The FFF and a Changing World

Miko jumped up too. She could feel her heart racing. This was her dream . . . her nightmare . . . and it was coming true! It couldn’t be! Her feet felt rooted to the ground as terror began to crawl over her. She yanked her eyes away from the sky, and, calling Maxee, she darted in the direction of the caves, following Ben. “Head for the caves, fast as you can go! C’mon, Gina, Beth, keep up with Miko and Ben. I’ll stay behind you just in case one of you falls and I can help!” Seth yelled. He slowed his pace to match Beth’s, glancing over his shoulder at the enormous orb heading at them out of the sky. The high-pitched whistling was rapidly growing louder. The sound drove them on to the limits of their speed. Ben’s powerful legs churned as he turned his head to see how close the danger was. “Oh, no! That thing is on fire now, and look! There’s hundreds of those things—those balls of fire—in sight now. Run! Run!” Ben’s mind whirled as fast as his legs as he tried to guess the distance to the caves and whether they’d make it. Under his breath, he was chanting and urging more speed for all of them. Suddenly, there was a tremendous boom as the first meteorite crashed into the ground. The earth around them shook, flinging all of them to the ground face-first. Hundreds of flaming meteorites were plowing into the ground. Rock were rolling in all directions around them. The herd of horses, still led by Caramel, stampeded past them, in the opposite direction, stretching their bodies in a flat-out run, screaming shrilly. Thousands of tiny lizards with new wings flew around, whirring in agitation. Birds appeared to be diving out of the sky, screeching in terror. Jackrabbits, mice, ground lizards, and bugs swarmed everywhere. A pack of coyotes streaked past, eyes glazed, almost colliding with the running horses. There were rumbles and cracking sounds coming from the mountain crest above them. More fiery orbs flew screaming out of the sky, striking the earth all around them. They saw huge balls of fire the size of cars. Large and small burning boulders poured down out of the heavens, crushing everything they hit. Smaller rocks glowing with heat lanced out of the sky and landed around them, starting fires as they rolled over the grass and sagebrush. Miko clung to Maxee, rolling both of them around, trying to dodge the flames and falling rocks. Maxee was making tiny frightened, whimpering sounds while trying to lick Miko’s face. Her eyes were huge trying to watch all the dangers around them at the same time. It was raining down flaming rocks. Grass fires were starting up all over. One tree burst into fire, shooting flames high into the sky. Dust and smoke were clogging their throats.