The Seven

Chapter 33: Kindle

A couple of bushes burned into crumpled pieces of crunchy leaves and Jiyoo kept on sprinting and jumping over the tracks, especially the wooden logs. Until then, he found a small cabin from afar that was heating up in massive flames. He was breathing heavily within his chest and thought to himself certainly.

"Help! Somebody!" A girl's voice wailed, much to his shock.

"Valerie!" He called out firmly as he made his way over to the front porch. Then, he halts after noticing the fire blocking his way.

"Help me! I'm here!" Valerie cried out desperately.

"Where?!" Jiyoo questioned firmly.

"The side doors!" Valerie answered.

Jiyoo goes to the other side but sees the chains entangled together by the padlock. Instead, he climbed all the way to the roof and was trying to find the weakest spot to kick through a hole. He searched around to find one of the wooden blocks and carefully detached it from the window frame. Then, he started to smash the glass five times until it shattered noisily. As soon as he jumped down, he was coughing loudly while covering his nose and mouth with his long sleeve. Taking a glance at the smoke and fire, he yelled her name as much as possible. "Valerie...!"

"Help me..." She responded back as she was coughing hoarsely whilst lying on the floor with tears in her eyes.

Jiyoo turned his head in the right direction as he heard the sound of her voice and hurried himself over to her. He pulled her up in a standing position, reminding her gently. "I got you..."

Valerie was breathing weakly and looked at him as they both started to run out of the cabin that was going to collapse.

Jiyoo wrapped his arm around her body and came to a realization. "You're trembling..."

Valerie looked away timidly and felt his hand gripping onto hers comfortingly. "I..."

"No need to say anything. We'll talk about this later. As of now, let's get the hell out of here," Jiyoo declared boldly.

Thus, every tree branch had spread the fire enormously, making a whooshing explosion. They were constantly trying to take a shortcut on the way out. However, the tall bushes were scorching massively. They stopped when they watched a giant tree falling down in front of them with a raucous thud on the ground. Valerie gasped in shock and hid her face in Jiyoo's chest from the tiny blazes. He held her close to him and they decided to take a long way.

About twenty minutes later, the two had resumed their running and Valerie suddenly tripped over the crooked pebbles. Thankfully, Jiyoo got a good hold of her with his arm gripping her waist securely.

The fire began to surround them in a circle and there, they realized that they were stuck in the middle of nowhere.

"Shit..." Jiyoo cursed under his breath in a hiss.

Valerie started to shudder uneasily as she tried to control her hands calmly. Jiyoo, on the other hand, was looking for another way to get out just when he saw a broad opening of the boulders.

"We have to climb..." he said, panting breathlessly.

"W-what?" Valerie stuttered.

"Climb over the rocks," Jiyoo repeated and continued on. "I'll be the first one to climb and I'll pull you up, okay?"

Valerie nodded and gulped nervously when she got distracted by the smoldering shrubs. She followed him from behind when Jiyoo quickly crawled to the edges and reached the top. He turned around and bent over to lend his hand towards her in which she grabbed onto his tightly.

Jiyoo pulled her up and mustered all of his strength he had left. Valerie breathed out and fell on top of him. He wrapped his arms around her and they were panting in exhaustion, yet in relief. Then, they instantly both got up and jumped down onto the grass as they successfully broke out, running as fast as they could and far away from the depths of the wildfires.

Nonetheless, the clouds were starting to emerge conjointly, forming warm air currents and gusty winds that were surfacing with a few flashing lights in them.