Tonight was the night. The night I would leave my home, leave Tokyo. I would’ve given anything to stay there; Tokyo was a beautiful and amazing place to live. But it was a big city, and right now, a big city was the last place I needed to be. In just a few weeks the entire world would be thrown into chaos. Chaos from the loss of our moon. With our moon gone, the world would go through wild and dramatic climate changes, killing most people on Earth.
         Because of the imminent doom to human civilization, people had started to go a little crazy. Murder rates and suicide rates had skyrocketed; people didn’t want to wait around to see what would happen when the moon left. Those who stayed to watch only stayed because of the domes. The domes had been created and built two years ago. The idea behind them was that the domes could be controlled climates, free of influence from the raging and unpredictable weather outside.
         But me, well I was a crazy one. I was the one who wanted to be OUTSIDE the domes. Why? Well simple, I didn’t trust the domes. Why should I trust a giant plastic bubble to save my life? No, I wasn’t going to live the rest of my life in a bubble, not when the most amazing universal event humans would ever witness was sitting on my door step, begging to be let in and watched in awe.
So who am I, other then the crazy girl? Well my name Tsuki, though my real name is Tsukikage. I’m a 21 year old science geek. I was born, and have lived my whole life in Tokyo, Japan. My parents died when I was eighteen, I’ve been alone ever sense. No friends. No family. No pets. No anything.
        And now, now I didn’t even have a home anymore. I’d left it behind tonight. All that was left now was to sneak past security and out of the Tokyo dome. Yes, there was security, for some odd reason they didn’t want people “running wild” outside of the domes. But security would be low tonight, it was New Years; a holiday I never much cared for and never acknowledged. Well, I didn’t acknowledge it until last week when I had started planning my escape.
I walked down the streets carrying my small backpack on one shoulder, and my jacket slung over the other. As I walked I looked around, trying to memorize everything in my mind, I didn’t want to forget anything. Quietly I sighed to myself, I would miss this, but I knew I couldn’t stay. I didn’t even want to imagine what people would start to do when we actually lost our moon.
        Glancing around one last time, I quickly stepped into an alley way. The entire path was dark, but it didn’t take my eyes long to adjust. Knotting my jacket around my waste, I broke into a slow jog. Once out of the alley it was a straight shot to emergency exit door 3.  I knew that when I went out that way that the alarms would sound, alerting everyone to my escape; but I was counting on my ability to run, and my ability to hide myself to keep me safe from discovery.
I took a deep breath, then shoved the door open and took off at a full out sprint. It only took the alarm five seconds to sound, but when it did it more then likely woke up everyone within a twenty mile radius of the dome. And the spotlights, o’ god the spotlights; they where almost as bright as the sun. I took all my strength and wits to dodge the lights. I could here people shouting now, but I couldn’t understand them.
        Spinning on my heal to avoid a spotlight; I dove into the icy river. I stayed under as long as I could allowing the current to pull me along. Just when my lungs felt about to burst, I broke the surface and began to swim; I had to keep going until I couldn’t see the dome.
        I don’t really know how long I swam until I heard voices ahead of me. But because they where ahead of me, I knew that they must be rouges because there was no dome here; and rouges where not a threat to me. I quickly pulled myself up onto the bank of the river and came face to face with a very interesting man. He had on a dirty orange vest over an equally dirty purplish shirt, along with a light purple scarf. His face was equally smeared with dirt, and his hair was black with white tips.
      “Lookie here! Somethin’ interestin’ finally washed up on shor’!” The man, who was really more of a boy said, an impish grin on his face.
      “What’dya think I am? A fish?” I retorted, flicking more mud onto his face.
      “You is to good lookin’ to be a fishy.” The boy replied, earning several snickers from his small group of companions.
        “Shut-up.” I replied, rolling my eyes as I stood, pushing the boy back into the mud in the process. He just laughed.
        “So what are ya doin’ here?” One of the other young men asked.
I sighed before I answered, “I just escaped from the Tokyo dome.” I told them, sitting down on an empty spot in their circle of logs around a small campfire. The odd boy plopped down next to me, he smelled like Earth.
       “Well look at that! Kaizoku actually sat with the group and we ain’t even playin’ cards!” The oldest of the men exclaimed, causing the odd boy, Kaizoku, to put on an even larger grin.
       “There tis a purtty girl here now!” Kaizoku said with a laugh.
We all spent the rest of the night trading stories and drinking sake and soda. Because of the fact that when I drank sake, I got hyper to the point of insanity, I stuck with soda. I might not have been the most social person in the world, but spending time with those five guys was amazingly fun. Soon though, all but Kaizoku had passed out.
       “So what is your name, I don’t think I caught it before.” Kaizoku said quietly, looking at me out of the corner of his eye while poking the fire. It took me a second to register that it was really him speaking; I had gotten so used to his mispronunciation and shortening of words.
       “Tsukikage, but I go by Tsuki.” I replied, still trying to figure out why he seemed so different now, one thing I knew for sure though was that he was sitting much stiller then before.
       “Tsukikage, what a beautiful name.” He whispered, no longer looking at me, but just at the fire, he was smiling though; not an impish smile, but a soft gentle one.
       “Thank you. Can, can I ask you a question?” I ventured, I didn’t want to offend him.
      “Why do I seem so different now?” He replied, anticipating what I was going to ask. I just nodded. He sighed and put down the stick he’d been poking the fire with before laying back on the log and responding.
      “I don’t really connect with people very well. I act the way I do so that it’s easier to keep them at a distance. I figure that if people think I’m a freak, they won’t try to be friends with me, which makes my life much easier. I almost never act normal around people.” He explained while gazing at the stars.
      “So…why are you acting normal around me?” I mused, almost to myself.
      “I don’t know, you just seem different from most people. You think for yourself, I figured that out when you told me you’d escaped from the dome. Almost all rouges are only out here because they where the unlucky ones who weren’t allowed in the domes. And from what you acted like the past few hours, I can tell that you aren’t the most social person either. Plus, you like to look at the stars; when you do you seem like you get really distracted and go off into your own world. I like people like you.” He said, tracing a constellation with his finger. I couldn’t believe it, everything he had said was 100% correct, I was amazed.
      “Wow, you’re a really good people reader aren’t you?” I said in awe.
      “It’s a habit, I like to gamble.” He replied with a small laugh, tracing another constellation. For the next several minutes we sat in silence, watching a volley of shooting stars fly across the sky. Now that I knew that he wasn’t the stupid idiot he made himself out to be, I kind of liked Kaizoku.
      “Tsuki?”
      “Yeah?”
      “You don’t really want to stay with these guys, do you?” Kaizoku asked, rolling on his side and looking at me.
      “No, why?”
      “Well I’ve been thinking, why don’t you and I travel together? I mean, you seem like the kind of person I could get along with real easy, and I’ll admit I’ve been getting kind of lonely traveling on my own.” He explained.
      “That sounds fun.” I responded, and I really meant it; he wasn’t the only one in this conversation who’d been getting lonely.
      “Then let’s go now, it’s better to travel by night anyways.” He said, jumping up and grabbing a pack.
     “Okay.” I replied, taking his hand as he helped me up. Together we walked away from the sleeping men and the campfire, into the forest.