Red Skies- Book One [[ DRAFT ]]

Chapter Two

A small girl ran through the woods, carrying a backpack. She was running almost as fast as a deer- she was often compared to one, so this wasn't very surprising. Sometime during the early hours of the morning, a stampede of forest animals rushed through the woods as fast as possible. She recognized this as their reaction to an oncoming earthquake and followed them immediately without question.

She had completely blacked out at one point, though, and fell to the forest floor. When she woke up, the animals were gone and everything was different. The sky was bright red and there wasn't any noise at all. Nothing even her sensitive ears could pick up on, no signs of life, except for a stream nearby and the wind whistling through the trees. All she could feel now was fear, and determination to find some other human being.

She finally exited the woods, not even stopping to acknowledge the state of the town she had entered, just glancing around looking for anyone, anyone, in sight. She rounded a corner and somebody grabbed her. She yelped loudly, and the other person turned her around.

"Damn it, Lacee! It's nearly impossible to find you anywhere, you really ought to carry a cell phone,"

Lacee caught her breath. She stared up at the six-foot-one human female with hair the same shade of blonde as hers, only longer and styled in two braids down her back. People would often ask if they were sisters, or even mother and daughter. But they were only a year apart, and not related.

"Sorry, Wynn. Uh, what's going on?"

"No idea. But we need to go see Dr. Acker, he says he needs to talk to us now," Rowynn rolled her eyes, the urgency seeming to annoying her.

"Oh...alright," Lacee said, glancing behind her. Wynn grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards a red chevy.

"Uh, hey, where'd you get this car?" Lacee asked.

"Lace, it's basically the apocalypse. Do you think one stolen car will make any difference?" Wynn snapped. Lacee didn't answer and got into the passenger seat.

"Sorry... I'm just... I don't know what's going on and it's driving me crazy," Wynn said, voice weaker than before.

⚫

"Woah, hey, chill out!" The creature said, coming into the light. "Hold on... Cherry?"

Cherry's eyes focused on the person in front of her. Her pink, shoulder-length hair was slightly messy but her makeup was somehow perfect.

"I... Hina?" Cherry said, unbelieving. She was beyond surprised to see another human being, let alone someone she knew. Hina held a bag of Doritos in one hand and a pocketknife in the other. She dropped both and wrapped her arms around Cherry.

"I've been meaning to come to see you... I was going to call, but I needed to talk to you in person, you know? I meant to say something before I moved but it all went so fast," Hina stepped back.

"I just... yeah. I'm sorry," Hina had been Cherry's closest friend from elementary school to the beginning of high school, but had gradually stopped talking to her. Then she moved, and Cherry never saw her again.

"It's okay, I'm just really glad you're here. But... What are you doing here? Do you have any idea what happened?"

"I actually took a bus into town to see you, but then everything started shaking and everyone on the bus completely passed out and that was the last thing I saw before I passed out too and-" Hina took a breath. She had always put everything into one sentence- Cherry almost smiled at this.