Thoughts bounced around her head in an insane way. What happened? Where were they? Was she dead? That was unlikely, seeing as she could hear the screams of everyone around her.
Something had gone wrong, Slyiita could see that. It was completely dark. She wouldn?t be able to see her hand if she placed it in front of her face. Had going back in time somehow messed everything up?
Then someone kicked the door of the time machine open and light flooded in.
"Oh," six of them said in unison.
The hooded guy was already unbuckling Jeeka. "We have a limited time. Get moving."
Slyiita instantly started fumbling with the straps while everyone else did the same. They stepped out of the time machine and into the sun and saw a reassuring site: the LIT building. She started walking towards it until she realized she didn't know what to do.
"We need a plan," she said determinedly.
There was a murmur of agreement so they all gathered in a circle and Benjji drew a building in the dirt.
"Okay, we are here," he started, making an X in the dirt. "We were here when we were kidnapped -- I mean, saved -- and most of the leaders were here. I'd have to wager that the traitor was either one of the leaders or in the same room as the leaders. And let's take this route, away from where we were. I don't want to run into ourselves. That would be freaky."
"I noticed this one room earlier," said Mulaa. "It looks small and it leads off from the main room. It could be a planning room or somewhere to set off a bomb or something."
"Okay. We better go now," said Mikaa.
So they set of, running through the halls and running into random people, including a young boy and a middle-aged man.
When they reached the door that Mulaa had mentioned heir hearts were thumping. Looking at one another, no one seemed to want to be the one to pull the door open. For a moment that seemed to stretch forever, the just stood there. Finally Tomhhi stepped forward cautiously and pulled the door open to reveal . . . a janitor's closet. A sigh of relief was quickly stifled by the sound of ticking.
"A-a-a bomb?" whispered Tomhhi, voicing everyone's thoughts.
Slyiita followed the sound and discovered a chord leading to another room where the mysterious ticking was coming from. She immediately pulled the chord and the ticking ceased.
"Hey, why did the coffee machine stop?" said a grumpy voice.
All the kids dashed out of the closet and shut the door behind them as sounds of entering people came from behind the door. While the people inspected their unplugged coffee machine, Slyiita started giggling. Once she started, she couldn't stop. It was such an absurd situation! The other kids stared at her, and then started giggling themselves. Soon everyone was on the floor with tears streaming down their faces and stomachs heaving. But the laughing fit stopped as fast as it came on when the hooded guy said, "Do you realize we have less than an hour before this planet is supposed to blow up?"
That sobered everyone.
"If we are on this planet when it blows up, we will die too!" said Jeeka softly.
"We'll continue trying for half an hour," Benjji assured her."?Then we will get back on the time machine (which doubles as a spaceship) and we'll escape."
At first, half an hour seemed a long enough time, but it passed quickly as they tried in vain to find something that they could do to save the planet.
As they headed back to the time machine, Mikaa turned to everyone with tears forming in her eyes. "We failed. We tried to save the universe and we failed. Not just this planet but all of them are going to blow up."
Benjji turned away and vomited.
Slyiita felt like she was in a dream as she climbed into the time machine and they departed from the planet. "Maybe," she said, her voice cracking a little, "Maybe it isn't so bad that we didn't succeed. I mean," she said, as the others turned to stare accusingly at her, "I know that would have been the best possible solution, but maybe the other planet is right. Maybe we don't deserve to survive. Wars, famine, slaves . . . we aren't exactly the greatest we can be. Maybe this can be a new start to a peaceful world. We were doomed anyways. We couldn't band together, and our civilization would have crumbled sooner or later."
The others didn't yell at her, but no one agreed either. They just stared silently.
Some time later the hooded guy, who had been driving, turned the vehicle around and said, "Ten seconds until it's destroyed." They all watched the planet directly ahead of them, reduced to the size of a playing ball. No one breathed.
The explosion shook the whole ship.
