After his proclamation, it was silent for a solid minute.
"You know we can get there? We need to get out of this room first!" said Mulaa.
The hooded guy snorted. "Have you guys even tried the door?"
Everyone whipped around to stare at the door. They had been so caught up in trying to plan and strategize that they hadn't tried the obvious way out. Slyiita wondered if sleeping under some kind of drug had messed up their thinking.
Benjji got up and started for the door. He was reaching for the handle when, out of what appeared to be a cat flap, a tray of food was pushed through.
"Hello?" Benjji called out quickly. "Where are we? Who are you?"
The only sound that answered him was retreating footsteps.
Benjji brought the tray over slowly, and Slyiita realized how ravenous she was. Her stomach growled. Benjji broke a sandwich into equal pieces and passed the cup of water around. After they had eaten, no one knew what to do, so they all fell into a deep sleep.
When Slyiita awoke, she heard whimpering. Jeeka was crying again. Slyiita tried to comfort her, but when her hand brushed Jeeka's forehead, she jerked away. It was burning, and Jeeka's body was flushed and shivering. Slyiita dragged her blanket onto Jeeka.
"What's going on?" murmured Benjji.
"Jeeka," Slyiita whispered. "She's sick."
By that time, everyone else had woken up. They all gathered around Jeeka.
"Maybe there's someone just outside. Or medicine, or something," said Mikaa, glancing towards the door.
"Only one way to find out," Benjji said firmly, and once again started for the door. Before he could reach, however, it sprung open by itself. Everyone gasped. Benjji looked out of the door. "There are arrows pointing down a hallway. I think they want us to go."
"Wait," said Tomhhi. "Should we really go where they want us to go? They did kidnap us, after all."
"Good point," said Slyiita. "But what else are we going to do?"
So they all started off down the hall, Slyiita lagging behind to help Jeeka. They fell behind quite a ways until the hooded boy came back and picked up Jeeka with surprising gentleness. They continued down the hall, following the arrows painted onto the walls and floor. There were many closed doors leading off from the hall. When the hallway came to an end, they were in a spacious room with even more hallways coming in. They went to the very front of the room. Slyiita was distantly aware of the room filling up behind her with more children, but her attention was caught by three adults, dressed in dark blue suits, coming into the room. Were these the kidnappers?
The adults were calling for silence while the kids (Slyiita glanced around; there must have been hundreds of them) were yelling at the adults.
"...and you better take us home or..."
"My dad's a lawyer and..."
"...where are we?"
Suddenly, on one of the walls, as if the wall was screen, what appeared to be a movie started playing. Planet after planet was blown up, looking very realistic. Slyiita gasped as she saw her home planet, Minta, blown up before her very eyes.
The movie stopped. Silence filled the room. One of the adults cleared her throat and spoke up. "This happened less than 24 hours ago. We are the only people who survived. There is no one left except us."
Utter silence.
The lady sighed. "The details are a bit sketchy, but it seems as if a perfect planet - that is to say, the planet has no conflicts - decided we didn't deserve to survive. And so they just blew us all up. We saved as many people as we could. There is one other spaceship traveling beside us, but we couldn't save more than one thousand people. We are all that's left."
"What are we going to do?" the boy with the hood (Slyiita still didn't know his name) said. "We have to do something."
"Er . . . I guess we are going to try to find another planet? To start over?" said a middle-aged man.
"No," said the hooded guy determinedly. "We have to save those planets. We have to go back in time."
So that's how, a few hours later, all seven of them were strapped to a time machine. Slyiita had wondered why they, of everyone, had been chosen, but it made sense, explained the adults. "The Leaders In Training meeting is where we are sending you. That planet was the first targeted, because most of the Inner and Middle planet leaders were there. You guys know your way around there, so . . ."
Slyiita still couldn't believe that such a huge responsibility had been placed on a few kids. They had to save every single planet from destruction! Slyiita wasn't sure she could do it.
"And you may experience some nausea, what we like to call time-sickness," an adult was instructing.
Everyone nodded; no one seemed too eager to open their mouths.
"Okay, on my mark," said someone. It seemed to come from the far end of a tunnel. "Three, two, one . . ."
To Slyiita, it felt as if she had been flung from a roller coaster at an inhumane speed. Then it felt as if she was inside of a washing machine, churning around. She could hear screams and someone swearing.
The crazy ride was brought to a sudden halt. Slyiita was ready to open her eyes and be back at the building where the LIT meeting was held, so what she saw was a shock.
Total darkness.
To Be Continued
