Open fire

Part 2 "I wish for something else"

"So are you and Calum, but he can leave you alone. Same thing with Luke and Sierra" she answers, you furrowed your eyebrows. She then coughs a little, oh God.

"Babe are you okay?" Michael quickly asks, crouching down next to her.

"Can everyone please stop saying that!?" she snaps, clearly fed up with this. You felt bad for Mike, but you also understood Crystal, they'll be fine in a few days after her sickness is gone.

"Sorry, we're just worried..." he whispers, getting up and continuing his chat with Ashton.

"I'll leave you be, you're probably right, it's nothing" you offer a small smile and get up.

-

"How long are these tunnels? How did people even have the will to build all of these?" Sarah asks, more herself than you as she bites her sandwich.

"God knows how long it took them too" Mali adds, mesmerised just by looking where the end of the tunnel is.

"It's good that they did what they did" you say, them nodding in agreement.

"Hey Cal, did Charlie tell you anything else about these tunnels?" you question as he sits down next to you.

"Not much, no. I don't think he even knows a lot about them" he shrugs. You chatted a bit more, the sleepiness slowly getting to all of you. About an hour more everyone was softly tucked in, only breathing and small snores echoed throughout the long tunnels. What a strange day, you're really worried about what's to come. You just hope that whatever it is it's not permanent.

***

The second day of your journey to the barrier felt much quicker, even if you were walking more than running. Some tunnels lead outside so you had to be extremely careful just in case humans were truly there before entering another one.
Charlie was right, there were symbols all around, red dines for the red desert you visited, there were mountains that were labeled with letters N, S, W and E for the four sides of the world and then the white, half circle, the barrier, just to name a few. You payed more attention to your friends, all kinds of memories flooding back, the travelling, the lack of sleep, dangerous situations. Sure, maybe not all of them were happening right now, but it felt as if you were sixteen again. People did change, everyone, you could see the it on them, in them, physically and mentally. It made you somewhat sad, the time sure does fly.
Mali was a much more open person and she took part in almost all of the conversations, Sarah wasn't as silly as she used to be and she stuck with talking to one or two people at a time, usually Ashton. Sierra and Luke seemed happy, free, as if they knew what the other one would be doing even on the other side of the world. Michael did stay close to Crystal the whole day, she didn't seem to mind that much, but you had to take a couple more breaks because of her, she was getting a lot more tired which wasn't usual for her. Calum and you shared looks the whole day, some playful sprinting in front of eachother, just like the good old times. The second day came to an end, the sleep taking over all of you as you were safely wrapped in Cal's arms.

***

It was about noon on the third day, everything was going the same untill you had to go out on yet another tunnel. It seemed that the closer you got the more you had to be outside, you wonder why.

"Another one, seriously?" Sierra said in an irritated voice.

"That means we're getting closer" Ashton says, squeezing through the hole that led outside.