Life on the Inside

Chapter 8

"Aiden!" A scream rang in my ears. The scream sounded distant, but was getting closer. Everything had turned black again and I couldn't see myself or anything. "Aiden!" The voice yelled again, much louder this time, waking me up abruptly.

Everything had changed quickly. It was now pitch black outside, and a storm was roaring over the rainforest. The rain poured down harder, and the wind blew even harder with gust-like force.
"We have to go!" She yelled over the noise of the storm, pulling me up off the ground as I was still in shock over what I had seen.
"I-I'm up" I grunted, my voice shaky. I suddenly felt weak and drained as I stood up on my own. Whatever happened to me must have wiped out my energy completely. "Why are we in such a hurry?" I asked, "Its only a bad storm."
"Does a storm have lightning so bad it nearly strikes me and has been setting trees on fire!?" She said, obviously freaked out, "Look there...and there!" she pointed upward.
I looked up, which was a big mistake as the falling rain hit my face hard, "Ow! Dang it." I shielded my face and looked up. One of the tall trees not far from us was completely set ablaze, and it was spreading to close-by trees. Lightning was striking many of the trees repeatedly, lighting them on fire. The scene looked beyond natural with lightning strikes hitting the ground and trees every second.
"Yea that's a pretty good reason to run!" I said aloud. We ran out of the area as fast as our legs could carry us. With the wind blowing hard in our faces and the suffocating smell of smoke following us, it made it even harder to get through all the thick shrubs, especially at night. I hoped to God we wouldn't get struck.
"Come on Lena,you gotta get through it." I yelled up to her as she struggled to get through the shrubs.
"It hurts! There are thorns freaking everywhere on me."
"Well we're getting through this." I said and, without thinking, grabbed a hold of her and pulled through the rest of the way, numerous thorns breaking into my skin throughout my body. We fell to the muddy ground with a thud.
"Ah...god that hurt." Lena said, pushing herself up, pulling out whatever thorns she saw.
"Yea I know." I said back, noticing my injured arm was now bleeding again, and the shirt covering it had ripped, revealing the wound. Lena noticed it too, but didn't say anything. "We gotta go, no telling how fast that fire will spread."
"Any chance it may stop?" she asked.
"No way, rain won't stop a fire like that." I stated while fixing my ripped up shirt so it would stop the bleeding of my arm.
"Okay now where do we go? That fire is coming fast now." I took a quick look back and was stunned. The rain had no effect on the fire at all. I expected the rain to at least slow it a little, but it looked like the fire was spreading even faster.
"What do we do!?" Lena yelled again.
"I don't know! Run!?" I yelled back, the sound of the rain and wildfire growing louder.
"Couldn't have figured that out on my own." Lena muttered, taking off in the direction opposite of the fire, and I quickly followed. We ran faster than I thought was possible, weaving in and out of trees and jumping over puddles that were as big as small ponds. The sound of the blazing fire slowly become more quiet, but I knew eventually it would catch up to us, unless it died out.
"God, this isn't good..." I said to myself, slowing to a walk and putting my hands behind my head to catch my breath.
"Well duh." Lena stated, walking a few steps ahead of me.
"This is way worse than it looks." I said.
"Why do you say that? It's already sucking pretty bad now."
"Yea, but jaguars, tigers, leopards mostly sleep in the trees here. If all the trees on the Inside burn,they may not sleep up there-"
"...Which means we'll see a lot more of them?" Lena interrupted.
"Yea, unfortunately."
"Well then I'll just fight 'em all off."
"Are you insane? Fighting one of those things is already tough, but multiple at the same time!?" Besides, you don't even know how to defend yourself."
She kept walking, not saying anything for a few seconds, "Be that as it may, I can learn. Now we need to get back to the hut I'm assuming? So lead the way."
I sighed, "Fine." and started running in the pouring rain once more.

- -

The rainforest was awake and alive. Loud sounds of insects of all sorts roared through the night, along with the sound of heavy rainfall, and a growing sound of a raging wildfire. Thankfully, we made it back to the hut in just a few hours, but by the sounds of the fire, and the storm finally passing, that wildfire had no intentions of stopping.
"You can kind of see the glow of the fire if you look out there." Lena said, gazing up at the sky. I looked up and she was right. In the distance there was soft, orange glow in the sky, with smoke rising up above it in the night sky.
"Well we have some time before that will reach us, now tell me what you saw back there this morning." I said.
"Not until y-"
"No," I interrupted, " I wanna  hear what you have to say, so I know that you're not screwing with me here." I sat down, leaning against a tree, waiting for her to speak.
"Alright well..." she started off, "as soon as we walked near the area, I had this really weird tingly-like feeling that ran through my body. It was so strange and it got stronger as we walked closer to where I first woke up, and once I put my hand on the ground where I thought the energy was coming from, everything went black. I started to see and feel again a little later, and when I did I was back somewhere in America I think..." she thought for a few moments, "New York City! How could I forget where I was at, but," her enthusiasm suddenly faded, " everything was in shambles. Buildings were all around me were destroyed and had collapsed. It was horrible. There were...bodies...everywhere. Some were mangled and burnt beyond recognition. I don't know what the heck I saw, but dear God I hope it wasn't real." Her voice turning into a whisper as a tear ran down her cheek, "Did you see anything like that?"
"That's really strange..." I said back to her quietly. I sware I had to be going insane. We saw very similar things,just in different places. Where they just weird dreams? They had to be,didn't they?
"Is it?" Lena asked. A look of concern shot across her face and she looked at me for answers. I said nothing as I tried to gather my racing thoughts. It felt like forever in the quiet hut before I finally decided to speak up.
"I saw...something very,very similar." That was all I was able to get out. A glint of a strange hope and fear shone through her eyes in the darkness.
"What was it like?" She asked.
"It was somewhere," I thought aloud, "the place looked kinda oriental,so i guess maybe China?" I spent the next ten minutes telling Lena every single detail that I could remember. From the three missiles falling from the sky, to how I was somehow a spirit. I made sure to leave nothing out.
After I finished explaining,it was silent for a while once more. Lena processed all that I had told her.
"Whats going on?" She asked, "Why are these things happening to us? Why are we here?" She was shaking from fear.
I had no words to come up with to solace her,"I don't know" was all i stated.