Chapter 16

A Hero is born.

Chapter 16

My body had hit its peak of exhaustion. Finally I collapsed face first into the dirt. My body lay flat in the middle of meadow. We had stopped. Zachary knelt down next to me, “Are you alright?” he asked quietly and stroked the back of my head.

“I’m fine, thanks Zach.” It was obvious that I wasn’t the only one exhausted. Within five minutes I could hear loud snoring surrounding my whole body. My toes dug into the dirt and I closed my eyes. Suddenly a dream appeared in my mind. Darkness surrounded me as I watched the scenario play in front of my mind.

Immediately I recognized my dad Shiloh. He was hanging off the side of a large building. I stood in a pool of blood next to a young girl who was curled up in the corner. My knees bent and I checked the pulse on her neck. My attention was brought back to my dad hanging off the side of the building. Tears were in his eyes as he looked over the situation at hand. A large shadowy figure stood above him. Suddenly my dad fell from the side. A loud scream fell not from me but from the man lying next to me. Slowly his bloody body stood up as he leapt for the shadowy figure. The figure flew off sending the man soaring off the side. This time I did jump but my throat was caught mid flight. The hand gripped my throat tightly blocking off any air coming from my lungs. As the hand slowly turned my fighting body I caught a glimpse of blonde hair, not blonde like Josephine. This was a darker dirty blonde. It was pulled back into a tight bun which made me notice even more the black eyes staring me down. My soul began to collapse as I looked into the eyes. Her body held a stewardess outfit. A fire like pain shot through my whole torso and my body was dropped limp to the ground.

I gasped in complete fear. Sweat poured off my body as I sat straight up. The night was dark. Clouds covered the sky taking away all light from the moon and the stars. As I started to catch my breath I noticed that someone was around me. A soft moaning was coming from my left towards the trees. My knees bent and I moved into a crouching position. “Who’s there?” I asked with an authoritative tone.

“It’s me, go back to bed.” There was a strain in Abigail’s voice. One that I hadn’t ever heard, it was pain. In a single moment I stood up and started walking toward her. “Leave me alone Zander, I don’t need you.” I reached her and kneeled down next to her. I could feel the heat radiating off of her like an electric heater. “

“Abigail what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Her voice shook. I strained my eyes to try and see her in the darkness. “Just go back to sleep.”

My hands went to each of her shoulders. Sweat protruded off of her frail shaking body and onto mine. “Abigail what’s going on?” I screamed at her. Behind me I heard the bodies of the others waking up.

I started playing a song in my head hoping that my eyes could somehow illuminate the place. The minute they did I saw something I feared. Abigail’s usually white face had taken on a dark grey color. Her body shook uncontrollably. Sweat poured from each and every pour trying to cool down her heated body. People started walking toward me, “What is going on Abigail?”

She began to whisper something so quiet not even with the “Powers” could I hear her. My ear went lower as I brought it to her. With great effort she finally said, “My foot.” My gaze moved down to her foot. It wasn’t much of a foot it had swollen into a large mass of flesh. As I picked it up puss and blood ran from the bottom. It smelt of rotting flesh.

“When did this…” I remember in that moment. When we were running from Zane, she cut her foot. It had to be incredibly infected by now especially from still walking on it. Josephine gasped behind me.

Abigail’s hand touched my shoulder lightly and she brought her lips to my ear, “Catch me.”

“Wha-” I was halfway through the word when her eyes rolled all the way back into her head. My arm caught her just before it slammed into the ground below.

Carefully and cautiously I picked her up, “What should we do? We should wash it off, that’s what we should do.”

“No,” Josephine caught my shoulder, “There is too much bacteria in the water. The only thing we can do is get her to the portal, to real medicine.” She waited a moment, “Can you heal?”

My head shook, “I have no idea what I can do.”

Josephine nodded slightly, “You can run.”

My eyes looked up to her. She smiled motherly down towards me. “Keep running as far as you can until you find the portal, it’s can’t be far now.” The thought of running tired my already exhausted body. I didn’t ask questions. Josephine could take care of the kids. My arms tucked Abigail closer into my chest and I spun in the dirt. My feet picked up speed as we crashed through the bushes.

I watched Abigail carefully each time I could look down. She kept going in and out of consciousness. Branches scraped lethally at my arms. Blood spewed from each wound uncomfortably. I ran for what seemed almost a half hour. My body was ready to lie down and give up. Finally I burst through a large mass of trees. I stopped dead in my tracks. A large lit door frame sat in the center of a clearing. Abigail spoke as loud as she could, “That’s it!” Her hand pointed toward the large light. Fear ran through me, what if this was a trick and the second I walked through it I would be turned into dust.

My eyes looked down to the lifeless creature in my hands. I didn’t have a choice anymore. My feet carried me a few more feet towards the portal. I stood inches from the glowing light. I swallowed hard once and then leapt in. It wasn’t much at all. I figured there would be painful disfiguring. It was just all of a sudden I crashed into something medal. My arms let go of Abigail making her land hard on the medal floor. My head crashed into the floor loudly and with great pain. I felt the bone crack, it wasn’t the first time I had cracked my head open, I’m a boy. Blood gushed from the wound uncomfortably. The world shifted in my eyes but my mind was still on Abigail.

Slowly I picked my shaking body up off the cold metal floor. She was moaning in her unconscious state. I began to look around to where we were. It was rather familiar. The portal took us to where we started. A large metallic crate. My knees straightened with all the strength that I had and I ran for the door. A faint light was on the other side. I began banging on the door loudly, “Help us, please somebody help us!” I tried for what seemed hours but was only minutes. There was nothing on the other end, this was it. We were both going to die, I felt it. This would be the last time I would blink, the last time I would breathe. My body collapsed sending me to the bottom of the crate. I crawled on my hands and knees over to Abigail.

“I’m sorry Abigail, I’m so sorry.” I whispered over and over again.

“Heal me.” She whispered to me, “Heal me.”

“I don’t-“there wasn’t much else that I could do. A song needed to come into my mind but nothing. My mouth opened and I threw the first song that came to my mine, “You’re lovely with your smile so warm and your cheeks so soft. There is nothing for me but to love you, just the way you look tonight. ” A slight chuckle came from Abigail. If anything she went out laughing. My hand took her foot and held it up to my chest. I knelt down carefully, “and the laugh that wrinkles your nose touches my foolish heart.” Carefully my hand covered the bloody wound beneath her foot. She hissed and winced as I touched it, “you’re lovely don’t you ever change. Keep that breathless charm. Won’t you please arrange it?” There was a large burst of heat that shot through my hand the energy stopped all of my breathing. Abigail on the other hand couldn’t stop breathing, hers deepened and got quicker. Was this supposed to happen?  Was I doing it right?

“Just the way you look tonight.” I said one last time when there was large crash. The medal doors flew open loudly crashing into the outside of the crate. Two large figures ran in. A shoulder slammed into my side making my body soar to the back of the medal cage. A moan escaped through my lips loudly. The man took Abigail’s foot in his hand I screamed “Leave her alone, get off!”

I tried to pick myself up only getting to my knees. My arms swung in front of me as if I would actually cause damage to the large man. When I was feet from him something grabbed me, “Zander stop it, Zander its okay.” The voice was rather familiar. I could pull it from any large crowd. My father’s hand touched the sides of my face. He started to kneel down in front of me. “It’s okay Zander, I’m here now.” His hand stroked the side of my face. When he was finally kneeled in front of me my eyes went up to his. A gasp took over as two silver eyes shone down brightly on me. Abigail had told the truth, he was a hero. It was all too much. My body finally gave up. My eyes rolled into the back of my head and I was taken over by darkness.