On Fire

Chapter 2: The Arrival

I woke up to the feeling of sand at my back and opened my eyes. My sight was kind of blurry and my head still hurts. I tried to lift my arm to my head but the whole action seemed kind of slowed down. Did I hit my head so hard? I turned my head a little and saw a few stones a few feet away and something green was shifting in the wind. The whole place seemed to glow green and was absolutely silent. I tried to sit up and had to push against a weird kind of force that wouldn't let me sit up. It was like I was trying to move against jelly.

My head cleared itself slowly and I remembered what happened. My heart started to beat faster and fear came as I saw nobody around me. I touched my head and noticed two weird things. The first was that my hair, that normally reached just to my ears, was now falling to my waist. It was still red (or more orange) but it glowed like it was on fire. And the second thing was, that it flowed through my hands and floated around my face.

I gasped as I put together the strange circumstances, but only bubbles escaped my lips. I was still underwater, but somehow I could breath. I looked up and saw that it got lighter there. So I pushed myself from the ground and started swimming to the surface. As I broke it I saw that I was in a sort of cave where everything glowed the same green as it did under the water. It was familiar but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. It didn't feel like I had been here before. More like I had seen it on a picture or something.

My eyes found a bridge and I quickly swam to it. I heard voice above me but I couldn't quite hear them right. Maybe my ears got full of water. The pillar that held the bridge were easy to climb and I made my way up there. As I pulled myself fully up. I stood up and looked around. Before me stood a person in a heavy armor, who's back was turned to me. The armor was white with blue trimming and it made me feel like I should know this person.

"Kimball, look out!" Suddenly there was a blinding pain in my left upper leg and I crumbled to the floor in pain. I looked down and saw blood flowing out of it and a whole was there in the middle of my leg.

"Son of a banshee!" I hissed in pain. There was a noise before me and I looked up, only to see two gun barrels directed at me. The persons holding them wore the same kind of armor but had a green trimming.

"Tell us one good reason not to shoot you!" I was confused and scared. What was going on?

"I don't know? Maybe because you shouldn't just kill some innocent person who didn't do anything?" Darn my stupid mouth! I should be more careful. They had guns! And not afraid to use it, if you looked at my leg.

"Innocent? You Feds are all the same!" I tried to stand up, so that I wouldn't feel so small. But my leg wouldn't let me and I fell down again with a whimper.

"Well if you want to kill me, do it quickly. I don't want to suffer." 'Maybe you should plead for your life! And not encourage them!' A voice whispered in my head.

"Let's put her in a holding cell and question her. And heal her leg." The person with the blue trimming said. I realized that she was a woman and apparently was she higher up than the other soldiers.

"But Kimball... Why should we help her?"

"Because the Feds would just let her to die. And we are not the feds. Just bring her to a secure room and let me speak with her." They nodded and walked towards me. As they pulled me up I noticed that they were at least a foot taller than me.

"Can you walk?" The one on my left said. I tried to nod but realized quickly that I couldn't. The pain in my leg was too much and I passed out.