Kingdom Gone

BAD OMENS

28 Days Until Rapture

Lightning flashes outside.

"Come on!"

We run across the dark room.

"Jason!"

I see a gun materialize from the darkness.

And suddenly Derek is in front of me.

Then, a gunshot? Or thunder?

Definitely a gunshot.

Derek's head explodes.

I taste his blood in my mouth.

"DEREK!" I scream in my 10 year old voice.

The ground doesn't stop rumbling from the thunder, almost as if an earthquake is coming on. Suddenly the smoking gun disappears, Derek's body disappears, and I'm all alone, surrounded by darkness.

I open my eyes.

Circe's face hovers a foot above mine. We stare into each other's eyes for a full minute before I break the silence.

"Morning."

"Morning. What were you dreaming about?"

"It's nothing-"

Her knee presses firmly against my chest. She leans down, our noses practically touching. "Tell me."

I look into her eyes. I hadn't realized until now, but I've been subconsciously keeping a list for Circe, but instead of weapons, I've been making a list of traits. Besides extremely enduring and curious, she's a master of emotions. Back at the plaza, she posed as a confident, flirty young girl, even though she must've been scared shitless approaching a wanted smuggler. Not to mention when I pulled her out of the river. Her face conveyed no emotion whatsoever. Maybe it'll come in handy later. Who knows.

I grin. Without grabbing the railing, I sit up, my back muscles straining. Even with Circe's full weight on my chest, I manage to get to a sitting position with relative ease. Circe falls on my lap, but before she can get up, I stand, with her in my arms. I look down at her.

"It's just a nightmare. And when I say I don't wanna talk about it, I don't wanna talk about it." I drop her on the catwalk.

She lands hard on her ass with an oomf!

I glanced at the sky, half blocked by branches from the rows of apple trees on either side of the road. Our AFV was 6th or 7th in a long caravan of machines, all rumbling down an unmarked path leading deeper into the forest. I pull out my phone and check the GPS. A blue dot appears on a map of the remaining 9 kingdoms, just south of Lake Lake's largest tributary. The HoloTram stations are no longer safe; more Mercs are undoubtedly posted in the major cities. There's a number of bridges we could cross to enter the Seventh Kingdom, but without a car it'd take at least a week to get to El Refugio de Piedra. And we can't afford the days.

Circe leans against the railing beside me. "Nightmares are sometimes omens to future events. If you talk about it, maybe we can figure out what it means."

I look to see if she's serious, then I remember she can control her emotions. "Why are you worried about stuff like that?"

"We are on a life altering adventure. I'd kinda like to know how it turns out if I can. So what was your nightmare about?"

I sigh, gripping the railing. "It's about the night Nijah, Sam, and I escaped from the orphanage."

"Well, shouldn't that be a good dream? You finally broke away from that twisted place."

"Yeah, it should be. Except that there were four of us to begin with."

I saw it click in Circe's head, but before she could respond, I spot a path branching east with a sign sticking out of the ground beside it saying: Arcadia-2 miles. "Come on, Arcadia's this way." I vault the railing and land hard on my feet, already jogging past the sign.

Circe reluctantly follows.