Chapter 7, Shot

"What? How?" Skye pressed against his father. "Please tell me! I must know!"

Robin stared at him. "Alright, then." He began to settle down.

Suddenly, out of the sky, some hard little pellets whizzed. One hit Robin and he sprung to his feet, yelling.

"Bullets!" He screamed. He started to run, Skye behind him. More bullets came. Blood appeared whenever they hit Skye or Robin.

There was no place to go. The bullets just kept following them.

"HERE!" Robin screamed. He crouched beside a big crack that separated the normal land from the city.

"Don't go in the city!"

"We MUST escape the bullets!" Robin yelled. Skye did not know why he was so afraid of the tiny things. They did hurt when you got hit, but they weren't killing.

Robin sprung across. A bullet flew through the air and hit him straight in the head. He fell down and hit the ground hard, motionless.

"NO!" Skye screamed. A bullet him hard too, and he clenched his shoulders with pain. A line of bullets went over Robin, leaving a hard mark every time they hit. Skye watched in horror as the bullets beat up the cheetah more and more.

Skye screamed and ran, tripping over rubble and whatnot. There was so much in his way, and blocking him, and still the bullets came for him.

Skye dove into some bushes and scrabbled until he was in the deepest place imaginable. The bullets combed through the bush, and when they were shooting a different place, Skye snuck from the bushes. He inched slowly across the open asphalt, holding his breath and hoping he wouldn't be caught. He found the other bushes and stopped, gasping with relief.

The bullets searched through the other patch of bushes for a long time. Finally though, their horrid banging stopped.

Skye stayed hidden for a long, long time, even though the bullets were gone. The night was achingly long, and he wanted desperately for light to come. The night was freezing too, without city buildings to block the wind, Skye was chilled as ever.

And what had happened to Robin? He had been struck right in the head. Had that killed him? And then he had been soaked with bullets. There was no possible way for anybody to survive that. He had been about to tell Skye how the Kinetics could be behind it! And then the bullets came…was that more of just a coincidence?

Finally, there was a pale glow on the horizon. But it was still to dark for Skye to come out.

There was light then. The sun came above and Skye could see. He squirmed from under the bushes as warmth spilled onto the asphalt. He sat there, thinking about where to go and what to do. He didn't dare go back to the city and Robin, because he was afraid of seeing his father wounded.

After a long time he decided to head down, more south and stop in the next city. But he would not stay there during the night, for fear that it would be bombed.

Skye started to walk, walking away from the Burleyville and its rubble. He looked back at the city over and over, shaking at the crumbling buildings and the smoke.

He walked far all day, and dreaded night with all his might. But finally it came, darkening the blue sky slowly. He smiled when he saw the big moon rising, but still he feared that the bombers were looking for him, so he pulled himself into some bushes. He found the thickest area and forced his way into it. He ate a few raw carrots then fell asleep.

Skye awoke early. The sky was bright and warm. He got up and continued heading south.

He neared a city, but before he saw the buildings he saw the animals. A few were lingering around the city, discussing stuff.

"Cradd and Silversides were bombed," said a goat. Skye flattened his ears as another one said, "I heard Buleyville got it really bad. It's not very big, so it isn't hard to wipe out. I heard there were only seven survivors."

Skye slunk away from them. He didn't like all this talk about bombing. And yet it was good to know the facts.

"A train was completely smashed last night," Skye looked up as a yak walked past, talking to an eagle. "When the police came, they found it basically dust. And it was burning, too."

Skye couldn't help but say: "How can you sound so calm? What if it comes to this city next?"

The yak looked at him then gave a short laugh. "Who would bomb Riverside? We've got some good police forces, and we're a huge, old city."

"I used to live in Burleyville," Skye told him, "I am one of the seven survivors. Before we were bombed, everybody was talking about the bombings as calmly as you. They did not expect to be bombed. Then they were."

The yak snorted loudly. "You're paranoid. We are fine."

Skye flicked his ears and looked up at the big animal. "Well, I know at least that I shall not be sleeping here tonight."

The yak grunted. "If that's your choice, ok."

As Skye got deeper into the city, he heard others talking.

"I wonder what a bombed city looks like afterward."

"Somebody said that oil rains down to help the fire."

Skye hissed. They had to start getting worried! If everyone just thought all the other cities would get bombed and not them, then everyone would die!

He left the city that night, putting five miles between him and it. When he awoke he headed back to the city. It was still standing, but the animals were all reporting the other attacks. A city called Leopard had been bombed.

But then, for the next few days, no bombing reports had been given. The animals still talked about the past bombings, but did not tell about any new ones. Skye listened hard too, and after a week the animals began to calm down and did not talk much at all about the bombings. It seemed as if they were suddenly safe.

Finally Skye thought it was safe enough to sleep in the city at night, so he started doing that regularly.
That night, he woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. Skye got up and started walking around, slowly. It was quiet and the big moon was high in the sky. It was so quiet Skye could hear his heart beating even when he was breathing hard.

Suddenly he hard a strange fizzing sound from above him. Skye looked up, but nothing seemed unusual. He continued staring at the sky, and the next thing he knew, something seemed to be rippling the night, and it was spreading and getting larger. The whole sky was changing and getting lighter, and it was sparkling and looking strange.

But the moon—it was getting larger and larger and coming closer. And it no longer looked so silver. It looked kind of reddish….with patches of green…and huge patches of tan.

Suddenly, there was a crack and then the moon—which no longer seemed to be a moon- started coming closer and closer to the ground. Skye ran as fast as he could, panting in fear. A huge rumble started behind him as he bolted across the ground, and then there was a huge boom and a deafening crack. The ground shook and he fell down, cracking his head across the asphalt.

There was silence then, and dust blew in front of Skye's face. Wind whipped past his ears, and he slowly struggled to his feet, looking around.

Barely a few yards in front of him was the strangest thing ever.

It seemed like the ground was flat then came up in a good 10 degree angle that got larger. It was more like another planet had bumped onto this planet, and it sat there blankly. And when Skye looked up, he did not see the moon anymore. And even if it had been there, it would have been blocked by this new planet.

But the new planet did not look like a strange new planet. In fact, it looked exactly like Eris, with red asphalt and patches of bushes every five feet. It was exactly the same except that there were huge patches of parched dirt, where it looked like all the bushes and asphalt had been scooped out. Skye stared at this new planet that was exactly the same as his, and he began to feel afraid.

Some other animals started appearing out of their holes. Screams sounded when they saw the twin world that had bumped into theirs.

Some started to run away, but Skye remained standing in shock. All of a sudden, he had remembered something the police dog had told him when they had come to inspect the train wreck. Skye had asked: "What are Kinetics?" and the greyhound had answered, "Police forces from our twin." Twin! As he stared at the new planet, Skye realized that it was their twin! Is this where the Kinetics were?
Suddenly, Skye felt an upward tug on his fur. He gave a cry as he was sucked off his feet. He was not the only one. All these animals were being pulled from the ground.

Skye was flung foreword. He flew through the air and bumped into the twin. There was separate gravity on it too, and it held Skye to its ground. He started jump, wanting to get back on Eris.

Suddenly, a German Shepherd dog came walking out of the bushes. He was holding a gun in his teeth, which he dropped when he saw them.

"Hello," He grinned cruelly, icy blue eyes glinting from deep sockets. "We've been waiting a long time for you." He jerked his head. "Welcome to Aster."