Just Escaped

by Manoj K. Mardithaya

Cupertino, California

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One fine boiling day, the four ZCD brothers were charging their energy crystals, which were in their forty-foot rocket. Suddenly, they heard a thunderous explosion and everything went pitch black. The Sun had exploded! They knew that very soon the Earth would explode too. Immediately, they packed the most important things in their rocket and in two seconds, they were off! Once they were out of the Earth’s orbit, they realized what seemed like a big mistake. They should have taken more people with them. They jerked their rockets backward and headed for the Earth. All of a sudden, they heard a deafening explosion and saw a great flash of light from the Earth. Then nothing.

The Earth had exploded! ‘We are the only survivors,’ they thought. They felt very sad. They could have saved at least some people. Instead, they were stupid and took off, not caring about other people. What were they to do?

Almost at once ZCD4, the youngest brother said with the tone of happiness, “Look there, it's Mr. 4Z3Y! He is coming towards us in his rocket. He survived, he survived!”

ZCD3, the 2^nd youngest brother, said, swinging his arms, “Professor, over here!”

ZCD1, the eldest brother, asked in surprise, “How did you survive?” All four were a little cheered up at the thought of having a scientist along with them.

 The first thing the scientist said when he reached them was, “Are there any other survivors on this side of the Earth?”

ZCD2, the second eldest brother, said sadly, “No, and instead of bringing other people, we just packed-up and came.”

4Z3Y looked astounded. “You had enough time to pack-up?” he asked, “I barely had enough time to jump into my new ‘Turbo-Astrix Jet here and get off of the Earth. So I’m glad you didn’t get other people. You could have exploded in the blast.”

“Do you mean it?” the brothers asked still a bit sad.

“I do,” replied 4Z3Y. “Now, let's get out of here. I’ll explain on the way.” And off they went into the endless Universe.

“My research has shown that each time a planet explodes,” 4Z3Y said, “after about an hour a couple of aliens come. Once I kept a close watch on Pluto. Remember when it exploded and a few rockets were sent to help aliens out of there? …. And our rockets never returned? Well, through my telescope I saw some weird aliens pulling survivors of the blast and our troops away and out of sight. I couldn’t get a good description of them. All I know is that they were green & red and they went south towards the ‘Selvet-Sparsind’ Station, you know, our galaxy picture-taker.”

ZCD3 nodded and said, “I remember. When I was young, I saw an ‘old times’ movie and it had the launching of the station at the end.”

4Z3Y said, “Right now we are going towards…”

“The Sun,” ZCD1 completed the sentence, looking at his map of the galaxy.

ZCD4 suddenly had a question, “Why are we going there?” The same question flashed through all the brothers’ minds. 4Z3Y answered, “To fix the …” he was cut short because their crafts were shaking and green & red creatures appeared by their windows. The creatures pulled 4Z3Y out, and the brothers as well. The brothers put up a good fight (4Z3Y was too old), but there were nearly fifty of them. So, after about a minute, they lost hope.

The aliens turned south with the new prisoners. They had a ‘4-dydouble-fighter’ rocket. Instantaneously, a thought flashed through ZCD1. He asked 4Z3Y, “Weren’t our people who went to Pluto to help aliens, in a ‘4-dydouble-fighter’ rocket?”

In a whisper, 4Z3Y replied, “Yes, they were. Why do you ask? And please keep your voice down.”

“I was wondering whether this rocket is the same one. But there is no proof.”

The old scientist thought for a moment and ran stealthily to the missile launcher. The 4 brothers quietly followed. 4Z3Y sat down next to the missile room. ZCD4 whispered, sort of excited, “What are you doing?”

Then the scientist slowly got up and turned to ZCD1, “You were right.”

ZCD1 asked, "How do you know?"

4Z3Y bent down and pointed at the lock and said, "I was the only person who made that type of lock. And I remember very well that I made locks for only one '4-dydouble-rocket’ and that was the one our people took to Pluto.” Almost immediately after 4Z3Y said that, 15 of the aliens grabbed and took them to the main exit hatch. The rocket had stopped.

They stepped out in an unknown planet. It was like a dream of 'old times'. There were huge skyscrapers, flying cars, carnivals with giant wheels in which you could really touch the sky. ZCD4 suddenly started to gag. ZCD3 and ZCD2 followed. "Not...enough.... carbon di...oxide,"  ZCD2 choked. A green and red alien looked at them gagging. ZCD1 and 4Z3Y were gagging too. The alien grabbed them and took them in a flying car to a skyscraper.

The car could go at what seemed like 140 M.P.H., so they got there in a flash. Once inside, they could breathe properly again. It had lots of carbon dioxide on the 1^st floor. On the 2^nd floor, there was an airtight door with a sign saying ‘NITROGEN FLOOR’. ZCD1 wanted to browse the other floors, but the others decided against it, so he stayed. Instead, they thought they’d rather look around the other parts of the first floor. Besides, they had only been to the entrance room and by the stairs.

Around the place, they saw many aliens walking around with air switchers on their face. Soon, they found themselves in a narrow corridor that had doors on both sides. They knew that they were the rooms because they put signs on the doors like ‘Z4ZZ’s Room’ or ‘Buford’s Room.’  When they reached the end of the corridor, to their surprise, they found their own names on the last 5 doors, except the door in front (which was the Staff Room). Instantaneously, the scientists’ ears heard some weird sounds coming from the Staff Room. They opened the door… “AAARRRRG!” A huge monster was confronting them!

  The monster chased them and they ran. But the monster was too fast for them. Soon, they were cornered. The monster bore down on them and opened its mouth to eat them. Then…..

“ZCD4, time to wake up,” came ZCD1’s voice. “It’s a great day to get our energy crystals charged.” The four ZCD brothers went out and had their rockets charged. Suddenly they heard a huge explosion and everything turned black. ZCD4 shivered.