Chapter 1 – Fire and Ashes
As suddenly as if somebody had punched me in the face, I abruptly woke up to the heavy scent of smoke in the air and the sight of fire everywhere.
"I've got to find Ember and our parents and get us out of here." I say as I jump out of my bed, which collapsed under the force of my leap. I ran at my bedroom door as fast as I could and rammed into it as hard as possible. It didn't budge. After a few more attempts, I kicked the door with as much desperate strength as I could muster. That broke the burning door off its hinges and sent it crashing into the floor, where it broke into thousands of blazing sparks and splinters.
As soon as the door starting falling, I was already out of the room and running to Ember's. With another solid kick, I broke down her door and immediately started scanning the room for my sister. I stopped at the sight of my sister's arm sticking out of her ruined bed as she struggle to get free.
"Hang on, Ember! I'll get you out of there!" I shout, coughing a bit after that as I started digging the ruined bed frame, ignoring the splinters stabbing into my fingers and palms. After what seemed like forever, I finally pulled her of the burning mess.
"Are you alright, Ember?" I ask her as I get her out of the room. She coughs a little before answering. "Yeah. I'll be fine. Let's find mom and dad and get out of here." Ember answers.
"No. You get out of here while you can. I'll go look for mom and dad." I said, lightly pushing Ember towards the stairs. "But, Brindle…." Ember starts to say. "I won't take no for an answer. Now go!" I say, turning away before she could see my tears. "Fine. You better make it back safe or I'll go after whoever set the house ablaze." Ember said, starting to cry herself.
"I can't make any promises there, but I'll try." I respond. My sister nods and runs downstairs, avoids any blazes that got in her way. After watching her for a bit, I run and after gaining some speed, I crash into our parents' room and start digging around for them. After a while of searching, I stop to wipe the soot and sweat from my brow before tearing off the bottom of the shirt I had worn to bed and tore that strip in two so I could wrap them around my bleeding hands. Just as I finished wrapping up my hands, I heard a sharp scream as well as what seemed like the flapping of really big wings quickly fading off into the distance over the sound of the fire. "That can't be good. Sorry mom and dad. Have to go check on Ember." I say to myself more than anyone else before sprinting out of the room and jumping over the railing down to the ground floor of the house. I hit the ground with a roll and continued my run out the front door.
As soon I stepped out onto the front yard, I found Ember lying face down on the grass. From the looks of things, she was only knocked out, as she was still breathing, just not very frequently. I cough as I look up as see the faint silhouettes of a giant dragon and what looked like a CPU flying off into the distance.
My legs gave out under me as I started to feel my injuries and exhaustion take hold of me. I was still looking skyward as I saw two more CPU silhouettes flying this way. I raised my open hand towards them as I felt my eyes start to close. "Help…." I barely managed to whisper before darkness embraced me.