Alex felt like he’d been walking through the blackness for hours. His eyes had adjusted as much as they could to the near-total lack of light on the dark side of the moon, but he could still only make out the vague shapes of the mountains, craters, and canyons as he trudged along.

It didn’t matter that he couldn’t see where he was going, because he didn’t know where he was going anyway. But he could feel where he was going—and the feeling grew stronger with every step. Something out there in the darkness was guiding him in the right direction.

Hopefully.

Exhausted, he sat down on a moon rock and took a rest.

“Ow!”

Alex jumped up. Something had jabbed his fanny. He picked up a small, pointy stick. But it wasn’t just any stick. Alex gave it a sniff. He smiled. He knew that smell anywhere.

“It’s a SuperCheezyFrankOnnaStick stick!”

He jumped up and peered into the darkness, trying to see if there were more. There was barely enough light to see his hand in front of his face, never mind a small wooden skewer on the ground.

Sniff! Alex smelled the air. He sniffed again. Then he ran between two larger boulders, stopped, and crouched down. He picked up another SuperCheezyFrankOnnaStick stick, sniffed again, and began running full speed into a valley full of moon boulders.

WHUMP!

Alex slammed into something and bounced back, landing flat on his tighty-whiteys. He sat up and tried to focus on what he’d hit. It wasn’t a moon boulder, or his head would hurt a lot more than it did. No, this was soft. And quite squishy.

And it spoke.

“You shouldn’t be out here. You shouldn’t be here at all.” The raspy voice came from a shadowy, pear-shaped blob looming directly over him.

A terrifying SQUEEEEAL suddenly echoed through the cold air. Alex felt something big flutter overhead. “What was that?” he asked.

“Giant LunarMoths,” the voice said. “Don’t worry, they’re not dangerous.”

An even more terrifying noise echoed even louder. Something even bigger flapped past Alex’s face, grabbed the LunarMoth out of midair, and flew off with it. “What was that?” Alex exclaimed.

“Giant MoonBat. They feed on the LunarMoths. Those are very dangerous. Come with me—if you want to live.”

Wanting to live, Alex followed the pear-shaped figure, trying not to stumble on the rocky moon soil.

As they ran together, Alex heard squeals and shrieks all around him. He looked up. Every few seconds he could make out large, fluttering objects getting plucked out of the air by even larger flapping objects.

“Okay. We’re here.”

They stopped. “Here” seemed to be a huge rock wall. Alex could make out a round boulder about the size of a beanbag chair sticking out of it. The figure pushed the round rock and it disappeared into a black beanbag-size hole in the wall.

“Climb in—quickly!” the figure said.

The two of them scrambled through the hole.

BOOM! Alex heard the round boulder slam back into the hole, plugging up the entrance.

If outside the rock wall was dark, this was something else. This was complete and utter blackness.

CRASH! “Ow!” He heard the voice on one side of him. “Who put that there?! Oh, yeah. Probably me.”

SMASH! “Dangit!”

Alex stood perfectly still in the dark, listening to the stranger bang around his cave, wondering what would happen next.

Then there was light.

Tiny flames sputtered to life from small holes in the walls all over what Alex now saw was a cozy cave. Like hundreds of birthday candles, one flame seemed to ignite the next, until the entire rock room had a warm, orange, twinkly glow to it.

Alex turned around and took in the small, rock-carved room. He saw the beanbag boulder, tied with a rope and suspended from the ceiling, snugly plugging the circular entrance. He saw furniture, all carved out of moon rock, throughout the room.

Finally, he saw the mysterious pear-shaped man standing a few feet away from him.

Alex gasped.

The wrinkly old man had bushy hair on the sides of his head and a few scraggly strands combed over the bald part in the middle. His eyes were wide, and they looked familiar. Alex knew those eyes. He tried to think of where he’d seen them before.

Then it hit him—he’d seen them in his mirror.

This was Alex’s 110-year-old self.

They stared at each other with mouths hanging open.

“There’s something weirdly familiar about this,” both Alexes said at the exact same time.