It was cold and dark when I woke up, and deathly quiet. The only light came from a small flickering bulb above my head. I could see nothing outside through the little window in front of me, and I was still too cold to do anything, except open my eyes and wonder what had happened. Gradually the compartment began to warm up, and I felt life returning to my body. My tears, which had frozen on my face, melted and rolled down my cheeks. I inhaled deeply, but the air was old and stale. I soon felt strong enough to speak, and called out to my parents for help. But I realized that it was no use, and I remembered that the cocoons were soundproof. Slowly, agonizingly, I began to move my stiff arms, wriggling and fumbling and searching for the switch which will open the lid. Only then did I realize that I was lying on my back. The cocoon must have fallen over backwards, even though I clearly remembered that there had been a wall right behind it. This realization made me gasp with shock.

“Where am I?” I thought. “Am I still in the vault beneath our home? Have I been captured by the enemy and taken away somewhere? Oh, I hope they haven’t caught Mom and Dad! I hope they haven’t caught me! But why haven’t they killed me yet? What do they want with me?”

I asked these questions to myself over and over, without receiving any answers. In the end I knew that there was only thing I could do. Unless I wanted to starve to death inside this compartment, I had to find a way to get out. I began to push every button my hands could find, until at last I hit the right one, and the lid swung upwards, and I was free.

Still lying in the cocoon, I looked upwards in disbelief. Above me was a clear sky, filled with stars, slowly becoming lighter and lighter. It must be nearly dawn, I thought, but I had no idea how or when or why I ended up here, outside, in the open. Lifting my head a little, as if I was afraid of what I might see, I dared a quick look around. It was still pretty dark, but I could tell I was somewhere high up. Not only was the wind bracingly cold, but the ground around me only stretched about ten yards in every direction before sloping away. I had to be on some kind of hill or mountaintop. Still, that wasn’t the weirdest thing.

All around me I could see a collection of small, strangely-shaped structures. The largest were about ten feet tall. There were four of them, shaped like pyramids, only with steeper sides, and they were located at each corner of my container. I sat up to get a better look. There didn’t appear to be anyone about, which was both comforting and rather alarming. To my right, where my parents’ containers should have been, there was nothing, nothing except more of those strange pillar-like structures. The sun was almost up now, and I could see around more clearly. The little buildings around me seemed almost to be falling into ruin, as if they were very old or hadn’t been used in a long time.

“H-hello?” I said. I still didn’t know if I should shout out for help, or remain quiet and hidden. “Is anyone there? Can anyone hear me? Dad? Daddy, are you here? It’s Katie!”

Feeling a bit braver, I slowly climbed out of the cocoon. I saw that it was buried in the ground, sticking out only about two feet above the surface, and this puzzled me as well. Feeling the cold wind more strongly, I wished I had remembered to dress warmly on the night before the attack. I was only wearing a rather skimpy top, a short miniskirt and a pair of flip-flops. But I remembered the survival supplies stored in the back of the cocoon: there had be warmer clothes there. If only I knew how to open it…

While I was wondering what to do next, the first bit of sunlight came shining over the horizon. The light and warmth felt incredible, and I could finally get a good look around. Making my way through the weird ruins, I reached the edge of the mountaintop. I looked down, and was so stunned by what I saw that my legs gave way and I fell on down on my butt. Beneath me stretched a sight unlike anything I’d expected to see. I was looking east, directly into the sun. I’d expected to see the city of Washington, or, at worse, the city in ruins. Instead, there was not even a trace of anything manmade.

Several hundred feet below me, the waves of the ocean beat against a forested shoreline. I was on a small peak next to the coast. Behind me, to the north, west and south, I could see miles and miles of forested land, with only an occasional small mountain, like the one I was on, breaking the monotony. It was all stunningly beautiful, but so frighteningly unexpected that I couldn’t bear to look at it.

“Where am I?” I said aloud. “And where is everyone else?” Then I stood up and abandoned caution and began to scream aloud.

“Hello?! Anyone?! If anyone can hear me, please, I need help! My name is…my name is Katie Martyn, I live in Washington, D.C., in America. My parents are Cole and Sue Martyn, I go to…goddammit, is anyone listening?!!”

I sat down again and buried my face in my hands. I knew I shouldn’t cry, but I felt so lonely and frustrated and scared. My life was over, I thought. I was stuck, all alone, in this desolate place in the middle of nowhere, and I didn’t know what the hell I should do next. I began sobbing, but not for long.

“Stop being such a baby!” I said aloud to myself. “There’s gotta be someone living near here, somewhere – who else could have built all these things? Pull yourself together, Katie! We’re going to find something to eat, and then we’re going to look around, until we find someone who can help. Yes, we’re going to get help, and we’re not going to cry like a pathetic little girl anymore!”

Scolding myself seemed to do the trick, and I felt a little bit stronger. I got up and walked back to the cocoon. There were many switches on the outside, and I knew one of them had to open the compartment with the food inside. The lid had closed by itself again. I grabbed hold and tried to pull it open: maybe there was something in there that could help as well. Not succeeding, I searched for the OPEN LID switch, the only one that was actually marked. I pressed it, and it opened like a trap-door. Inside, in the padded box I had slept in for who-knew-how-long, there was nothing I recognized, but there was something nevertheless. Something that, again, was so completely strange and unexpected that, this time, I shrieked loudly and backed away quickly.

