The glowing began slowly to begin with. It got a little brighter and I noticed it getting much brighter, much faster.

'What is that?' I thought.

"Vi, Vi, Vi, Vi, Vi, Vi, Vi!" Dash's voice yelled as he came barrelling out of the cave.

"What did you do?!" I asked, standing up.

"Come on!" He yelled, grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the cave as fast as he could.

He dragged the both of us up an embankment just in time as an enormous wave of fire rushed out of the cave we had been sheltering in.

My eyes widened in shock and I knew Dash's were doing the same thing.

"What the hell was that?!" I asked incredulously, turning to him.

"I don't know. But I think I know what caused it." He pointed at a rocket disappearing rapidly after emerging from the top of what was probably a volcano before… whoever it is turned it into a rocket silo.

"What on earth is going on on this island?" I said, more to myself than anyone.

"I don't know." Dash said, shaking his head.

We stood there in silence for a little while. I still felt really weird about this whole situation. Just a few hours ago I was at home, ready for a good night of reading and listening to music. And now… I don't really know. I knew it was my fault the plane blew up, really. Mom said that it wasn't, but I'd failed her just when she needed me most.

Dash couldn't exactly run around the plane and kick the missiles away. Mom couldn't grab the missiles and throw them. I could have made a forcefield. I could have stopped the missiles blowing up our plane. But I didn't. All because I'd never done it before. I mean, yeah, that's a big forcefield that she asked me to make, but I probably could have if I really tried.

The pressure got to me.

"Violet?"

Dash broke me out of my reverie and I jolted around.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"What are we going to do?"

"I don't honestly know." I said.

"We could stay here?" Dash said.

"Let's get a bit further away from the rocket exhaust port first." I said.

We slowly moved through the dense, crowding jungle into an area with a bit less dense coverage and found a small clearing, a couple of yards across.

"This'll probably do." I said.

"Yeah. I guess." Dash replied.

I sat down at the base of a tree nearby and hugged my knees to my chest, holding them in place with my arms and rested my head down onto my knees.

Dash sat down only a few yards away and lay spread eagled with his back up against the tree.

I shivered.

"Vi?" He asked.

I looked up turned my head towards him. "Yeah, Dash?"

"What do you reckon'll happen if we get caught?"

"Probably nothing good." I said and dropped my head back into position.

"Um, I'm a bit…" Dash started before trailing off.

"I'm scared too." I said.

"You are?"

"Yeah. What'll happen if Mom and Dad get hurt? What if they get killed? What if we get killed?"

"We won't. We can't." Dash said.

"Yeah. You're right." I said.

"Uh, Violet, um… I'm sorry for, for not being a great brother. Always making fun of you. And all of that." Dash said.

"Thanks." I said, looking up. "I'm sorry for trapping you in forcefields so much."

"Thank you. You don't know how hard that is to defeat." He said.

"Why do you think I keep doing it, then?"

"Because you know how hard it is to get out."

"Yeah." I said. "And I'm sorry for always calling you names."

"Me too." Dash said. "So, does this mean that we're going to stop fighting?"

"We'll see if we get out of here first."

"Okay, then." Dash said. "Do you want to go look around a bit?"

"Remember what happened last time you looked around?"

"If I didn't we'd both be dead."

"True." I said. "Go ahead. I'll be here."

"You can come if you want." Dash said. "I know you're feeling bad about the plane thing. This'll take your mind off of it."

"Fine." I said and hopped up.

"Let's go!" Dash said.

He ran nice and slow for me so we ended up moving at a reasonable pace.

"So, what do you think is happening here?" I asked Dash.

"Don't know. Might be some sort of terrorism-hold-the-world-to-ransom thing. Or maybe this guy's going to release a nerve toxin on a major city or something!"

"You've been watching Captain Scarlet again, haven't you?"

"So have you." Dash said.

"Got me there." I replied.

"So, do you reckon that…"

I wrapped my hand around his mouth and 'shh-ed' him as I saw two shadows walking along one of the pre-determined paths on the island.

"You sure you saw something around here?" One of the shadows talked with a gravelly voice.

"Yeah. Security cams showed two people around here. Looked like kids."

Dash immediately started trying to struggle and I had to hold him back.

"Let them go!" I whispered.

Dash stopped struggling and the two shadows stopped.

"There's something there." One of them said.

"Don't worry. It's probably just a bird or something. It's too cold to be doing this. Let's go back and get some hot cocoa or something."

"And what do we tell the boss?"

"His whole plan is ruined because two kids are on an island. What will they do anyway? Rocket's already gone. It's probably not even them. Come on."

The first shadow looked around a bit more through the leaves that were only barely concealing us.

"Fine." He said and walked off with his mate.

Dash and I let out a collective sigh of relief.

"Thank god for that."

"Yeah. Good thing those two didn't see us." I said. "Come on, let's go back to our campsite… thing."

"Yeah, maybe a good idea." Dash said. "I've had enough exploring for one night."

"Me too."

Eventually the two of us found a nice little stretch of somewhat soft ground and agreed to stop there.

"I'm not sleeping even two feet away from you, Violet."

"Come on, man. I'm not exactly thrilled about it but in order for us to not die, it's the best option."

"No. You sleep over there, I'll sleep here. Sound good?"

"Fine." I said.

Dash rolled over onto his side facing me and I sat against the tree for a bit. There really was something off about this place. Not just the near death experience with rocket exhaust. Not just the fact they fired a rocket out of the top of a volcano. But something else. It just felt… off.

I shook that thought from my mind and lay down about a foot away from Dash and rested my head on my arms.

Soon after, I felt Dash's small body crawl its way up onto my back and snuggle into my shoulder.

I chuckled lightly and drifted off into a bit of an uneasy sleep.