A Dying Breed

Lance was 16 and lived in the basement of a hotel. It wasn’t bad however, considering that he still received the benefits of the higher rooms. As far as he could remember, he had no family. He had been on his own for as long as he could remember. He had been homeless at a very young age, but fate had smiled upon him one day as he stumbled upon a used metal detector. Lance had taken it and went to the beach. He had no idea on how to use the thing and had thrown it away in frustration. It hit the sand and began to beep. Lance had ran over and picked it up. An old chest had come up with it. Inside of the chest was a small amount of jewels, but they were extremely valuable jewels. Although young, Lance wasn’t stupid. He hid the chest and took one jewel out of the chest. He took it into a convenience store and asked if he could trade the jewel for some money. The cashier looked at the jewel and offered Lance all of his makings for the day for the jewel. Lance agreed and his life grew easier from then on.
He still had the chest hidden in his room. There was still a fair amount of jewels because Lance knew better than to be stupid with it. He had paid his entry to school and had started going by the age of seven. He was fairly smarter than everyone else in his class despite coming in from apparently nowhere. He was picked on because of this, but he always shrugged it off. He wasn’t popular and he preferred it that way. He’d never had a girlfriend before because of his smarts. He never seemed to mind it much however. Lance always changed schools, trying to find better ones to challenge him. He had been through five schools. He didn’t find a good one until he was 14. He stayed there and eventually settled down.
Lance walked down the street to the bus station. Along the way, he reflected on how much the human race had accomplished so far. They had found a cure for all STDs and had made a new medical technology that allowed any wound on or in the human body to be healed. Other than that, the world was the same as it had always been. He walked up to the station and the bus pulled in right on time. Lance walked in, paid the fare, and sat in the very back of the bus. It pulled off and went on it’s way. The ride would only take five minutes, but Lance enjoyed the time to think about things. Lance was wondering about the birth process when something caught his eye. A huge ship was hovering over the biggest building in the city. It was massive. It was far beyond any kind of ship that Lance had seen previously. “That’s not from this planet,” he thought to himself. The dream came to mind and Lance shook his head furiously. He opened his eyes again and the ship was gone.
The bus pulled up to the school and Lance climbed off. The bell would ring in thirty minutes, allowing time for Lance to eat breakfast before attending his classes for the day. He walked into the cafeteria and immediately noticed that no one was there. Lance scratched his head in confusion. He walked up to the lunch lady and grabbed a tray. He sat at a nearby table and bit into his donut. “Hey, Lance,” someone said from behind him. Lance turned quickly and saw that a girl was coming over to sit by him. He sigh deeply as she sat in front of him. Lance knew some crazy girls, but not many girls went to the extremes like this specific girl. Around school she was know as the “crazy psycho girl.” Her name was Jordan. Her features were strange, similar to Lance, but not the same at all. She had ghost white hair, white eyes, and her taste in clothes was rather questionable.

Today, however, she had managed to match. She wore a light blue blouse with a blue skirt. She was wearing sandals, which she usually never did. Jordan noticed Lance staring. She smiled and stood up. “What do you think?” she asked, smiling. She turned and around and bent over. “I thought that it brought out some of my “defining” features, but what do you think?” Lance looked down at his food. “It’s the first time I can remember that you’ve actually matched,” he replied. Jordan sat down and stared at him, still smiling. “That’s nice,” she said. “But how do you think I look?” “You look…” he hesitated. “Normal.” Jordan frowned. “A real answer Lance.” He looked up at her. “That was a real answer. She looked like she was about to say something, when he noticed a red mark on her hand that snaked up her arm and disappeared into her blouse. “What’s with the tattoo?” he asked, disrupting what she was about to say.
Jordan looked down at her arm. “I’m not exactly sure,” she said, as if realizing for the first time that the mark was actually there. “I just woke up with it this morning.” Jordan looked up and him and stared at him intently. Lance averted his eyes to his half eaten donut. “It makes me feel weird Lance,” Jordan said. Lance looked up and found that Jordan was inches from his face. “I’m sort of trying to eat here,” Lance said, inching back in his seat. Jordan shook her head violently. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know what I was doing.” “It’s ok.” Lance ate the rest of his donut in silence while Jordan watched him. He cleaned his hands, turned, and dumped the tray into the cleaning box. Lance got up and Jordan also got to her feet. “Do you know why no one’s here?” he asked. “No, I was actually going to ask you if you knew,” Jordan said.
Lance and Jordan walked down the deserted hallway. To Lance, the silence was worse than any other sound that he had ever heard in his entire life. “I find the silence to be really comforting,” Jordan said. “Don’t you?” Lance shrugged. “I don’t really care,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a stranger day of a normal day at school.” Jordan stopped walking. Lance looked over his shoulder. “What’s wrong?” he said. Jordan walked up to him and looked at him solemnly. “Something’s wrong. I don’t know what it is, but something is definitely wrong.” Lance didn’t say anything. He too felt like there was something wrong, but he prayed that he was wrong. “Promise you’ll find me after school?” she asked suddenly. She took Lance’s hand and hooked his pinkie with her own. “It’s a promise then,” she said happily. She turned and ran off to her class. Lance looked at his pinkie in silence. “Damn it,” he thought as he continued on his way to his own classroom.
Lance opened the door, went in and found that only six people were there. He went to his usual seat in the back by the window and laid his books neatly to the side of his desk. The teacher wasn’t at the desk, but their was something written on the board. Lance looked and saw that it said, “Since there is a lack of students today, all studies are to be cancelled. However, you are not to leave the classroom until someone arrives.” Lance scratched his head in confusion. He heaved a sigh. “Well, when the going gets boring, the bored go to sleep.” He laid his head on the desk. He saw the six only students get up and gather around each other. “Like rats to garbage,” Lance thought. He turned his head and looked outside. He grew drowsy watching the clouds slowly drift by. Lance wasn’t sure when he went to sleep, but the next moment, he was sound asleep.

