Dear StarWorld: Chapter 2

I let those children die. It's my fault. These words repeated themselves
over and over in my head. It's my fault.
                                                     CHAPTER 2
We had gone back into the little room to find the kids fast asleep and Tuck building a fire.
"Alright guys what is going on??" Rex had demanded. "I know something is not right when
you two start talking friendly to each other" he had said jokingly. "Very funny Rex," said
Yaja. "But everyone knows that I am nice to everyone," she had said with a snicker.
I couldnt take it at this point. Three children had died and my friends were just joking
around!! "STOP!!" I had yelled. "Just stop it!! Three kids are dead and all you two
can do is joke!! Nim and Maka are dead!!Sage is dead!!"
 They had all stopped at that statement. Sage was dead. He had only been 8 years old. 8.
Too young to die. Especially the way that he did. Then, I broke down again, crying, head in
hands, feeling so responsible for this poor little boy. My friends had  gathered around me
and drowned me in words of comfort and hugs. It didn't help. Lada woke up and saw me,
crouched on the ground with everyone surrounding me. She had walked straight up to me.
She pushed everyone else out of the way. She had leaned down to my face and whispered,
"Kyle, it's okay". No. It wasn't going to be okay. But I had said," Yes Lada it will be okay. You
are right about that." She had wrapped her tiny
arms around me and had given me a long hug. It had reminded me so much of Hally. I hugged her back.
I  had stood up, tall and strong. I can't do that anymore. I am the protector. 
    We all layed down on the cold, hard ground with just each other as warmth.
I couldn't sleep though. I heard Yaja sigh and then she sat up. "Can't sleep either??" i asked.
"Who could", she said.  Yep, that's my Yaja. Always seeing the brighter side of things.
After a few hours, I woke everyone up. "Time to go guys", I said. We packed up all of our
food and weapons. Then, we went one by one into the tiny tunnel. "Hey, Tuck, I forgot to
ask you- how did you know that there was a hole in the wall??" I asked.
"Well, Kyle, you see....this is the cave that me and Nico stayed in after the bombing."
he said. "Really??" that must be a painful memory for him. 
I thought. Wait...we're in the cave that Tuck stayed in. After the war. "Guys!! Do you know
what this means?!?! It means we are close to the South Side!!" I said suddenly.
"He's right", said Nico. "Remember Tuck?? It's about 5 miles from here." he explained.
"Yeah." said Tuck. "Good!! I want to get out of here!! I think Ive sweated 10 pounds off!!"
said Yaja. She was right. It was burning up on this planet. We were getting closer to
the sun every moment.
    We started trudging through the ice and snow again. only this time, there wasnt a blizzard.
In fact, it was unbearably hot. We couldn't risk any of the kids collapsing from heat and
exhaustion, so everyone was pretty much carrying everyone else. I carried Lada.
We walked all day,only stopping once to eat the last of the stale bread we had packed in our bags.
We got right back up and continued. By the time the sun was going down,
we could see the ruins of the old village. "Guys, we are so close!! Don't stop now!!"
I encouraged. "Kyle, even if we keep going how long will it take us to find a
place sleepable?? In fact, what if there IS no place to sleep??" Yaja complained
with a frown. "We'll find a place to sleep, don't worry."said Rex.
 I shot Yaja a look that said: look, we need to encourage these kids, not worry them!! So stop it!!
We reached the old village a hour after the sun was fully down. It was freezing now.
that means that we must be getting closer to the sun?? or are we going the opposite way??
That was a mystery, but right then we needed to get everyone to a safe and warm place.
"Here we are guys," I had said. We all looked around. The damage and debris was major and
everywhere. There was a whole row of houses that had been bombed during the war.
"Alright, let's go find a good place to stay tonight guys," said Rex.
     We all looked around the area.  "Let's spread out," said Yaja. "Alright", I said, even though i was unsure.
Me, Yaja and 8 of the kids went down the row of houses that looked burned, and
Tuck, Rex, and the other kids went down the row next to it. After about a hour of searching,
Yaja and I stumbled upon a shack that was still standing. "Good," i had said.
"Because here comes a thunderstorm." We called Tuck over. "Alright, all we need to do
is make it bigger and we are good to go!!" he said, with pretend enthusiasm.
So, we gathered all the broken peices of wood and concrete we could find and then
we made the shack bigger. "Tomorrow we will start looking for equipment that can get us
out of here", I said. We all crawled into the shack and drifted off together into sleep.