Beside the Dying Fire

Kai's POV

The midnight sun flared into the un-roofed Jeep as we passed a welcome sign to Nevada. Just as Sarah had said before, the desert gets very cold at night. Each of us could see our breath each time we exhaled. Cameron and Danny took the driver's and passenger's seats to get to know each other. Savannah and I sat on either side of Sarah in the backseat. Savannah was fast asleep while Sarah and I were just barely holding on to consciousness.

"Why don't you tell me again why I'm in the middle seat," Sarah whispered to me not to wake Savannah.

"Because the 2 of us are always stuck with the middle seat since we're so short," I made up an excuse on the fly.

"When was the last time you were in a full backseat?" she joked.

I didn't respond. Instead I peered out the window at what seemed to be someone holding a flashlight ahead. Sarah leaned closer to me to look out the window, too.

"Cam, stop the car," she said slightly louder. Savannah woke up and she wasn't happy about it. She grumbled as she picked her hatchet up off of the car floor.

We pulled the car up to the side of the road where the light had come from. A sickly, oldish man sat on the hood of an abandoned car, looking at us in fear.

"Please don't kill me," he begged.

"Don't worry," I assured him.

All of a sudden, I was pulled to the ground. The same happened to Sarah, Savannah, Danny, and Cameron. A group of me in their late-40s stared at us, laughing.

"Ha ha!" the one holding me at gunpoint bellowed out. "Like moths to a flame, you are!"

Besides the man pressing his bolt-action rifle to the back of skull, none of the 7 men had guns. Just knives. We were still majorly outnumbered.

"Gentlemen," Danny stood up. "No need to get hostile. We aren't here to take your supplies, we just want to get home."

Bang!

The man behind me shot Danny through his gut. He crippled to the ground in pain.

"DANNY!" we all yelled simultaneously.

"Anyone else?" the man cackled as he reloaded the weapon. No one spoke again.

"We got a pretty group over here," another said. "Which one goes first?"

"How about this one right over here?" chuckled the adult standing behind Sarah with an evil grin on his face.

Oh God, these people weren't going to... No. Not to us. No way in Hell is that happening. I quickly devised a moderate plan that could get me killed, but it was worth a shot.

"YOU PEOPLE ARE SICK! HOW COULD YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT THIS?! YOU ARE AWFUL! NOT EVEN HELL HAS A PLACE FOR YOU! YOU WILL BURN!" I rambled on.

"Shut him up," groaned the one behind Cameron.

The man behind me held his rifle in his left hand and brought his right hand to my face to cover my mouth. When his hand was close enough, I clenched my teeth on his index and middle fingers. The man screamed loudly. The fingers broke away from his hand and rest in my mouth before I spit them out into a bloody mess. The rifle dropped to the ground as he reacted to his missing fingers.

The man pushed my head to the concrete, causing my gash from Payson to begin to bleed again. I saw the rifle unguarded from my view. I scrambled out of his reach and ran for the gun. As I began to lift it, the man stomped on the barrel and kept his foot there, forcing the rifle to the cement as well. I looked at where the barrel was pointing at the foot of the guard standing behind Sarah. I reached for the trigger mechanism and hoped for the best.

Bang!

The bullet just barely missed Sarah, but passed right through the man's foot. He lifted his foot in the air and began bouncing on the other foot while excessively cursing. The man's eyes were forced shut to prevent himself from crying. This bought Sarah enough time to snatch the man's knife from his hand, spin around, stand up, and slash his throat. The body fell the ground as Sarah launched the knife at an incoming guard, ending his life as well. The man behind me picked up his gun and began to walk towards her, but I grabbed his left ankle and tripped him to the ground. Cameron snatched the gun and aimed at the man's head.

Bang! After that man died, Cam fired the others.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!-click

One guy remained. It was the old man that distracted us enough for the others to grab us. Sarah yanked my cane-sword from it's sheathe, which was on one of the cadavers, and held it to the man's throat.

"Please don't kill me!" he yelled. "I'm not with them! They're evil and sick! I can change! Oh God, don't do it!"

"Dear God, dude, chill out," she rolled her eyes at the annoying person. She began to chuckle to herself before saying the next line, "Don't lose your head over this."

Yep, she swung the blade as if it were a baseball bat at the man's throat and decapitated him. The head flipped a few times in the air before making a thud on the ground. I pinched the bridge of my nose on account of her bad pun.

"Guys," Savannah caught our attention. She pointed at Danny, who was coughing up blood. "He doesn't have much time before he dies of blood loss. We need to get him to the base, now."

We sped off, Cameron and Savannah up front. Sarah and I sat on either side of the weakened Danny, trying to medicate him as much as we could.

His skin was turning pale. He made eye contact with me as he said, "How'd I get stuck with the middle seat?"

I couldn't help but chuckle. He was always able to make every situation optimistic, which is something that I'm going to miss if we can't save him in time.