One Fire: A One Direction Fan Fiction

25

25

   First, I had to jump when Mousy alerted me with the scream of my name to avoid the lightning. Seconds after, Zayn yelled for Cedar to dive, and she bolted to avoid her beacon, uncovering a greater adventure.

   The ground where she had hit crumbled beneath her, sending her rolling down a hill which had been covered by packed dirt and growing grass. Together, the rest of us bolted to the hole she’d fallen into, seeing it had a slope leading down into it.

   “Cedar, are you okay?” Liam called down to her.

   “Yeah,” she yelled back, rising to her feet. Her voice had echoed with her words. She turned her head, surveying her surroundings in the darkness. “It’s so cool down here! You guys have to come down and see this!”

   I shared glances with the others, and we gave into the ginger girl’s suggestion. As a group, we hiked down the slope, meeting her at the bottom. None of us were prepared for what we saw next.

   “Whoa,” Leah remarked.

   In front of our eyes in the dimly lit darkness below some of the land of the jungle arena was a small cavern comprised of /dirt and stone, with relic created from simple cobblestone; small, crumbling houses creating an underground community.

   “This is probably just above the launch rooms,” I stated.

   Liam took a few steps away from the opening streaming in sunlight. “We could probably camp here a few nights while the others track us down,” he remarked, “We could avoid the lightning, but still be able to have the other’s find us.”

   We agreed, after all, Liam’s plan seemed logical. We split into two groups – Topaz, Zayn, Cedar and I, and Liam, Mousy, Leah and Roti – to search the small village underground, their team taking the left half and ours investigating the right.

   We started going through three small houses – one room and one floor – with little furniture crowding them. With the overall boringness of the tinier homes, we decided to search one a little bigger. Its walls were crumbling, so it was simple to break into. There was more furniture cluttering this one, and a rotting, wooden door leading to a staircase going down deeper into the ground, which, out of our combined curiosity, we followed.

   “It’s so dark down here,” Cedar muttered. “Can any of you even see?”

   I had to admit, it was dark in the basement of the house – nearly pitch black in front of my face – but I could see well enough only to know if I was going to smack into a tree or not, which was a good skill to have I guess. However, we denied Cedar’s question, saying we were all practically blind.

   There was old furniture cluttering this basement, and, ever so often, I would hear a bump and someone groan and cuss under their breath as table legs, or desk tops or chairs either hit their legs, or made them trip.

   As we ventured further into the deep basement, I stayed by Cedar’s side and Topaz stayed close to Zayn, to maybe minimize the clumsiness a little. It worked, until, under the stalky, troubled girl from One, the floor began to give way, and she let out a shriek.

   I bolted for them and caught Zayn’s ankle just as he caught Topaz’s scarred wrists. The female from One was dangling over a pool of something that brought light to the basement of this house: a trap whose bottom was filled with burning hot lava.

   I turned my head back to Cedar, who wore teary eyes with her hands covering her mouth. “Get Liam,” I barked to her, forcing her to hesitate a second before she bolted for the staircase.

   “Zayn!” Topaz yelled up to the boy absent of his typical quiff. Though I couldn’t see her face as well as Zayn could, I could tell by her tone she was crying again.

   “Don’t worry, we’ll pull you up,” Zayn assured, before trying on his own to lift the fifteen-year-old up to her safety. Her weight pulled him forward a bit, forcing me to sink all my strength into keeping him up here with me.

   “Zayn, I’m slipping!” Topaz screamed up at him from where she was dangling, “Just let go!”

   “No!” Zayn refused. I could tell he’d said it through clenched teeth, “I’m not just going to let you die!”

   “Why not!?” Topaz challenged. “I told you I’m worthless!”

   This conversation was taking a turn back to Topaz’s denials from last night. The stalky, young girl from District One with insecurities wanted to die, just as much as she had last night. However, seeing her worth, unlike everyone else as Topaz had claimed, Zayn refused to let her go.

   “No, you aren’t,” Zayn panted, “You are smart, and you are the sweetest girl I’ve ever met. That’s what makes you beautiful, not your appearance, or your weight. Whatever those jerks who called you useless said was wrong!”

   “Zayn, no matter how much you call me beautiful, it’s not going to change my weight! You’ll never be able to pull me up!”

   Zayn ignored her claims and tried again to lift the girl single-handedly, with only me as support, clenching his ankles with an iron grip, to safety. Again he fell and I yanked, but, this time, it was easier.

   “Topaz!” Zayn screamed, just before I heard the chilling sound of a canon. I helped the fellow blazing boy to safety. He was empty-handed, as the female from his district had slipped and fell into the magma awaiting her, bringing the total in our alliance down again.

   I could see the tears beginning on his face, the second he truly realized what had just happened so fast. Topaz had slipped out of his grasp, and, in return met her fate. She really had been sweet, and didn’t deserve the torment she had supposedly gotten from the others in her district.

   “I’m sure wherever she is now,” I spoke quietly, “Perrie and Jella are watching over her.”

   I saw a forced fragment of a smile appear on the blazing boy’s face as I mentioned that. He had once loved each of them – or, at least, flirted with them – and now, with his love for the insecure girl from his own district, had another joining the party of his deceased romances.

   I grieved silently with him for a moment, slipping my arm over his shoulder and letting him cry out his tears at the edge of the drop, before the silence was broken by the sounds of footsteps coming from the stairwell. They had come. Our alliance had just arrived too late.