Before Time Ends

Sitting in the warm glow of the fire with my sandy-blonde partner, we saw, for the first time, in the 16 years of both our lives, stars in the sky. I rested my head in exhaustion on Aniel’s shoulder. “Long day?” the husky tone of Aniel’s voice sailed over the sound of nature, harmonizing in the background.
“Hmm, Yeah.” I was so tired, both words had the same lazy sigh. Aniel chuckled, I looked up and smiled, “We’re almost there.” Two months ago, I met Aneil Bayer in a government experiment, making up for a huge scientific mistake 17 years ago in 5999. We’re in the middle of nowhere, outside of human living camps, searching for a warehouse of stored food to feed the human population. Fighting to survive plant overgrowth, genetically mutated creatures, and finish our assigned task with only 2 survival backpacks that give you anything you wish for, Aniel’s death counter that counts all human deaths, my creature detector that warns us about any creatures within a one mile radius of us, and our earpiece phones that are implanted into each baby’s ear when they are born.
Thinking made me fall asleep. The next morning I awoke early and prepared breakfast to start the day right. We moved quickly, with the directions from our trainer at our base in enclosed territory. When we were about 5 miles from our destination, my creature detector started flashing. Aniel and I got into fight position. Our adrenalin was pumping as we waited for the creatures to approach us. We had our weapons from our backpacks ready.
“Ahh!!!!” I looked down and blood was gushing out of Aniel’s leg, he knelt down in pain. The creature was preparing to attack me, four legged and red eyes bulging, but I stabbed it before it could hurt me. By the time I had finished off the creature, Aniel had already applied healing cream and bandaged up the teeth shaped gash on his leg. We waited for the healing cream to do its work and I watched and fought off creatures around us. As soon as Aniel was strong enough to walk, an hour later, we moved as quickly as we could to make it to the warehouse by nightfall. My creature detector was flashing frantically. We were in big trouble.
I found a safe, secluded area for Aniel and I to spend the night. I made sure no creature could get to us while we got some sleep. I plopped down next to Aniel, who was sitting on a makeshift seat cushion pillow, a folded up blanket. “Hmphh! Hmm. How’s your leg doing?”
“It’s still throbbing and hurts like 1000 different razors cutting me at the same time, like when your leg falls asleep and feels like needles, but way worse.”
“Ouch! Man I’m sorry that it was you, not me.”
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s about time we get some shut-eye. Good night, Aniel.”
Morning came, and I woke up to find Aniel staring at the ceiling. I wanted to say something, but I didn’t want to break his concentration. If it weren’t for our mission, I would have stared at him forever. But back to real life, we had to get this food ready to fight off a lot of creatures and get all the food ready for the helicopters to get us and the food back to normal life. Teamwork helped us to fight off the creatures twice our size and more. This creature-infested hotspot took us hours to fight and kill off. I was so relieved to be alive and done with the day that I just collapsed, hugging Aniel. “We did it.” ------------------------------------------------------------------
These few weeks have been sort of a blur, I still can’t believe I’m alive and at my house with my family and my siblings, and my life before the mission. Aniel and I still keep in touch.
Now I’m sitting here in the living room, Kalea Mason, a normal 16 year old, thinking about an unforgettable adventure. Someone knocks the door. I, being the only one home, walk over and answer the door. “Hey Kalea.” I know that voice and face anywhere.
“Aniel!”