“Not that bad.” Floyd took the pen Priyam had had in her back pocket and drew the planned path. “If we walk eighteen and a half clicks each day we’ll be there in eleven days or less.”
“Eighteen and a half clicks?” Priyam was the one who screeched this time.
Veter counted on his thick fingers. “That’s like three and a half hours every day.”
“Ahem,” Priyam coughed as she crossed her arms. “In human speed?”
“Five hours,” Veter corrected. “Maybe six.”
“Why don’t we just fly with Veter?” Priyam asked as she stole some of Gaia’s grape ice cream.
“I would love to, little Prisum, but I can’t carry all of us.” Veter smiled hopefully at Gaia. “Maybe if our Princeza had her wind element we would all be saved.” He leaned closer. “Is that helping feeling tingly in the back of your neck?”
“Not feeling the wind yet. Sorry, Veter.”
“There, there.” Priyam hugged Veter. “At least you tried.”
Hunter and Willow arrived with burgers. Willow stopped cold at the sight of Edan eating ice cream next to Gaia.
“Nice burger, wild boy.” Priyam stole a small piece of bacon that peeked out of Hunter’s triple cheeseburger. “I thought you came from a veggie forest.”
“Moonstrand is ninety-nine percent vegetarian.” Hunter signaled with his mouth full. “I think Eva, Monkey and I are the only ones who love meat.”
“Monkey?”
“You’ll meet them soon.” The teen took a bigger bite. “They’re pretty cool.”
“Where is everybody else?” Edan liked the lemon-pie ice cream, oblivious to Willow’s stare.
“Donovan and Shui stopped at a vegan store on our way here,” Hunter signaled before taking a big bite of his triple-bacon burger.
“Shui is with Donovan? Then… where is—” Priyam gasped, choking with the bacon. “You got to be kidding.”
Curious, the group turned and saw Synthia with long bright fake red hair. “Hello guys!” She twirled on her strap sandals. “What do you think, Edan?”
Speechless and eager to hear his answer, the group turned to Edan.
“It’s… nice?” he managed to say.
“You’re the one who’s nice,” Priyam cackled. “That thing is hideous!”
“Geez Priyam, you have terrible taste.” Synthia flicked her plastic looking hair. “Plus, I totes look like a natural.”
Priyam gasped for air. “You look like a creepy My Little Pony,” she said and Floyd joined her laughing.
“OK, that’s enough.” Edan stepped in. “Everyone is here, let’s go back.”
Following orders, Gaia and the rest took their bags from the table and tailed Edan back to the camp.
Still laughing, Priyam walked next to Synthia. “You do know the hair isn’t the reason why Edan likes Gaia, right?”
“Please,” Synthia giggled. “Edan doesn’t like Gaia. Who would?”
“Oi! Snowflake!” Floyd called Priyam out. “You busy?”
“Not at all.”
Sneaky as a ninja, Floyd took a quick peek to see where Pink was standing. She was way to the front. “Here,” he gave Priyam a solar battery he just bought.
“No way!” Priyam jumped excited. “How did you know?”
Floyd passed his hand through his blond Mohawk. “I’m that cool.”
“Gaia told him,” said Pink who was now next to them.
“Could you not get into my conversations?” Floyd pushed his sister away. “How did she get here so fast?” he muttered to himself.
Swiftly, Hunter stopped the group with his hand. “Stop. Something is not right.”
Hundreds of birds flew away from the camp’s direction. Donovan tried to figure out what they were so afraid of, but they were too many, too far away. “Hunter’s right Edan, there’s definitely something going on.”
“I don’t see anything,” said Priyam.
“It’s because of the shield. Keeping things inside is also part of the camp’s protection, little Prisum,” Veter explained. “You’re not supposed to see anything from here.”
“Do you smell that?” asked Shui. “It smells like smoke.”
“Edan…” Gaia pulled him by his shirt. “Why is Bobby out here?” She pointed at the First Tree which was a few steps from her instead of on its usual place on top of the hill.
“That’s definitely not good. Veter, Shui and I will go first. Donovan, Hunter take care of the girls. If you see the signal, take them to the first door. Understood?” Edan asked and they all nodded. “Willow and the twins, you go last in case there’s an ambush.” Edan gave a last look at Gaia. “Stay on guard.”
