Glowing Embers

E

"Willow, we have to get going," Whitney stated softly, staring at the foliage on the ground. Willow looked up at her friend, tears crystallizing her sharp eyes.

"I'm, I'm done with this," Willow frustratedly admitted, roughly rubbing her slender hands over her face. She placed them over her eyes delicately and began sweeping the tears away. "There's no point in living anymore," she dejectedly murmured suddenly, standing up and glimpsing at Whitney.

"Don't talk like that," Whitney commanded stiffly, inching her hand toward Willow.

"It's not fair. The one thing I loved in my whole life, and it's taken away. He didn't deserve to die. He was fine on his own. But then he saw us and wanted to help us. He could've easily left us or even killed us for less competition. But no, he teamed up with us. And then he died. And I don't see the point of this if I don't have any motivation to survive," Willow commented flatly, ignoring Whitney's hand.

"I don't understand," her friend replied concernedly. Willow shook her head hastily.

"You need to go on without me," she responded quietly, eyeing Archer on the ground.

"You're joking. Willow, if we split up, I'll die. Do you really not care about me? And have you ever loved me? What you're saying is really selfish, Will."

"I'm sorry. But I'm not going on," Willow replied, crossing her arms.

"Seriously? We've gotten this far, and you're giving up now? Willow, I need you. Please," Whitney whispered, tears pouring down her face like a thunderstorm. Willow approached her friend cautiously and dabbed her fingers on the tears, as if they were a tissue sopping them up.

"I'm going back to my house. Or the remains of it. So I can die in peace. You can come if you want, but I'm sure you want to live. I want you to live. That's why I have to go solo, kay?" Willow rhetorically asked, stepping away from her friend.

"You haven't found it yet, you know," Whitney abruptly blurted out. Willow's head perked up.

"Haven't found what?" she questioned dubiously.

"You haven't found x. You've been searching for it this whole time. The escape. Survival. And you think you've found it now, because you're giving up. You're tired of searching, you're tired of working, so even though you know the answer's not right, you're still gonna use it anyway because you're done. Willow, this is not x. X is in front of us, x is the exit, and I'm not done trying to find it, and you're not done either. If you give up now, if you solve it incorrectly, you'll get an 0. But you'll get a 100 if you stay with me," Whitney ranted endlessly, breathing only at the end.

"This isn't about math," Willow tersely responded, glancing up at the cloudy sky.

"Sometimes people take math tests, and they come across a really hard question. They try and try, but they can't find the right answer. But soon, they get tired of trying to find it, so they put down a random answer they know is wrong. That's what you're doing now," Whitney explained, taking a step closer to Willow. "Stay with me. We'll find it together." She locked eyes with Willow, and there was a brief silence in the forest. It was as if the Earth was revolving around the two. All of a sudden, Willow released a heavy sigh.

"I hate how you connected life with math. But you're right. I need to find x. Prove Mrs. Thompson wrong. And do it for Archer," she fiercely stated. 

"For Archer," Whitney repeated gleefully, slightly beaming at her best friend.

"What do we do now? Should we bury him?" Willow queried thoughtfully, nodding towards their lifeless friend on the ground.

"He must be tired of holes," Whitney joked lightly. "Besides, I think he'd rather be on the floor, one with the nature," she added. Just then, a sudden rustle came from behind them. Willow whirled around. Standing there was a woman, girl, and a boy. The woman looked to be a middle-aged adult, and the girl and boy their age. They had scabs and cuts over their arms, and their hair had leaves in it, but besides that, they looked perfectly normal. The woman loudly gasped in shock and placed her hand over her mouth and she raced over to Archer on the ground. The girl's eyes were widened and she had frantic tears all over her face. The boy stared at a nearby tree, as if he were stifling sadness. Willow turned her attention back to the woman.

"Oh my god, Archer!" the lady moaned in agony, kneeling over him. Her tears bounced onto Archer and seemed to drown him. The woman looked up at the girls. "My son! What happened to my son!" she demanded wistfully. Willow glanced at Whitney in confusion, urging her to explain.

"We were his friends. He, uh, was attacked by a bunch of sick animals. My friend here killed the leader and the animals are gone now," Whitney sympathetically told their company.

"The Ravinas," the boy stated, returning his gaze to Archer. The girl next to him sniffed and wiped her eyes.

"I'm sorry, what?" Willow inquired, stepping towards the group. "Oh, um, my name's Willow." She carefully extended her hand. The boy shook her hand and looked at her. He had the same eyes as Archer. Willow was taken aback by this.

"I'm Chase, Archer's brother. This is our mom, and this is Andromeda, his girlfriend," Chase started. "We've been looking for Archer all over. We knew he would be here, but it was a little hard going through here. The Ravinas are, or, were, a group of mutated animals. And you say Dyno is dead?" Willow glimpsed at Whitney.

"Yeah, I killed him after they, uh, killed Archer. I basically lost my mind seeing him like that," she replied softly. The woman stood up slowly and dusted off her hands.

"I know, I can see the tears," she flatly responded. "You can call me Grace. I think we could make a pretty good team," she offered, shaking Willow and Whitney's hands. Willow looked at Andromeda and tilted her head slightly. The girl was stroking her hair while another hand was over her face. She was relatively pretty, aside from her tears, smudged makeup, and forest-related injuries.

"How did you guys get here?" Whitney questioned the group. Andromeda sighed and stepped forward.

"Archer must've told you about the bombs. He probably didn't tell you that it wasn't his house that he was in. He actually ran away from home a couple days earlier. He was in someone else's house, and he smelled the bombs and ran into the nearby forest. Grace and Chase were not at home either, and after the bombs, they wanted to find Archer and see if he was okay. I saw them enter the forest and caught up to them. We've been searching for a while, but we heard animals and saw footprints and followed them here. What about you?" the girl explained, wiping her eyes swiftly after she spoke.

"There was a fire at our school. We went into the forest. One night we fell asleep and when I woke up, Archer was standing there and giving us suggestions. We teamed up, and we made it really far. You just missed him," Willow managed to respond. "How do you know about the Ravinas?" Chase looked at Grace sharply and shot messages to her through his eyes. He then turned to Willow and Whitney.

"Archer used to work for the Ravinas. The group started after the first event, a man-made tsunami in Kansas. One day Archer met up with them. His job was to gather animals. He wasn't told what he had to do with the animals, or what they were for, or who he was giving them to. He just had to bring animals to a certain spot and leave. But he was in love with his job. He didn't know Dyno at the time, all he knew was a another guy, but then that guy died a couple days later. And then there was some, I don't know, issues at home, and Archer left us. He didn't even tell Andromeda. And they were really close," Chase winced at the final statement. Willow shut her eyes in pain.

"He didn't tell us any of that," she quietly stated, contemplating the new information.

"The last thing he said to me was, 'I hate you.' He left after breaking some things in the house. Sometimes he was a horrible person. But we loved him anyway," Grace declared slowly. Willow noticed Whitney was pressing against her head with her fingers.

"You okay?" she quickly asked her friend in fright. Whitney's eyes suddenly widened.

"I have visions flying around my head. Pictures, people are saying stuff. I, I don't know what's going on." Without warning, Whitney shut her eyes and fell to the ground promptly.