We traveled through the scorching desert the whole day and we held up in an old abandoned car when night fell. By the next morning, we stood on the outskirts of Everlost; smoke was still rising from the burning embers. Allister and I stood on one of the flat-topped ridges that looked over the burnt city; a strange sad feeling gripped my heart at the blackened skeletons of the charred buildings. Allister also stood quiet and a shell-shocked at the edge of the ridge. Hot, boiling anger surged through me, I was angry that he forced me to go all the way back to Everlost just to see my hometown burnt to nothing.
I spun around on him, hands on my hips, "See I told you so! Now that you see that this trip was pointless, we can please go back to Hallowdrive so I can look for my friend?" I said, not trying to keep the irritation from my voice. At first Allister just looked at me, his eyes glazed over with sorrow and I was a little taken back by the sudden emotions I could see in his eyes.
"I can't believe it...it was so big; how could it just burn down?" He whispered mostly to himself.
"Did you have family here?" I asked quietly, suddenly curious about his sadness. He nearly nodded before he started to walk down the ridge towards the city.
"Where are, you going?" I called after him, stumbling to catch up with him. I grabbed his arm and jerked him around the best I could. "What are they doing?"
He swatted my hands away, "What's it looks like, I'm going there to get a better look."
"Why? Everyone was gone when my friend and I left!" I yelled at him, irritation flared in the pit of my stomach as I struggled to keep up from tumbling down the ridge.
"What do you mean, everyone was gone when you left?" Allister asked, eyes narrowing with confusion.
"Just that. Everyone disappeared, no one was there, everyone seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth and then things fell from the sky and blew the city to ash!" I explained the best I could without shuddering at the memory.
"Things fell from the sky?" Allister asked suspiciously; taking a step closer to me. I took a step back; he was uncomfortably close to me. I puffed out my chest in an attempt to grow to his height, "That's right, I don't know what they looked like, there was too much smoke to see anything."
He looked down on me, "Than I guess that gives us a better reason to go check out the city." He said with a sneer and he shoved passed me, continuing his journey down the ridge. I groaned and followed him down, trying not to tumble down the ridge.
The city was now nothing but ash. It smelt like fire and warm embers crunched under our shoes. Allister was dead silent; all his attention was on his surroundings as he walked cautiously. Allister would jump occasionally whenever something would break or a noise would ring out through the air. I felt an odd sense of sadness at the bottom of my heart looking at the city where I had grown up in, I could barely recognize it. We stood in the city; Henry's store was on the right side of the street; the structure wasn't burnt all the way down, but it was blackened and gutted, leaving behind a pitiful skeleton of a building. I glanced back at Allister, who wasn't paying me any attention and was already moving ahead; seeing my chance I crept closer to Henry's before slipping inside altogether. The walls were black and chipped, some of the items on the floor were twisted and bent. Walking back farther through the store, I saw where one of those objects had hit the store, a gaping hole had replaced the other half of the building. I stepped over rubble and broken wood. The hole led to the next block over and that block was burnt and still smoking. It was eerily quiet, all I could hear was the creaking and cracking of the buildings around me, What the hell happened here? I thought, turning in a full circle, looking for any signs of life. A loud cracking noise sounded behind me; I whipped around only to see nothing, but I felt like I was being watched.
I jumped when I heard Allister calling for me a block away, "Red! Red, where are you?" I didn't relax, I still felt like someone was watching me.
"Red! Where are you?" Allister yelled again. I started to make my way back through Henry's when before I could take another step two hands grabbed my waist and mouth. They pulled me behind one of the buildings. I struggled and kicked and tried to scream, but the person held on to me tightly. Once we were behind the building the person let me and I whipped around to face my kidnapper and my heart nearly burst from my chest. Standing no more than a foot away was someone I thought I had lost the next city over; Orion. Bruised but not to hurt. It felt like my feet were rooted to the spot, I was afraid he wasn't real until he spoke.
"Hello Addieca." I almost laughed at how awkward his response was and before he could react I threw my arms around his neck.
"I thought you were taken!" I pulled away and smacked his shoulder as hard as I could and he flinched. "Where the hell did you go? I jumped out the window and you were not there! Where did you go?"
Orion grabbed my hands before I could hit him again, "I'm sorry, but I couldn't stay. Two other people were standing outside and I had to run before they could spot me. I know I should have doubled back but I wasn't able to, I'm sorry Addieca." He dropped my hands, he seemed to be waiting for me to hit him again. But I just threw my arms around his neck and pulled him into a tight hug.
"It's fine, It's fine. It doesn't matter anymore as long as you're not hurt than it's fine."
Orion's cheeks went from a weirdly pale to having slight blush, to them.
"Red, where are you?" we both jumped when we heard Allister calling for me and Orion instantly went on edge. He grabbed my elbow and yanked me behind a huge pile of rubble.
"I heard that guy calling for you a couple minutes ago, and I had to get you first before he did." Orion whispered urgently.
"It's okay, he's here with me." And I shoved his hands off me and called out to Allister.
A moment later Allister's familiar blond hair flashed behind the building and he started coming straight towards us. He looked relieved to see me, but the moment he saw Orion, he stopped and eyed him with suspicion.
"Who's this?" Allister growled once he reached us. I was surprised by how hostel Allister and Orion were towards each other.
