What are you fighting for?

14. The Fire

The smell of smoke has us moving right away, no time for the belongings, only us. Our only chance is to out-run the flames and that'll be hard enough on the forest tracks.

Soon the air will be too smoky to breathe and hot enough to scorch the skin. We hear the flames chasing behind us, as they devour all that we have built these past few days in the forest.

The fire burns like a temper, as if the leaping flames have a terrible anger toward the living world. It moves faster than a person can run, nonetheless we try to escape. The thing is, they don't want to kill us, they only want us to follow the rules and fight each other instead of them. But I have worked so hard, I won't just throw my entire plan away by killing her. The people will hate me.

The air smells and tastes like bonfire while the horizon glows orange beneath the smokey wind-dragged plume. A bit behind me is Zana, panting like a dog in the sun, for her leg is still not healed completely from when she saved my life and pushed herself under the falling bricks. The first evidence that my plan was working and that she started to care. It was something human, it was something I counted on.

But first we would have to escape that ghastly orange grin, tearing through the verdant woodland. Unfettered flames, devouring hungrily, licking and lapping at the coppice, twisting and swaying in a dance without rhythm. 

The forest will be gone by dawn leaving a jungle of charred stumps.

I hate to say that we got used to running, me at least. Zana, I'm not sure about. She seems exhausted and vulnerable, not something that works against me. For me the certainty that they want us alive made it bearable, this running. Running from the city, the lake, the forest. Only one destination left. The desert.

My boots land on the slippery sand, Zana falling down next to me. I know she hates the desert. The dry landscape, nowhere to hide, no water, no shadow, no life.

She turns around on her back while wiping the pearls off her forehead.
The sun is hanging low, looking at us from behind the eternal dunes. Still her rays burn on the black of my jacket. I take it off and kneel down next to the girl.

"Zana" I say but her head doesn't move.
"We should go a bit further and set up our things" my hand reaches out for her to take it.

"Alright" I pull her up and we walk a bit further away from the forest, still keeping close to the centre in case of another incident.

We put down the few things we grabbed during our flight and start building a place to sleep for the night.
Well, we put down blankets and lay on the sandy ground. The sun has completely set by now and we lay next to each other, looking up at the black sky.

"I hate the desert" she whispers but looks up at the sky, mesmerized by the depth of the black.
"I know, but it can be so beautiful" I chirp. In reality I didn't care, I don't care for any of it. It's just sand, it's just the sky, I don't care but I feel like she is amazed by sight.

"That kiss" she whispers, her breath hanging in the cold air.
I shift to look at her but her eyes fixate the dark sky. The moonlight shines on her features, the only light source in this dark night. She is still the same simple girl I met a couple weeks ago but something is different. Her head turns and those piercing blue eyes look at me.

"Still thinking about it, huh?" A smirk forms on my face. Zana scoffs with an embarrassed smile on her lips and looks back at the sky, crossing the arms in front of her stomach. The smile still plastered on her face and I'm sure if it was brighter I would see her blush.

The month is over in a couple days. The month I claimed to convince her of my skills as a leader. Win her trust and make her surrender in the circle.

I sigh. It would have been almost too easy if it wasn't for her boyfriend. But I have one thing ahead of him. I am here.

"My father..." she speaks up again "He died during the war"

"I'm sorry" I whisper when actually I'm glad she opened up. Answering the question that came up in the beginning of the month, our month. It's a sign of trust.

The war that got us here. It lasted 20 years and there was no end. Several people lost their lives and our world was about to collapse so we ended it. But there was no winner. We all lost. So in order to get a new order, a new leader, they sent the children of the men who fought during the war away into an arena to fight until only one is left.

From the corner of my eyes I see the dark haired girl shiver. The desert's heat turns into ruthless cold during night time.

Grabbing the end of the blanket she is laying upon, I pull her closer to me and wrap my arms around her. She turns to look at my face but does not say anything. Instead she faces the sky with a content expression on her face.

"There's Neptune." My gaze follows her finger which is pointed towards the corner of the starless sky. 
I raise a brow. "How can you tell? The sky is pitch black tonight. There's nothing in sight." Her frosty blue eyes then land on me. "I just know."
At that moment, everything seems to be at a state of tranquility. An unsolved puzzle feels completely flawless to me, as if I need not go out of my way to find all the other pieces. There is no one here but the two of us—spirited away by all that is cruel in the world.
And it is perfect.