Unable to formulate an answer, Gaia nodded.
Edan took out a small crystal dagger and pointed at the golden tree. Following the dagger’s will, the golden tree spun out of its roots, opening the camp’s door. Veter, Shui and Edan were the first to enter.
Moments later, Gaia’s insides were twisted in knots. What if her world was about to come crashing down around her? What if they didn’t make it back to the door? She wasn’t as afraid of whatever was inside. She was scared of standing outside without knowing if Edan and the rest were OK. “We need to go inside,” Gaia begged.
“I’m sorry.” Donovan stepped in front of the golden tree, covering it for Gaia’s safety. “It’s killing me too but those were Edan’s orders. If we don’t see the signal in a minute we can enter.”
One minute she thought, but that minute felt like an eternity. Too many things can be assumed in a minute. Too many terrible scenarios. Too many deadly situations.
After the minute passed, Donovan turned to the rest of the team. “Willow, we’ll go first. Then you follow, Gaia. See you inside.”
Gaia’s heart pounded like crazy. Her hands got sweaty. She saw Willow and Donovan disappearing through the roots.
Priyam took Gaia’s hand. “Ready?” She nodded and they walked through the barrier.
As soon as they crossed, it was like they’d entered hell. The whole forest was in flames. Dark smoke grew thick inside the protective shield.
Shui was wielding the water, but the fire was so hot that most of the water evaporated before reaching the ground. Veter was trying to seal the sections where Shui had managed to put out the fire so it wouldn’t spread back.
“No,” Willow cried. Tears fell down her rosy cheeks. “We need to hurry, the trees are suffering.”
Gaia turned and sensed it too. She felt how the trees screeched in pain. Like burning needles crawling down her skin.
“Gaia, help me with the flames,” Edan screamed from a few feet away from the fire. “Donovan, make sure the animals are gone. The rest take everything we need. Be careful, I don’t want anyone hurt.”
Following the orders of their leader, they all ran in different directions. Everyone including Synthia. She ran in the opposite direction to the rest of the group.
Once she was out of sight, Synthia began to walk, looking around to see how incredible it was that the fire spread in so little time.
She moved her hand closer to a flame. She could feel the hot tingling in her palm. “Ouch,” she whimpered. “He doesn’t want anyone hurt, huh,” Synthia whispered to herself.
She looked around to see if anyone was there. No one, she was still alone in that section. Then, she moved her hand closer to the fire and shut her eyes. The fire burnt her palm.
“Ouch,” she cried. A second later, Synthia took her hand away from the flame to check it out. “Looks red. Just not burnt enough.” She stretched her arm again, only this time closer.
* * *
Pink and Floyd ran to the ‘safe zone’ next to the golden tree with a bunch of knives, bags full of guns, and different types of swords. “This is everything we could save from the armory.” The twins placed the weapons on the grass.
“I got this from the bungalows.” Gaia left the stuff near the weapons and turned back in the direction she came from.
E
dan stopped Gaia by holding her arm. “Where are you going? We need to leave, now.”
“What about the fire?”
“The fire is almost gone. It’s the smoke you should be worried about.”
“I can’t leave. Priyam is still in the bungalows.”
“What the bloody hell is she doing there?”
“She went back for the last bag.”
Edan’s eyebrows curled into a deep frown. “Is she mad!?”
“No worries, mate. I’ll go get her.” Floyd dropped an ax to the ground and ran towards the bungalow.
Edan did a quick head count and turned to Willow. “Who’s missing apart from Floyd and Priyam?”
“Hunter and Donovan are outside finding a safe route to get us out of here. Veter and Shui are containing the smoke.” Willow rubbed away the ashes from her freckled nose and looked around. “I don’t know where the Marked One is.”
“Edan!” Synthia screamed from the other side of the burnt field. “I’m hurt, my hand.”
Edan sprinted to Synthia. “Let me see.” He turned her hand around and saw a big burn. “What happened?”
“I don’t know. It all happened so fast,” Synthia cried. “Everything’s blurry after Gaia turned the tree on fire.”
