trapped | chaos walking

seven. the first death

We all hurried to get as far as we possibly could from whatever the hell just happened when we were stopped by the worst thing possible.

The forest around us was bursting into flames too, some from a far distance and others right next to us. A bush I was standing next to caught fire, making me scream and run towards Todd. Instead of the bush staying on fire until it burned, it slowly melted into... into words?

The fire died out, but words like "bush" and "forest" replaced the bush. They sat on a pile on the floor, freaking us out even more.

"WHAT THE EFFING HELL WAS THAT?" Todd screamed, but he didn't use the word effing.

My mind was reeling, wondering what in the actual hell was happening. Then, it hit me.

Someone is burning the book.

"Oh my god," I breathed out, gaining the attention of Todd and Viola.

"What?"

"Someone is burning your book," I say, looking at them with wide eyes. "There's no way out. We're gonna die."

"What book? Yer not making any sense," Todd looked at me like I was crazy. Viola stared at me with confused eyes.

"No! Look... you guys, your world, all this, it's a book!"

"Wh...what?" Viola breathed out.

"I told you guys I was from somewhere 'far away,' right? That far away is the outside world, the real world. To me, you guys are just characters in a book series called Chaos Walking," I explained as quickly as I could. "I promise you, I'm not lying."

They stayed silent for a moment, before Todd spoke up, "There's no ruddy way that's real. I am a REAL person-"

Another tree caught fire near Manchee, nearly burning his tail off. It melted into a vat of words, laying there on the ground.

"Then explain that, huh?" I ask, pointing at the gooey words, "Explain how I know you're Todd Hewitt, and you're Viola Eade. How I know about the Spackle War and that you can't read because Mayor Prentiss banned all books and burned them, or that your mom died because of the Noise?"

He stares at me, his Noise flying like haywire.

"Believe me or don't, but either way, we aren't gonna get out of this alive," I say, glancing at the two of them who stood there in silence.

Viola opened her mouth to say something, but before she could say anything, her arm burst into flames.

She let out an ear-piercing shriek, flapping her arms in the air and running around in circles. Todd let out a shout, bringing his fingers up to his hair. I screamed out, jumping away from her by instinct.

Todd chased after Viola, Manchee barking his head off.

"Viola! Calm down!"

"CALM DOWN? I'M ON FREAKING FIRE!"

Soon her arm started to melt off, causing her to freak out even more. "HELP ME!"