As if she was pulling a distasteful prank, the couple turned towards Emily in unity. Steven was a tall and broad man who looked to be approaching 60, he had a serious straight laced demeanour about him. Hawked nosed and grim faced with stress lines, his stubbled jaw was as grey as the suited jacket he wore. His expression didn’t change, but the prolonged eye contact was enough to let her know he was unamused.

“Please don’t encourage him.” Vicky stated mildly, one hand on the hip, though it didn’t take long for her expression to soften as her eyes travelled over the younger woman. She soon sighed and loosened up.

“Liam has quite the imagination, don’t you, son?”

“Dad!”

“No, no.” Isaac interrupted, waving his arms to get his parents’ attention, his eyes glued to the two glowing orbs in the sky. “Aliens might not be too far off.”

“Well, there’s definitely something fishy going on, but aliens? Come on man, I’m with anger management issues on that one.” Miles thumbed towards the door leading below deck, rolling his eyes while frowning. His arms folded as he repeatedly glanced between Isaac and the two suns. “Really weird though.”

“Its like the story where the-”

“Ems.”

Miles made a cut it out gesture with his hands, though none of the adults were paying attention to her. Liam looked between the young woman, whose posture and fringed pixie cut made her appear younger than her years, and watched for his parent’s reaction as he approached her. When no reprimands came, he sat with her.

Starting their own conversation of cartoons, games, animals and whatever curiosity came to mind. Not oblivious to the surrounding situation, but aware they would have no solution or contribution the others would listen to.

“You kids think you can make a fool of us!?”

-

Alice skipped after her father in the control room, smiling at all the weird and wonderful contraptions and imagining that they did. Ryan also examined the many buttons, leathers and screens. Bewildered and frustrated, he tapped at a gauge metre with unclear purpose. Alice walked her doll across the panel. Before she could press anything, he picked her up and placed her in the room’s singular chair.

“Sit there and touch nothing.”

Watching her father at the control panel, Alice adjusted the doll to mimic her pose and placed it as if also watching. Waiting for the moment, her father was no longer paying attention to her but the surrounding equipment. She grabbed the big leather that she hoped would start up the cannons and, with all her might, pulled.

“Qu’est-ce que je viens de dire!?”

-

Captain Williams, glancing between the sky and the increasingly irritable old man, raised one finger briefly as if about to say something before lowering it and shaking his head, thinking better of it. He shuffled from foot to foot for a moment, when the ferry sped up unexpectedly and unbalanced everyone. Isaac had to catch his father, who brushed him off the moment he was steady. For the first time, there was a flash of anger on the captain’s expression.

“I should check what that idiot’s up to.” He stormed below deck.

“No really, dad, we’re not fucking with you. Just..look up.”

“Language.” Vicky slapped her son’s arm with a pointed look towards Liam. Isaac rubbed the spot with a hurt pout, but the amusement in his eye was too gleeful to be anything but fake.

“I’m sure we told you the tale of the boy who cried wolf, son.”

Isaac grinned at his father, already equipped with a response. He aborted it only when noticing his mother’s slack jawed expression while observing the sky. He snorted and dismissed the conversation with a hand wave, winking at Miles like they were in on some sort of conspiracy.

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“Alright, Alright, suit yourself.”

“Steven.” Vicky grabbed her husband’s arm with a panicked hiss. “Steven, the kids aren’t lying.” Finally, Steven looked up before sharing a concerned look with his wife.

“So it seems.”

“Right so, now we’re all on the same page. What are we going to do?”

Miles, who had been tapping his foot impatiently and watching the interaction, unfolded his arms and took a step closer into their circle. Silence answered the question, the couple glancing between the two younger men and each other. After a few moments, when it was clear the elders had no response, Isaac regained their attention by sliding his fingers through his brown hair.

“Dunno mate. What can we do?”

“What? No suggestions?” He continued with a contemptuous smirk that screamed gotcha. Miles’ eye twitched irritably as he measured the other man.

