No time to look back at who said that. The garage door slid in place. The burning landscape greeted us. The windshield automatically fogged up with steam, but Veronica had everything under control, seizing the controls and revving the car at full speed. Crescent yelped as we shot from the garage, rocks sputtering under the car wheels with friction.
Now I risked a glance back. There was no one following us. We had taken their only car. But that's when I saw the huge green jeeps not far away from us, their headlights blinding anything else I wanted to see.
The jeeps were gaining speed suddenly, wheels almost spinning up over the ground and then tipping forward for more momentum. Veronica saw it first because she had already forced her shoes on the accelerator. The car burst with more speed, pushing me back against my seat. Rocks clanked against the body of the car and rebounded back with a harsh clank.
In the distance I saw lava spewing out, overlapping the already dried lava and spreading until it could not go any further. Then the next layer of lava would overlap the previous. Veronica was just about to yank the stick shift to reverse when a spout of steam erupted right next to the front wheels. The steam had enough force to push the car up and to the side but Veronica was faster, taking her hand away on the stick shift and back on the wheel, circling her hands to move the car away from the spouts.
We were very lucky that the landscape was empty. If we were in Delensaysia with so many other people, going this fast would be near impossible.
Ace rolled down the window with a press of a button and flayed his staff in a fast motion, producing a bright light. A man was in front of our car and from Ace's light only, it would be suicidal for him. But, he was surfing on what looked like an armored plate. His hands were stretched out in front of him, manipulating the same type of plates all around him as if in a defensive barricade. His armadillo stood next to him, its plates detaching from its body and enlarging to give ammo to its owner.
His animal would have been perfect in creating armor and weapons for the military, though its purpose was with Malanthe now. Ace's light sliced through the first plate, but they kept coming up, replacing the old.
Veronica grunted when she yanked on the stick shift again. Her hands were rapid fire, moving back from the wheel to the stick shift, back to the wheel and back again, but the man would not lose sight of us. My bicep slammed against the car door when the car rolled over a huge pebble.
The man was producing another plate, ready to ram us, when I noticed the door to my right. I kicked it open, flinging it wide open, and shouted through the wind, "Use this Ace!"
Ace grunted sharply and whisked his staff again, much harder this time. The door peeled from its hinges and floated before ramming into all of the man's armor plates at the same time. Before he had a chance to move his power again, the car vroomed and shot past him. The jeeps behind attempted to fill in his gap. Even with my seatbelt, I felt ready to topple over.
Hot wind poured into the car and buffeted our hair wildly. Veronica with one hand on the wheel while the other pulling out strands of hair from her mouth, complained, "You couldn't have thought of a better plan?"
"Ace," Veronica commanded without waiting for a response, "Screen us."
Ace sighed a long breath and tilted his staff in a tight position across his body. A tendril of smoke appeared from the tip of the staff and then built upon itself until it whisked away through the window and out to the landscape outside the car.
The smoke screen obscured everything behind us. Sounds of shrieks from the jeep alerted me that they had stopped before Ace's screen.
I turned my head back to the front and realized buildings looming in front of us. Real smoke had covered most of it from far away. More boulders hid some of the lower parts of the buildings like we were a part of an outside world, apart from the isolated community we were seeing in front of us. There was no fence, no walls, but the mere structure of the buildings circling around each other made it clear there was no need for any stragglers.
As we drove closer, I noticed it was like an old-fashioned city that was just reaching the peak of industrialization. The buildings were made of concrete and with a pang, I realized the only thing modern about the city was the car we were driving in. The city in Volvanic Acropolis was everything like destruction.
We got to the outer edge of the city and I saw even more. Most of the lamp posts had fallen down, their bulbs broken and shattered with littered pieces of trash. There was not a single person wandering around at night except for the occasional man or woman with their heads down, shuffling their feet fast to get to their destinations. Pieces of newspaper flew with no energy while smoke passed with ease through the tarnished streets of broken and upturned cobblestone.
Like what Ace said to me earlier, some of the buildings were actually scorched, probably from Malanthe's inferno dragon when she destroyed this city a year ago. The water was the worst part. It reeked of sewage and was tainted black with heavy pollution and discard.
Veronica slowed the car down. "I think we lost them. The smoke can obscure our car for some time."
"I'm guessing this is what happened after the raids," I stated. "I can't even imagine the blue skies and the abodes that were here before."
I was still in horror looking at the smoke rising from each building or factory that we passed by. The car's headlights only reached a certain length before plunging into darkness. At one point, I could see the vague outline of a dead body.
I slightly turned my head back and saw Logan's head averted to the car window, watching with huge eyes at the city before us. Ace's whole body was turned to his car window, his face expressionless. I was wondering what he was thinking. Logan, Ace, and Veronica were all back in their hometown, but Ace was a different story. Was he really the one that witnessed the killing of Logan's and Veronica's family?
We got to a four-way intersection. Each turn, either going straight, left, or right led us to an unknown destination. The streetlights were not able to show us the end of the road.
"There's Hot Lava Sun Inn," Ace suggested. "We can stop there."
Veronica glanced through the rear-view mirror and at Logan, then at Ace. "Where is that? I don't know any of these roads anymore."
My ears tuned their voices out as I watched the buildings blur past our car, but there was no change of scenery. It was still desolate and dreary as always. Smog drifted off from the factories afar and the gutters of the buildings near us clogged with filthy water.
I watched Veronica for a bit, watching her hands turn the steering wheel at stop lights and intersections.
Her skin was pinched at some places with dried blood and skin. Her fingers were destroyed with countless bruises and cuts. Watching her face at a profile view only gave way to more and more imperfections, but there was no hesitation in her eyes and the unwavering of her grip. Whatever her features said, her personality told a different story.
There was one fleeting moment when watching Veronica that I suddenly felt humanity had not yet lost its touch of innocence. Only for a fleeting moment. I relaxed back in my seat and closed my eyes, letting myself drift off to the steady thrum of the car engine.
There are fires in the distance. They are far away, but close enough that I can smell smoke.
While my heart beat unsteadily with anticipation and fear, I tried not to imagine what it would be like if I was alone against the world.