"This is the friend I was telling you about. Orion this is Allister, he helped cure me of infection after we escaped from the Slavers." I expected Orion to say something cold or witty or even along the lines of caring, but he stayed quiet; giving Allister a death glare.
It was Allister who spoke, "I thought you said he was lost in Hallowdrive?" It took me a moment to realize that, that question was pointed to me. I blinked a couple times only just remembering that Allister was right, Orion was supposed to still be in Hallowdrive. How did he know we were here? Why is he here in the first place?
"Yeah, Orion I am kind of curious about that too... why are you here?" I asked taking a small step away from him.
Orion seemed to go on the defense, "To look for you of course! I tried looking all over Hallowdrive and it was a wild guess that you would come back here, but I had to take it! I swear!"
"Sure, you did." Allister mumbled not bothering to look away from Orion.
Orion whipped around to spat an insult at Allister, until I stepped between them, glaring at the both of them.
"It doesn't matter! All that matters are that you're safe." I said firmly. Allister opened his mouth to say something but he closed it again when he saw the look on my face.
Tensions were high and I could have cut the air with a knife. We were all quiet, Allister and Orion glared at each other while I looked between the both of them.
Orion took a step forward, wrapped his arm around my shoulders and he forced a smile to his face, "Thank you for taking care of Addieca, but you can go back home now."
"I'm not going home." Allister said was a cocky grin.
"What?" Orion hissed, his eyes blazing with loathing and his arm slid from my shoulders.
Allister smiled calmly at him, "I'm not going home."
"You should REALLY go back to where you came from." Orion took a threatening step towards him. The smile faded from Allister's face and he too took the same threatening stance Orion was in.
I moved in between them, my patience was slowly growing more and more thin. "That's enough! From both of you! You," I pointed to Orion. "need to stop being an asshole to someone you just met and you," I rounded on Allister who looked down on me. "why are you not going back to Hallowdrive?"
Allister just shrugged and the cocky grin spread across his face. I turned to him, hands on my hips.
"Why aren't you going back to Hallowdrive?" I said, it felt like I was talking to a child.
Allister chewed on his bottom lip, like eh was debating on telling me the truth or not.
The truth won out, "Because, Red whole cities can't just burn down and "shiny things" can't just fall from the sky! Someone had to do it!"
"And what are you going to do? Try and get to the bottom of what's going on?" Orion sneered at him, he didn't even bother keeping the hate out of his eyes.
Allister didn't back down, in fact he took a step closer towards us. "Yeah actually, I am going to get down to the bottom of things." I had to shove Orion back and away from Allister.
"That is enough!" I bellowed; if looks could kill Orion would have been six feet under. Orion opened his mouth to say something but closed it again when he looked at me. He took a step back, his jaw clenched and his face was red, he looked pissed but he didn't say anything. I waited for him to make another move but when I saw that Orion wasn't going to try anything, I spoke, "He has a point though Orion. Things like this doesn't happen...Maybe someone did do this?" I gestured to the collapsed buildings all around us; I waited apprehensively to see how Orion would react. Just as I expected he did not take it well. He looked out-raged, but instead of saying anything he just stormed off towards Henry's. Quickly, I told Allister to stay where he was before going after Orion.
When we a considering distance away from Allister I grabbed his arm, preventing him from taking another step.
"Come on you know he's not wrong!" I said to him, trying to keep my voice down.
"Do you ever hear what he's suggesting? It's a load of bull! It's crazy talk, who could have possibly done this?" he spat harshly, throwing Allister death glares over my shoulder.
"I don't know but maybe he's onto something!" I argued back, drawing his attention back to me.
Orion's eyes blazed furiously but he looked thoughtful for a moment, "I don't trust him. How long have you known this guy, two? Three days?"
"He saved my life!"
"So!? That doesn't instantly make him a "good" person!" he hissed at me. It was obviously he was trying to keep his cool, but he was slowly losing it.
Even my patience- if it wasn't already thin- was waning, "I've only known you for two or so weeks." I snapped at him. "So, what makes you different from him? In fact, I'm breaking a lot of my own rules by even trusting anyone who is not my close family and in case you've forgotten, the last of my family died. So, tell me Orion, why should I stop trusting him now?"
I waited for him to blow up on me but I was taken aback by how eerily calm he was. Pushing passed me, he walked briskly back over towards Allister; I hurried after him. I thought he was going to punch him, but he stopped in front of him and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Alright. Whoever the hell you are, you go Addieca hooked on this idea that someone of something burnt the city to the ground. So, spill, where were you planning to go from here?" Allister's face was neutral before he broke out into a smug smile, "Yes, actually. I heard a few people talking about a bunch of odd looking people in a small city up east called, Ashby, a couple weeks back."
I nodded, "Alright, that's a start." I felt excitement welling up inside my chest.
"So... you two are just going to travel to god knows where all because of a bunch of talk from strangers?"
"You are coming aren't you, Orion?" I asked feeling a bit worried that he might not be coming.
He snorted at me like I had just said something ridiculous, "Of course I'm coming with you, don't say stupid things."
I felt my worry edge away when he confirmed that he would indeed become with Allister and I. The two boys continued their talk while I listened. By noon we finally had a plan and a place to go.
Allister patted me on the back, "Ready to go, Red?" he smiled at me and I couldn't help but flash him a smile, before he started moving east.
Orion rolled his eyes and shoved passed me and stalked behind Allister, I followed behind them.
*End of Chapter 8*