Stargazer (Write Awards 2013)

Chapter 11 (Write Awards 2013)

"Carmen, what's wrong?" It had been almost twenty minutes since I called her and the tears had only just stopped falling. Carmen was sniffling, her nose bright red. I could see blue arcs under her eyes and the way her eyelids droop I knew she hadn't had any good sleep in a while.

We had talked non-stop, about everything in general and the boys had given us our privacy by moving into different rooms. I wasn't sure what gave it away. The tone in her voice or the way she avoided her bedroom window told me that something wasn't right. Her eyes flickered to the left where I knew her window sat and she swallowed.

"June, things have gone to hell. It's been four days since the rocket took flight and most of the Guards, well the trained ones anyway, were on it. The South has taken over the lower towns and cities. Its war outside." And as if to prove her point, the sound of a gun went off in the background and Carmen winced.

"Are you alright?" I asked as Carmen moved the phone, curling herself into a tight ball in the corner of her room.

"I'm fine. Rune and your mother are all fine. It's just war. N-nothing we're not used to." It sounded as if Carmen was trying to reassure herself more than me. Oh how I wished I was there, arms tightly wrapped around her, telling her that things will be alright.

"Carmen, you know how at school they were talking about Earth being our next home?" I asked her. She nodded. "Well it is. And they're going to kill everyone here in order to do so."

"Why are they going to kill everyone there?" Carmen asked, her eyebrows furrowing.

"I don't know. All I know it that they're going to release poisonous gasses in five days' time." I shook my head. "Anyway, that's not why I called you. Before, a high pitched noise sounded out. It was loud enough to make me blackout"

Imminently Carmen turned serious, sitting up and borrowing her eyebrows. "Did you hear the sound before it hit?"

I shook my head. "No. It was brought on suddenly."

"Did you feel anything?" She quickly ran out of the camera and returned with a pad of paper.

"I couldn't breathe, everything touching me felt like it was branding my skin and I heard a noise so high it felt like my brain was boiling." Carmen quickly wrote the symptoms on her paper.

"And what do you want me to do besides worry about my best friend, June?" She looked at me with worry clear in her eyes. I tried not to allow the tears slip back down.

"Your uncle is a part of the Guards right?" She nodded. "Well, could you ask him what type of device that is capable to create such a high pitch noise?"

"Sure thing, June." She quickly wrote down something else and started hitting the paper with the pen. "June, what's it like there?"

"Here?" I asked, startled.

"Yeah, Earth." Carmen shifted closer to the screen, her eyes wide.

"Well," I thought for a second before a great idea slipped into my mind. "Hold on!" Slipping from the chair I raced across the room and out the front door. Outside it had just started to set, orange streaking across the sky. White stars twirled much brighter than the ones at home against the darkening blue.

"Check this out," I twisted the camera towards the sky and grinned when hearing Carmen's intake of breath.

"June!" She breathed. "It's beautiful!"

I grinned, holding it a bit higher so she could see the sky without the trees in the way. Carmen was astonished by the clarity of the stars. At home they were a dwindle of grey you could only see with a telescope. I pivoted the camera and Carmen gasped.