Dimension Travelers

Chapter 18

We slowly make our way across the flaming ground. Smoke fills the air and ash is everywhere. Thankfully, we know exactly where to go because Chloe guides. In between trying to breath and avoiding fires, I think about Firefly's outburst. The events run through my mind over and over again.

"Seth?" Chloe says, interrupting my thoughts.

"What?" I reply in a sour tone.

Unfortunately, she doesn't like that. "Never mind. Just watch where you're going."

So we keep walking. It's like a black, fiery desert here. Not to mention it's almost impossible to breath. Although, Rick and Chloe seem to be holding up ok. I just follow. We're coming up to the Hills of Ashes now. As we climb, the hot wind burns my face and I'm sweating like crazy.

The hills are as far as the eye can see. We'll need to make some sort of camp soon. But now I remember our encounter with the hybrids. Would they attack us again? If they did, we would have one more person to help, but, I hope it won't come to that.

"Hey, guys, I think we should stop for a bit." Rick says.

"Where? There's no place where we can stay that's safe and not out in the open." I say.

"There's a cave over there." Chloe points. "Maybe that's a safe place."

So we walk to the cave that Chloe found. We unpack and sit down. Rick immediately curls up and falls asleep. Did he get enough sleep last night? Doesn't matter. As long as we just finish this and leave in one piece. Or in this case, three separate pieces but all together and not dead. I'm leaning against the wall of the cave. I see Chloe staring at me.

"You ok?" I ask her.

She gets up and sits next to me. Her face is sad. "I don't know...But I wanted to say thank you, again. For coming here."

"You would've done the same for me." I pause. "When Firefly had her arrow aimed at you I..." I was terrified of losing you...

"You were worried about me?" She asks in surprise.

I nod. "I...I thought she was gonna kill you..."

"Oh, Seth..." She takes my hand in hers. "Even when I'm mad at you, you always seem to turn things around."

"Thanks. I'm touched." I say somewhat sarcastically.

"It's over, which means that you can stop worrying about me now."

"I'll try."

"Besides, you're too young to have gray hair. Wait about forty or so years from now."

I chuckle. "Ok."

"I should probably get some sleep. We have a long journey ahead."

"I'll be watching."

Her eyes meet mine. "Sometimes I wonder about you, Seth." Then she lies down and sleeps.

As I sit there, I look out for those hybrids. What happened to all the dead ones? Did they burn up in the firestorm? If not...the rest of them might not be so happy to see us again.

Nothing happens for the longest time. But, after about half an hour or so, the ground starts to tremble slightly. I look all around but see nothing. Just a dust storm headed our way. Wait, a dust storm? Here? I look closer. I can't see what it's very clearly. The ground is shaking more now.

Chloe wakes up and says, "Hey, what's going on?" She rubs her eyes.

I turn to her. "I don't know. Might be a dust storm...though I'm not too sure."

Rick is still asleep.

Chloe gets up and stands next to me. "What're you doing?"

"Trying to get a good look at it. But I can't see very well." I say.

"Hmm. Looks like a...a person."

"How could that possibly be a person?"

"Can't you see the silhouette?"

"No...how can you?"

"Don't know."

The ground shakes harder now.

"What's going on? There an earthquake or something?" Rick asks sleepily.

"Glad you could finally join us." I say as he gets up.

"I know that the suspense killed you, but now you have nothing to worry about." Rick stands next to me. "What is that?"

"No clue." I say.

"But I think there might be a person causing this." Chloe says and looks at the giant dust cloud harder.

"She's joking, right?" Rick says.

I shrug. "All we know is that we don't know what it is."

"Hmm..." Rick frowns.

The dust cloud is getting closer and the wind gets stronger. Dust gets in my eyes and I fall backwards. I hit my head on the ground.

"Are you ok?" Chloe says and helps me sit up.

I rub my eyes. "The wind knocked me down. I'm fine."

"Did you hit your head?"

I rubbed the back of my head which hurt a lot. "Ow...Um, yeah, I did. But I'm ok."

"Are you sure?"

"Chloe, I'm fine."

Rick is still looking at the giant dust cloud.

I stand up and stare at it. I see the silhouette.

"That...that looks like..." I begin to say.

"How did he find us?" Rick asks.

"Who are you talking about?" Chloe asks, totally confused.

I sigh in frustration. "Hammer. He must've followed us here somehow."

"Well, I can see that he's followed us, but how did he follow us is the question." Rick says.

"Thank you, Rick. What would we do without your wonderful insight?" Chloe says.

"Hey, I'm not just another pretty face." Rick says.

"I wasn't aware that your face was pretty."

"Guys! Focus!" I say.

They both look forward.

"Something tells me that he isn't too happy about the way we treated Firefly...although, we didn't do anything wrong." I say.

"We need to run. We should't fight him." Chloe says.

"He's an old, fat man who has metal legs. We should be able to take him down." Rick says.

"He may be all those things, but one thing he's not is slow." Chloe says.

"Then we should run to avoid him." I say.

"No, we should stand and fight him." Rick says.

"But, if we run, we'll be tired and hurt all the way up till we get to the castle. We can't risk that." Chloe says.

"We're outta here." I say.

"Fine, fine. Let's go." Rick says.

So we get our stuff and sprint for our lives only to still be pursued.