I've been writing most of this during Career Wheel, which is the most boring class ever. So, enjoy.
Ridley
I don't know how long it was before I regained consciousness. Before I opened my eyes, I tried to collect myself.
I remember sneaking away from the school group with Marissa and Rachel. Then Jamie and the others showed up. Derek found that prehistoric looking machine, and then somehow it caused a time ripple. We were sucked in through the vortex. And now here we are.
Blazing sunlight shone on my closed eyelids. It felt like I was lying on sand. My mouth was dry, and my body was already sweating. It made me wonder how long I had been out. Bracing myself, I opened my eyes. Bright sunlight seared my eyes. I flinched and shut them tightly. I took a deep breath. Suddenly someone calling my name echoed all around.
"Ridley! Ridley! Can you here me? Are you awake?" Marissa?
I rolled over to open my eyes without going blind. My body was tight and my muscles ached when I slowly sat up. My legs felt like pudding. I wasn't up for five seconds before a strawberry blond blur tackled me back down onto the hot sand. Marissa's face was only inches from mine as she talked. Her light blue eyes were wide and freaked.
"''-." I cut her off. Did I mention Marissa rambles when she's freaked out?
"Marissa." She stopped. "Get off me."
Marissa apologized and helped me back up. I hissed under my breath as pain shot through my shoulder. I might have pulled a muscle. Rachel, Shawn, and Jamie ran up to us.
"Well finally." Rachel's tone was cold but her green eyes showed she had been worried.
I searched our surroundings. We were clearly in a desert, and it was around midday according to the sun that sat in the middle of the clear blue sky. But the alarms gong off in my head weren't from that. My eyes searched the horizon for any oncoming people. There weren't any.
I turned to the others. "Where is everyone?" Skyler, Jason, Derek, and Cammie…they were no where to be seen.
"Uh…we…don't know really." Jamie admitted.
"How can you not know where they are? They came through the same portal we did!" I snapped at him.
He matched my death glare with his own. "Maybe if you wouldn't have fainted-."
"Knock it off you two," Shawn interrupted. "We need to figure out what's going on here."
"And where we are," Marissa added.
I sighed and rubbed my temples to clear my headache. No such luck though, because coming from the south was a chorus of loud screeching. Instinctively we all turned to the noise, ready in battle positions.
I admit, my calm and cool composure failed, and my jaw dropped.
I have no idea what was coming towards us.
"…The hell?" Shawn said.
They were monsters, I could assure you that. There were about ten of them. Each was about seven feet tall, with long lanky arms that reached their knees. The skin was a purple-ish green color that made them look like walking bruises. They also walked with limps, and their heads rolled around like their necks were broken.
In summary, they weren't something nice to look at.
I started to calculate the battle in my head. There were five of us, so that would make two on each person. Depending on how strong these things were, the fight could either be easy and quick or long and bloody.
I was hoping for the first option.
"Spread out! Take two each!" I called out as I charged towards the monsters. See, these things walk as slow as a snail. I would say turtle, but they move pretty darn fast.
As soon as I was in reach, I jumped up and swung my arm to right hook one of them in their face. I grinned as its head snapped back and the creature froze. Then it screeched again and its head popped right back up into place.
Oh yeah. I thought to myself and ducked under one of its arms when it swung. Their necks are already broken.
From behind me another one appeared and used its large arm to shove me into the monster in front.
I winced as they began to shove me back and forth, probably pulling some more of the muscles in my back. I managed to pull my angel knife out of my pocket (so what if they're illegal?) and stabbed it into one of the monsters abdomen.
It screamed and side swept me with one of its arms. I yelled and flew about ten feet away, landing hard in a sand pile.
As I lay there stunned, Jamie was backing up and tripped over my body.
"Ow! Watch it idiot!" I yelled at him.
He sat up and glared. "What are you doing laying down in the middle of a fight?"
Marissa screamed somewhere to the right. We both stood up and looked over at her. I held back a scream as pain shot through my entire back. But I turned enough to see her being held up and being strangled by one of the monsters.
"Help her!" I commanded Jamie. He didn't argue and ran away to attack it. As the others fought, I tried my best to stand steadily. My eyes traveled around to check on the others, and I instantly knew that we couldn't last much longer. Rachel was limping to much and was bleeding from her ear and nose, Shawn was cradling his arm and had a black eye and bloody lip, I can barely walk, from what I can see Marissa is half-conscious and Jamie's trying to protect her.
Wincing, I ran over to Jamie and kicked one of the monsters in the side.
Big mistake. Turns out the monsters have very thick skin. My kick did nothing but rebound and knock me off balance. More pain shot up my leg and in my back. Another monster came behind me and grabbed a fist full of my hair. It pulled back, I screamed.
But apparently, it didn't like me screaming, because it knocked me upside the head. Dots appeared in my vision and ringing was all I heard in my ears. I felt warm blood ooze out of my skull. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jamie get swept off his feet. Marissa wasn't even awake, and she was hung upside down by her ankles.
This is bad. I thought as I fell to my knees. This is really really bad.
On the ground helpless to move, I raised my arms over my head as a monster raised an arm to strike me.
My eyes closed tight, I waited for the blow to come. Only it didn't.
