"Jimmy? Where are you? Can you hear me?" Cindy called. No answer. She sighed. She'd been searching for what seemed like hours, and there was still no sign of Jimmy. She was starting to get worried. It was getting dark, and who knew what came out at night? Also, there was no place to hide if anything did come out. She wasn't worried so much for herself as for Jimmy. Even with the splint it still wasn't easy for him to run. What if something happened to him?
She sighed. She couldn't worry about that now. Right now, the most important thing was to look for him, and find him. Besides, he was Jimmy Neutron, for crying out loud. He was the one who had saved their parents from a three-eyed space chicken and a bunch of space eggs. He'd be okay, she was sure of it.
Her stomach growled and she realized then that she hadn't eaten in close to two days. The earthquake had hit before she could get any of the berries in her mouth. And here she was, in the middle of nowhere, with the only change in scenery being the huge crack caused by the earthquake. Where was she going to find anything to eat? Suddenly she remembered something. The crack had gone through the forest, and a lot of the trees and bushes had fallen into it. Maybe there were some berry bushes down there. But how to get down there? Maybe she could find somewhere to climb down. Crawling slowly over to the crack, she peered in. The height made her a little dizzy, but she tried to ignore it and looked around instead for a spot with enough footholds for her to climb down. She could see a spot on the other side, but that wouldn't help. She needed somewhere to climb down on this side. Looking up and down the side of the crack, she noticed a spot a few yards down that was very jagged with a lot of footholds, and kind of sloped a little as well. She could probably climb down that, though the idea didn't thrill her. But what else could she do? The crack was probably the safest place, because the forest was probably packed with dinosaurs. Plus, that was where they had heard the T-Rex. Sighing resignedly, she took a deep breath and began to climb down. She kept reminding herself to be extremely careful, because if she fell, there was no one to help her. The thought of falling from such a height made her nauseous, but it kept her going as well. The more she thought of it, the quicker she climbed down. Eventually, she made it to the bottom without incident. Her knees trembled as she began to head down the crack. She had never been so happy to stand on terra firma.
After wandering down the crack for what seemed like forever, Cindy came to a large pile of trees, bushes, dirt, and other things. It was hard to pick out a berry bush in the growing darkness, especially down in a crack, but Cindy managed to do it somehow. The berries were the same kind as the ones that she and Jimmy had been about to eat earlier. A lot of the berries were smashed or dirty, but she managed to find quite a few that were still good.
Cindy shivered as a rush of wind blew past her, and she looked up. The sky was a deep, velvet blue, and millions and millions of tiny little stars were scattered across it. She couldn't remember ever seeing so many stars in her life, except for when they were out in space. But when it came to being on Earth and seeing stars, this was the most she had ever seen, and it was absolutely beautiful.
A loud yawn escaped her, and her eyelids began to feel heavy. She found a tree where she could get nestled into the leaves, and lay back, looking up at the sky. Looking at the stars, she remembered the time that they had gone to rescue the parents, and were flying through space.
~*~Flashback~*~
"The wonders of the universe," Cindy heard Jimmy say to Goddard. "We are witnessing celestial events no person – or dog," Jimmy added, as Goddard gave him a look, "-has ever seen."
Cindy was so captivated by the beauty of it all that she didn't really notice where she was flying her ship, though she supposed she knew subconsciously what she was doing.
"It's incredible," she said softly. She looked over at Jimmy, halfway surprised to see him there, but halfway not. She smiled at the amazed look on his face, and was a little shocked when he caught her eye and smiled back. For a moment she just stared at him. She wasn't entirely sure why, she just did. Perhaps it was because she was so shocked that they were actually being civil to each other, or perhaps it was because she… nah, that couldn't be it.
Suddenly Jimmy got a look on his face and looked quickly away from her, making a noise as if he was disgusted. She gasped, a little surprised, but in the back of her mind she had known that something like that was coming, and so she looked away too, then turned her attention quickly to Nick. She wasn't sure exactly why she always turned her attention to Nick when Jimmy was around – to make him jealous, maybe? But then that would mean… and she didn't… did she? She shook her head, confused, but didn't have much time to dwell on the subject as something flew past, almost hitting her and Libby's ship. She heard Jimmy call out orders as she began to pilot her ship through the meteors.
~*~End flashback~*~
Cindy wished she knew where Jimmy was. She'd feel a lot safer if he was with her. Not only safer for her, but safer for him, as well. She couldn't help remembering that he was hurt, and no matter how much she tried, she couldn't shake the feeling that something would happen to him.
"Oh Jimmy, where are you?" Cindy asked quietly into the darkness.
A/N: Oh baby! Yeah! Finally done! Now there's just four chapters left to go, and only three of them I have to write (I've already written the last chapter, chapter 13). And now that I've got this chapter done, I should be able to get the others out fairly quickly. BUT... the story probably won't be finished until the end of August/beginning of September because I'm going to be at camp from the 19-24 of this month. There is, of course, the possibility that I can finish the story before then, but I doubt it, because I have to share the computer with 5 other people, and I'll be gone all of Saturday (I'm going paintballing for the first time! Wooooo!). So there is a small chance I may be able to finish the entire story before the 19th, but don't get your hopes up.