After Fate Fell

48 • ELLA

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

The sudden chaos surrounding me snaps me back into my senses. We are basically in a bomb going ninety miles an hour, with no way of stopping the coming explosion and death other than to stop time. Or stop the car. John reaches out to use his telekinesis on the brakes while the rest of us continually try to snap Six out of whatever trance she's in.

We don't have long to save ourselves from the sudden end that we are literally driving straight toward. It isn't even the fact that we're driving straight toward the light, the apparent root of evil and destruction on this island and in the world, it's really just that we're going so fast, that no matter where we go, what we hit, we won't survive. I just can't fathom the idea that we somehow survived everything that's been thrown our way, but in the end what takes us is a car accident in the middle of the desert.

John's telekinesis doen't seem to be doing that well, we have probably slowed down maybe ten miles an hour, but even so, we're still moving at eighty.

"Everyone help him!" Nine yells. Time is moving so slowly. We should've been dead by now.

Everyone quits uselessly trying to get Six back to reality, it clearly isn't doing anything. We all reach out to stop the car telekinetically. I jolt forward, my seatbelt locking and holding me from going through the windshield as the car slows drastically. We continue to slow as Adam tries to take the wheel from Six, who is still not budging. We may be slowing down, but we may still hit the church we're barrelling toward.

"Brace yourselves," Sam says, warning everyone to hold onto something as we skid toward the church. I close my eyes as I continue to use my telekinesis on the brakes, hoping for a tap or even nothing. At this point, even if we do hit the church, we'll be fine, some bruises, maybe a dislocated shoulder... but the car wouldn't be okay. It may be undrivable with a collision like that. So I just hope for the best as we brace for the impact.

The right side of the car smashes into the wall of the church as my face slams against Marina's shoulder. I can feel a hand gripping mine so tightly, though I don't remember grabbing anyone.

I open my eyes to see the damage, to us, and to the car. Everyone looks alright, clearly shaken by this incident, but okay. I look to my right, where the brick wall of the abandoned church completely fills my view, right outside the windows. One of the windows is smashed, the glass all over the inside of the car, and the door looks messed up, bent in some. I'm surprised nothing worse happened. It looks like the car, along with its inhabitants, will survive to see another day.

"Is everyone okay?" Sam asks, looking around, the first one to speak in what seems like so long.

People murmur in response, everyone saying that they're doing alright. Nine is the most affected by the impact, the glass having landed mostly on him, he's pulled a couple small shards from his leg and one from his face. He seems okay though, but there is blood.

While everyone makes sure that everyone else is okay, I look up to the driver's seat, to Six. Her face remains the same through the rearview mirror, she isn't here. I don't know where she is, maybe in that same vision I was in when Setràkus' spirit came to me. I just hope she can get herself out of it just as I had. I don't know what we can do to help her other than to wait. Clearly verbal and physical attempts to wake her up haven't proved helpful, and if neither of those worked, I don't know what will. She has to do this on her own.

A car door opens next to me and people start to get out of the wrecked car, stepping onto the sand below once again, as it has become our new home. I once again think of Crayton, so many things remind me of my beloved Cêpan. He would be of so much help in this situation, he could lead us, instead of me, because I feel so useless now. Then on the other hand, we've all grown so much since he died, he was the last Cêpan to be here with us, the last one to leave us. We've all become the strong warriors our elders had hoped we would become. Crayton would be proud to see how far I've come. So I stop thinking about the past, and I take my first step outside of the car, onto the ground which Legacy's captor resides, holding her captive, and threatening her life and everything it brings to the world, and I pull myself back together into the leader role I have been appointed to.

"We have to set up camp somehwere, preferrably not here," I say. "We need somewhere where Six can rest as she comes to her senses." I cut out the word "hopefully" from that sentence... we don't need a maybe. What we need now is a yes. She will come to her senses. That is definitive.

Everyone begins to grab supplies from the trunk of the car, which still sits right up on the wall to the church which appears to hold the blinding light which is Legacy's captor. I lead everyone down a sand-covered road to a building which, like the church, is miraculously still intact. Now, as we walk away from the church, the light sends long shadows of us down the road we walk on.

We enter the building, it looks like maybe it was a house, through an open door, which is held open by the deep sand, which has crept inside its doors, making even the inside of this home a sand-filled wasteland. Dunes pile up in what appears to have been a kitchen, sand has blown into the corners of the rooms, making the home a little desert in and of itself.

Six, who Marina and Sam have led along with them, holding onto her hands, sits down in a chair that was lying on the floor, Sam having set it back up for her.

We venture into the house, all of our minds lost in this dead world where we are somehow supposed to find life within ourselves.