A Glimpse of Hell

Chapter 5

The sun was just coming up when Brit finally came to her senses. 

She woke up with leaves in her hair and a large bruise on her forehead. She also noticed that both her arms and hands had been wrapped up in bandages and stung like you'd never believe.

Looking up, she saw Lilly sitting on a log, tending to a fire in front of her. 

Then she remembered all too soon.

The fire, her home...Aunt Lisa.

She felt like crying, but the tears just wouldn't form.

She refused to believe what had happened. 'Aunt Lisa probably escaped with a few others.' she told herself and decided to not think about it anymore.

"Brit?" Lilly noticed she was awake and made her way to Brit's side.

"Yeah." Brit replied.

"How ya feelin?" Lilly asked with a look of concern.

Even though her head throbbed, and her arms stung, not to mention unbearable hunger and thirst she told Lilly she was fine.

"How long was I out of it?"

"About a day..."

Brit didn't mind. She felt if she hadn't been asleep, she would've caused trouble.

Lilly helped her sit up and Brit looked around.

They were sitting around the tallest of trees, that blocked out most of the sunlight. Small patches of grassed and broken twigs covered the forest floor. But what Brit really noticed, was how quite it was. 

"Where's Bruce, and Thomas?" Brit asked. 

"Not sure. I was waiting for you to get up before I went to look for them."

"Well let's get going." 

Brit was in no condition to travel, but she didn't want to be here.

"Brit...sure you're ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine, lets just go." Replied Brit.

They headed out into the forest to look for the other two.

About 10 minutes into their journey Brit asked, "Lilly...What um....what happened the other day?" 

"Huh?..oh um well. After we ran outa there you kinda hit your head on a low branch. And so I patched you up as best as I could. I saw a few others run out into the woods. But they just kept running. I went back to the settlement for supplies and-"

"Hm? And what?"

"Well I don't know. When I got back there, there were these people. They were dressed in some uniform. It was weird. But I managed to sneak in there and get the first aid kit in my cabin, but I think they're the ones who started the fire Brit. They were talking about how it didn't spread properly and they also mentioned looking for someone and how something wasn't there and other crazy stuff."

Brit was relieved, in a strange way. She hadn't been the only one to have seen those strange people.

"I think I saw them the other day by-"

Crack!

"Shh..." replied Lilly.

They ducked down and remained silent.

Then out of nowhere Thomas appeared behind a bush and held out a bow aimed at them.

He looked terrible. His clothes were torn up, his face was soaked in sweat and half his body was covered in dirt.

"Thomas!" exclaimed Lilly.

He lowered his bow and ran over to them. "Brit! Lilly!" he replied

They exchanged hugs, but the catching up fell short. "Bruce is burned...bad. You guys gotta help me with him."

Thomas led them closer to their Settlement and at a clearing in the woods lay Bruce covered by a few leaves.

"Oh my gosh! Bruce!" Lilly ran over and knelt down beside his still body.

"What happened?" asked Brit.

"I'd like to ask the same thing to you." Thomas replied while pointing to Brit's forehead and arms.

"Ran into a tree and got burned a bit." she replied.

"Bruce went inside his cabin, but it had caught on fire. His whole left arm got burned pretty badly. He's been asleep for awhile now." Thomas replied in a bit of a panic.

"Lilly how is he?" asked Brit.

"He'll be fine, but we better get that first aid kit from our camp, or I won't be able to stop an infection." explained Lilly. "I'll go and get it, Brit can you stay with Bruce, and Thomas-"

"I'll go with you." said Thomas.

"Ok. Thomas give Brit pocket knife. Just in case." Said Lilly.

Thomas handed Brit the weapon, and quickly they were off.

Brit watched over Bruce and made a small fire. She knew she had to keep the wound clean, but the closest source of water was on the other side, and she couldn't leave Bruce here. She just had to hope Lilly would be quick.

About 20 minutes passed when Thomas and Lilly returned.

Lilly tended to Bruce while Thomas and Brit went hunting for some food. 

Lilly made it clear that Brit couldn't hunt for at least a day so Thomas was in charge of the killing. Brit helped as best a she could by trying to carry the kill and giving him tips on what to do.

After about 2 hours, Thomas and Brit had had enough. The day was turning into night and the temperature began to drop dramatically. 

They headed back to find Lilly wrapping up Bruce's arm and Bruce siting up to talk with her. 

"Bruce you're ok!" said Brit as she ran over to see him

"Hey Brit." he replied.

"Felling better?" Thomas asked.

"Yeah. A little bit."

Their conversation was cut short when Crack!

There were hushed voices, by who and how many was uncertain. But they knew one thing. 

They were being watched...