Arabella

Chapter 13

Arabella's eyes widened for a second, and then looked closely. Chris rolled his eyes, Luke patting him on the back for a bit after the annoyance grew.
"I know you can hear me," the lady whispered to her. It sounded like she actually said it right then and there in front of Arabella,
Cameron spoke up, "We came a little from the south-"
"I want to hear from the girl!" The lady yelled towards him.
Arabella sighed and answered back, "We've been heading north. My name is Arabella Lancaster, and I have a group of my friends."
"We've been waiting for a girl to come," the lady responded quite calmly.

We? What is this we?

I don't know, Luke. You can hear her too?

Yeah. It's weird.

The two teens exchanged glances and she held Isabella in her arms. Just as they moved, Chris muttered in awe, "Woah." Women. They were dressed in all white with gold accessories, and their hair was slightly done.
Arabella hadn't been afraid at this point. She was almost tired, but it'd been a good few weeks of climbing around. With such bitter taste, she motioned the men and her friends to move along towards them, "I'm sure they're safe."
The lady stared at Arabella examining her eyes closely till she noticed the blue rims around her eyes, "Are you and your friends hunters?"
Arabella wondered why this lady knew her, or how. All five women surrounded Arabella, and she looked at them one by one confused, "Yeah. We are."
"She can save us," one whispered to the other.
The blonde muttered as well, "So she's the one we've waited for. A child?"
"I'm sixteen," Arabella corrected the blonde as she rolled her eyes.
The woman in charge stared at her, then the rest of her group, "Let's take them to the kingdom."
Arabella's stomach dropped, and she went back to Luke. They all followed the women down the last hill, finding a bunch of shelters and people sitting down, others sound asleep, men laughing and drinking. People had fire pits, delicious foods set down on tables, mostly men who were dressed in certain uniforms.
     "Arabella," the lady called out and turned back to her holding onto Luke, "Follow me." Arabella stood up and gave Luke a small glance before leaving while he smiled with the approval of leaving, and she sauntered away to the lady.
     They passed different trading sites and tents. Many people gave her looks, like she didn't belong there. And Arabella asked the lady a question. "What's your name? And how long have you been waiting for some hunters to show up?"
     "Melissa," she said softly, "And let's just say about a year we've been waiting for your arrival. A group of messages were sent down to the Palace long ago saying somewhere around this time period, the dead will be sent back to earth to life to replenish the land all over again."
     Arabella felt like her heart was about to fall out of her chest after hearing what Melissa just said. She wondered how they told the future, "What is this place anyways?"
     "The barracks," Melissa answered slightly amused and opened the door to a tent, "We have to talk though."
     Her hand was a little shaky and entered into the tent without a care in the world. If anything, Arabella couldn't help but want to get this conversation over with.
     "Arabella, don't be nervous. I'll be asking you simple questions," Melissa began.

Arabella, where did they take you?

This tent I don't know what it really looks like. Melissa is with me, guards out in the front guarding it. Maybe it really is important, I don't know.
Arabella stared at Melissa as she babbled on and on about the palace and shared their secrets.
     It caught her attention when Melissa inquired her about the hunters, "What do you seek in the palace?"
     "Help and a safe place," she muttered, "I came down from another dimension, I have only been there for not even a few days, but coming back to earth made it seem like I've been gone for years."
     Melissa sighed, "Well you came in the right time. We have to get you guys to the palace."
     "That'd be nice," Arabella sighed.
     Melissa stared at her as if she were crazy, but gave a tiny smile, "Do you know how long we've been waiting for people of your kind to come here?"
     "Dead people?" Arabella stared at her intently, "Apparently I've been gone for years."
     Melissa simply shook her head grumbling, "Teenagers."
     "Well sorry," Arabella raised her hands up as if she were to surrender. There hasn't been a day that passed by since she'd been thinking of how much longer she was going to live. She's been stuck with boys ever since their ride to earth. Arabella had been put in charge ever since, "I hadn't had a decent place since I've arrived. All this exploding, a lot of chasing, shooting. People dying. I just want to know how I'm able to go to the palace."
     Melissa nodded, "Well we have to get to the ghost town in order to get there. What lies beyond that town is a forest."
     The anger built as if Arabella's chest were about to burst. All of this, yet more obstacles? "What more does this land have to torture us?"
     "Lots."
     With that, Arabella finally made her decision, "Why.. We're leaving tomorrow to head north. I know we aren't finished with this yet."
     "I like you a lot better than the boys who came with you," she snorted.
     Arabella agreed but rolled her eyes, "I've dealt with them for quite a while. Being the only girl is no option after all."
     Luke sat on a rock along with Noah and Chris, sitting around the fire pit eating barbecue. It'd been long since the boys had eaten food, or anyone. The days of gradually making their way to the Palace consisted of no food, barely any water until they went up to this camp of Barracks. The food had been amazing with every bite and tender flavor, "I'm glad we can finally eat." The three boys sat in silence munching now and then.
     "Sorry for hitting on your girlfriend," Chris apologized to Luke. To he and Luke's surprise, had he actually say sorry?
     Noah snorted, "Did Chris just admit his mistakes? So unlikely of him." Noah took a bite from his dinner and smiled happily with the goodness replenishing the hunger, "Speaking of Arabella anyways, where is she Luke?"
     "Talking with that girl over there who saved us," Luke explained while trying to keep his butt comfy on the rock he had chosen to sit on. Day after day they'd manage to pull off hunger and thirst. The wonders of being here for a while lavishing in the regular needs were no more.
     Chris chuckled and smirked right after, "The ladies here look fine. Haven't seen one of those since we've been dead."
     Footsteps crunched on the dirt floor just below them. They were tiny, and so were the amount of steps the person took. The three boys stopped laughing immediately and stared at Arabella who stood there with confusing emotions mixed in her eyes, and a reassuring smile. She soon joined them, each boy greeting her except for Luke, who stared at her, "Arabella."
     "Luke," she grinned towards him without a doubt, but quickly stopped in order to say something, but Noah cut her off before she could try to speak.
     "What's the plan Arabella," he had questionable eyes, hands interlocking with each others while his dirty elbows rest at the disheveled jeans he wore. She gazed back at them then the other two.
     Her eyes rumbled with a fiery ambition and confidence, "Get your rest. We only have a day here before we get to the ghost town that lies beyond this place."
     "You're shittin' me right?" Chris complained while taking another bite out of his barbecue. Arabella glared at him, then rolled her eyes as he continued to speak nonsense, "We've been out of here for days. Maybe even months, I don't have a calendar, but what I do have is common sense and we're staying here."
     Luke objected Chris's words of wisdom and laughed loudly and proudly, "He's stupid." Boys, Arabella thought, "We have more to come while getting to this mountain here. Who knows what's out there anyways?"
     "Some people I suppose but we've got to find out on our own. I mean we were put on here for a purpose right? We haven't died just yet right? That means we still have to keep going."