Journey: The Center of Gaea

  Quillton coughed as the dust faded. "Is everyone OK?" He asked. Sunset stuck her thumb up, meaning she was good. "Where's Galaxy?" Quillton asked. "Galaxy?" He called. I coughed.

   "Over here." I groaned. Sunset and Quillton raced to where I was. "I'm fine, I'm OK." I told them. Then I realized where we were. I stared at the boulders blocking the entrance. "We're stuck aren't we?" I asked. Quillton looked at the boulders, then me. He nodded.

   "Big time, dearie." He said. "There's got to be at least 50 pounds of boulders on top of us. Take us about a month to get out of here." Quillton said.

   "A month?!" I exclaimed. I pulled out my phone. "Damn it, no signal! Crimson calls when she gets worried about me." I told Sunset and Quillton. They looked at me confused.

   "Crimson?" Sunset asked. I sighed.

   "My little sister. She's turning 15 in a week, and I told her I'd be there to celebrate her birthday with her." I told them. I scrolled down to her number. No signal. I turned my phone off.

  "Hi, this is Galaxy, I can't answer right now, but I'll call you back when I can." Crimson's phone said. Our mom looked at her.

  "Can't reach your brother?" She asked. Crimson shook her head. Her skin was a light crimson color. She was 14 with bright pink hair, purple eyes, and was in a purple t-shirt, black shorts, and had on her favorite purple striped socks. She was at least 5'5, and the cutest girl in her school. They boys that tried to get with her, well, let's say I didn't approve of them. Mom had gotten tired of the boys at her school, so I took on the responsibility to protect my little sis. She tried my phone again. It went to voice-mail. She sighed and decided to leave me a message.

  "Hey big bro, it's Crimson. Call me back when you can please? You're not answering and I'm starting to worry." She said into the mic on her phone. She hung up and held her necklace. A bright amethyst gem necklace. I had given it to her for her 8th birthday. She wore it ever since that day. To her, it was special. Our mom hugged her.

   "Don't worry sweetie, Galaxy will be back soon." She told her. Our mom's name was Crystal Gem. She was indigo skinned and in her mid 40's with black hair, blue eyes, and was in a black shirt and blue jeans and purple socks. Crimson sighed and turned on the TV.

   "Where are you, Galaxy?" Crimson asked herself.

   "How do we get out?" I asked Sunset and Quillton as we proceeded down a tunnel.

   "Simple, dearie, we find the old mine shaft Sunset said, and we go from there." Quillton told me. I shrugged and moved forward. We stopped at a ledge that Quillton almost fell down. He exclaimed as Sunset pulled him back.

   "You're not studying rocks in a lab, Quillton. This is life or death, OK?" She asked. He nodded. I noticed a flare in her bag.

   "Hey Sunset, how many of those flares you got?" I asked. She looked in her bag.

   "Uh, four, why?" She asked.

    "Hand me one." I said. She handed me one. "OK, I'm going to light this, drop it down, and Quill, you're going to count how many seconds before it reaches the bottom." I looked over the edge. "Assuming there is one." Quillton nodded. I lit the flare, and as I was about to chuck it, the rock next to me exploded. We all exclaimed.

   "What the hell?" Quillton asked. I ran my hand through the vein. I sniffed it.

   "Huh, magnesium." I said, moving my light. "Must run in veins all through these walls." I noticed.

   "Magnesium's kind of flamable, isn't it Galaxy?" Sunset asked.

    "Yeah." I replied. I then found a glowstick in her bag ant lit it up. "Ha." I said. "Here goes." I dropped it down the edge. Quillton counted.

    "1....2..." The glowstick made a faint thud. "Almost three." He told me. I did the math.

    "OK, so that's, ooh, 200 feet?" I guessed. "We're going down there. Got rope?" I asked Sunset. She nodded. We hooked ourselves to the rope and propelled down. "OK, all good down here. Way down here." I said. "You guys are coming down right?" I asked. Quillton propelled down next to me. He was smiling. "What?" I asked.

    "Galaxy, we haven't had an adventure this awesome in a while, dearie!!" He whooped. He propelled down the ledge further. I sighed and followed him. Sunset was behind me. She almost stumbled. "You alright?" Quillton called. Sunset nodded. That's when I stumbled and lost my balance. "Whoa!" Quillton exclaimed. "Too much weight, too much weight!!" He said, trying to get his feet back on the wall. Sunset pulled out a knife from her bag.

    "Galaxy! You're too heavy, I'm going to have to cut you loose." Sunset told me.

    "Wait!" I protested. Sunset began cutting my rope with her knife. "Sunset, wait, wait, wait, wait!" I exclaimed as I hit the ground with a soft thud. It was the bottom. "Hey, guys, found it. Bottom's right here." I said. Quillton sighed. "You knew that, didn't you?" I asked him.

    "Spoilers, dearie." He smiled. We untied the rope holding us and proceeded into another cave, hopefully leading to that mine shaft Sunset told me and Quillton about.