I dreamt I was falling. Falling and tumbling down a mountain of ruble. I woke up to find that, for the first time, my dream was a reality.
As soon as I was conscience enough to learn that I was in fact falling, I tumbled around so that I was going feet first down and on my back. I was almost at the bottom after I twisted around, and was about to hit the ground when I hit a bump or something large and flew about 10 feet from when I expected.
I landed on my stomach very ungracefully and very painfully, but quickly got up. I clutched my stomach, and was just glad that I didn't land on one of my daggers.
As I was standing, it occurred to me that I had fallen off the rubble pile, and I looked up and discovered why. There was a towering wall of fire surrounding us. It looked like it was in a circle completely around us, but about forty feet out. Still, it surrounded us.
There was probably an explosion too, because trash was everywhere and on fire even though the fire was still a ways out.
The mountain I was sitting on previously had completely crumbled, and although it was a mess before, it was even worse now. Before it was in piles at least, but now the trash was everywhere. And not just the pile I was on. Debris was scattered every which way. It looked as though a bomb hit, which might have happened. The trail that I cleared to lead me back to camp was gone, too.
The orange of the fire was all I could see in my peripheral vision, and the smoke I was inhaling kept making me cough. It looked like a warzone. It looked like my old home.
What the hell is going on? I thought to myself as I took this all in in a second. I was very confused. The fire wall. The possible explosion. The trash everywhere. Falling. It was a lot to take in after just waking up.
Instead of panicking though, I took a deep breath and looked back to where my pile was. I found my bow about twenty feet to my left and… Jack. He wasn't moving.
Seeing Jack laying there snapped me out of whatever daze I was in and reminded me of the camp and everyone else. I sprinted over to Jack without thinking, planning to get my bow and Jack, and then to find everyone else.
As I ran to him, I saw that he was lying face down, and I couldn't tell if he was breathing or not. I tried to swallow down the panic that started to rise.
Before I got to him though, when I was about 10 feet from him, I heard something whistle past my ear. Then instant pain. My left arm flared up like it was on fire.
I snapped my head to my arm, and saw an arrow sticking out of it. It had pale wood with white feathers neatly lined at the end, and an iron tip that burned as my arms kept pounding while I ran.
I slid over to Jack on my knees and ripped the arrow out, which caused a small cry from me. But I stifled it quick and threw the arrow to the side, and rolled Jack over.
His forehead was bleeding, but he was still breathing and his heart was pounding when I checked, though somewhat fast.
I hoisted him up (even though he was skinny, he weighted a lot more than I expected!), and slung his arm around my shoulder, and my other arm around his waist. My arm was killing me, and blood had soaked part of my left sleeve, but I bit the inside of my cheek and supported Jack.
Conceal, don't feel. Don't let it show.
I stumbled over to my bow and nudged the button that made it retract and kicked it up with my foot. I caught it as it flew up, and I tucked it in the waistband of my pants.
Doing that while supporting Jack wasn't easy, and my arm didn't help anything, but I just pushed through it anyways. Feeling sorry and complaining wasn't going to do anything.
I cast once last glance toward the arrow I threw to the side. It was low-tech; nothing like the arrows I had. It looked extremely old fashioned, but it was beautiful. I looked it over one more time, then turned my back to it.
I held Jack's wrist with the hand that wasn't supporting him, and shifted him so I had a better grip on him. Every time I moved my arm it burned. The added pressure from Jack and my hoodie rubbing on it definitely didn't help.
I straightened as much as I could with him practically slung over my shoulder and marched back to where I thought the camp was. I couldn't tell since all the debris had moved, and everything seemed to be on fire. Thank God gasoline was a rarity.
Trash flew everywhere, and the roar of the fire was blocked almost all sound out. It was like getting caught in a tornado, with the added heat of being in a furnace.
I was sweating and trash kept blowing in my face while I walked. And all the while, in the back of my mind I was still trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
I tripped over garbage while trying to find the camp. When I finally found it, I found everyone except Achan and Gabe huddled in the middle.
All that happened in about two minutes, maybe two and a half. But it seemed dragged out; it felt like hours since I had woken up.
