Finding Simon Petrikov

Chapter 8

Marceline's POV

As fast as our legs would allow, we ran out the big double doors of the hospital and stole a jeep from a lone officer who was smoking a cigarette right next to it, oblivious to his surroundings. Will pulled out the pistol he had in his pocket and pointed it at his face. "Give us your keys." He demanded.

With a terrified look in his eyes, the poor officer tossed me the keys and put his hands in the air. I clipped him in the head with my boot and he slumped to the ground moments after, passed out. Betty and Will took the backseat while I sat shotgun next to Marshal Lee who was driving. He stamped down hard on the gas as soon as everyone was in and we rode like the wind out of the city that was falling apart and headed towards the fire kingdom. It was located about twenty miles away past the ruins and the grasslands. It would take us about an hour to get there. I closed my eyes and hoped desperately that we would get there in time before It was too late and Simon was killed. I shuddered at the thought. I could not loose him. Not after I lost my mother. Not after I lost my father.

"You alright? You look like you're going to be sick or something." Will asked from the back seat.

It took me a moment to process his question. When I finally was able to form words in my mouth the stupid answer I came up with was, "vampires can't get sick." I was definitely losing it.

We rode the rest of the ride there in painful silence. To keep myself distracted from the negative thoughts swimming through my head, I picked at a loose string on my jeans pocket. It didn't help. I turned to Marshal after awhile who had his eyes glued to the empty road. "Marshal, what if--"

"Don't think that. We'll get there in time." He said sternly, cutting me off.

I sighed. "Sorry. I just have a bad feeling."

The next time he spoke, I had to strain to hear it over the icy winds rushing through the open window of the jeep. I think it was for only me to hear. "Me too."

*****

It grew dreadfully more hot as we entered the boiling hot region of the fire kingdom. There were no roads either so it became extremely harder for the car to drive on the molten rocky ground. Plus, we had to be extra carful so we didn't drive into and rivers of lava or geysers spewing up toxic gas and smoke everywhere.

I jumped as the jeep's engine suddenly sputtered and the vehicle lurched to a halt. "Out of gas. We'll have to walk from here." Marshal said, tapping the glass of the gas meter. The arrow pointed at a big red E for empty.

I wiped the beads of sweat tracing down my neck and sighed in frustration. "How far?"

Will pointed out the window to a massive volcano a small distance away. "Not far."

I had to squint to see through all the smoke, but when my eyes adjusted, I could see a small group of humans clustered together and shouting angrily at my crazy friend. He was tottering desperately to stay on the edge of the volcano while the others roughly shoved him to move forward.

Panicked, I jumped out of the passenger seat and began running up the steep sides of the volcano, Marshal, William and Betty shortly following behind me.

"Simon!" I screamed, hoping he would hear me. "Simon, I'm coming!"

His head whipped around to find where I was. Our eyes met and he smiled despite the predicament he was in. I ran faster still.

As I got to the top and began roughly shoving people out of the way, someone seized my arm. I yanked it free and kept pushing to almost immediately be grabbed by someone else. The jeering, angry crowd did the same to my friends and we were suddenly pushed to the front towards the edge. I planted my feet firmly to the ground to keep from tipping over the edge into the bubbling lava about fifty feet below. I knew what they were trying to do. They were going to push us in one by one as a sacrifice.