Kidnapped

Guys, it's okay, the chickens alive!

The smoke was everywhere. Blocking whatever was even one inch in front of me. I felt dizzy and sick and felt blood dripping down my head, but I didn’t care. My ears were ringing a lot. The explosion had sent and Liam flying about 8 feet and I landed hard on pavement. My whole body skidded on it, so I probably had a lot of cuts.

    There was no noise for a while. It was like everyone was still processing what had happened.

    “Liam?” I croaked. My voice sounded like I was a smoking mouse.

    “Marisa, marisa, marisa,” His voice replied. It sounded stronger than mine but still weak. And rattled.

    “Where are you?” I said, frantically squinting my eyes and waving my hands in the air, trying to feel him. The smoke wasn’t clearing at all.

    “Try walking towards my voice,” He said.

    I tried lifting up my body and pain shot through me. I had totally forgotten about the pain in my wrist, and now it was back. My head started spinning again.

    “I can’t,” I mumbled.

    It took about five minutes for him to finally find me. The smoke had started to evaporate into the sky, and I couldn’t believe my surroundings. Where there wasn’t rubble and smoke, there were small clumps of fire. The truck we had just been in no more than ten minutes ago was gone. Bodies laid here and there- I couldn’t identify them. Liam reached me and we both hugged. I knew I should’ve been crying, but I didn’t have any tears left.

    Liam had definitely taken the blow for us. He was the one who grabbed me and pulled me away, and his condition proved that. His shirt was bloody, his bad arm scraped up, his hair messy, and dirt everywhere. I was just relieved he was alive.

    “Where’s Kayla and Harry?” Liam asked.

    “Kayla?” I said to nobody. “Where are you?”

    “Um, I’m dead,” A voice answered. “I think.”

    The smoke was now almost completely gone and I could see Kayla. She was lying close to a rock, not in really bad shape. She hobbled over to us like a old lady. “What happened?”

    “Bomb,” I repeated.

    “Where’s Harry?” Kayla said. Then her mouth opened wide. “Oh my god, where is Emmalina?”

    “Ugh,” A voice said. I turned to the right and saw Jean crouching over, gagging.

    “What did you do?” Liam yelled to him, but we were all coughing so it sounded raspy.

    “I didn’t do anything,” He rasped back.

    “Kerg!” Another voice said. It was Gage. “Kerg!”

    We all walked over to Gage, who was crouched over a huge piece of metal from the truck. It took me a while to figure out that Kerg was laying under it, motionless.

    Jean made a weird noise and crouched down next to him. “Kerg? Answer me, bro.”

    He didn’t. His eyes were closed, blood covering his face.

    To my surprise, Gage started crying. He didn’t even seem to notice we were all standing around him.

    “We should burry him,” The guy said after a few minutes of crying. By that time, Devin and Harry had both silently come towards us. Devin was limping a lot on his left leg, but I didn’t care. He deserved it. But I couldn’t help feel a little bad for Gage. It wasn’t like I didn’t hate them, but they didn’t deserve death.

    Harry looked okay, besides a little blood and cuts. Kayla’s cuts from the whip weren’t opening again, which was good.

    “Who did this?” Devin whispered.

    “Where’s Emmalina?” Kayla shouted again. She was now searching around in the rubble.

    “Wait- you guys didn’t make the explosion?” Harry said.

    “No way, do you think we would be that idiotic? Kerg is dead!” Jean said.

    Gage started to cry again.

    “Hello? Where is Emmalina?” Kayla repeated, more frustrated.

    I was starting to reply to please be quiet someone was just killed when I heard footsteps behind us and froze.

    I found her under some light rubble. I swooped her up and began to pet her and she purred into my shoulder, which was ripped away from my shirt and now bare from the explosion.

    I hear Marisa talking in a panicked tone behind me and somebody yelling but at that moment all of my attention was on the little chicken in my arms. “I love you,” I murmured and she purred again.

    Then someone grabbed my shoulder and I turned away, expecting to see Devin or Jean or somebody and ready to scream, but stopped when I saw Harry. “Kayla, there’s-” He started but a scream cut him off.

    We both whipped around and saw Jean in the arms of a man that I didn’t know. He had messy black hair, black eyes, and skin so pale it was almost blue. Running behind him was four other men, all with guns at their sides. “What the hell?” I whispered.

    He held a gun up to Jean’s head. “Anyone move and the boys head goes boom.”

    “Yeah, I wouldn’t mind that all that much.” I responded, and the murders eyes narrowed at me. He turned to the man on his left, “Told you she’d be sassy.”

    I smirked.

    “Who are you?” Liam asked, not moving.

    “Not important. Now-” He fell to the ground. Gage was on top of him, punching him again and again screaming, “My brother’s dead!”

    Jean took this opportunity to swoop away from the man, grab Gage and start running. Devin followed them and then Harry was grabbing my arm and making me run too, and I heard Marisa and Liam running after us.

    “Hey! Stop!” But we didn’t stop, we ran and ran and ran until we couldn’t run anymore. Well actually we ran and ran until Gage fell to the ground in shattered sobs, unable to hold them back anymore. I turned and saw that the men were not following us.

    For a while we all just stood there awkwardly. But then Devin said, “Who were those guys?”

    “I don’t know,” Liam answered, “But it looks like they’re not just trying to kill us but you guys too. So maybe we should just...let bygones be bygones and stay together until we figure this out.”

    Leave it to Liam to be the peacemaker.

    Jean began to nod but it was Harry who spat, “I’m not working with him!” Clearly referring to Devin.

    “Yeah, feeling goes both ways,” Devin shouted back.

    Jean stepped forward, “Look. I don’t care if you two want to beat each other in! I’m not dying like Kerg! We ARE going to work together until we find out what’s going on. Got it?”

    Devin muttered, “Got it,” But Harry said, “You don’t control me.”

    Liam sighed, “Look, brah, I get that what Devin did was horrible-”

    “He almost killed her,” Harry interrupted.

    “Yeah, man, I know but-”

    “He almost made her-”

    “I know, brah. But we gotta live, man. And they can help us.”

    Harry turned back to Devin, then looked at me. His hair was a mess on his head and he covered in filth, but he still managed to look hot. He glanced at Marisa and Liam. “I agree,” Marisa said, “We need them.”

    Liam shot a grateful smile at her and she kissed him lightly.

    “Fine,” Harry said, “For now.”