I stumbled in relief down to everyone else. They looked fine, despite all the smoke in the air and the fire closing in around us.
I set Jack down, a little rough maybe, but I didn't care, and noticed that the fire was in a somewhat perfect ring around us. And it had closed in fast.
Sven came over and looked at Jack, taking the responsibility of looking over him for now without saying a word.
It used to be a good distance from that mountain I had taken watch on, which was about 20 feet from camp, give or take. But now, the fire had completely closed around the camp. And was still closing in. There was no break in the fire, and I felt like jumping was the only option out. Or put it out.
But I didn't even know how the hell it started, and it was way too big to put it out, and we didn't have anything to put it out with either.
"Elsa, you're bleeding!" Ben called, which brought my attention back to my arm, and the pain flared up again. It had kind of subdued since I wasn't focusing on it, but now it was back. It was bearable though.
Ben didn't even hesitate. He ripped the hem of his shirt off, and wrapped it tightly around my arm, which I was thankful for. I didn't think I could do it very well to myself, and with one arm too.
He did it quickly and skillfully, even tying it up efficiently. I gave him a small smile to show my thanks.
"What happened?" I yelled while he was finishing up, hoping he had an answer.
To be honest, I was getting a little panicky. The fire was slowly closing in, and Achan and Gabe were gone, and Jack was bleeding, and a damn arrow flew out of nowhere and-
An arrow flew out of nowhere. That just hit me. Why didn't I register that before?
"I don't know! We woke up to this loud sound, and this fire started! It literally just grew from the ground into a circle! And then Achan went to look for you and Gabe!" Ben was yelling over the roar of the fire, which was closer.
We all got closer together without realizing it, trying to put as much distance between the wall and us.
The fire was easily 25 feet tall, probably higher. I didn't know how thick it was, but it didn't really matter.
"We're going to have to jump through it!" I yelled after a few drug out seconds.
Everyone had their hands over their ears, but they still heard me, and looked at me like I was crazy.
"Are you serious?!" Kristoff yelled back.
"What other option do we have?!" I yelled, trying to swallow the panic down. I was getting really scared. And it wasn't necessarily because the wall was moving in. It was because of the fire.
I had always been a bit afraid of it. Even though I needed it to cook and keep Anna warm, it always scared me. So hot. So out of control. I always felt like it had it out for me.
Plus, I was a winter and all things cold kind of girl. Fire went against all of that.
It was stupid, but nevertheless, it was one of my deepest fears. And it wasn't like I had that many.
"Jump out on three!" I yelled, as the fire was almost touching us.
I started counting loudly, and we all got ready to jump. Sven had picked up Jack and was sort of carrying him, and Kristoff held Anna's hand, and Ben stood looking determined.
I yelled "Jump!" at the same time that someone else yelled, "Enough!" Which made us all pause.
It was female and an unfamiliar voice, but right after it yelled with me, the fire disappeared. It shrank down, and literally disappeared. The only evidence that it was there were the scorch marks on all the trash, that was now swept up and blowing everywhere.
But I didn't notice all those things. All I noticed were the three figures standing right in front of us.
They were three girls, and they all looked around my age. I examined them quickly.
The one to my left had dark skin (like the guy with the red hair in Houston), and black hair thrown into the thickest ponytail I had ever seen. Her hands were out in front of her, with her palms were facing downward, and she was breathing hard. She wore this tight blue outfit that was off the shoulder.
The one in the middle had hair redder and crazier than Anna's in the morning. It was curly and wild and had gravity-defying volume. She wore a tight body suit that was a navy blue color, and had a belt with a full quiver attached. And she had a bow with an arrow ready to shoot aimed at us.
An arrow like the one that had been shot into my arm.
The last one was the strangest one to me. She had an interesting hairstyle, with knives sticking out of her head, kind of like that statue of justice thing or whatever had before it was bombed in New York. She had what looked like a bra and high-waisted pants made out of armor.
But what really caught my attention was that the last girl was holding Achan with a knife to his throat, and Gabe was knocked out and bleeding at her feet.
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