Choose Me

Chapter 66 rewrite

There is a tank on top of a hill, covered by shrubbery to camouflage it. Warner sets me on the ground and from this angle I can see the entire war playing out. People are being shot in slow motion, blood is spilling and eyes are closing for the final time and I still haven't taken a breath in 3 whole minutes. I think I've gone deaf as well, because I see people screaming but I can't hear them. Someone is tugging at my hand and I look up slowly at the worried face urging me to get up and breathe. I see a plane and my world stops.

Two ovals fall from them and Warner throws me to the ground and shields me with his body.

Boom

There is a distinct ringing in my ears that I can't shake. My vision goes white for several seconds before color slowly fades back and reality seeps into my consciousness. Warner props himself on his elbows and uses his hands to cup my face in search of injuries I assume. But I can't think about him, or even myself at this point. I use my remaining strength to push him off me as he tries as hard as he can to keep me down. But I escape him and run a little ways until I can see the valley below us.

It's all black. All dead with nothing to remember the grass or trees goodbye. Gone, poof, just like that, no hesitation. Hundreds of limp bodies, all burned to a crisp. No motion sweeps across the land. It feels as though someone has pressed pause on my life. My hands rush to my face and I can tell I've been screaming. All of a sudden I can hear again. The blood curdling scream that escape my lips and the echo from the bomb jumping around us.

I begin to run for the canyon but am shortly stopped by a pair of intense arms wrapping around my waist.

"Juliette, we have to go now." He is pulling me back to the tank but I am fighting him, urging to be free and help as many people as I can.

"Let go of me-" I'm punching, kicking, shouting.

"They will find us."

"I need to see if they're alive. Get off me." But it's no use; we back into the side of the tank and he spins me around, his face is so afraid, it scares me. His eyes are wide in surprise and I'm sure he's still in shock; running on pure adrenaline.

"Juliette, I know you want to find your friends, I understand that. But my father is coming for us and he will kill us. So we need to move now." I don't fight him anymore because I don't have the energy for it. He grabs my hand and shoves me into the tank before entering himself and not hesitating to storm away. I can't stop sobbing and my lungs refuse to work and my brain is screaming at them to expand but they refuse.

Head in my quivering hands, doubled over in to my lap. My tears splash down so boisterously, it feels as though there are angry waterfalls cascading from my sunken eyes. I feel a reassuring hand on my knee and I swat it away.

My head spikes up and a tsunami of rage overcomes me. I can't think of a single way to express this, so I begin punching the closest thing  I could find, which happened to be my thigh. I slam my fist down harder and harder because I need to feel real pain. Not only what I'm feeling inside. So I punch and punch until it becomes much more than a bruised.

"Juliette, stop that-" he pulls over but I won't quit. Warner takes the key out of the ignition and grabs my pounding fist.

"Juliette, look at me." It takes me a while but eventually I do. "This is not your fault and all we can do right now is move forward and try not not to die ourselves." Hands so tight around my own which still exists in tight fists.

My eyes fall. "We will defeat them, they will pay for this." I snap in half and Warner is there to catch the pieces, as he bundles me in his arms. One soft hand rubs my curled back while the other shifts my position and pulls me closer to him. I wrap my arms around his right bicep and rest my head on his firm shoulder. Stray tears silently fall on his jacket. My legs curl into my shaking body, which is now pressed fully into his side. The key renters the ignition and we drive away, toward the promise of a faint hope.