The Heat of Fire

Chapter 3

Adjusting to life after the flames have shocked our city has been difficult. All of the people whose homes were destroyed in the fire have been relocated to Spork. Actually, most of the people in Ojai have been staying at Spork. I guess that none of the homes are safe now. That fire was the flame to ignite the fire. Classes, besides training, have been cancelled for now, so I stay in the corner of the history classroom, along with a bunch of strangers. All of the people whose houses burned down received a single, thin sleeping bag, a beanie pillow, any toiletries they needed, and socks. I know, right? Socks? Ok then... Danielle gets to go home though. She gets to go home to her mom, her dad, her siblings. That's been the hardest thing. Excepting that my parents are gone forever. This is like a nightmare, but it's not one I can wake up from.
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3 months have passed since the Fires came here. I have developed a new schedule. Wake up at 6:34, clean my space until 6:36, then head to the breakfast line (2 minutes), wait for approximately 5 minutes, before eating until 6:50. After, I head to the training feild, where classes have resumed from 7:00 to 9:57.
I hear my alarm go off, and quickly shut it off, hoping that no one will be woken up by me. I slide out of my thin sleeping bag. I run my hand over my neck, wondering why it is so sore. I come to the answer quickly, remembering that last night had been especially cold, and my pillow had developed a hole, making the beans spill out. As I straighten the sleeping bag, I reach for the pillow, finding a flat piece of cloth with beans around it. It was almost like a murder scene, where the pillow skin was the carcass, and the beans were the guts. I snort, and glance at my watch. It reads 6:36. I bolt up, and step over sleeping bodies as I make my way to the exit. I finally make it to the food tables, were breakfast is being served. I hungrily grab a metallic bowl and wait for my scoop of slop. Yes, slop is just gray oatmeal that has no taste, but it is still food. Today, I receive only a quarter of a scoop. Usually, it's half. Ojai has been really starting to run out of resources. The wells are now completely dried up, the food is almost gone, and the mountains have trapped precious metals and ourselves in this horrid place. People have waited for so long for reinforcements to come, and we need them desperately.
I eat half of the slop, and carefully wrap up and hide the rest of it for after training. I am early today, so I wait outside of the training field for a minute and 30 seconds before stepping inside. I know most of the people in my class now, whereas before, I only knew a handful. I know T, Danielle, Sally, Brick, Saphire, Neil, Noelle, Georgia, Sammy, Adam, Donald, Smith, and Dante. I'm happy about having Danielle and Smith in my class, but the other girls don't do any work, and act like they're the best. The other boys think they are the best as well. This has started a feud. My teacher was fired, replaced with Mr. Jo, a muscular, loud man who absolutely loved the government, and especially the president.
I place myself at the end of the attendance line, once again, the smallest and leanest person in the class. The line goes like this:

T (6'6"); Neil (6'5") ; Dante (6'4"); Danielle (6'0) ; Noelle (6'0"); Brick (6'0) ; Georgia (6'0"); Sally (6'0"); Sammy (5'9") ; Donald (5'9") ; Smith (5'9"); Sapphire (5'9"); Adam (5'9"); Naomi (me) (5'6")