“We should take inventory.” Emily called before another argument could break out. When no one interrupted her, she clarified. “See how much food and water we have, what tech is working. My phone has no signal or internet. I’ve turned it off to save battery.”

“We won’t be stuck here that long.” Despite his Words Steven nodded.

Before Emily could finish her sentence, the two young men were already checking their phones, as the couple moved towards the car. With a sigh, Miles placed it back in his pocket. Making an upward nod at Isaac, he glanced at his phone. Isaac grunted a negative before putting it away with a headshake. A short moment later, Vicky came back clicking buttons and frowning, while Steven handed him to his son.

“Can’t make heads or tails of the bloody thing.”

“Yours not working either, dad.”

“Nor mine.”

“I’m turning it off to save power. Turn yours off too, mum.”

“Leave one on.” Emily called over.

“Why?” Steven questioned without facing her.

“We use one to check the signals and save the battery on the others.”

The three family members condensed into a smaller circle, bickering among each other animatedly. Miles stepped away from them and turned to Emily, only to stop and huff once spotting Liam. He wasn’t sure how his friends always ended up being the designated babysitter, but irritating though it was, probably for the best to keep the kid out of the way.

Reviewing the conversation, and with nothing else to do, he figured Emily was right. They should figure out what supplies they had. In his car they had a couple of meal deals between them, a two litre bottle of pop and a plethora of sweets, good for long car journeys but not a survival situation.

On the way below deck, the Captain was already escorting Ryan and Alice back outside. Looking stern and giving a lecture to the sheepish-looking man and his happily skipping daughter, who blissfully ignored them both. She barrelled right into him and staggered back, looking up at him with a deer in the headlights expression.

“What’s going on now?” Captain Williams asked in a pleading tone. The panic in his eyes only receded when Miles shrugged at him.

“Check your phones for signals and then turn them off for battery. That other family, they’re keeping one on to keep an eye out for them. I came to ask how much food and water we got on board.”

“We can’t be that lost.” Ryan stated headedly, more to himself than anybody else.

“Look outside, man. There are two suns. I’d say we’re more than a little lost.”

“Anglais stupide.” He rolled his eyes, grabbing his daughter by the wrist and bushing past Miles before letting go of her arm.

Alice took one look between the arguing adults, and Liam and Emily, who had fished out her sketchbook and were now drawing together, and ran straight for them. Her father narrowed his eyes at the young woman, but oblivious to his looming presence, she only smiled at the child and offered her a coloured pencil.

“I’m drawing a dinosaur. You think you can too?”

Alice snatched the offering, squiggling on the ripped page, and when Emily did nothing but return to her drawing and Liam’s conversation of Jurassic park, Ryan seemed satisfied with the situation and let them be. Only when he looked at the sky and his jaw dropped did Miles return his attention to the captain.

“There are snacks like crisps and chocolate. And drinks like tea, coffee, and hot chocolate. Some bottled water. Nothing that will last us long.” He looked at Miles and towards the rest of the group. “Come on, I only want to explain this once.”

Following him on deck, Ryan was leaning on the hood of his black ford focus, gazing into his phone screen and holding a hand to his mouth with a look of utter defeat. He was ignoring their surroundings and the family’s banter when they arrived at the middle of the deck.

“Right, listen up!” Silence fell. “We’re lost. The navigation is down. Anything that requires a signal is down. The compass isn’t working. There’s no land mass in sight and we don’t know where we’re going anyway, so I’ve turned the engines off to save fuel.”

“To address the elephant in the room. Obviously, Earth doesn’t have two suns-”

“We can’t be anywhere else. Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Dad it’s Aliens, I knew it.” Isaac fist bumped the sky and started looking around as if searching for little green men.

“Isekai..” Emily muttered with only the children in earshot nobody heard her, and neither of them understood what she meant.

“You’re just in denial, old man.” Miles huffed. “We’re not in Kansas anymore.”