Dimension Travelers

Chapter 44

I wake up in a small cot inside a tent. I sit up. There are injured people all around me. I look for Firefly. Nothing--no sign of her. Then I hear someone beside me shuffle. I turn and see Rick.

"Hey, sleepyhead." He says.

He looks worried.

"Is something wrong?" I ask.

He sighs. "Actually, there is." He pauses. "Chloe and Jared rode out to find Rosemary yesterday. They haven't returned."

If I wasn't on a cot, I'd be on the floor. "What?"

"I don't know where they are. For all I know, they could be in the middle of the desert. But, I did see some men in black riding horses sneak out of the castle. They were going in the same direction as Chloe and Jared." His voice has dread in it.

My pulse rises. "And?"

"And I think they were assassins."

"Assassins?!"

"Shh! Yes, that's what I think. But I have a feeling they're meant for all five of us. Eclipsa has to know about us somehow. Anyways, we can't leave."

"What? Why not? If it was us out there, they'd come after us!"

"Maybe not. They'd want to, but they'd know that their place is here. We need to continue to fight here. We can't leave. Besides, who else is gonna kill Eclipsa?"

I'm silent.

"I wanna go after them, too. But, as much as I want to, I know that we need to stay. We'll find another way to heal Firefly."

"How?"

"Like I said, we'll find a way. We'll ride out to her village as soon as you--"

"I feel fine!" I snap. "Let's head out within the hour!"

Rick stares at me for a long time. "Fine. But if you drop off your horse, I'll say 'I told ya so.' Got it?"

"Yeah, yeah. Just get me outta here."

"Come on, sunshine. Let's go."

I get up and ignore the "sunshine" comment.

We make our way out of the tent. As of now, the fighting has stopped. We have called a temporary truce. We need to get in that castle. As we walk, I see thousands of dead bodies laying on each other. They're bleeding and decaying. It's disgusting. I ignore the nausea. Sandi approves our mission and gives us two horses. Rick, of course, gets his own: Chestnut. I get a cream-colored horse. We ride off to Rosemary's village. I look up and see storm clouds above us. More rain? That's the last thing we need. When we get to the village, there's no one there. We examine every building. Are they all underground? Are they dead? Rosemary is nowhere to be seen. Luckily, I told Firefly what Rosemary told us to tell her before she got hurt. If I hadn't, I'd be beating myself up now. I hope Chloe and Jared are ok, wherever they are...I think.

* * * * * * * *

We're still riding. Still being chased by the assassins. I'm still in control of the reins. The assassins are still very far behind us, but we can't stop. They haven't. Why should we? I don't want to die here in this hellhole of a place. It's most likely mid-day now. Noon. But I don't really care. Jared advised me to go deep into the desert. He said there's a canyon there. It could shelter us.

"How much further?" I ask him.

"To the canyon?" He pauses. "Another day's journey."

I sigh. "Anything indicate where we can find some water?"