T is Mr. Jo's pride and joy. Everyone else, he forgets about. "Alright class. Today is the day that you will receive your report cards. These will include your final grades for your other classes, and your current grade for this one." Mr Jo says in a deep voice, handing out the papers. My OCD has helped me keep really good grades. I just can't stand looking at the paper and seeing all A's and a single minus in front of one. I'm a perfectionist, so anything short of perfect makes me feel as though I've failed. I eagerly open the paper, only to find all A's and an A- in this class. My heart clenches, and I breathe heavily. "Yea man! I've got an A- in this class!" Adam said. Actually, everyone in this class has an A-, even T. But I am the only one who is disappointed in it. I carefully fold my paper and throw it in the garbage, trying to calm myself. "Alright everyone, today we are going to be playing a team game." Mr Jo says, and takes out a clipboard. "I'll split everyone up into two groups and then explain the rules." He calls off names, placing me on the team with Dante, Noelle, Brick, Sammy, Donald, and Adam. Great. I'm on a team with some of the worst people. The objective of the game is to have the most players still standing after 2 minutes. However, there's no place to hide, and everyone has guns (obviously not real ones). There is a line in the middle of the battleground, one that no one can pass. You stay in your own territory. "Ok, you all have 1 minute to figure out your plan with your team!" Mr Jo calls, and sets a timer. My group huddles, and Brick immediately begins to talk. "Ok guys, so all we need to do is shoot as many people as we can! It'll be easy. We should send 4 people (the worst shooters) out" he is interrupted by Noelle. "Nobody made you the boss Brick." She says in a snotty voice. "I think we should" Then she is interrupted by Donald. "Noelle, you're not the boss either. I think it's pretty clear that I should be the boss." Arguing breaks out. I rub my temples and close my eyes. We are obviously going to loose. "Time's up everyone!" Mr Jo shouts, and I throw my hands up in exasperation. "Guys, this isn't a game you can plan for." I speak up. "If everyone is exposed and is armed, then you just have to dodge and shoot at the same time." I say. Everyone looks at me incredulously, and I am worried that no one will use this strategy. Dante speaks up, "She's right. If anything, we should work on defense." "Come on you guys, you're exceeding the one minute time period!" Mr Jo whines. We nod at one another, and separate. "Alright, get ready in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1-go!" He yells at the top of his lungs. The silent air immediately rings with the sound of guns firing. I drop to the ground, where I prop my gun up and begin to shoot. But then I realize that Danielle and Smith are on that team. That I'm shooting at. Game or not, I wouldn't forgive myself if I hit her. I lower the gun, and instead focus on dodging the false bullets that I can see. I hear shouts, as Donald goes down with a shot to the chest. Those must really hurt. I study their team while dodging, trying to figure out what their plan is. Suddenly, i realize that they have paired a member of their team with a member of our team. Neil continues to shoot at Donald, and only Donald. I look to the other side, to figure out exactly who my hunter is. A fresh wave of bullets causes me to turn sideways suddenly, and they miss me by inches. I follow their path, and see none other than Danielle aiming at me. I am shocked. "This is just a game, it's just a game," I murmur to myself, 20 times. But she's taken my OCD as an advantage, and shoots while I'm calming myself down. I am hit in the shoulder. I see stars as I drop to my knees. This is a really strong pain simulator. My whole arm feels like it's been bruised and the wound is actually starting to bleed. I see Donald, who is isn't bleeding, and has been shot a least 10 times. "What the"- I am cut off by more bullets, and this time I get out of the way. I have no choice but to fire in self defense. I purposely miss. I look at the survivors of each team. 5 remain on the opposing team, while only 4 remain on my team. Dante, Noelle, Adam, and me. Danielle is still up though. I focus my efforts on others, like T or Neil. I actually send Neil down, making the teams even. "5, 4, 3, 2, 1!" Mr Jo calls, and I look up, confused. I had forgotten all about the two minute limit. I drop my gun and sit down, exhausted. I finally can look at my wound. There is a medium sized gash on the side of my shoulder, red, with purple bruises surrounding it. Dark red blood is dripping slowly down my arm. I have to admit, it hurts. "Omigosh Naomi, what in the world happened to your arm!" Noelle cooes, shuffling closer. "Nothing, I just got hit." I say choppily. Donald swears at the disgusting sight of it, while Adam and Brick recoil, about to be sick. "You should go to a doctor!" Dante says, concerned. I raise my hand. "Mr Jo, is this normal?" I ask bluntly. He takes a look at it, before sending me straight to the office. As I walk out, I hear Danielle trying to say, "I'm sorry Naomi!" But I pretend I don't hear her. I have been trying and trying to be her friend, and to treat her how I want to be treated, but she just can't return the favor.
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I walk out of the nurse's office, a bandage wrapped around my shoulder tightly. The nurse gave me extra bandages, and instructed me to change them every 6 hours. So I will change these ones at around 3:47. The office people told me that there were 10 more minutes of class left, so I walk back slowly. I really just want to get back to my sleeping bag and go back to bed. I sigh, as I turn the corner and see Mr Jo giving the class a very... enthusiastic... pep talk. He literally is red in the face, waving his arms around wildly and acting things out. "Life...life can't end in a tie! There must be one winner! The tie today gave no one a victory." Great, he's gone crazy now. The class is sitting on the ground, so I take a seat alone. I rest my head on my fist, and cross my legs. Mr Jo continues to blubber on, until the bell rings. I immediately exit, trying to distance myself from Danielle. I don't want to talk right now. My legs walk as quickly as they can without running, and I make it to the history classroom. People are just starting to stir, getting ready to go to their training classes. I collapse onto my sleeping bag, and fall asleep instantly.
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I stir, still sleepy. But I'm not in the history classroom anymore. I'm in a sort of cave, a warm fire in the middle, spreading reddish light around. I am aware of a cold chill on my back, what's not facing the fire. Someone stands against the wall, it's face covered in shadows. I get up, startled, and the cave walls tumble down, I roll to the floor, and when I raise my head, I see a dark sky with rain. I quickly get up from the muddy ground, and see somebody coming towards me. I start to run away from them, but the world spins, and I am suddenly flailing in deep, dark waves, and am pulled under. I see the dark sand and weeds, but a coil of pure black comes towards me. It feels... familiar. It wraps around my body, and I -
I bolt up from the floor. What was that thing? I feel eyes on me, and look around. People are gathered around me, whispering and looking concerned. "Are you ok?" One of them asks me. "What do you mean?" I respond, quite confused. "You were shouting in your sleep! We tried to wake you up, but we couldn't!" I make eye contact with them, and they fall back, startled. "Your eyes!" They exclaim. "What about them?" I ask. "They're so dark, what in the-!" They muster. "Well gee, what an amazing thing." I say, getting up. My eyes have been dark brown my entire life! Whatever this ding dong is saying, isn't new. "Thanks for the concern everyone, but I'm fine. I'll see ya later!" I march towards the door, eager to find my leftover slop. I pass Noelle and Neil in the hallways, and they gape at me. "What happened to you Naomi?" Noelle says in a pinched voice. Ok, I've had it with the remarks like this. I wave them away, and go to the bathroom. When I look in the mirror, something has changed. The irises of my eyes are completely black.