The Admin's Reign: A Spark of Hope

Chapter 14

The last thing Jesse remembered was feeling a horrible, searing pain down his back before everything had faded to black. Distant screams of horror faded into a shrill ringing that filled his ears. What he could feel of his skin seemed to boil, the rest felt nonexistent. A leather strap seemed to have fastened itself around his chest, each breath stuffed with humid air and ash. His consciousness slowly spread, and he quickly knew that his left shoulder was dislocated.

His eyes slowly fluttered open. Though they felt like stones of magma planted in his skull, they watered profusely, What he first saw, was a fuzzy, glimmering image of what looked like his mother, Alex.

Her flaming, carrot-colored hair stuck to her sweaty face, her emerald eye bore into his. An unworldly light shone behind her, ember-filled smoke could be seen billowing in his peripheral. She frowned down at him in concern. Her mouth moved, but he heard no words.

"Wh-what?" He rasped.

He continued to blink rapidly, tears falling from his face. The flickering image faded slightly, revealing not his mother, but Petra, looking somewhat relieved. The ringing in his ears slowly faded, replaced by her voice.

"I said: Are you okay?" She repeated.

"I...I guess?" He replied, trying to sit up.

The large gash down his back flared up in fiery pain, causing him grit his teeth and lie back down.

"I'm gonna make that a no." He corrected.

Petra sighed, blowing some of her fiery hair out of her face. Her dark eyes looked over their surroundings, observing every crack and crevice in the wall if igneous rock before them. She knew how they could escape but the question of which path to take remained.

She glanced back at Jesse, who stared above, trying to find the cliff's edge that was hidden just beyond the cloud of billowing smoke.

"We've got to get out of here." She said, drawing his attention.

"The question is how." He replied, his eyes flickering up the cliff.

She pulled out her climbing picks. "I know how, but it could be quite difficult."

Jesse struggled for a moment, but eventually rose to rest upon his elbows, his eyes meeting hers.

"Your arm is dislocated, which means you can't climb," She stated.

"I'll have to haul us up there."

He shook his head. "There is no way you can hold us both, not with all our injuries."

Petra snorted. "You mean your injuries? I just have a broken ankle."

He glanced at her ankle, which was currently tightly wrapped in her black vest.

She scooted over to him. "Now let's see what we can do about your back, we can't leave it exposed in this heat."

She helped him up further with slight difficulty, his face contorting in pain overtime her hand brushed any area of his back. She grimaced when she saw how bad it had become.

Blood stained his uniform from collar to hem, shreds of fabric littered the tattered folds of surrounding flesh. Jagged black stones were dotted numerously throughout the wound. It's outer edges seemed to blister and boil from the heat.

To put it plainly, it was discussing and clearly brought invigorating pain.

Petra dug through her bag. She didn't have much in the way of first aid, but at this point, anything would do.

She had a small mount of bandages, but not nearly enough. She cursed under her breath. Radar had all the other stuff.

She began to unroll what she had, trying to figure out how she could wrap it some way. Jesse glanced at her over his shoulder. At first he said nothing, turning his head away.