I wake with a start.

My Mommy is shaking me, yelling for me to pack my things. Pack, and pack fast.

Instantly, my nerves start to buzz. “Where are we going?” I ask, sitting up.

We have to leave, leave, leave now. She pauses briefly to look at me. Fear.

I don’t get an answer, but I realize that wherever we are going is very important to be packing so urgently. I throw some clothes into a half-filled suitcase, barely having the chance to think things out.

No, no, no, only get what’s important. We need to leave, leave, leave.

I am starting to breathe as heavily as Mommy now. I don’t know why she’s acting like this.

Daddy bursts through the door. He’s breathing heavily, too.

We need to go.

I zip up my suitcase, hauling it out of the house. As Daddy shoves it in the trunk, I remember.

“What about Zuzu? We cant leave Zuzu here all alone!”

Zuzu will be fine. She has enough food in her bowl to last.

Once everything is packed up, Daddy floors the gas. We are going many, many miles over the limit, but I don’t think he cares. He turns up the radio with shaky hands.

“-asteroid larger than Russia beginning to close in, hurtling towards our planet at increasingly concerning speeds. NASA reports that it’s on a clear course towards Earth, and it seems like there is only about 10 minutes before impact. Is this the end of the world?”

The car becomes deathly silent as the radio stops. I’m afraid to ask the question.

“Mommy, where… where are we going?”

Away.

Tears slip down my cheeks. The end of the world? How are we supposed to go away from that? Is everyone going to die? I can’t comprehend it.

Everyone in the car is crying. Mommy’s body is racking with sobs, and Daddy is weeping, still driving to nowhere. Somehow, there is no traffic on the highway. Has everyone already accepted their fate?

We left Zuzu at home.

Zuzu is gone forever. Everyone will be gone forever. Somehow, it is the former that shatters my heart. I feel the billions of pieces stabbing into my lungs, my stomach, my brain. I cannot think straight anymore. I want to go back to Zuzu. Even when the asteroid hits, I want to be with my little corgi forever. I don’t even wanna be with my friends at school, or my smiling teachers, or the kind faces at the grocery store. I don’t think I could if I tried. They had their own families to be with.

“Daddy… why are you driving? Where are we supposed to go?”

Silence. Mind-numbing, all-consuming, never ending silence.

10 minutes must have passed by now. Funny, it kinda feels like 10 years have passed by now. I never even made it to my 10th birthday. I never made it.

A sound, one that makes you jump, it’s so loud. It’s the loudest sound in the world. It’s the last thing I hear, driving to nowhere.

I wake with a start.