“Lance, get up,” someone was saying. He bolted upwards and sat still. “Come one, schools already out.” Lance slowly lowered his head back towards the desk. There was a heavy sigh. “Alright,” the voice said. “I’m going to give you a kiss.” Lance’s eyes shot open and he saw Jordan smiling at him. “I knew that would wake you up,” she said. Lance yawned and stretched in his seat. “Schools out already?” Jordan sigh. “Well, they only made us stay for one class since so few people were here.” Lance got up. “Makes sense.” “Now come on mister,” Jordan said, taking Lance by the hand. “You promised that we’d hang out after school.” Lance scratched his head. “That’s not what I remember,” he thought to himself. Jordan half pulled, half dragged Lance to the door. She opened it and pulled Lance down the street. “I’m in the mood for some ice cream.”
They were passing by a T.V. store when Lance stopped. “What’s wrong Lance?” Jordan asked, coming over to stand by him. She followed his stare and saw the news report on the TV. “Two colossal stars have just appeared near our planet,” Jordan read. “We strongly advise the public to ignore this. If they were of any danger, you would be the first to know.” Jordan blew air out of her mouth. “Well, that‘s something,” she said. Lance said nothing. “Lance open your hands!” Jordan yelled at him. Lance looked down and unclenched his fists. He hadn’t noticed that he had closed them. He saw a trail of blood snake across his palm before he wiped it away. “What are you so worried about?” Jordan asked anxiously. “Those stars are going to explode,” he said in nearly a whisper. Jordan laughed nervously. “They said that the stars weren’t of any danger.” Lance shook his head. “They’re wrong.”
“Lance, your scaring me,” Jordan said. Lance grabbed Jordan by the shoulders and looked at her. “I want you to go home and watch the news channel.” Jordan stared at him uncomprehending. “Please Jordan.” She nodded weakly. Lance let her go and she stared at him for a moment. “You’ve lost it Lance,” she said and then turned and raced off down the street. Lance sigh. “Better that she be afraid and concerned than unconcerned and ignorant,” he thought. He looked up into the sky and sure enough, he spotted the two stars that had suddenly appeared near earth. He looked back down and went into the store. He went to the nearest television set and turned it up as loud as it would go. Lance caught the reporter about halfway through his current report. “The stars are hurtling towards each other at startling speeds and a collision is imminent.” The reporter grew grim at this point. “We’ve gathered proof that our precious planet will be destroyed when these stars collide. Fortunately, scientists from long ago completed a vital mission of making another Earth, nicknamed Hearth.”
“At the current speed of the stars, it will take five hours for them to collide. Two ships have been sent to Earth to evacuate a fair amount of people. To get on, all you have to do is make it within the time period of three hours. The ships can be found at the airport in Houston. I urge the people to please make it here as soon as possible. We face a grave situation people. We need to come together to overcome this crisis.” Lance collapsed into a nearby chair. Someone behind him swore. “Let’s go,” someone else shouted. “We don’t’ have time to waste here. Lance rubbed his temples. “The only good thing about this news is that we live in Houston.” Lance gasped suddenly. “Jordan!” A hand touched his shoulder. He turned and breathed a sigh of relief. Jordan looked at him for a second, then placed her hand in his. Lance stood up. “Let’s go,” he said.

