The Girl In The Last City

Part Thirty-One: When Fire Burns

Darkness. That's all you could see.
Nothing. That's all you could feel.
You felt so alone, so helpless, so dead. You didn't know what death was supposed to feel like, but it wasn't this. In fact, you felt nothing at all, just numbness. All you wanted to do was reach out, reach out to anyone, but no one was there. You didn't know what was happening or what to do.
The darkness, however, went away and a light came. But not the light you were expecting. This light was an orange glow that turned from soft to so bright that it burned at your eyes. You didn't know which you preferred, the light or the dark. But then, the pain came.
It shot through you like a bullet and it was unbearable. At first it was just a pain like if someone had punched you really hard in the gut, then it was a stinging almost burning sensation. It was beginning to worsen, then, your body couldn't take it.
Your eyes shot open wide and you gasped for air, but all you got was smoke. You coughed on the polluted air and you felt your dry throat tense up. There was smoke everywhere, so much that you were surprised you could even breathe at all. All around you were flames shooting up from who knows where. Nothing made sense.
You found the strength to turn your head to the right and you saw buildings crumble. You turned to the left and, again, buildings crumbled. You looked up and saw the smoky sky as there was no roof over your head. You knew you had to get up, you just needed to find the strength.
As you laid, motionless wherever you were, you thought about what happened. You thought about standing in front of the berg. You remembered Thomas being shot. You remembered pushing Teresa into the berg.
You remembered Newt and Minho holding out their hands for you to take. You remembered the ground beneath you caving in. You remembered falling and then blacking out.
Somehow you were still alive, but they didn't know that, but you weren't going to be much longer if you didn't figure something out now. You clenched your teeth and moaned as you fought through the pain. You used your right arm to roll yourself over, and though it took a couple tries, you managed. Once you were on your stomach you gasped at the sight below you.
You were completely on top of the glass pane of a window, if the glass broke though, you'd fall right through. You took a deep breath, coughing because of the smoke, and put both of your hands out to throw yourself up to your feet. You pushed up, taking a minute to find your balance. Once you had however, the building shook like a earthquake and almost took you down again. You took a supporting step and found your balance after the shaking had ceased.
Now that you were up on your feet, you got a better look around at your surroundings. Flames roared next to you, papers that weren't on fire flew through the air, there was broken glass and debris everywhere. You thought the whole building went down when it caved in but that wasn't exactly the case. Only half of the building still stood, but it wasn't going to stay that way forever, if the creaking and screeching of shifting metals didn't make that clear then you didn't know what would. You knew you had to get out of there before the rest of the building crashed down, burying you in its ashes.
Unlike what you thought was going to happen to the building, you found that a big portion of it had bent downward. It would have kept going if the building next to it hadn't blocked it from continuing. It was like a support beam, but it was soon to go up in flames as well. You carefully walked over to where the inside of your building used to be. You poked your head over but there was nothing to see, only orange tinted smoke came from it. You backed up to where you were standing and looked down to the ground. Beneath you, the war still raged on. You had to get out of here before you missed your chance.
There was only one way out and that was through the building keeping you from plummeting to your death, again. You slowly made your way over to the next building, but it seemed as if every time you took just a little step forward the floor beneath you creaked. It wasn't even a floor, it was glass. This platform was going down.
You were gradually making your way across as the building was a good distance away. You were about halfway there when suddenly, the ground began to shake vigorously. You looked down and watched as the glass began cracking beneath you. You whipped your head and watched as half of the platform you were standing on began melting away.
"Oh no!" You shouted to yourself. "NOT AGAIN!"
You turned quickly to face the building and began bolting across the glass. You listened as is cracked beneath your feet as you ran. You pumped your legs and the adrenaline pulsed through your veins. The flames rose and you heard the grunting of the metal beams bending from the heat. Then, the platform started going down.
You were right at the edge, so close to the smashed through section of the building. But the platform was going down, and it was going to take you down with it. You took one last stride and then, you jumped for it. You flew through the air right as the platform beneath you smashed and caved in along with the other half of the building.
You made it to the other side, rolling against the hot floor and smacking your back hard against a desk. You clenched you teeth in pain but at least you weren't dead. You shakily got back to your feet and stumbled over to where you had just jumped from. You watched as the other half of the building completely collapsed and caved in. Suddenly, flames burst out snd the force sent you flying back. You coughed as the smoke took over the room you were in.
You stumbled backwards and rested against the table, coughing up a storm. The flames weren't as bad but still present. You looked around the room and it seemed to have been an office before it was destroyed. The tables were flipped, computers smashed against the floor, papers littered everywhere. The place was a mess, kind of like your life at the moment.
After scanning the room, you saw a water cooler. You ran, tripping over your own feet to get to it. You didn't slow yourself down, slamming into it and pressing down on the lever that pored the water. You put your mouth under the spout and let the warm but refreshing water go down your dry throat. You then took off your jacket and then your grey t-shirt. You put the jacket back on and zipped it up, protecting your bare skin from the flames. You doused water on the shirt and put it against your mouth to help prevent the smoke inhalation. It wasn't the best but it could very well save you until you got out of here.
Once you had drunken a little more water, you pushed off of the machine and headed for the emergency stairs. You opened the door and immediately, the smoke hit you in the face so you stepped back. There was no other way down so you put the wet shirt up to your mouth again and walked down.

You burst through the door of the stairwell, the knob extremely hot like the entire building itself. You didn't know how this building hadn't been demolished yet, but just like the rest of the city, you were sure it was going to burn. In fact, it already had, but that wasn't because of the war more like because half of another building smashed through the upper half of it. You looked forward to see the glass doors that lead out of this hell.
You knew what you were going to do when you escaped and that was find a car and get out of here. You needed to get back to The Right Arm before it was too late. You didn't know how long you were out, but considering the city wasn't just a pile of ash than it probably wasn't that long. Plus, the moon was still shining up in the sky, you could see it hiding behind the thick smoke.
You bolted for the doors, damp cloth still over your mouth. The moment you got there, you slammed through the giant doors, finding yourself back on the chaotic streets of The Last City. You could still hear people screaming and guns being fired. You smiled, lowering the shirt from your mouth and sighing with relief.
"YES!" You screamed, knowing you were almost there, almost out of this. Then, you heard the loading of a gun.
"Subject A8, we have you completely surrounded. Stand down!" You turned and saw a WICKED guard standing with his gun pointed at you.
At first, you thought you could take him, it was only one. But then you watched as back up came through the smoke. You looked to your left and saw more coming up from the abyss. You did a complete 360 but all you saw were more and more guards surrounding you. You knew you couldn't take them, you were lucky enough to have had the strength to make it down here in the first place! You had your adrenaline before, now you didn't have as much. You were in pain and all you wanted to do was go back. Go back and jump into Newt's warm embrace. You just wanted Newt. And you weren't going to back down without a fight.
You reached into your pocket and pulled out the knife you had snatched from Newt when he was a Crank. You gripped it tightly in your bare hands, veins popping out and knuckles turning white. You barely had any energy left, but you had the will to live. You thought of everyone who you loved. Everyone you would die for.

You fought for them before, and you could do it again.