“Gaia what?” Edan asked.
“I didn’t do this.”
“Yes, you did!” Synthia moved closer to Edan. “The freak was sleeping and burnt the tree she was leaning against.”
“OK, I did do that,” she admitted. “But I put the fire out.”
“You didn’t,” Synthia cried while holding her hurt hand. “Gaia look at this place! I tried to help and get as much stuff as I could… I got hurt.”
Help? In that second, Edan could sense something was wrong. It wasn’t in Synthia’s nature to help. What was she thinking? He couldn’t tell but if he wanted to find out what was going on with her, he would need to play along. Make her comfortable enough to slip. And nothing made Synthia more comfortable than having him siding along her rather than with Gaia. At least for a little while. Sorry Red… Making up his mind, Edan glared at Gaia. She could see the disappointment in his eyes.
“Edan, I put it out.”
“Not now, Gaia,” he hissed and felt Synthia’s body relax instantaneously.
“Ouch, Edan.” Synthia hugged Edan as he carried her. “It hurts so bad.”
“Good job, Synthia, you were really brave,” he said, taking her to the medicine cabinet.
“NOOO!!” The gushing sound of a cry was heard. Sobbing, Priyam emerged from the smoke that encased the bungalows. “Help!” Priyam yelled. Her face was in total panic as tears full of ashes rolled down her foggy glasses.
“What now?” Synthia whined under her breath.
“No…no… Floyd!” Pink stood up and ran towards Priyam.
Edan lowered his head and noticed Priyam was dragging what looked like Floyd’s lifeless body.
Chapter 8
Fire and Blood
“HELP!” PRIYAM SOBBED uncontrollably. She pulled as hard as she could but Floyd’s deadweight was too much for her. She cleaned the blood from her hands against her jeans; they were too slippery to keep a tight grasp. She took Floyd’s wrists and kept pulling. “EDAN! PINK!”
Edan placed Synthia on the grass next to Willow and Shui who were moving everything to the other side of the barrier as fast as they could. “Wait here.”
“I don’t want to wait here alone,” Synthia complained.
“I need to go get Floyd.” Edan pointed at the girls with his steady hand, “You are not alone, the girls are right there.”
Edan walked away but Synthia grabbed him by the arm. “The tomboy already went!”
His plan on getting her comfortable enough to reveal what she was up to started to crumble. “Pink can’t carry his deadweight!” He tried his best not to snap.
“Stop! He’s probably faking it. Help me! I’m hurt.”
The hell with it! He needed her on his side but Floyd’s life was in danger. “Enough!” Edan growled so hard, he even scared Gaia and Willow. “Shui, get everybody out of the barrier.”
Shui followed orders, and Willow took Edan’s place as he ran towards Floyd. “Here, I’ll help you with your burn.”
Annoyed, Synthia slapped Willow’s hand away. “I don’t want your stupid help,” she whined and left the camp.
Edan ran, heading for his injured friend; his heartbeat increasing by the second. He saw how Pink was putting pressure on Floyd’s face with one of Priyam’s shirts. The shirt was bathed in bright red blood. “Edan,” Pink cried.
Edan's stomach clenched with pain as he’d never seen Pink cry before.
“Edan, he’s dying,” she wailed against her brother’s bloody chest.
“We won’t let him.” Edan leaned down to pick up his body. It hung from his arms like a rag doll. “What happened?” he asked Priyam as they ran to get out of the barrier.
“Gaia and I found everything we needed from your bungalows, she took your stuff away to the safe zone, but I went back for the last bag,” Priyam explained. “It was then when Floyd arrived. We were about to leave when the Bungalow collapsed. I was going to get hit by a sharp edge when Floyd jumped to cover me.” Priyam whimpered. “He got hit on the face. I used a shirt but there was too much blood.”
* * *
Once outside the barrier, Edan placed Floyd on the ground. He removed the cloth and saw a thick open wound that went from over the corner of his right eyebrow, across his button nose, down to the start of his left cheek.
Willow gasped at the sight of so much blood.
