Dean

After I look over her hand,  I think about what we're going to do and where we're going to go. "If you want to get out of town, we had better head out now. If we continue to go East, we should be able to make our way around the crater and find the road that led out of town, or what's left of it." I can't help but notice the sting in my jaw as I talk. She packs a good punch, I give her that.

"Okay, how long do you think it will take to get around where the asteroid hit?" I shrug at her question.

"If you look through the fog, you can see how large a hole it made in your Earth. It's going to take a couple days to just get around it, but it is definitely worth a shot. If we find a road, we can find another town and maybe some people there to help us." I sling the backpack into a better position on my back, before heading out around town, not knowing how long exactly that it will take.

I can hear her follow behind me, and I wonder what she truly thinks about all of this. Does she have any plans? If we do find anyone else, what is she going to do? Where is she going to go? Surely we aren't the only ones left on Earth, just in our town. I definitely don't want to be responsible for building up civilization, especially not with...her.

"What are you going to do? If we do find more people, which we most likely will, what are your plans?" I ask her as we finally make it out of the debris, a stretch of desert dryness ahead of us.

"I'm not sure," she whispers. "I'll probably stay with them. Help them and do whatever I can to survive, I guess."

"You don't actually think we are the last people on this planet, do you? I mean just because one asteroid hit and obliterated an entire town, does not mean that it killed both of our species, right?" I hope she can't sense the desperation in my voice, the worry in my tone. I don't have a good feeling about any of this, and it's something I can't shake off or pretend to cover up. I'm scared, and I shouldn't be. Norovians are tough, I mean I watched my entire planet blow up before my eyes, yet I'm scared of an asteroid. Maybe I'm scared because I've seen what so many can do.

"No," she mutters and I wish she would yell. She sounds so hopeless almost, and I don't like that. "I mean, on the news the only other asteroid that hit was the next town over, nothing else was broadcasted. If we're the only two towns hit, there can't be just us left."

"But what if more space debris did hit this planet, but we didn't know about it because it wasn't near a town? Or it was the same time the asteroid hit us so we wouldn't be able to catch it on the television? You can't seriously think that two asteroids hit this planet in the span of two days, and nothing else has collided with it? It could be small meteoroids or something, but I don't think those are the only two that had made contact with Earth." She doesn't like my answer, I can tell by the way she lets out a long sigh, hoping that I was to agree with her.

"I don't want to think that there are more space debris floating around just waiting to crash on the planet, or have already crashed. I want to believe that that's the only asteroid that hit besides the one on the other town. The one on the other town wasn't even big, I heard."

"But ours was. I bet it took out--miles upon miles of land. When I looked down at the hole and seen--"

"Wait," she interrupts. "You walked over to check it out?"

"I was curious, I needed to see the piece of rock that took my family from me." I can tell she's impressed at the guts I had to look at it, but that quickly fades away into a sad expression.

"I couldn't look at it. I didn't have the courage to walk over and see how large it was. I knew it was large when I seen it in the sky and it took how long to collide with the earth? It's massive. I wouldn't be surprised if it took out hundreds of miles of land."

"I'm sure it did. We're lucky in a way, I guess. When I was looking out, I think our town only got the partial results of the damage. The whole thing didn't collide with the town, it only clipped us with its edge."

"If the edge of that thing can do that much damage, I can't--" She stops talking, and I watch as she tries to control her breathing. She's in pain, but so am I. I told her I wasn't selfish, but I can't help but believe that I am in a certain way. I don't want to help her, I would risk her life if it meant getting my family back. But then I think that I can't get them back, so I wouldn't risk her life, and despite how much I don't want to help her, I am going to anyway. I just want to prove that I am not like her kind. Selfish and arrogant. My kind might just care for the Norovians, but that's mostly because her kind weren't welcoming, thinking us to be some green beings with large eyes that only spoke telepathically. What a joke.

I then begin to think about the argument we had earlier. She's not a pathetic human, I should have never said that. She just pushes my buttons and irritates me, then when I react she thinks it's okay to punch me. She can't just start punching when she's upset, in that case I'll have to sleep with one eye open.