The streets were in an uproar. Everywhere that Lance looked, people were running, yelling, and pushing into other people. “Hold onto my hand!” he told Jordan, screaming to be heard over the roar of the crowd. He took a deep breath and stepped into the crowd. As soon as he did, he felt as though an entire football team was trying to run him over. He set his jaw and began to make his way down the street. That’s when he felt a shake. It was a small one, but he felt it all the same. Then it turned into a shudder. Then, the ground began to shake slightly. It intensified and Lance looked down. A crack was running straight down the middle of the road. The crack started to get bigger and Lance began to grow worried. He gripped Jordan’s hand tighter and pulled her out of the crowd. The ground continued to shake and grow in magnitude. Lance and Jordan fell to their knees on the side of the road. “At least we’re not on the road anymore,” Lance thought to himself. Then screams began to climb up from the depths of the crowd. The ground was splitting wide open.
A loud grinding noise sounded from beneath Lance’s feet. He looked down and realized that the ground beneath him was beginning to split wide open. Lance grabbed Jordan and jumped over to the sidewalk. He sigh in relief. “I can’t do this anymore, I’m scared,” Jordan said. Lance looked at her. “We’re almost there. Just a little further,” Lance said, trying to comfort her. She looked at him and sat down stubbornly. “I won’t go any further,” she said, crossing her arms. Lance sigh heavily and began to pace. Lance heard more screaming and looked up. Even more holes were opening in the ground, swallowing up more people. A loud grinding screech sounded from behind Lance. He turned and saw that a dumpster had been shaken loose and was now rolling down the alleyway towards Jordan. She sat there, ignorant of the coming danger. Lance took off running, not thinking about what he was going to do. He tensed his legs and jumped.
Lance’s outstretched hands pushed Jordan out of the way, but before he could do anything else, the dumpster slammed into his side with bone shattering force. Somehow managing to hang on to consciousness, Lance was launched some distance before slamming forcefully into the ground. He wasn’t aware of anything. “Man, it hurts so bad that I can’t even feel it,” he thought to himself. Lance was faintly aware of blood streaming from his open mouth. He watched it hit the ground and soak into the dirt. His breathing was slow and ragged. Lance heard Jordan screaming and wanted to turn, but knew better than to try. He saw Jordan kneel down beside him. He couldn’t see her face, but he saw her tears falling. “I should have listened to you,” she cried, covering her face in her hands. Lance lay there, silent.
“Go,” Lance said weakly. The effort of speaking sent spasms of pain through his body. “I won’t leave you!” Jordan said. Lance painfully turned his head to the side and saw what appeared to be a bum, going by. “Hey,” he rasped. The bum turned to him with his grime streaked face. His clothes looked like rags that had been dug out of a dumpster. “What do you want? Don’t you see the world’s ending?” Lance ignored his second question and moved his hand slowly towards his pocket. “You want something valuable?” The bum nodded dumbly. Lance managed to fish out an emerald and let it drop to the ground. “Take the girl to the ship and it’s yours.”

Lance saw the man’s eyes light up with greed, but he stood there as if thinking hard about the deal. Another rift opened up near the man and he jumped in alarm. He ran forward and snatched the emerald from where it lay near Lance’s body. He turned towards the ship and for a second Lance was sure that he wasn’t going to take Jordan. Then he turned and made his way over to Jordan. “I’m not leaving you Lance!” she screamed. “Come on now,” the bum said, grabbing her arm. “No!” Jordan screamed, snatching her arm back. The bum looked down at her and frowned. “Fine!” He bent down and picked her up off the ground. “Put me down!” she screamed, punching the bum’s back. “Why Lance!?” she yelled as she left his view. Lance stared back down at the ground, realizing that he was growing very dizzy. Another mass of people began to run down the street, knocking Lance onto his back as they went. Lance cried out in pain and lay there staring up at the sky.
Time passed by slowly for Lance. The people who ran by him never seemed to care that another human being was lying in the street, incapacitated. The people who did stop to look at him only looked at him with pity before resuming their run to get to the ship. As this happened, Lance began to grow angry. “How could they be this way!?” he thought. “I’m one of them too.” A loud thrumming noise came from beside him, so Lance turned to look. The ships were lifting off into the air, leaving everyone else on the ground stranded and doomed. As their moans of dismay began, Lance smiled. “Serves them right for their cruelty.” He watched the ship slowly ascend and turn to small specks in the sky. Then they disappeared altogether. “At least Jordan will live,” he thought to himself. He let his eyes wander to the two stars and saw that they were almost right on top of each other. He saw them flare up and closed his eyes slowly. “So I guess this is the end for me.” Then the light enveloped him.
Lance was aware of his body being lifted and slammed, but after that, he finally passed out. As soon as he did, R appeared before his body, smiling. “You made a fine choice,” he said. “You won’t die yet Lance. Your time isn’t over yet.” He bent down and took Lance’s hand in his own. He turned it and then place it against his head. Markings immediately began to scribble themselves onto Lance’s hand. R placed his hand back by his side and sigh. “That’s all I can do for you right now.” Lance’s body rose and took off into the light. R smiled again and nodded. “This will be something to remember,” he said, fading from view. Lance’s body hurtled through space, miraculously unaffected by it. For hours, he went. Until a planet appeared. Lance’s body began to speed up as it entered it’s atmosphere. Lance’s eyes fluttered open. He looked up and saw the ground coming to meet him at an incredibly fast pace. Before he had time to do anything, he slammed into the ground.