Yellow. Again.
It reminded her of her mother, of the life she didn't want, the path she didn't want to take, and here it was again, an actual path, pressed under cheek, leading off into the distance. Yellow bricks. Like it had been specially designed just for her whether she wanted it or not. Like most of the bright things in her life.
She picked herself up, feeling bruised, but there weren't any marks on her. She wasn't sure of anything at the moment, not where she was or how she had gotten there, or what had happened to put here there. All she really felt was an insistent urge to get back. Somewhere, there was something or someone that she needed to get back to.
She was in what had been a city. It had been brightly colored once, with lots of windows. The only indication of that now were the uncharred pieces of rubble and all the broken glass. There were the remains of gardens, bits of color here and there in the debris. Something horrific had happened here, some flower of destruction blooming among its gentler counterparts. She wandered, considering calling out for anyone.
Twice she saw a shadow, small and quick, and she did call out then. Whoever it was didn't answer, but did seem to be following. She decided to let whatever survivor it was approach at their own speed. She could see a faint light farther into what seemed to be ground zero and headed towards that.
It was a man. Inside a bubble. He was curled into a posture of utter despair, hands over his face so that all she could see was his very blond hair. The light seemed to be coming from the bubble.
"Hello?" she said and his head shot up. He had been crying, but snapped out of it press his hands against his side of the bubble.
"Are you a witch?" he asked. He would've been handsome if he hadn't been such a mess.
"Um, no." She wasn't sure if she should be offended or not. He nodded, both relieved and disappointed. "Why?"
"I'm trapped," he said, tapping the bubble. "I-I wanted to protect them, all of them. Made it strong enough to withstand the devastation, but, but they didn't believe me! They wouldn't come in with me! And now, look!" His voice broke. "I could only save myself and now I'm trapped. I made it too strong to escape from on my own, and now, there's no one to help me!"
"Maybe that's what knocked me here," she said. It triggered half a memory of something similar that was happening, maybe had happened, somewhere else. "I have to find my way home. Am I anywhere near New York?"
"Not in this world," he said. She nodded, frustrated, but unsurprised.
"What happened here?" she asked. She circled the bubble, more to make a show of helping than she had actual hope of getting him out.
"The Wizard sent something," he said. "It was supposed to save us from war. He said so. But- but- something went wrong. It destroyed us instead of the enemy. We don't even know why."
"I'll tell you why," said a new voice. Laurie turned to see a small man crouching just out of reach. "Survival of the fittest. The age of heroes has passed. They filled their niche for awhile, but the world changed and they didn't. No fighting evolution. Obsolete and extinct."
"Don't listen," the blond man begged. "Go to the Wizard in the Sapphire City. He's the only one powerful enough to send you elsewhere, and take him a message from us. Tell him we beg for his help, to know why…"
"I can't promise…" she began. He froze as a sound like the crack of a whip came from the distance.
"She's coming," he whispered. "Run now. Down the road. Quickly and quietly. Save yourself. Save us."
"Neither of those is going to happen," snarled the small man. "You can't outrun her. The sun may rise every morning, but the night follows just as inevitably. You can't escape her any more than you can escape the darkness."
"Some of us," the blond man said, strength and conviction changing his voice and his demeanor. "Learn to light candles."
The small man snorted and lunged at Laurie. He had a shiv she realized, made from wreckage as if there were no such things as weapons in the pastel city before this. His shadow was cast out on either side of him by the light of the bubble, making it look like he was flanked by a giant on either side.
"Run!" the blond man shouted. His bubble expanded instantly, and the small man slammed straight into it. With a grunt of exertion, the blond man expanded it even farther to pin him against a wall. "Follow the road! Go!"
With no better plan, she did, heels clicking on the brick, until the ground was green again and the only smell of burning was what clung to her clothes.
A/N: Big Figure as a munchkin spy and Captain Metropolis as the stuffy good witch was requested in the prompt.