Go

"Gaz? Gaz, wake up!" The girl's brother shook her. Gaz opened her eyes in surprise at his figure standing over her. It was particularly dark in her bedroom, and nearly the only thing quite visible about him was the glasses reflecting the moonlight from the window.

"Dib," she growled, "What do I have to do to keep you out of my room?"

"I know, but it's important," Dib breathed. Gaz raised an eyebrow. He almost sounded breathless.

"It better be," she warned.

Dib sighed, obviously not wanting to say what he had to. "Get dressed and grab your things. Extra clothes, pillow, Gameslave, stuff like that." He was beginning to sound like a father. "We gotta leave."

"Leave?" Gaz widened an eye. "What are you talking about?"

Dib looked down anxiously. "I'll explain later. Just hurry." He started to leave her room.

"No, wait—What's going on?" she called after him, climbing out of bed.

"It's a long story, Gaz," he turned back and looked at her, seeming genuinely concerned in whatever this matter was. "But trust me; we have to get out of here soon."

Gaz was not sure why she finally followed his instruction, but she blamed it on the idea that she must be half-asleep—though she felt very awake. Dropping her Gameslave into her backpack along with necessities, she opened her door slowly and peered into the hallway apprehensively. It was oddly dark out there as well.

"Dib?" she whispered into the darkness, and was startled by the creak of her brother's door. He emerged from his bedroom, saddling a bag of his own necessities. Seeing her, he looked relieved that she had complied with his request.

"You ready?" he asked.

"I guess…Why is it so dark?"

Dib did not answer; he seemed too preoccupied to even have heard her. He motioned her to come—a wide, sweeping gesture so that it could be seen in the darkness—and set off down the hall.

The two trekked down to the living room, which proved to be no lighter. Neither child said a thing as they made their way to the front door, but Gaz's eyes darted around the near-abyss in complete confusion. Her eyes fell on a wall clock, which provided the only light in the room. The LCD display informed her it was nearly 1 a.m. Where could her brother possibly need to go at this hour? She almost jumped when Dib spoke again.

"I have Tak's ship warmed up in the driveway. We should be able to leave right away."

"Tak's ship?" Gaz exclaimed. "How far is this stupid trip?" Her agitation heavily mounted when she again did not receive an answer. Dib slowly and cautiously opened the door, and if Gaz strained her eyes she could see his hand was trembling. But she was not at all prepared for the sight she was met with beyond the door.

The town was, like the house, darker than it should have been. No streetlights were on, no houses were lit; and in fact…Gaz could not believe it, but she could have sworn that there were less houses in the suburb than the previous day.

As she followed Dib down the front walk, she dared to glance out at the city. It was mostly unlit, but a few beams flickered here and there oddly. She turned to question her brother again, but he was already at the ship, giving it a quick examination to make sure everything was in order. She approached him, but when she was almost there her attention was drawn to the sky.

Gaz froze in her tracks. Something was very obviously not right. By no means was she a stargazer, but she knew for certain this was not the same sky that had risen over her each night. There were large areas here and there which were completely devoid of stars, and in other places stars were clustered together in unusual formations. In one part of the sky, partially illuminated by a star cluster, was a distant sphere. It resembled a planet, but Gaz knew from Dib's ramblings that this was not one of the planets ever visible from Earth.

She did not want to admit it, but Gaz felt…horrified. Looking frantically for something more familiar in the star field, she was relieved to catch sight of the moon…but a pit formed in her stomach when she realized it was much, much farther away than it should have been.

"What did you do?" she almost choked on her words as she looked back at Dib. He was also looking at the sky, and when his eyes met hers, she could tell even in the dark that he was about to cry. He shakily opened the ship and climbed in, patting the passenger's seat in indication for her to follow suit. Ever so hesitantly she did, never taking her eyes off of him, and he closed the ship after her. Dib reluctantly pulled a few levers, and they were soon airborne. Gaz was thrust back in her seat as they launched forward, over the haunting cityscape, farther into the dark void.

"Tell me now, Dib," she demanded of him, "What happened? And…where is everybody?"

Dib was silent, biting his lip in anxiety, his eyes only fixed on the airspace ahead. Another chilling thought struck Gaz.

"Where's Dad?"

Dib refused to answer, but his face began to skew and twist into a look of pure torment as he drove.

"Tell. Me. Now. Dib!" she fumed, and when she did not get a word out of him, she launched herself at him, pinning him to the side of the ship, readying a fist. But this caused the ship to take a sharp dip downward, so Gaz recoiled back into her seat and allowed Dib to regain control of it.

She took to bottling her rage in silence, but was surprised to hear her brother's first words since they had left the house.

"Gaz…Do you trust me?"

Taken slightly off guard, Gaz blinked at him. He did not glance at her, but took a deep breath.

It was a question Gaz had never considered before. True, her brother devoted most of his time to saving the world, but he was also capable of causing catastrophes in his paranormal pursuits. But something in his eyes…something told her…

"Yeah…I guess."

Dib looked to be slightly eased by this, and both were then silent as the vessel pressed on to whatever strange destination he had in mind. Feeling tired—it being too early in the morning for travel—Gaz set her mind to drifting back into sleep. Normally she would leave dilemmas where they were, to be solved in the morning.

But she tried her hardest to fight off the feeling that this time, morning would never come.