Joy stretched, her body feeling sore. They were still in the escape pod and she had settled for a quick nap; but she never fell asleep. Though she was stiff from settling in one area for a while. As she expected, Jeremy was at the controlling touch screen. He was also exploring the map screen once more, checking to see what was around. There were several planets with weird names and such. Joy felt nervousness racking at her brain, and she trembled inside. They were most definitely in the future. 'But how could we possibly be in the future?!' she thought with confusion.
Joy got up from the comfortable leather couch that circled around the pod. She twittled with her fingers, and sighed.
"Jeremy." Joy murmured.
"Yeah?" he responded absently. He was too occupied with his little touch screens to pay much attention to her.
"When do you think we'll get back?" she asked any ways. To this, Jeremy turned around, seeming to pay more attention to her, "What?" he asked right back.
"When do you think we'll get back?!" she repeated more sternly this time, "To home!"
Jeremy didn't respond. He just stared at her with sorrow in his eyes. "I don't think we will," he whispered.
Joy hung her head, feeling misery seep into her bones. She listened as Jeremy went back to the touch screens."What will we do?" she asked.
"I don't know!" he snapped, more irritation in his voice. Joy took a step back and sat on the couch again. She wiped away a little tear forming in her eye. Jeremy didn't understand. How could he?! Her heart seemed to melt from the heat of his anger, and the tears of her sorrow.
Joy looked down and gazed at all of the white, then looked up to a window. The stars were shimmering in the black universe; like little raindrops at dawn on a black leaf. Joy felt uneasiness pump through her veins and she shivered. She felt the urge to touch the window, so she reached up unconsciously and touched it. Her hand instinctively shot back to her lap. The window was freezing cold, but that wasn't what bothered her.
"Jeremy! We need to go the other way; now! We have to get back to that girl!" Joy exclaimed urgently.
"What? Why? It's . . ." the look Joy gave Jeremy made him pause in his speaking, and he nodded. He began to hesitantly do the controls, "I'm still not sure what to do . . . maybe this button?"
"No!" Joy screamed when he was about to touch it, "It's red, deep red. Blood red! That's the wrong one!"
"Um . . . okay. How about this--"
"That's yellow! Caution!" Joy interrupted.
"Um . . . green?"
"No. Envy. No, not black. Hate."
"We need to choose!" Jeremy growled with irritation.
"Here! Let me do it," she muttered, and Jeremy reluctantly rose up from the chair. Joy took his spot and searched all of the buttons for the right one. 'White?' she thought. She closed her eyes, and let her hand choose over her mind. She could do this.
Her hand felt coldness, so it shot to another button. She felt a searing pain; too much heat on this one. Then she felt the just perfect 'weather'. 'Let this be the right one, God, where ever you are right now . . .' she thought. Her hand went down and pressed the button. She opened her eyes. The button her hand landed on seemed multicolored, but that was impossible! It was clear.
'The shimmer from the rest of the buttons makes it like a rainbow!' her eyes widened. The rainbow meant promise.
"That's an interesting button there." Jeremy offered, but Joy just ignored him. She sat up, her muscles still tense from the anticipation building up in her. Her whole body was quivering and her eyes warily watched the whole pod. She felt like she was endangered, with death lurking in every corner. It was trying to get them.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Joy walked through the darkness, not knowing where to go. There were no signs to follow, nothing to predict. She was lost. She felt horror creep up her spine, and a cold wind chilled her to the bone.
Death was waiting, its huge jaws open, welcoming her. Despite its shrill teeth, she felt warm in there. She was about to step in when she heard a shout of terror.
"Joy! Wake up! Joy!" Joy slowly recognized the voice and light burst through the darkness. Her eyes shot open. She found herself sweating all over and she was sprawled on the ground. She growled with annoyance that Jeremy had to wake her up from entering . . .
She almost sneered at him, but she froze. What was she doing?! She wanted to get up, but she found that her whole body was numb and she had the most terrible headache. Her heart was pumping so fast and hard that she thought that it was going to burst out of her chest.
Joy wanted to speak, but her throat was ragged from the heavy, quick breathing.
"Joy . . . it's okay . . . it's okay . . ." Jeremy tried to sooth. His face was clouded with worry.
Joy closed her eyes and heaved a sigh, "J-e . . . re-my . . ." her voice cracked.
"No, Joy. Don't speak . . . don't try . . ." his voice fell into a whisper.
Joy opened her eyes again. There were cuts and bruises all over him. She tried speaking again, "W-hat hap-p . . . end?"
"Nothing." Jeremy rose up, wincing. He heaved a crackling sigh.
'We crashed,' Joy thought at once with alarm. Now that she was back to her senses, she could tell. All around her, the pod was scratched and dented. Evil, hate, death wanted them. They had escaped it more than once, and Joy had a feeling that it wouldn't give up.