We remain quiet for some time, and I can tell her legs are beginning to hurt. Our town was rather large, but I can tell we'll make it out before sunset, and I don't want to stop just yet. The chemical smell of fallen factories isn't so potent, and the fog from the debris and cut earth isn't quite as thick.

"What are you going to do? When we find survivors or whatever?" Ella asks after several moments of slightly awkward silence.

"I'm not exactly sure. I kind of wanted to become a teacher," I speak out before even thinking about it. I don't want to tell this girl anything about me, she doesn't deserve to know. But with everything that is inside of me, she's the only thing I have, and it would be nice to talk about something interesting besides fighting and throwing punches or insults to one another.

"Really? I never would have guessed." I try to sense the mark of sarcasm in her reply, but nothing is there but sincerity. She's actually being genuine...to a Norovian of all things.

"Yeah. I mean, since I know so much about your planet and way of life, I think it would be really fun to share the things I know and help both your kind and mine know more about this planet Earth."

"I thought all of your kind knew everything? Doesn't each Norovian know the same as the next?" I let out a dry laugh at her question. Of course she thought all of us were know-it-alls.

"No, Ella, not all of us want to learn. Yes, most of us came over and found whatever book we could get our hands on and study it, but not all of us are like that. Most, but not all. And not one being can simply know the same things as the next. Everyone lives a different life, sees different things, hears different things, it's impossible to have two people think and know the exact same. I like that, though. No one else in this world or any other will ever know everything that I do. The mind is incredible." I swear I can see the faint touch of a smile on her lips, but it's gone just as fast as it appeared.

"That also means you don't know everything I do," she speaks up after a moment. I roll my eyes, even though she can't see.

"Quiz me on something, I dare you."

"Book knowledge isn't everything, Dean," she sort of snaps. "Just because you've read every book, does not mean you know everything."

"Book knowledge is pretty important, if you ask me," I retort in defense.

"I didn't ask you though."

"Your attitude is utterly atrocious."

"The feelings are mutual. It's not my fault I get slightly annoyed because you believe you know absolutely everything."

"Didn't you just hear what I said? No one knows everything."

"You once told me that you know more about my planet then I ever will."

"Yes, and I was telling the truth. We hold knowledge differently then you humans do. It almost stay with us whenever we read it. That is, if you actually look into it and almost study it." She begins to mutter foul cursing under her breath, and despite how much I dislike her, it's amusing to watch.

"Humans are the same way, you dummy. If you study it stays with you."

"Yes, but it stays longer with us. Statistics are proven."

"Who cares about that." She's not entirely upset like she was, but I can tell she wished she was traveling with anyone other then me.

"Why do you hate me so much? I don't care," I respond quickly, "I'm just merely curious."

"Because, you're a know-it-all." I knew it. I laugh at her reply, before agreeing. "You're also ignorant and rude and cruel." Her eyes don't meet mine, reminding me of how awful I treated her in school.

"I am a smarty pants," I reply, ignoring the last part of her statement. "Which helps in times like these." Mentioning our current situation, wasn't the smartest decision.

"That it does, I suppose." I can't blame her for all of her sudden outbursts of emotion, she did just lose everyone, but she's selfish to only think about her family. I lost everything too, but I can't sit around and sulk all the time.

We don't speak for quite a while, but finally we make it out of town, the sun a mere streak of orange across the horizon. "Do you want to camp here?" I ask as we walk a bit farther from town. "I'm slightly tired," I lie, my legs actually feeling quite fine. I can tell hers hurt, though, and I don't want her to be in pain tomorrow when we have to travel further.

"Okay, that's fine." I can tell she's happy when she lets out a sigh of relief, as she sits on the sandy dirt beneath us.

"If you're tired, you can always say something and we'll rest." The look she gives me after saying this makes me wish I could take it back.

"Stop being so nice all of the sudden. I don't care if you aren't selfish, it's weird that you're so suddenly helpful. It's almost like it's forced." I want to yell at her, I'm not forcing anything. I don't want to help her, but I have no choice. This isn't a matter of enemies, it's a matter of trying to survive. I wish she would see that.

"Whatever," I growl under my breath before rolling onto my side and trying to find some sleep, despite the faces of my family that continue to enter my mind.