The Reign of the Lost (ON HOLD)

Chapter 2.2

Are they all dead? What if they’re all dead? Thought Alia aloud, with a thousand questions buzzing around her head.. They can’t be, she thought defiantly, they had to be alive. She saw a group of boys huddled around some luggage, only as she closed in, she realised it was a body they were crowded around. A large metal shard stuck out of a blue-haired boys’ shoulder. He was crying and screaming though his screams sounded more like a raspy whisper. The boys around him tried to calm him and talked busily about how to aid him.

Walking on, she watched people picking up their scattered belongings from the beach.  Searching amongst the people, she spotted Annabelle’s unmistakably ginger hair. Alia ran -limped towards her and engulfed her in a bone-crushing hug. Both girls stood crying in the others embrace. When they finally broke apart, Alia was relieved to notice Ellie who lay on the floor in a ‘foetus position’ singing to herself.

‘’Where’s Samar?’’ questioned Alia abruptly.

‘’ I – I couldn’t find her.’’ stuttered Annabelle apologetically, as thought this had to mean Samar was dead.

‘’Its fine, I’ll find her,’’ assured Alia, as she left them. She’d spent 20 minutes searching for Samar when she came across a crumpled bloody mass which lay on the waters-edge. Alia watched silently, horror- stuck, as the water washed over it, draining its blood with every wave. Her eyes focused on what looked like a red beanie & her mind dawned with realisation. The memory of the boy with the red beanie on coach as he walked past her replayed in slow motion.

She suddenly started screaming ‘’Samar!’’ at the top of her lungs. This was all too much, her screams were now shrilly, her voice couldn’t hold the emotion she forced upon it. Whilst outwardly panicking, Alia didn’t realise the arms that were guiding her away from the shore, nor, the voice that tried to calm her.

Annabelle approached them, breathless and smiled appreciatively to the green-eyed boy behind them, before grabbing Alia and sitting her down next to Ellie.

Alia locked eyes with Annabelle. ‘’I couldn’t find her, Annabelle,’’ she said with fear laced in her voice. ‘‘I’m so sorry, I looked, I tried…I tried my hardest’’ she said with wild eyes, searching Annabelle’s. ‘’You, believe me don’t you Annabelle?’’ she pleaded.

 Annabelle pulled Alia to lean on her shoulder; ‘’Of course, I do… shh’’, she hushed, trying to calm Alia down.

Alia soon stopped sobbing & they both sat in silence with their eyes staring into the distance, looking but not seeing, their minds elsewhere.

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Meanwhile, in a dark enclosed space, lay a sickly- looking brown-skinned girl; trapped. Above her lingered a grey leather seat she had been sat in hours ago. Through a small hole in the rubble, sand seeped in slowly; a timer, for her death. The girl who lay with her body numb & unable to lift her head to see any damage, cried. Her body paralysed she concentrated on shouting. Thinking through it again and again, even though she wasn’t sure if there was anyone to hear it; she had to believe there was. If only her lips could form the word ‘help’. The seat above her creaked, threatening to crush her useless body. A tear fell down her face and landed in the pool of blood beneath her, that she wasn’t aware of. Although she did not know and maybe it was best she didn’t, her leg had been ripped from her body. If the loss of blood didn’t kill her then surely she would suffocate as the sand filled every inch of open space around her before she could ever say the word ‘help’.