The World We've Set On Fire ■ Wattys 2016

Assassinate

"If I wreck the building," She looked at it from afar. "I destroy the whole area. That's the only way to get rid of the Compound."

"We don't have planes." James informed her.

"We know that, Jamie." Lara twirled her pen. "We thought of something else."

"But there's a flaw in the plan!" Alejandra argued.

"What's that?" Al asked.

"Someone has to die." Pixie answered.

Silence prevailed. Then, Heidi smiled. "I don't see that as a flaw."

"What else is it?" Hammad asked. "It's a-"

Heidi interrupted him. "It's an opportunity. You guys go. I kill them."

"We can't leave you." Lara replied, firmly.

"Oh, what the **** Lara!?" Heidi threw her arms in the air. "Not that 'we're a team' thing anymore!"

"We are still a team!"

"Sometimes you should just let go!"

"Calm down, girls!" James chuckled. "We'll decide."

"It's already decided, you fool! I stay!"

"Why do you want to die so much?" I asked.

"Why do you not?" She shot back.

"I want to live. Everybody wants to live!" I stated.

"There's no reason left to live..." She murmured.

There was a shriek. We all turned. Pixie was standing there, wide eyed... and at her feet was the face of a snake, it's teeth sunken into the girl's flesh.

"I thought they were all dead." Al whispered.

"Turns out they weren't." I shot the snake and it recoiled. A second later, it rolled over. Dead.

Pixie was next. She fell to the ground with a soft thud. And she died before we could get nearer.

Lara cursed. Heidi swore.

"Is the bomb ready, Jamie?" Heidi asked.

"Yes, I put it at the entrance. Here's the remote." He searched his bag and pulled out a small silver object.

Lara, Al, Alejandra, Hammad and I buried the girl and packed the bags. James and Heidi set the bomb and went through everything.

Then, we left. But Heidi didn't give us enough time. She was desperate, maybe.. so she hit the button a bit early.

We were all walking away from the site but the heat wave travelled towards us. Something like a glowstick caught fire in Alejandra's backpack and she burnt just like Heidi and the Compound. There was nothing we could do.

Our journey back to Egypt was peaceful. We were shipped to Poland on a huge boat, with lots of other victims of war.

"The world has united." A woman told me. "But we're only 32 million people left. What good will it do?" The woman was mad. The war did it to all of us.

From Poland, we flew to a huge building in Ukraine where we'd live. We were educated people so we got good jobs there.

Life would be better now, they told us. But with the scars we carried, it didn't seem likely.