Izzy awoke to see tongues of flame licking at her face. Smoke filled her lungs and she choked. Everywhere she looked, all she could see was smoke and fire. It's only a dream, she thought, but deep down inside she knew that no one who had bad dreams told themselves that. They just knew. She stumbled out of bed but found herself too groggy to dodge the scalding inferno. Suddenly a deafening explosion filled the air. Izzy was knocked down by the blast, taking a burning lamp down with her. The lamp hit her stomach and a billion needles of pain shot throughout her body with vigorous force.
Izzy shoved the lamp off her and got up with renewed enthusiasm. She stumbled through the shack that was her house, falling more and more as she got to the door. She couldn't see a thing, but she pressed on with one focus: survival. Though she could hear more explosions all around her, the house was silent. Izzy made a risky decision to not look for her mom. But as much as she wanted to get out alive, Izzy found the smoke was filling her throat, her eyes, her nose. No oxygen was getting to her brain. Her head began to spin. Nest thing she knew, Izzy was laying facedown on the floor. But this time she didn't have the energy to get up. In fact, Izzy had no energy at all.
Who knows how long Izzy stayed there, despairing, aching, burning, wanting more to just get it over with as the minutes passed. But the flames wanted to torture, not kill her. And just as Izzy felt that she really literally was about to die, light filled the room. Izzy was blinded by the whiteness but unable to shield her eyes. The momentum of the door kept going and slammed into Izzy's arm, but she couldn't do anything about it. Then strong hands picked her body up. It went limp in the rescuer's hands. And it was all too much. Izzy couldn't take in the destruction everywhere she looked, or the bombs falling from the sky. Her eyes fluttered shut.
"Jacob! Who's this? Get out of here! Go to the forest and take her with you! Now!"