The Journey [On hold]

Chapter 4- Fire

Wow. Day two and I was already pissed at this dolt.

Honestly, he was a complete idiot. Way too naive and way too random. He was the kind of kid that's bow down to me at school, where I was up high. Where I was cool, popular, just kind enough Ann.

Currently reduced to a messy wreck stuck in the middle of nowhere.

"Am I boring you or something? You seem to have kinda zoned out." Kace said, bringing me out of my dazed state. We're walking along a scuffed path towards who-knows-where, since we had no other plan. Was I expected to come up with something? Sure, I could try, but honestly I was too lazy. I bet I could survive in the forest if I had to.

"No, it's fine." I said, smiling at him and putting on my facade-of-kindness voice. "I was just thinking what we might have to do to keep safe and stuff out here."

"Do you know how to make a fire? Because I was reading a survival booklet once from the old section of the library and it said you need to boil water to make it safe, but I don't remember how to make a fire-"

"Go find some wood or whatever and rub some sticks together." I cut him off. "I'm sure that'll be a good start."

"Maybe we should keep walking first-"

"I'll keep walking, you find wood a little bit off the path." I said abruptly, quickening my step as he shrugged and scurried into the bushes. Sometimes I found it really hard to talk to people, always on the verge of snapping and showing how mean I could really be. I was like that even with my sister, though with her I was a whole lot kinder when I wasn't snapping.

Speaking of my sister- I wondered where she was. And how had she known that we might not end up together in the simulation together? Was it something Danielle had told her?

Ugh, Danielle. That prat was just the kind of person to go about breaking the rules. I wouldn't put it past her to have told Kayla even more than just where we'd end up. Maybe that's what she'd been doing when the two of them had disappeared from the balcony yesterday.

"Hey! I think I saw a spark!" I groaned internally at the sound of Kace's excited shout. I pushed past some bushes, nearly tripping as my skirt caught on a stray branch, to see him crouching by a small pile of leaves and twigs. He was rubbing two sticks together, making me roll my eyes. It had just been a randomly blurted out suggestion, not a plan.

"Forget it. Let's just keep walking." I sighed, since it was clearly not working. There was no way we were going to be able to make a fire with two sticks.

"But we gotta keep trying!" Kace's said, his tone childish. I forced out a laugh, trying to sound friendly. As annoying as he was, I didn't want to be alone in these woods, especially when night 2 of the simulation came around.

"I don't think we're going to get anywhere." I replied, tugging on his arm. He jumped up, somehow still grinning.

"If we don't find any sort of shelter or whatever, I'm trying again." He declared, pushing his way through the bushes and back to the path. "Maybe we'll find something faster if we race!"

"You're on!" I exclaimed, racing past him. Only a day ago I'd been racing my sister to the town centre, so excited to start my Journey. Now I just wished I could go back to her, no matter how much she had her head in the clouds.

We pushed our way past branches, stumbling over the beaten path. Clearly, the simulation couldn't have pavement. That would be too easy, wouldn't it?

But without the pavement, I was beginning to realize just how realistic the simulation was. The trees, the bushes, everything seemed like it was real. Maybe it would end up like one of those books Kayla told me about where the people forgot what was real and what wasn't. Scary thought.

Slightly less scary but still sorta terrifying was how much I was thinking of my sister, and how much I was missing her. I hoped she had had better luck so far, in terms of shelter and safety. And company.

"Hey, look, I think I see something!" Kace yelled, shoving past me and sending me stumbling into a tree. I shot him a glare from behind. Honestly, he acted like a five year old trapped in a thirteen year old's body.

I followed him out of the trees and gasped at what I saw. A neat little village, with little stone huts and a dusty pit surrounded by stones in the middle. Vines crawled their way up the huts, up to the messily made straw roofs. Messy, but still better than anything I could make.

"This is awesome!" Kace yelled. Someone please stop him, he was giving me a headache.

"Yeah, whatever." I said, walking into one of the huts. Looking close, I could see that they were made of stacked stone bricks that looked like they were hardly holding together. They didn't look like something you'd find in a simulation forest.

The interior of the hut was mostly empty, aside from a few trinkets lying in the corner and... A fire.

It was small, but different from the electric fireplace we had at home. Not hidden behind glass and not powered by solar energy. Just plain, fluttering fire burning in a small pile of wood.

I took a step closer, reaching out a hand as I stared, fascinated. Just as my fingers were a few inches away, everything exploded.

Okay, not everything, but the fire did. Suddenly it was racing across the walls, burning despite the lack of wood. Racing across the floor as I stumbled backwards.

"Help!" I yelled as smoke started to fill the room and I ran, coughing, out the doorway. I saw Kace's alarmed face as I tripped and fell against the doorway, the fire somehow filling up the whole room behind me and scorching my shoes. I slipped to the ground, knowing Kace would rescue me. Or at least, someone would. Shouldn't the scientists running the simulation be able to put it out before the forest started burning?

As suddenly as the fire started, it stopped. Kace was pulling me away from the hut, which had lost it's roof and whatever else had been lying inside. He propped me up against a different hut, staring into my eyes and keeping one hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay?"

I let out a weak cough in response. I was still shocked at how quickly the fire had sprung up, at how quickly smoke had filled my lungs.

"Water, please." I rasped, letting out another cough. He looked around, expression worried.

"We don't have any. If you can walk, we can go find some. I think I heard a river or something nearby."

I nodded, for once grateful that Kace and I had found each other in the woods. The scientists had been right- We did need to work together. But would escaping a fire on steroids really be a test they'd throw at us?

I refused to lean on Kace as we left the village. I still had some pride left, though Kayla once said I had way too much of it. I don't think a fire is a way to make me more humble, though. Why not something nicer, like feeding cute little squirrels? (Actually, no, I didn't particularly like squirrels. I didn't like animals in general.)

Kace rambled on about something or other as we walked. I wanted to listen, I really did, but it was this part of my personality that just couldn't bring me to care, sometimes outweighing the nice side of me.

There were a lot of things that outweighed the nice side of me, sometimes I just felt horrible, especially when it involved my sister. I would never willingly bring myself to be mean to her. No one could convince me to turn my back on her.

Which is why I prayed to whoever was listening that she was okay. And that maybe she was thinking of me too.

A/N- Yes, I know  that this is a little short, but I'm having trouble writing Ann's POV >~< Does it sound too much like Kayla's?