Mali

Chapter Four: Past

I opened my eyes to only see the ground. The grass was cold against my face with the wind around me picking up as well.

My entire body was still numb from the immense pain that I had felt earlier. I didn't want to move, I felt as if I did move I would break something. My bones were like glass to me, they were fragile.

I managed to push myself to a sitting position to where I saw what was around me.

Fire.

And what wasn't on fire was smoking. The forest was on fire. The air was thick, and it was already getting hard to breath.

I got up no matter how much my body was telling me to stop. Telling me you can't. But, burning alive was gonna hurt more then the aches and pains I have now.

I looked around for some path of escape through the fire closing in. Then I found it. It was to the right of me, heading back to the road. Back out of here.

But, I also saw something else. It was the kid. Ryder, laying motionless on the ground ahead of me.

I looked back to my escape and it was already half way closed from before.

He saved me from the beating of a life time, and there he lays. Needing my help. I couldn't just leave him, I'm not that selfish. I had no choice.

I ran over to him and grabbed his arm to wrap around my shoulder. I lifted him up, and began to drag him over to the exit. I'm not the strongest girl in the world, but I somehow managed to do it.

The exit was getting smaller and smaller. The gaping hole from before was now only inches from closing. Big enough to have someone run through.

But, I was carrying two.

I got up the exit and it was nearly closed. I was surely going to get severally bad burns if I didn't go fast.

No matter what, this is gonna hurt. I closed my eyes and bared the pain.

I could feel the fire dancing off of my skin as I walked through it. The fire was tall and big, but luckily I didn't have to walk through much.

Then again, it felt like ages as I'm walking through it.

The pain of my burning skin quickly subsided as I continued. Probably because my skin had no nerves left to feel anything.

I'm surprised from how painless this all actually is. I don't have a high tolerance for pain, and I'm walking through fire.

When the air started becoming cooler I decided to open my eyes to the horror of what I knew was gonna be bad.

But, it wasn't bad. My skin was perfect. It wasn't burned, gone, black. At all. It didn't look like I just walked through fire because hell I did!

Maybe the fire was just bigger in my head then it actually was. I'm just over exaggerating. That's it. I don't need to worry about it. It's nothing.

I continued dragging Ryder, all the way up to the road. I set him down to see if he had any burns, but there was nothing also?

If either one of us was gonna get burns it should have been him. I was the one to slowly drag him through it! What the hell is going on here?

I mean, I know he has those special Mali powers and whatever, but I should be burned.

Soon enough the blaring of a fire truck horn was approaching just as Ryder jolted awake.

"What the fuck happened?!?!", he yelled.

"Oh you know, you lit the damn forest on fire!!", I screamed back at him.

He too heard the fire trucks as I saw the alarmed look appear on his face.

"I can't be seen!", he yelled as he quickly got up and ran back into the woods.

"Hey!", I said running after him.

I was dodging tree and limb trying to keep my sigh on him. He was fast, but I was just as fast. I've always been quick on my feet.

The hill slowly got steeper and steeper as we ran along. I've never been this far back before, but it was just as much on fire as it was back at the road.

This was the most destruction I had ever seen. Burning leaves flying through the air, old trees finally falling, and just the constant black smoke that was around us. The fact that it was fall didn't help keep the fire from spreading.

"Stop!", I would screaming from time to time. In between my coughing.

But, it didn't matter for him. He kept running. Running through the fire, flying past the trees, jumping over the fallen ones.

"We're far enough away from them!!! Stop!!!", I continued screaming at the top of my lungs.

I was right on him, I could have reached out and touched him. Of course, because of my luck, he came to an abrupt stop.

I slammed into the back of him, launching us both down the hill. The hill kept getting steeper and steeper as we rolled our way down it. I had to hit a few trees at least once or twice. I felt the snapping branches underneath me.

We only stopped when out bodies landed next to the river.

I knew this river was all the way down here, nobody cares about it anymore, but I always knew it was here.

The shore was lined with trash and debris from our disgusting generation. Gatorades, McDonalds, plastic bottles. I even landed in some plastic bags from the grocery store.

"I told you to stop.", I said pushing myself up.

"And I did.", Ryder said standing up.

I stood up as well and brushed myself off.

"Well then, question. Why the hell can't I get burned?", I asked.

Ryder just looked at me with a confused face, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I was standing in fire and my skin is still attached to my body.", I said waving my arms around.

"I don't know, and why should I care?", he said shrugging his shoulders.

"Because when we fucking shook hands, we passed out. For no apparently reason! Forget about that?", I said.

"Yes I remember, and again I really don't care.", he said.

"You should!", I said waving my hand in his direction.

And, that's when my world changed. Me going from a nobody in a boring old town out in the middle of nowhere to a wanted criminal. I had always dreamed of being special. Having something that no one else did. Be noticed for once.

I didn't mean anything like this.

The next thing I knew, was that the tree behind Ryder was on fire, and so was my hand. I had shot fire, and was controlling it in my hand.

Ryder had given me the power of fire the moment we shook hands. I don't know why or how, but the only thing I did know.

Was that I too had become a Mali.