Men on Saturn

After the explosion last year in Skoll, not many Skollians survived. The catastrophe caused a hole in the center of the world, basically right into the middle of Skoll. Jasper Valentine wakes peering into a bright, cold room. He sits up looking around and sees a heart rate monitor. Jasper thinks to himself, “Why am I in the hospital and why is it so quiet?” He gets out of bed and walks over to the hospital room window and sees the gaping hole in town. The hospital building is right on the edge of the explosion site, slightly leaning over into the hole. Jasper runs out into the hallway and screams “is anyone else here? HELLO?” He looks around, noticing papers all over the floor. I am all alone, there’s no one left. He finds clothes to change out of the hospital gown and exits the hospital. When he leaves the building his jaw drops, everything is destroyed, everything is burnt to a crisp, bodies everywhere. He yells one more time, “HELLO, IS ANYONE THERE?” He runs to where his house used to be and drops to his knees onto the crisp, burnt ground and sobs. “They are all gone, no one is left,” he thinks to himself while crying. He hears a door slowly open from the house next door. That’s where his best friend Jade lived for their whole childhood. He slowly stands up, wiping the tears from his eyes and notices Jade stumbling out of her family’s storm shelter. He runs over to her and hugs her tightly, not wanting to let go. Jasper let’s go and says, “Jade, have you seen anyone else? Where is everyone?” Jade mumbles “They’re all gone. My mom, dad, and your family. They left Skoll before the explosion so hopefully they’re okay.” “Where was everyone leaving to, to be safe?” asks Jasper with hope in his eyes. Jade slightly smiles “The rings at the edge of the planet.” Jasper grabs her hand, “Let’s go, we have to get to the rings. Regardless of what it takes we have to get there. There’s going to be another explosion soon and we are not safe here.” They start gathering whatever supplies they can find to start their journey to the rings of Saturn. They have two towns to go through before they get to the rings: Dione and Mimas. They spot a spaceship that seems to be undamaged by the explosion. Jade and Jasper walk over to the ship and peer into it, seeing the keys dangling from the ignition. They look at each other and grin. Climbing onto the ship, they check the fuel levels and they are completely full and there is even an extra, full gas can. “Jade, do you even know how to fly one of these things?” asked Jasper hesitantly. Jade looks at him and winks, “Duh, it should be a piece of cake.” Jasper shrugs and says, “Well alright, let's get going then.” Jade starts up the ship as Jasper tries to find a comfortable seat. They take off from the burnt, crispy ground as the engine pitter patters along. They start flying through the sky looking at the enormous hole that destroyed their civilization. Jasper's stomach starts growling, he looks down and clenches his stomach. Jade looks back at him, “Hey, you should look around and see if there is any food and drink on here with us.” Jasper gets up digging into drawers and shelves hanging on the wall of the vessel. He gets to the last cabinet and it is stocked full with all kinds of different foods and drinks. He yells in excitement and Jade almost jumps out of her seat. Jade sets the ship to autopilot and jogs to where Jasper is and hugs him. “It looks like we aren’t going to starve anytime soon,’ says Jade. Jasper smiles, “I was already kind of starving but I am so glad we have all of this now.” It starts to thunder and lightning outside as they grab some food to eat. “Looks like we’re almost to Dione now,” Jade says as she looks at the map of Saturn. Jasper munches on some chips as he says, “CRUNCH. I am so ready to get to the rings. I miss my family so much.” Jade throws a can at him, “Aren’t we basically like family though?” Jasper blushes, “Well yeah, but you and I- well…” Jade looks at him curiously, “You and I what, hmm?” Jasper just smiles and looks away, “I’ll tell you later.” Jade gets up and goes back to the captain's chair of the ship. Jasper’s eyes start getting heavy as he falls asleep on the floor, surrounded by empty bags and cans. The diamonds rain all around the ship and lightning strikes nearby while Jade steers the ship through the windy, night sky. She thinks to herself, “I wonder what Jasper was going to tell me earlier? Could it be- no it couldn’t be. Could he like me? Ha, that’d be kinda cute.” Dione is a beautiful town: it has large, icy mountains and it’s always snowing and raining diamonds. They pass over Dione and Jasper wakes up and walks over to Jade. She smiles at him and says, “Hey sleepyhead.” Jasper yawns and says, “Goodmorning, are we close to the rings?’ “We are almost to Mimas now. We’re going to take a pit stop when we get there to fill up on fuel and more supplies.” Jasper starts wondering what his family is doing and how they are doing. He thinks about the time he and his dad, Marco, took a trip to Mimas to see the giant canyon, Herschel. They stopped to get pizza and soda and took lots of pictures. They even bought his baby sister, Jewel, a siamese cat from Mimas and she fell in love with that cat from the moment that she saw it. He starts crying and Jade notices and says, “Hey, what’s up?” Jasper gasps, “Y-You were not supposed to see that.” “It’s okay, I miss my family too. I miss my stupid older brother, my sweet mom, and my dad, even if he is mean sometimes.” Jasper looks at her, “I am so thankful that, at least, we are stuck in this together.” Jade smiles, “Yeah, me too. Alright we’re in Mimas.” She starts lowering the ship into a parking space. They walked out onto the ground of Mimas and noticed the cracked, dry ground. Walking into the gas station, Jasper stops for a minute and sniffs the air. Lingering in the air, he smells the same pizza that he and his dad got on their trip to Herschel. He walks over to the counter and asks for two cheese pizzas, pays for them, and goes back to the ship. Jade is filling up the fuel as Jasper walks up to the ship, “Hey, I got us some pizza.” “Yay, that’s my favorite kind of pizza.” Jasper smiles, “Me too.” They load back into the ship and eat pizza as Jade takes off, setting sail to Saturn’s rings. “We should make it to the rings by morning, are you excited?” Jasper looks at her with wide eyes, “Excited? YES! I’m so excited.” Jade softly smiles at him, “I’m excited for you too, Jas.” Jasper looks at her, “Put the ship on autopilot and let’s play a game to pass some time.” “Okay, what game did you have in mind?” Jade asks. Jasper smiles, “Remember the game, two truths and a lie, that we used to play when we were a little younger? You have to figure out which statement is a lie.” “Of course, I remember that game, it’s still one of my favorite games.” says Jade while smiling. “Okay I’ll start then. Hm, let’s see. I am older than you by one month, five days. I like you more than a best friend, and I used to have a dog, whose name was Dot.” Jasper looks at her. Jade looks at him, “Well, you are older than me by one month, five days. You did not have a dog named Dot because your dog's name was Dixie. That only leaves one thing and you couldn’t possibly like me like that.” “Well maybe I do,” Jasper lays down. Jade smiles and says, “You should get some rest before we get to the rings, I’ve got the ship.” Jasper closes his eyes and dreams about seeing his family the next morning. Jade keeps the ship on autopilot and closes her eyes for a little while because they only have about one to two hours left until they get to the rings. BANG! Jasper and Jade both jump out of their sleep and see that they have crashed into a tree. Jasper runs over to the window and looks out and sees the icy, rocky rings of Saturn and yells, “JADE, LOOK, we made it.” Jade yawns and smiles brightly, “Let me get us out of this tree, get us to the ground, and we will go find our families.” Jasper jumps up and down with excitement. Jade smiles while looking at him out of the corner of her eye. They safely make it to the ground and as they get closer, they don’t see anyone or anything. Jasper looking around frantically says, “J-Jade? I don’t see anyone down there.” Jade tries to hide her worried face and sighs, “Hopefully they are just hiding or something, you know?” Jasper, eager to find his family, runs to the ship's door, waiting for it to open. “C’mon Jade, open the door,” he says. “Okay, okay. Hold on,” Jade says while pressing the door button. Jasper runs out the door and yells, “Mom, dad, Jewel?” He listens for a couple of minutes and he doesn’t hear any response. He yells again, louder this time, “MOM, DAD, JEWEL? IS ANYONE THERE?” Jade, who was standing by the ship, walks over to Jasper and hugs him. “Jas, I don’t think anyone is here. I really thought people made it out but I guess no one made it.” Jasper hugs Jade tightly and cries, “They were supposed to be her though. I was sure that they would have made it.” Everything starts fading away. The feeling of being in Jade’s arms, the hard cracked ground beneath him, and the diamonds raining around him, all disappear into a bright bedroom light. Jasper sits up in his bed and looks around and smiles, “Oh, it was all just a dream.”