Pyro

Chapter 7

I hopped into a car that bore an uncanny resemblance to our private vehicles. The windows, tinted a dark shade of black, were the only difference.

Miranda slipped into the front seat, placing her hands precariously on the steering wheel. She cast a glance back at me and rolled up a sleek black divider, effectively blocking me from her and vice versa.

Its polished sheen reflected an impeccable image of myself and I called out, "Hey-"

That was the last thing I remembered before hearing, "Wake up, Sleeping Beauty." Someone prodded my face before giving me a stinging slap.

I groaned and lifted my head up, groggy. "There he is! See, told you we didn't need a bucket of water."

Darkness tainted the edge of my blurry vision; all my bleary eyes made out were three distorted figures standing in front of me. "Jeez, Miranda. How much did you drug him with?"

"It is not my fault he is a lightweight."

I gripped the ground beneath me, ready to push myself up, but my fingers grasped gritty sand and dirt. Dust watered my eyes and I coughed into my arm, wincing.

Where was I?

"Don't be a jerk, Kaz. Help him up."

The tall, skinny figure scoffed. "No thanks."

"Miranda?" 

The irritation was palpable in her response. "Help him yourself."

I pushed myself up on unsteady feet, sucking in the night air.

Wait- it was night? Just how much time had passed?

A man with dirty blonde hair reaching his chin, whom I recognized as Wais, grinned widely. "Welcome back to the waking world." I shifted my gaze between him and the two others lurking behind him that regarded me with cold, unwelcome stares.

And then the desert caught my eye.

I found myself in a desert littered with shrubs, twigs, and dead plants spanning in all directions. The night sky was devoid of clouds or stars just as the desert was devoid of human activity. Not a single road or building met my eyes: only a black SUV reflecting the light of the full moon and the car Miranda and I drove in assured we could even return to civilization. And other than the occasional scampering of lizards in my peripheral vision, the desolate desert had no signs of life.

"Where am I?" I asked Wais, voice raspy. I coughed, suddenly longing for water.

Wais winced and rubbed the back of his head, offering an apologetic smile. He sauntered to the cars parked off to the side and rummaged in the front seat of the SUV, mumbling under his breath. "Sorry about that. Miranda here doesn't know when to hold back," he said pointedly as he walked back to me, brandishing a water bottle.

I eagerly accepted it from him, ripping off the cap and guzzling the water. 

Miranda, hair especially fluffy, scowled. "As I said before, how was I to know he could not handle it?"

"You could've knocked out an elephant with the amount of drugs in his system," Wais reprimanded as I screwed the lip of the cap back on the plastic water bottle, thoroughly replenished and alert.

Now wearing round-rimmed glasses, Miranda pushed them up her nose, frowning. Though significantly shorter and less intimidating than Wais, she retorted, "You exaggerate."