, Ava wondered.
Hours go by and the questions don't stop. Then the car stops. Ava looks up to the front at Rachel and Izzy. She looks out of the front window to see orange rays of sunlight starting to peak up. She looks around at the land to see no building nor trees. They were in the middle of nowhere, they had nothing to hide in to protect themselves from the sun except the car which would melt eventually. Izzy and Rachel look at each other and then at Ava. "Ava... I don't think we can make it any farther. This might be the end." Izzy says, fearful. Ava feels her heart sink and then shatter as she realizes she won't live another day. Tears fill her eyes as she gets out of the car. Everyone gets out of the car with her and stands in the middle of the road in front of the car. Rachel and Izzy wrap their arms around Ava and stare at the sun. "I thought we could at least enjoy our last few seconds. You know?" Ava says, her voice shaky and cracking. The sun rises enough to make them feel the burning heat. They all close their eyes and hold each other tightly in fear as their skin starts to burn. They hold their breath as they wait for death to finally take them.
Then, there is a loud explosion and then the heat stops. Everyone turns around with their ears ringing to see what used to be the Sun. It had exploded. There was fire surrounding the explosion with small rocks flying everywhere in the atmosphere. Everyone gets thrown to the ground by a strong blast of air. They all lay on the ground with their eyes unfocused and ears bleeding. It was very painful, but they weren't dead! They weren't going to die just yet after all!
Ava gets off the ground and looks at the destruction. "We have to leave now." Ava thinks to herself, knowing they can't survive without the sun. Their ears stop ringing and their eyes focus. "Everyone get up!" Ava shouts, grabbing Izzy and Rachel's hands and pulling them up. Rachel sits up breathing heavily as Izzy falls back down, limp. Izzy had hit her head and got knocked out during the explosion. "Izzy?" Ava says. Rachel looks at Izzy and checks her pulse. "She's okay." Rachel says, looking up at Ava. "Good, we have to get out of here." Ava says, grabbing Izzy by her feet. "Help me get her in the car." Ava says, lifting her up. Rachel nods and grabs Izzy by her arms. Ava drops her legs and runs to the car. She opens the backseat door and runs back to them.
They lift Izzy up and bring her to the car. They put her in the backseat and closed the door. Rachel and Ava get in the car and start driving again as fast as they can to where they need to be. "Where are we?" Rachel asks. Ava gets the map on the seat where Rachel had left it and opens it. "We're in China!" Ava shouts, not taking her eyes off the map. "Great!" Rachel says, smiling. "The nearest space station is forty minutes away from here." Ava says, looking closely at the map. "Let me see." Rachel says, looking at the map, not stopping the car. She memorizes some of the way and starts the path to the station where they could hopefully get there in time. Ava digs in her bag and gets a cloth and starts wiping the blood from her ears and burns.
After twenty minutes, she looks back at Izzy wondering if she should wake her up and check to see if she's okay. She turns back around after deciding not to bother her and looks at all the odd buildings all around. The buildings were different from Russia, her family didn't travel much so Ava and Rachel never saw anywhere interesting or new other than their hometown. The sky was still illuminated with an orange glow from the explosion. All the fire had gone out but there was still a lot of stardust in the sky. Ava gets startled after hearing Izzy gasp after she awakens. Ava turns to face Izzy to see if she's okay. Izzy looks around squinting as she puts her hand to the back of her head. "Are you okay, Izzy?" Ava asks, looking at the beat up girl. "Huh?- Uh, yeah." Izzy says, sighing. "Okay, we're almost at the station." Ava says. "Oh, good!" Izzy says, excited but hurting.
After a while of driving, they get to the space station. The sky had begun to clear and it had gotten colder. Without the sun there was no warmth at all. Rachel stops the car in the middle of the road and they all get out. They all look at the huge building with a rocket right beside it. It was huge, had big engines and a great amount of space inside. They admire it for a few seconds before realizing they can see their breath when they breathe. Is it really that cold already? Ava thinks to herself, crossing her arms trying to warm up. "Let's go!" Rachel shouts, running to the door of the building. They all follow Rachel into the building and look around the huge place. "Woah." Izzy says, trying to look everywhere at once. "Stop getting distracted! We have things to do!" Ava shouts to Izzy, going up a set of stairs. Izzy runs to the metal stairs where Ava and Rachel are and starts to catch up with them. "Where are we going?" Izzy asks, running up the steps. "I think this is the way to the rocket." Rachel says, looking back at Izzy. "Oh, okay. Do you even know how to fly a rocket?" Izzy asks. "Sort of." Rachel says, remembering reading a book about rocket flying earlier that year. She had been bored and decided to read one of Ava's books that was all about how to get to space and how to fly a rocket. It had been a while but the pages seemed very clear in Rachel's mind. As they get to the top of the stairs, they all look down for a second to see how many flights they climbed. It was a far drop if you fell from the top of the stairs, gladly there was railing from top to bottom. They turn around to see a door that leads to the space craft. Rachel opens the door and walks through to the outside. They all take a step outside and feel the biting cold on their face and skin. They all run across the bridge to the rocket door quickly to get out of the cold. Rachel pulls open the ship door and everyone rushes inside the small room. The rocket was rectangular with a point at the top. Izzy finds a ladder going up to the seats above them. The rocket was standing up so it could shoot right into the sky, like an ordinary rocket. Izzy climbs up the ladder, not looking down as she lifts herself into one of the passenger seats. It was a huge rocket that could fit about nine people. There were five seats at the front window including the driver and four behind it with two seats on both sides. Ava and Rachel climb the ladder up to the front seats with Izzy. Ava gets into the seat next to the driver as Rachel gets into the driver seat soon after. They all put on their seat belts and get ready for what is to come. Rachel starts looking around at the buttons and levers around her, starting to remember what to do. It was all in Chinese but she could tell what was what by the designs. Rachel starts flicking small silver levers on the ceiling and pushes a few colored buttons. The ship lights up and everything starts working. "Wow." Ava says, impressed. "Nice job, Rachel." Izzy says, looking around the rocket with hope. "Thanks." Rachel says, trying not to lose focus. She pushes one more button and checks the fuel gauge. It had almost a full tank, the people before them had been planning to go into space but died before they could. Ava looks out of the front window to see snowflakes floating down from the sky. "It's snowing!" Ava says. Everyone stops and looks out of the window. "Huh." Rachel says, looking back at the controls. "I haven't seen snow in so long." Izzy says, enjoying the view.

It was an exciting but scary experience for all of them, but there was no going back. It was life or death. Rachel sighs and puts her hand on a long, shiny, silver lever. "Everyone ready?" Rachel asks, nervously. Ava and Izzy look at each other and nod. Rachel takes a deep breath and pulls the lever to make the rocket ready to lift off.