What We Become | Book Two

48. From The Sky

The air began to feel thicker inside the truck and a heavy smell of burning fell around us. My eyes skimmed the horizon and a plume of thick, black smoke rose in the distance. Chris was the first to point it out and there was no hiding the fear within his words.

"What the fuck is that?" he questioned, pointing a finger to the growing cloud.

"Fire?" I replied as I continued to squint into the distance. The shapes were hard to distinguish and my eyes felt like they were drying out. I hadn't been wearing the contact lenses long but they were starting to feel uncomfortable on the surface of my pupils.

"Yeah," Chris nodded. "But why is there a fire so close to Carnelian?"

At first, nobody answered and the truck fell silent. It was Ben who pulled himself together, sitting up and leaning forward in the back seat.

"I don't think it's close to Carnelian, Chris," he said. "I think that is Carnelian."

I could feel a heavy pressure in my chest, an uneasy feeling turning in my stomach.

"It can't be," he muttered, shaking his head. He looked around at the thinning forest as Pilot looked to him for further directions.

"Turn right here," Chris barely whispered.

The car changed direction as requested but the sight that lay in front of us was one nobody could have anticipated.

I didn't think I'd ever step inside Carnelian's gates again but I would have never expected they'd be gone for good. The fence that once stood tall now barely stood at all. Charred and crumbling planks were all that was left of the border that protected the town.

The platform where someone usually stood guard lay flat against the ground, toppled by a force I couldn't even imagine. Only a few houses still remained standing, fighting against the fires which burned furiously around them.

"Who the fuck could have done something like this?" Chris asked as Pilot stopped the truck and cut the engine in the centre of town.

Chaos lay in ruin around us. Complete destruction of something precious and important to the people who already had so little.

"Zach?" I suggested as we climbed out from the truck. "He could've got here first and then gone to EDIN."

Ben's brows pressed together at the bridge of his nose. "I don't think Zach could've done something like this," he replied, looking around.

"He's right," Pilot said. "This wasn't your little camp rivalry."

Chris turned to him, a look of concern flushing his face. "Who was it then?"

"I can't say for sure," he replied. "But this came from the sky, not the ground."

He looked up to the clouded grey and the rest of our eyes followed. The sky was empty now, blocked by the smoke clouds which hovered above us, refusing to be pulled away by the wind.

Julia had remained in the truck, still wavering consciousness from the wound in her side.

"How are you feeling?" I asked as I pulled open the door on her side.

"Oh, you know," she strained. "Pretty punctured."

"I'll see if I can find a first aid kit somewhere so we can stitch you up."

"Thanks," she mouthed, readjusting her body once again. The tape was holding out but I couldn't be certain how long for, and it needed to be cleaned before it got any worse.

I closed the door shut and turned back to the boys who still hadn't taken a step from their frozen positions. The destruction left behind at Carnelian didn't just speak uncertainty for the town but what had happened to the people in it. There wasn't a single voice shouting out, no whispers from the trees or screams from the rubble. The silence only left more questions than answers.

"We need to find a first aid kit or something similar for Julia," I told them. "I'm not sure how much longer the duct tape can hold out."

"Alright," Chris nodded. "We'll split up and see what we can find. If the others bailed, let's just hope that they left something for us."

I watched Ben who silently nodded. He stepped away first, re-visiting his old home. It wasn't often that he was speechless but this was something different. This was a home destroyed and a family lost.

I decided to give him the time and space to explore the ruins of Carnelian on his own. I doubted he'd be searching for a first aid kit and more likely an answer to where the others had gone.

We needed that too. Without Carnelian, we had no home either.

It was unfortunate that the Med House was one of the few that had been completely demolished. Crumbling rubble lay atop the tarmac and rocks skittered about my feet as I tried to take a closer look, wondering whether it was worth scavenging through the pile.

Deciding it wasn't worth it, I turned to the house on my left which was surprisingly somehow unscathed. A few bricks crumbled from its structure and the roof but, for the most part, it seemed safe enough to go inside. I didn't recognise whose it was, nor had I ever given it a second look before.

The inside was fairly simple and similar to the others I remembered in the town. The kitchen seemed the most likely place for first aid supplies so I headed there first.

There was nothing.

The cupboards lay bare and where there should have been a first aid kit, there was nothing. I hoped that meant good news, that if the people were still alive they would have taken it with them wherever they'd decided to move on to.

Moving my way around the house, the stairs creaked an unnerving song as I ascended. The carpet was covered in dirt and ash but it could've only got there one way. It never occurred to me that whoever caused the destruction may still be around.

I swallowed the lump that grew in my throat. The steps I took were slower and steadier, ready for anyone who may appear at the top of the stairs.

Pushing open the first door on the left, it screamed on its hinges as it swung and revealed the cramped room. From a first glance, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It was a child's room and as I stepped inside, I remembered whose it was.

My hand hovered the door handle and I was about to pull it closed when a quiet sniffle came from the wardrobe at the end of the bed. Narrowing my eyes, I listened, wondering if my ears were playing tricks on me.

I froze, waiting.

The noise came again. Quieter but still audible.

Taking careful steps, I pulled on the wooden handles and swung the box wide open. A blonde-haired girl sat in the corner, draped in clothes of all sizes and colours.

"Sophia!" I gasped, crouching down and throwing my arms wide open.

She almost screamed. "Em!" She clambered out from beneath the clothes and hurled herself into my body, squeezing her arms tightly around my neck.

"What are you doing here?" I said into her hair. "Where is everyone?"

She pulled away from the embrace. "There were big explosions coming from the sky," she said, gesturing with small hands. "I ran in here to hide but nobody came..."

I nodded, pulling her back in for another embrace. "It's okay," I whispered. "You're safe now."

"You look different," she said as she wiped at her eyes.

I got to my feet, still holding her hand. "In a good way, I hope," I smiled. "Come on. I know someone who is definitely going to want to see you."