My eyes opened, I looked behind me. There was a grown man there dressed in black with a large sword drawn, holding back the monster. I stared in shock as my vision blurred. I looked around and saw a few other people arrive as well. They all had weapons and were fighting the monsters with ease. For some reason, they seemed familiar to me.
But I had zero time to think about it, because I fell back to ground and passed out.
Meanwhile…
Cameron
It sucks to have wings, but not even be able to use them.
That's what ran through my head as I fell from the sky in who-knows-where feeling to numb to even fly or break my fall.
Instead I just fell helplessly, holding back a scream as I hit the grass.
I laid there in shock for a few moments as Jason, Derek, and Skyler landed around me. We all were groaning in pain. Unsteadily I slowly stood up and looked around.
Derek sat up and rubbed the back of his head. "What just happened?"
Skyler stood up and ran over next to me. "Where's the others?"
"I-I don't know," was all I said. Where were Ridley and the others?
We were in a grassland that stretched on for miles. A worn down dirt path stood out and lead far of somewhere. Over to my left there was a thick forest and beside it a group of buildings.
Jason pointed to the buildings. "We should probably head over there."
I bit my lip. "Do you think we can fly there?" My wings were growing there feelings back.
Derek looked at me like I was crazy. "No way. What if the DG sees us?"
Skyler ignored him and spread out her long, tawny wings. "I don't see the DG anywhere. Let's fly."
Jason and I both spread out our own wings. Derek stared at us.
"Alright, but if you guys can fly then I get to run." Then he grinned and sped of ahead of us with his super speed.
Skyler rolled her eyes. "Alright, let's go."
Flying always feels so amazing. I feel so free and unique, because I know that my family is the only one who can do it. Although at home, we can't fly that much at home because it's too dangerous with the Doomsday group around.
It only took a few minutes to get to the town. Really, it wasn't even a town. More like a village. We landed in the forest to avoid attention and Derek was there waiting for us. His icy blue eyes were proud.
"What took you guys so long?" he mocked.
Skyler rolled her eyes. "Don't get cocky."
" C'mon guys, let's go check out that town," I reminded him and walked out of the trees, Jason right behind me.
It wasn't much bigger then it looked in the air. We walked through the front entrance into what looked like the plaza. We nodded at the two guards that stood out front.
That's weird, I thought. Why aren't there policemen or the DG out front?
I ignored it and looked around. This town was very tiny. There were probably about fifteen or sixteen houses, a school, and a convenient store. The roads were hard packed dirt, and the houses were made out of wood and metal sheets for roofs. Out in the distance I saw a building in the hills that was probably for the Doomsday group.
"I feel like I just stepped in the sixteenth century," Skyler said as she watched a group of people walk past us.
"Excuse me! Miss? Excuse me!" I called out and waved to a woman hanging her laundry on a clothes line.
She walked over to us. "Yes?"
"Could you tell us where we are?"
She smiled. "Oh, this is the village Pacem."
I frowned and shared glances with my family.
"…Pacem? I've never heard of that before." Derek said to her.
The woman chuckled. "It's not the most well known place. But we're very lucky to be right beside the Verum headquarters." She gestured to the building in the hills.
"Verum?" Skyler asked after a short silence. "What's that?"
The woman looked at us like we turned into dinosaurs and ate everybody. "Where are your parents?"
We all stared to fidget. "Uh…"
One of the soldiers shouted loud enough for the whole village to hear. "Scatter!"
Cue utter chaos.
The woman bolted. "You kids need to hide!" She called over her shoulder at us.
Everyone was running as far away as they could, and there were people in full out battle armor beginning to invade and attack.
We were confused. We didn't know who these people were, or who was good or bad. But I had a feeling the ones with the red V crest on their armor were good.
"C'mon, we need to get out of here!" Skyler yelled and pushed us behind the store. We were running to the bushes, but not fast enough. One of the bad soldiers saw us and slashed his sword, cutting off a piece of Skyler's dirty blonde hair.
"Watch it! I did not need a haircut!" She scolded and kicked him square in the chest. The soldier surprisingly only stumbled and only angered him.
Another soldier came up from behind us and caught me in a headlock.
Jason kicked him in the ankles and knocked his helmet off. The soldier's grip loosened on me, I used that to wiggle out of his grip and turn to punch him in the face.
They must have enhanced strength, I thought to myself when the hit didn't faze him as much as it would've any other normal human. Skyler's hits weren't doing as much damage as they should have, either.
In a flash, there was a boy with a sword slashing away at the soldiers to our defense. Quickly and swiftly, he found the weak spots in their armor. I winced as blood splattered on us and the soldiers fell in the ground in their pools of crimson blood.
Skyler, Derek, Jason, and I stared at the boy as he panted, his blonde hair plastered to his head with sweat. He was probably about Ridley's age.
The boy looked at each of us, the wheels in his head spinning. "Are you kids alright?"
I nodded. "Yeah, yeah we're fine."
"Where are your parents?"
Derek chose a snarky reply. "What parents?"
It didn't faze the boy. He kept eyeing us for a few more moments. It made me uncomfortable. "C'mon, I know somewhere you guys can stay."
He began to maneuver his way through the chaos, not bothering to look back and see if we following. The four of us shared glances, then hurried of after him.
So ta-da! Chapter two. I'm the worst updater ever, I know. But reviews do speed it up.