In a corner of the compartment was a tiny man, or rather, a tiny boy, less than three inches tall. He looked a few years younger than me, had dark hair, and was wearing brightly-colored but very simple-looking clothes. When he saw me he fell flat on his face, his hands lifted in the air, as if trying to worship me or something. He stayed like this, even when I dared to come closer to get a better look.

“Is he…was he a victim of that awful gas?” I thought to myself. “He must be, but how did he get in there? Was he there the whole time, frozen next to me, without me noticing? No, that can’t be, the enemy hadn’t even reached us yet when…anyway, maybe I should talk to him and find out where I am. Poor guy, he looks so scared…”

I went over and knelt down next to the cocoon. He didn’t move, so I reached down and picked him up gently. Now I had him sitting in the palm of my hand, looking up at me in fear and wonder. He wasn’t a bad-looking boy – I might have considered going out with him if he were a little bit older, and his usual size, and if I didn’t already have Hal – and I felt sorry for what must have happened to him.

“Uh, hi there,” I said, hoping he could understand me. “You, uh, you wouldn’t happen to know where I am, by any chance? You see, I’m…well, I’m kinda lost, you know…and I’d like to get home as soon as I can. Am I still in the USA?”

He didn’t answer. He just sat there, still as a stone, his mouth hanging open. I was still pretty freaked out myself, though I tried not to show it. This wasn’t something I’d ever imagined myself doing. A tiny little guy, the size of my thumb, sitting in my hand, as if there was nothing at all strange about it. He weighed so little that I could hardly even tell he was there without looking. I wondered where he lived, and how he survived in this place, since everything except him was still normal-sized.

“Oh, sorry, I guess I need to introduce myself first,” I said, trying to sound friendly, and not irritated and despondent. “My name’s Katie, Katie Martyn. I’m sixteen, and I live in Washington. My parents and I hid away in these cocoons when we were hit by the war, but somehow I ended up here, wherever here is, and I’d like to get back home. Listen, even if you can’t help me yourself, could you please show me where I can find someone who can? Your parents, maybe? What’s your name by the way?”

He still didn’t say anything, but at least he began to move. He ran his tiny hands across the skin of my palm, almost like he was trying to make sure he really was sitting in a giant girl’s hand. Then he got up and took hold of my raised thumb, trying to push and pull it this way and that, without success. He looked so absurd that I began to giggle, forgetting for the moment the dire circumstances I was in.

“Okay, that’s enough,” I said. I pried him from my thumb and put him down in my palm again. “I’m just an average high school girl, that’s all. Sure, I guess I look pretty strange to you, but you look pretty strange to me too. Haven’t you seen a normal-sized person before, or what? Now tell me, what’s your name? And more importantly, where are we, and what are all these weird things?” I gestured at the miniature pyramids and other odd structures.

He stared at me for a few more seconds, then exclaimed: “It’s…it’s really you! You’ve woken up! Oh, wow! You’re…you’re…”

“Wait, wait, wait, hold on!” I said, not following him. “What do you mean, ‘it’s really me’?”

“You’re…you’re alive!” he yelled. “You’re really alive, and you’re here, talking to me! O Great One from the Stars, we believed you were dead for so long!”

“Uh, what are you talking about?”

“I mean, our ancestors believed you were alive, but then…”

“Ancestors? What ‘ancestors’? Your ancestors?”

“Yes! They built all these temples in your honor, and they prayed to you to wake up and…”

“What?!” I cried. I must be hearing wrong; nevertheless, I began to feel an awful feeling inside of me, something I’ve felt ever since waking up, but which I tried to ignore. “Your ancestors built all these…things…because of me?”

“Yes, O Great One, but we don’t know what they are anymore. They’ve been in ruins for centuries…”

“Centuries?!!” Tears began to form in my eyes, and I felt like I was going to be sick. What on Earth had happened to me, I wondered. Where was the world I’d left behind? I Closed my fingers around the little boy, not to hurt him, just to show him that I could.

“Stop lying to me!” I yelled at him, hoping that he was in fact lying. “Where am I? What the hell is this place? And where are my parents? Where are the other two cocoons, huh? Where are they?”

“Other two? I…I don’t know what you mean! Please, you’re…you’re c-crushing me…”

“Shut up!! My mom and dad…they were right here next to me! Tell me where they are, so I can go home! Home, do you hear? To America! You know where that is, huh? Do you?”

“A…America? That’s…that’s just an old myth…please…”

“No!!! No, it can’t be! I…oh f-f-fuck…I’m gonna…” I dropped him on the ground quickly and fell down on my hands. I couldn’t handle it all any longer and puked violently. Then, crying intensely and calling out to all the people I loved and would never see again, I collapsed to the ground and wished I’d never climbed inside that horrible, awful device. I’d much rather have died that day, however long ago it was, than be left here, in this strange new world, all alone.