Chapter 2: Fight Fire with Fire

The only noise was breathing. Sleeping bodies lay all over the floor, in some uncomfortable-looking positions. This was, what you could say, the calm before the storm.The only noise was breathing. Sleeping bodies lay all over the floor, in some uncomfortable-looking positions. This was, what you could say, the calm before the storm.

 

A window shattered. It was Molotov. The sudden noise brought all five people out of their peaceful slumber, snapping them back to reality cruelly. The reality of the situation set in, and as the small room began to be engulfed by flames, no one knew quite what to. It took a voice to scream, “F*****G RUN!” to begin the escape. The small brick building was secluded, hidden well in the middle of nowhere. It was their safe house. So how were they found?

 

The room filled with smoke, the temperature rising rapidly and the bottle of flaming alcohol leaving scorch marks on the floor and setting fire to a pillowcase nearby. There was no time to grab anything, they just had to run. There heavy metal door in the corner of the room was dragged open, providing an escape for the six. They bolted out, everything becoming a blur of colours. That being said, it was mostly red and orange.

 

As they ran out of the burning building, a boy sprinted to the front of the group, jet black hair blowing out of place in the wind. A girl assessed the situation, running in the vicinity of their base in an attempt to locate the perpetrator. Unsuccessfully, of course. They were in the middle of some woods somewhere, a place that only one of the group knew of. Sprinting another few hundred meters for good measure, the leader of the group led the rest to an area that was more of a field, out of the woods. It was a hill overlooking a farm in the country, scattered with trees.

 

The group collapsed onto the grass, lungs heaving for fresh air. Staring up at the sky, it was easy to forget all that was happening. But the clear blue sky was being polluted by thick black smoke, thankfully a safe enough distance away from the fire. “Is anyone hurt?” a voice piped up at last. The others shook their heads, still trying to catch their breaths. “No.” said a ginger girl, standing up and leaning on a nearby tree. She rested her forehead on her arm, breathing heavily.

 

“But I have one thing to say.” She added, turning to face a girl laid on the floor. “You were the one person who knew this place even existed. You fed us some sob story about coming here with your parents. But can we believe her? She brings us here and we get attacked with a flaming bottle of Molotov. Our supplies are destroyed, and we can’t come back here.” She raised her voice, still breathless, and pointed a finger at the unsuspecting girl laying on her back on the grass. She sat upright upon hearing the accusations, mouth open in protest.

 

“Anya, that’s f*****g ridiculous. Why would I sell us out?” her dark eyebrows knitting together, clearly unimpressed with the accusations. “Moreover, I nearly died back there. We all nearly died back there.” She stood up and walked over to the other girl, called Anya, apparently. “Do you have no trust for me?” The other people laying on the ground sat up too, watching the argument between the girls.

 

“Cut the s**t, Blair.” Anya spat. “If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t be in this mess. You’re the one who pissed off the gang, remember. And now they have a f*****g vendetta against us all. Our lives, our families lives, endangered, because of you.” Her voice was reaching a dangerous volume, and she pushed herself off of the tree, fists clenched.

 

The other girl, Blair, scoffed. She blew a coil of her black, curly hair out of her face and started, “Don’t throw that back in my face. So, I stole a couple of weapons from them. We needed them, we had nothing, and they were after us. It seemed the best thing to do in the moment. You just want someone to blame for all of this. There’s no point turning on your own members. Remember who your real friends are.” She retorted, spinning on her heel and examining a minor burn on her hand. As she had her eyes down, he didn’t see when the girl behind her grabbed her wrist, twisted it out of place, slammed her against the tree and pressing it against her back.

 

“You say one more thing and I will break your arm before you can even reach for your f*****g knife.” The ginger girl threatened, her voice low against Blair’s ear. She didn’t see when the other three leapt up off the ground and managed to drag them off of each other, breaking them up.

 

“Anya, leave it. It’s not the time. Firstly, not all of our supplies are destroyed. We still have the weapons that we have on us. We can find another safe house. But we need to figure out what we know.” The boy that ran in front spoke up, running a hand through his brown hair and down his neck. His face was decorated with scars, and his hand looked scarred too. It wouldn’t take a doctor to tell the boy had been through the wars and back.

 

A smaller girl, with bright blonde hair and piercing blue eyes stood up. She nodded, and began to untangle a loose braid she had in her hair. “You’re right, Harry. Blair, Anya, please don’t fight. Just come sit back down. The last thing we need after all that is more arguing. We’ve been through enough and we’ve only just woken up.”

 

The five of them all sat in a circle, in the middle of them a pile of assorted weapons. “Right.” said Harry. “We each get a gun. Luna, you get some throwing knives and the hunting one. ” The blonde girl nodded and took what she was told to. There were 10 throwing knives in total, so she took 4, leaving the others. “Oliver, take the other gun, you’re the best at long distance.” The other boy took the gun and hid it in his pocket. “Then we all get another knife each.”

 

The five nodded, burying their assigned weapons in compartments in their clothes. Clearly none of them were beginners in combat. “So what do we know?” Oliver piped up, still trying to conceal the gun so that it looked inconspicuous. Anya looked up and spoke, “Well we obviously know that the Sombres are behind it. Theres that blonde boy, Dean, and the sadistic girl, Aiden.”

 

Harry nodded, “Right. Does anyone know anything else?” The rest of the group shook their heads apologetically. “Great.” Blair sighed. “All we know is who it might be. We can just play it by ear. You know, what’s the worst that could happen? Oh yeah. We could get f*****g killed. Don’t worry, there’s not a lot at stake.”

 

The sarcastic comment prompted a kick in the shin from Anya. “Can we just stop arguing and go back to sleep?” Luna suggested, yawning. When she yawned, her arms outstretched above her head and her blue shirt lifted up slightly. A nasty scar was visible down her side, adorned with several untidy stitches. The messiness suggested it was a rush job, and definitely not a doctor’s.

 

“Not yet. If they knew we were in that safe house in the middle of nowhere, it’s not safe to fall asleep barely a kilometre away from it in an open field. I suggest we travel for a while, find another empty house somewhere and stay there. Unless anyone else had another bright idea?” Harry explained, looking round the circle. Everyone else shrugged, so it was decided. “Right. There’s no time like the present. Let’s leave while it’s still daylight.” He stood up and motioned for the group to follow him as he started to run down the hill. “It’s only just gone dawn. There's no rush." Oliver mumbled grumpily, before he too ran down the hill.

 

Author's Note

Second chapter! There might be a few mistakes, whoops. Again, let me know what you think! Sorry if any of these characters get confusing, but its better than the main six I was going to have instead.