Descending

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

All James could hear was the ongoing roar of flames as they lapped at his body. He shuttered as he ran, feeling his skin to continue to burn and blister. He kept wondering when this horror would end. The flames had traveled further then he had first thought. He had planned on jumping through a thin wall of flames, not jumping into a harsh inferno. He could feel his life ebbing as his vision blurred again and again from the smoke inhalation. Then there was the unbelievable, agonizing pain; he felt every part of him burn, the smell all the more retched.

James looked up to see nothing but orange flames eating away at the branches above and all around, bushes and trees outlined in fire. This was the finale, he realized. Any minute he would faint from the smoke, and then, burnt to a crisp, never be found in the mixing of ashes.

James kept running, only for his sister's sake. If it had just been him he would have given up, fallen to the ground, waiting to die. James tripped on a burning branch and fell, feeling the pain again in his leg and chest as his adrenaline rush ebbed away. His conscience told him to give up and wait for death, which would be a gift to him right now.

There was a sudden rush of hot breeze, rather than the scorching air, which he had been breathing for what felt like eons. James somehow managed to get up and run again, flames eating at his back and sides. He picked up his speed, as fast as he had ever run; bursting through, yet another, wall of red, hot flames.

The sensation was an escape of earth's core to a plunge into a pool of ice-cold, Antarctic water. He had done it! James had made it out, but barely. He kept running, as the ground went from dirt to sand, the remaining trees thinning out to tall grass patches, then to nothing at all but flat beach sand.

The ocean was dark and quiet as he approached, the gentle waves whispering. The moon, a dazzling white, rose high in the sky, a claw to the sky. Looking back, James was in shock with what he saw: nothing but orange flames for miles upon miles, black smoke as dark as the storm clouds that had brought them down, suddenly overtook the pearl-white light. James' surroundings went from tranquil to a virtual hell, the flames continuing to burn everything in sight.

His heart seemed to stop when he realized Maddie was nowhere to be found. Dark thoughts filled his mind as he wondered where she was: burning alive as the flames ate at her skin, suffocating from smoke and given in like James had almost done, or maybe just running in what felt like a never ending maze of atrocity.

"Maddie!!" James screamed at the top of his lungs, hurting his chest with the effort.

James collapsed and hit the sand; a coughing fit racking his body. James could only wonder what would he do now. He wanted to run back, risk his life, and save his sister. She would die, if not already, if James did not try. James attempted to lift himself and found that he had become a thousand pound dead weight.

"Maddie!! Please be okay! Please!!" James screamed in pain to the unforgiving, smoky sky, desperation starting up.

James was looking back towards the hellish flames, yet again, when he saw a figure, only visible because of the flames behind it, blazing like the sun. It collapsed on the ground, too close to the fire, ready to be consumed. James got another adrenaline boost and was able to run to the figure's side, the flames so intense; he would not have been able to go any closer.

A wave of relief hit James when he saw it was his sister, passed out and feebly breathing from all the smoke she must have inhaled. James dragged his sister, out of the clutches of the flames, and onto the cool sands of the beach.

James, having overexerted, collapsed next to Maddie and watched the soothing waves roll in and out. He glanced down at his leg had to take a double take with what he saw: the cut was smeared with dirt and ash, oozing a dark, thick blood profusely, and now was beginning to ooze an ugly green puss around the edges.