After Fate Fell

46 • ELLA

1 year, 3 months, and 18 days after it all
•ELLA•

By the time we ate and started to plan for what was next, night began to fall and we decided to sleep on it. The issue was, with only one car, not everyone could fit inside.

We had a tent in our supplies and pitched it... on top of the car, so whoever slept in it wouldn't be buried in the sand overnight.

The sun slowly rises and I quietly unzip the tent, careful not to wake up Marina, Sam, or Six.

I jump to the soft sand and stretch my muscles. There is no way that tent was meant for four. I had to curl up in a ball, Marina on one side, the tent on the other, and Sam's face right by my feet. As fun as kicking him in the face "accidentially" seemed, I decided he didn't really deserve it, so I just curled up small and tried to sleep, although I had slept a good portion of the day... in that vision, or whatever it was.

My muscles are so sore, but I try not to think about it as I hike up the dune that blocks our view of the ocean, and shields us from the piercing light. Part of me tells me that I shouldn't go into view of the light, in fear that I could fall again, but I shut those thoughts out. One way or another, its light will cast upon me again, so who cares when? I sure don't.

The sun casts my shadow on the dune in front of me, and I can feel its warm rays on my back as I reach the top of the dune. I look down, back to the car, and I don't see any movement. The others are all asleep, missing this beautiful view. Whatever, I let them sleep.

As I turn, I start to see the piercing light that claimed my consciousness yesterday in the corner of my vision. I don't look directly at it, but I don't have to. I feel my legs become shaky, and I turn completely away, my back to the light, the sun in front of me. How can this thing be so powerful that it makes my legs weak from simply facing its direction? I have never encountered something so peculiar and ominous. It is silent, yet it roars so loudly Marina couldn't hear a thing when she came near it. It is immobile, yet it came up to me and knocked the life out of me. It's nothing like the Mogadorians, nothing like their guns or their tricks. No, this is a new threat, and it sends a shiver down my spine.

I decide to walk toward the side of the dune, down a little ways, making sure that the light is just outside my view. I look out into the ocean--at least the part of it that I can see--and I look for any sign of... anything I guess. I don't even know what I'm looking for, anything other than the light and water. I scan the coastline, slowly, trying to look at every piece of it.

And that's when I see it. So obscure that I could've easily overlooked it. Through the haze made of sand is a little sandbar, reaching out into the ocean. I can't see how far out it reaches, but it leads in the direction of the light. Could this be our way out there? It may be. I want to go closer, to get a better look at it and explore, but then I remember the weak feeling in my legs, the edges of my vision going dark. I can't do this alone.

I practically run down the back of the dune, my legs somehow regaining their vitality. As I near the car, I still see no movement from the others. But that's about to change. It's time to get the others up and on the move. Today is the day we've been waiting for. I can feel it.

I reach the car and open the driver's door, John just inside, out like a light, drool on his cheek, Nine's hand flung on his shoulder from the seat next to him. All of them are asleep.

"Wake up!" I yell inside, as I step up to the roof using John's still sleeping body as a step.

I unzip the tent, awakening those inside the same way. Everyone begins slowly moving, which is really surprising to me, but I know it's because they don't share the same knowledg I do.

I catch Marina as she goes to the trunk of the car to grab something.

"I think I found a way out there," I whisper to her.

It takes her tired face a few seconds to process what I've just told her.

"You did?" she asks, looking at me surprisedly. "Show me." And I pull her arm as I head toward the dune that I climb for the second time this morning, except this time I have her by my side.

As we reach the top, I'm careful to keep us in the shadows, not giving us any chances of stepping out into the light. We are going to have to figure out how to avoid the light while we go out on the sandbar to hopefully approach it. I get back in the same spot which I stood when I saw it before, and I reach out my arm to point at the exact spot.

"Do you see it?" I ask. "The sandbar, reaching out into the water, right in the direction of the light."

She squints and moves her eyes toward where my finger points. I can see in her face when she spots it.

"Yes!" she says, and I can tell she's just as excited as I am, just as hopeful as I am that this is what we need to get us out there.

"We have to tell the others!" she says, looking at me, excitement in her eyes.

"I know," I say, and I look at the shifting sand beneath our feet. She looks up at me, and I can see that she senses my fears.

"Marina... this is it. If we fail, we may never go home. We haven't been up against anything like this before..." I fade off.

"And we'll never see anything like it again," she says, and I look up at her. "Ella, this is it... once we're done, we're done fighting, we're done killing, we get to leave this planet. We go home. Ella, we're going to live long, grow old, die peacefully. This is not the end of us. This is not the end of Lorien."