**Prologue - Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star**

by cryp2nz (aided and abetted by PanddingtonRed and LilOldHead)

Raindrops trickling through cracks in the roof splashed on the face of the teenage girl lying on the concrete floor.  Markie slowly came to and rolled over onto all fours, her body aching and her head pounding.  Her hands hurt as she pushed herself up to her knees.  Dried blood and deep cuts lined her palms and extended to both wrists.  

Tiny beams of light shone through small cracks where the rain had made its way through.  Small boxes were busted open with packages of candy scattered across the floor next to a desk.  A bookshelf lay on its side, its shelves broken into pieces against the wall to her left.  A bed was covered in what looked like pieces of the ceiling above that had partially collapsed.  

The sound of glass crackled beneath her hands and feet as Markie carefully rose to her feet.

Now standing, her nose and mouth burned from the stench in the air.  

*“What happened?”* she whispered aloud, and  “Where is Uncle Bob and dad?”

This wasn’t one of the frequent dust storms, this was something else, something far, far worse.  Unsteady on her feet, she shuffled over to the chair beside the desk.  Touching her cracked lips and clutching her waist, Markie wondered how long she had been lying on the floor.  Closing her  eyes, hands pressed against head, the memory of what happened started fading in.

It had been a typical Friday night in the Aurora Gardens community where she and her father lived.  As she climbed off the bus from school, the neighborhood driveway parties were already in full force as grills were blazing and the thuds of cornhole bags echoed off the trailers.

Out front sweeping the sidewalk, the elderly woman next door yelled over as Markie walked up the driveway, *“Marrrrr-keeeee, business must be good, you sure got a **lot** of boxes today!”*  as Markie rolled her eyes and motioned her hand to acknowledge.

Before heading inside, Markie moved the boxes to her outside *office* for later.  Transporting them one by one, she passed the living room window where she could see and hear her father on the phone yelling at someone with the usual bottle of wine in the other hand.  

After making herself something to eat and carefully avoiding her father, she grabbed a few things and headed down to her *office*.  The office was really an underground storm shelter her father had built to provide cover when bad dust storms would come to Rachel.  The storms used to be infrequent when she was younger, but had picked up the last few years.

Markie had turned the shelter into her makeshift office.   The space served two purposes: a sanctuary to escape her distressed father; and a dedicated spot to store and organize materials for her beloved Uncle.  Her father had started drinking again and wasn’t the same since her mom and sister had disappeared.  

Her mother had vanished first.  Out delivering packages around town and to the military base nearby, she never returned home from work one night.  Her father, brother, and the authorities had spent months trying to locate her, to no avail.  The government had no record of her even showing up on base that night, although her father swore up and down she was there.  After that, her father turned to the bottle to drown away his sorrows and was almost impossible to live with.

Her little sister Starry’s disappearance followed not long after.  Grieving over the loss of her mother, young Starry had started therapy.  It seemed to be going well *at first*.  At the suggestion of the doctor to involve herself in other things, she had found her old Fencing foil tucked away in its case on the top shelf of her closet.  As a child, Starry was a sensation around the fencing circuit, but had abruptly quit a couple years in.  Rekindling her old love for the sport, it provided a release for her aggression and the anger she held deep inside.

Starry had joined a club nearby and began practicing and competing once again. Her skills returned with a lightning-like frenzy, now taller and smarter.  Then the unthinkable happened.  Preparing one night for the next weekend’s statewide tournament down at the practice facility, Starry never returned home.  Again a mysterious disappearance, neither the authorities, her father, nor her Uncle could find her.  The only clue ever found near the facility was a small red flag tucked in the side pocket of her backpack.

Markie and Starry worked together part-time helping with her Uncle Bob’s ice cream truck business, up until Starry’s disappearance that is.  The business carried on, as did the search for Starry.  Uncle Bob plastered pictures of Starry front and back of the truck in hopes someone would call with information, but they never did.  

Eventually, Markie began sleeping most nights down in the office.  She had even moved her sister’s old bed and a trophy she’d won down to the shelter.  That night the delivery was large indeed.  Sorting through it all, Markie had laid down on the bed to call her Uncle,

*“Uncle Bob,”* Markie uttered as the phone answered on the other end.

*“Yes, Hi Markie Sparky.  How are you?”* Uncle Bob replied.

“Great!  Those five new items arrived today.  I wanted to let you know that three of them look and taste incredible and I will bring them tomorrow”*, she exclaimed.

*“I haven’t tried the **special** one yet, maybe before I go to sleep later”*, she continued.

*“No rush on that one.  Sounds like a …..,” Uncle Bob said as a loud boom went off outside his home.

“**UNCLE BOB! UNCLE** ……….,” Markie screamed into the phone.

Markie dropped the phone as loud explosions continued outside.  A moment later,  the room began shaking violently as the lights went out and smoke began pouring in through the vents.  Then, the explosions and air raid sirens abruptly stopped.  She began to hear a low rumble that increased to a deafening humming sound.

Still in her slippers trying to cover her ears, Markie fastened her goggles and climbed up the ladder to crack open the metal hatch and peer out across the yard.  The entire skyline was on fire as thick, billowing smoke permeated the air in all directions.  The radio tower behind her home had fallen and was smoldering off in the distance.  

It took her a split second to realize something was terribly wrong - her house was gone, flattened.  Through the smoke, she could see part of the refrigerator and two oozing waste tanks that sat underneath the house.  Off to the right appeared to be her father’s truck which had melted into the driveway.

Eyes circling the neighborhood, seeing no signs of life, her head began to spin.  She fainted, the metal hatch door crashing shut as Markie collapsed down the ladder to the floor.

Finished recalling the events in her mind, Markie sat up and removed her hands from her head.   A million thoughts entered her mind, she reached inside one of the boxes and grasped the first thing that brushed her hand along with one of her father’s bottles she had grabbed from the trailer.  Nibbling on the candy and sipping the wine, Markie began laying out a plan.

Science Fiction

"After waking up in the aftermath of a mysterious disaster, Markie searches for her missing father and uncle amidst the chaos in the Aurora Gardens community. As she navigates the devastation, memories of her family's difficult past, including the puzzling disappearances of her mother and sister, resurface. As she delves deeper into the mystery, Markie finds herself entangled in dangerous and unexpected situations. Will she be able to solve the mystery and bring her family back together? Discover the heart-wrenching and thrilling story of a young girl's quest to reunite her family and overcome adversity in A Glimmer of Hope."

A GLIMMER OF HOPE

Nerds in this story