So anyway, here's some action! Ish... I hope you guys don't think I wrote Kori shallowly. I don't think I did. I really enjoy writing her. I'm excited about going forward.
Chapter 7- Kori
"Hello!" I greet my new friend with joyfulness. She hisses at me, which is possibly a normal greeting here.
"Shhh… People are coming." I nod, scanning the room. It is not completely empty. I hear sounds too. People. We are hiding from people. Rachel will hide with us now? Gar does not look good. I do not find him handsome but he is not ugly. Except now he is and he is on the floor. Rachel does not look happy to see him on the floor. Her eyes move around the room as I did and she takes Gar's arms. I follow suit with his legs and we move to a small shelter in the middle of the big room. The shelter is like an itty bitty room all closed up, bigger than it looked outside.
"It's like the Tardis in here." Rachel says.
"What?"
"Nothing, tell you later. We should be quiet." I nod and close my two lips.
I hear voices.
"All clear, we can start."
"You were paranoid again, just like I said you'd be, you owe me a soda."
"You were serious about that?"
"I've been working since 2 AM I think I deserve a diet coke."
"The machines just switched to Pepsi, Stone is promoting them or whatnot."
"That monster…" The voices fade, leaving the room. They didn't look for us. Rachel lets out a breath.
"Why are you here Kori?" She asks suddenly, turning to me with a mad dog look on her face. I do not know what to say.
"We ran." She squats next to Gar, shaking him, not gentle.
"I heard about that. It's pretty much mass hysteria." Gar wakes up and begins coughing more.
"Shhh. We might not be in the clear." Rachel is not happy. I wonder if Rachel is ever happy. Maybe in books.
"I get that you guys ran away like Romeo and Juliet but why here?" Romeo and Juliet? I have heard of them. I think they are friends of my sister.
"Oh no, we're not dating. And Vic's helping us out until people stop looking for us. Why are you here?"
"Victor asked me to come." I met Victor. He is nice. Gar is staring at Rachel. I wonder why. She does not have anything on her face. But it is a nice face, when it is not hidden by her hood. Maybe that is why he stares. I want to find someone to stare at who has a nice face. I look at my shoes. A minute goes and Gar starts coughing bad.
"Are you sick?" I got sick when I was a young royal on Tamaran. I coughed less than Gar did. He does not look handsome right now at all. He looks ill.
"Yeah, a bit?"
"You're not contagious are you?" Rachel asks.
"No. Nothing like that." He slumps against the wall. I probably would take care of him. But I can't yet. There are no soups to give him or blankets to cover him with nor any traditional Tamaran medicines. That would cure him quickly. Tamaran medicines are quite potent.
"Are you dying?" Rachel gives me a weird look. Gar winces.
"I don't want to talk about this." Rachel sits next to him, and I take the otherside. A minute later, a boom makes the room shaky. The air fills with fire and smoke and the heat grows. I hear one last thing before everything changes.
"I think we're all dying…" Rachel says.
Everything does not go black. It goes dark gray with smoke. My skin feels tingly, a little bit burning. I can hear the roar of flames. I can breathe just good though, despite the smoke. And Gar is no longer coughing. I cannot see Gar. Maybe he is dead. I know I am not dead yet. But I feel like I am growing. Like the fire outside is inside of me. I am fire. It does not feel bad though. It feels a little like magic. I always believed in magic. Things my sister called science fiction. Tamaran always felt like a magical place. I wanted so badly to be magical too. Now maybe I am. Or maybe I am dying. But I would not smell the smoke so strong if I were dead. I think that is probably true. So I am not very worried about being dead. But I am worried about my friends. I think if the building explodes the people you are with are immediately your friends. That should be a rule. I feel a little dizzy, but I am sitting down and I don't have to fall over. I reach over and feel my friend's hand. We are all holding hands now, I can feel it. I can feel Rachel through Gar, I know we are clinging to each other, which means we are all alive. I close my eyes, hoping. I want to remain alive. I want to feel this fire inside of me forever. I want my friends to remain alive. I want to see Tamaran again. I want to breathe air not clouded with smoke and hear something other than screams and fire. So many screams. But not us. We are in its midst yet we do not scream. We do not call out for any kind of mercy. It is as if we have accepted this as the new normal. It is. I close my eyes. If I die. I will die holding the hand of my friend, who is holding the hand of our other friend. That is a good way to die.