Even though the cloth was already drenched, there was still a lot of blood gushing out. The smell of iron was so intense they could taste it. “Shui, I need you to clean the wound; Willow make a strong antiseptic.”
Shui kneeled over Floyd’s head while Willow ran to the First Tree to rip off some pink flowers for the antiseptic.
Shui lifted her hands and wielded water out of a bottle. The water floated out, sliding over Floyd cleaning his cut and the rest of the blood on his face.
“Gaia come here,” Edan called to her. “I need you to cauterize his wound.”
“Me? Why don’t you do it?”
“Your fingers are smaller than mine. If I do it I’ll just burn his skin but I won’t close the veins. If that happens, he can die from internal bleeding. Do you understand?”
“I don’t know how to do it. I don’t want to hurt him.”
“I’ll guide you through.” His intense stare calmed Gaia.
“Edan, the cut is clean,” said Shui.
Edan turned to Gaia. He gripped his hand around her wrist pointing at her index finger. “Warm up your finger without let it turn on fire.” He warmed up one of his fingers so Gaia could understand better. “Once it’s red-hot, you will slowly tap inside his wound like this.” Edan placed his middle finger on Gaia’s arm and traced a line with fast but small taps. “Understood?”
“Understood.”
“As soon as water is gone the blood will come out again so you’ll have to move fast. Ready?” he asked. Gaia nodded. “Shui, dry the water.”
Shui dried the water. Almost instantly the blood gushed all over.
Gaia tapped the wound just like Edan told her. Is this what it feels like? Gaia felt cold from pain and anxiety. To lose your family? She could see Floyd’s light blue eyes looking empty, his body turning white. Please don’t die… please don’t die…
“ARRGH!” Floyd finally reacted, twitching in horrifying pain. Edan held him down, preventing him from hurting himself more than he already was. “Don’t stop,” Edan told Gaia.
She kept cauterizing Floyd’s wound. She could feel his skin burning under her finger. She could feel the warm blood dripping all over her hand.
As she tapped and tapped, she noticed the tapped parts were no longer bleeding. “It’s working!”
“Keep going.”
Gaia gave the last taps. “What do I do now?”
“We need to burn the wound to close it completely.” Edan took her place. “I’ll do it; your fingers are too small to reach both sides. Shui?” Shui wielded water and cleaned away the new blood. Edan slid his finger burning the rest of the cut, then checked Floyd’s pulse. “Willow, put the paste on. I need to check on how everything else is going.” He called to Veter. “Stats?”
“We lost most of our stuff and weapons. Luckily, the supplies are intact since we left them out of the barrier, Kapetan,” said Veter. “Also, for some unknown reason the barrier weakened. It’s dissolving much quicker than we thought, it will take only minutes for the smoke to get out.”
Hunter and Donovan arrived. Hunter’s face turned white when he saw all the blood on Floyd. His black eyes were flooded with tears. “What happened? Is he dead?” he signaled as the tears ran down his cheeks.
“No.” Edan placed his hand on Hunter’s shoulder. “He got slashed by a sharp object. He’s stable now.” He assured the teen. “You found a route?”
“We did.” He cleaned his tears with the back of his hand.
“Regrettably, the birds gave away our position,” Donovan gave them the bad news. “We need to move fast.”
“How long before they reach here?” asked Edan.
The wild teen lifted his hand. “Minutes.”
“Edan, it’s Floyd!” Willow screamed. Her expression was filled with anxiety. “He’s not breathing.”
Synthia glared at Gaia with disgust. “Congratulations freak, you’re now a murderer.”
Gaia’s stomach knotted. Nauseated, she wrapped her fingers around her right wrist holding Molly’s pink ribbon. “Shut up.”
Priyam dropped to the ground, lifted Floyd’s face, and covered his mouth with hers. “Please wake up,” she begged as she performed CPR.
“If I were Priyam I would run away from you,” Synthia laughed in a low voice. “Everyone you touch ends up being dead or worse, deformed.”
“Synthia, shut it! You’re not helping!” Gaia howled. “Get out of here.” However, she didn’t. Not knowing what else to do, Gaia hid behind the First Tree, only this time Synthia followed.
Seasons Within Box Set Page 36