Chapter 1: Elizabeth
I walk through the remains of what used to be my town. All is quiet. The only sound is the quiet rustle as ash falls to the ground. Oh, what great timing it was. Tomorrow I was supposed to head to Camp Half-Blood with my three other demigod-wizard friends. But the bombing just had to happen the day before, killing people that I loved.
Tears brim my eyes. My family. My friends. All dead. I even mourn the death of Ms. Fagan, the math teacher I absolutely despise. I mean, the math teacher that I used to despise. That's death. Turning present tense into past tense. I scan the landscape frantically, trying to find a familiar face. Anyone. Even Alex Wynburg, who was the most annoying kid in the grade. But there's no one. Not a peep.
It's so quiet that I can hear my tears fall to the ground, so quiet I can nearly hear the clouds moving. But suddenly, I hear someone struggling.
The yells of help are muffled, but through the silence, it booms. I sprint towards the sound and find a pile of wood and shards of plaster.
"Heeeeeelp!" someone screams inside. Grabbing a nearby shovel, I dig towards the source.
After what feels like hours of work, I finally discover a face. A familiar one, too. It's one of my friends named Hannah. Hannah O.
"Elizabeth!" she cries, hugging me. Her dirty face is already stained with salty tears. "Everyone." Sniffle. "They're dead." Sniffle.
"I know," I whisper, fresh tears running down my face. I heave a sigh and recover from the long hug. "Let's try to find others."
We walk through the bombed remains, hoping to hear a voice and picking up stray shovels to use to dig. After about 10 minutes, we hear someone.
"Help!" the voice cries, just like Hannah did. God, was there another word to use that didn't make your blood run cold?
We dash over, shovels in hand, and start digging. With our teamwork and renewed hope, we dig.
It seems a lot easier than last time. Another familiar face pops up. It's Christine, another friend. Thank God for my luck. At least I didn't accidentally dig up Alex or Ms. Fagan.
"Christine," Hannah says. She smiles somberly and pulls her up. Christine is also crying.
"Sophie… my parents… Maybe it is better to die than to stay alive if people you love are dead." She bursts into fresh tears, and me and Hannah hug her, even though we know it won't change anything.
"We're searching for people," I say, and hand her a random shovel I see on the ground. Wow, a lot of people had gardens here.
Christine grabs the shovel and nods. "Maybe we should split up and search. It's faster that way," she says through her tears. I nod. At least the smart girl that I always knew was back.
We split up, and agree to come back in half an hour, before they return to kill any surviving soul.
Half an hour later, we all gather. There's a small amount of refugees. Only about 40 or 50, out of the many who lived here.
"The planes are coming soon," a middle-aged woman says. "We should run." Everyone nods in agreement.
"But to where?" A teenage guy asks.
"To a nearby town," I say. "If it isn't bombed."
"We should hurry," a seventh-grader from my school says. "The planes will come soon. I say we either hide in the woods or in the debris until they leave." Everyone agrees.
"Okay. People who want to go to the forest, leave now. Those who want to hide in the debris, split up. Don't let the little ones go off on their own," the woman says.
So we run. I grab Hannah and Christine's hands, and we all run. But someone calls behind us: "Wait for me!" The other Hannah, Hannah K., is here too.
"Hannah! Come one! We don't have a lot of time!" I wave for her to come. She comes sprinting quickly. Naturally. She was one of the eight sixth graders form our school to compete in the all-states tournament. Obviously, her talent hadn't wavered.
We run and run. We run all the way to the woods, and there, we still run. Thankfully, it was still spring, and the bombs hadn't hit here. We hide under the trees. But suddenly, a scream pierces the air.
"Ahhh!" Hannah K. screams. I dash over. My other friends do too.
I don't see her anywhere. Where is she? I look around and spot a hole in the ground. A hand grabs the ledge, trembling.
"Wait," I say. "We could hide in here! Hannah, how deep is it?"
"Um, I can't tell. I think it goes about 5 feet down, and then there's like this tunnel," she says.
"Perfect!" Christine exclaims. "Let go, tuck yourself in, and roll. Or if you want, you can try to land on your feet, which will make you hurt them," she calls. "We're coming in after."
I hear a thump, and the rest of us lower ourselves in.
"Okay, we should walk there," Hannah O. says, pointing to the tunnel. She pulls out a mini-flashlight. "Never know when you might need one," she says, grinning. I don't know how she can grin, considering her family was killed less than an hour ago.
We stride into the tunnel, and I can hear the wail of planes above ground. I'm now grateful that we found this hiding place.
"Wait. What's that?" I ask, pointing at a faint light growing brighter and brighter. I started walking towards it.
"Woah." My friends catch up to me and we stand before the light.
"Is that some sort of… portal?" Christine asks. "But portals don't exist." I shrug.
"When your town is bombed and you find only your best friends out of the people you know who are alive, and especially when you find a mysterious ditch, anything is possible," I say. "Let's jump."
