Don't give up on me ✓

[10] World on my shoulders

Destruction is the work of an afternoon. Creation is the work of a lifetime - Kamahl

Chapter 10: World on my Shoulders

Fire! It was coming from beside us, building up into a wall of flames. 

Someone had started a fire to block the exit, forcing the remaining survivors into a confined space. There goes our way out.

We backed away from the immersive flames.  Jesper and I tried to stay hidden, sneaking behind the stacks of old car parts. We would never survive a minute in the open with these... aliens.  What were they?  Ninja warrior aliens?  

We reached the end of the car line. The fighting was taking place in front of us.  We stayed low, unable to move further, as the flames crept further towards us.

Jesper looked around, trying to find an opportunity for us to run. But I tugged his arm and pointed.

Hugo's arm was on fire.

Nate kicked someone out of the way to help him. Mohan covered for them while Nate stifled the fire on Hugo's arm. Hugo didn't yell out in pain once. When it was done, he picked up a gun with his burnt arm and continued the fight.

"No," I answered Jesper's earlier question, "That does not look human at all."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Little tiny pellets of fire flung onto us.

We were trapped. We couldn't move without falling into the fight – a fight we wouldn't stand a chance in. And we couldn't go back the way we came because there was a giant wall of fire around us. 

It was growing, emitting these little balls of heat as it crept closer towards us.

"Ow!"

"Are you ok?" I asked Jesper, checking where he'd been hit by the fire balls.

"My face is about to burn off."

"Yeah it's hot. Let's swap places so you can get further away from-"

"How are you not feeling this?"

"I am, but I want us to concentrate on getting out of here."

"Looks like we're winning," he pointed to the fight to distract me. He didn't want to put me in the line of fire. Literally.

He was right though. Most of the other side had died or were locked in a losing battle. 

"Ow!"

"You ok?" I asked again. The little fire pellets were hitting him more frequently, "Let's switch places."

He refused. But his pain were getting worse each time. The balls of fire were getting bigger too. There was a hole now on his shirt and a burn visible on his shoulder. The heat was practically melting my gloves.

And out of nowhere, out of frickin' nowhere, a spare metal part came flying out of the raging fire and straight towards us. We had no time to move and the only reaction Jesper could do was raise his arm to protect his face. The piece stabbed Jesper in the arm.

He yelled out, falling against the metal car and the heat from the metal burnt him.  I stood up to catch him, and pull him away, but he was so heavy that I fell with him. 

We fell onto the open ground and we were exposed. The boys had seen us.

"Run."

We sought shelter behind a new row of used cars. No chance they hadn't heard us. I just hoped they had bigger fish to fry than us right now.

My bigger concern was Jesper's bleeding. My gloves were covered in his blood. I tried to look up to see if anyone would help us. Forget about our escape plan. We needed a hospital and we needed help.

Hugo was still fighting and Nate was too, though they were trying to break away to come to us. In all the commotion I saw Nate turn around to look in my direction. 

Our eyes locked and I felt the emotion from his eyes enter mine. And in that gap of lost concentration, the man he was fighting pointed his gun above my head. And shot.

I looked up.

There was a giant magnet held by a metal cord attached to a crane. The man who shot the cord had (1) incredible inhuman aim and (2) a gun that could slice through that metal cord. We heard a snap.

The magnet fell.

I stared back at Nate. I don't know why.

Nate slammed the man's head into the ground with an unmistakable crack and started running towards us. But it was too late. Everything took place in a matter of seconds, but those seconds seemed to last forever.  Everything started to move in slow motion. I looked down at Jesper who was clutching his arm. And I looked up as this giant metal - three times my width - come crashing down on us.

"GEORGIA!" Hugo yelled.

All the fighting had stopped. They watched. There was nothing they could do. Nate was running towards us even though it was a lost cause. 

And from one second, they saw me standing there. In the next second, the metal had replaced me.

"NO!" I heard Mrs Maythorne scream.

No one else said anything. There was an eery silence.

Was I dead?

I had my eyes closed, waiting for the impact. Waiting to be crushed.

But it never came.

I had fallen to my knees. My hands were raised over my head, bent at the shoulders. And above me somehow I was holding the metal. Its weight pressed down against me. And whatever force I had was pushing back. Despite the gloves, I could feel faint waves of electricity pulsing through me and into the metal. I was shaking, losing more and more strength. It didn't give me electric shocks anymore. I didn't have enough charge within me to do that.

I needed to push. Push stronger. Push harder. Throw this off us. Save us. Slowly, slowly, I tried to stand up.

Everyone thought we had died. The row of cars blocked their view of us. They saw the magnet fall, but didn't hear the crash. Nate stopped running. Hugo's mouth dropped open. Mohan lowered his weapon out of respect for the fallen.

Just as they were beginning to mourn, they saw the metal shake from side to side. And then slowly, they saw it rise. I was very unsteady in my movement. I was trying to stand on my two feet but it was taking time. Beads of sweat trickled down my body. I was sweating everywhere from exertion and heat of the fire.

PUSH

With a big yell I stood up, raising the metal above my head. I heard audible exclamations. I looked out through the fog of my own pain and saw the shocked, stunned faces in front of me. 

I looked down at Jesper. He was staring up at me with a mixture of emotions; disbelief, shock and aw.

I felt like Atlas with the world on my shoulders.

In all that remained of my strength, I pushed this giant metal magnet off us. It clanged to the ground with a heavy, reverberating thud, sending dust in the air that blinded us. When the dust settled, and everyone could see through it, they found me crumbled on the floor. Like the rest of the garbage.

I had no energy left to stand.

A/N: Atlas with the world... Atlast with the chapter. Yes it's a bad joke, but I love those! I had fun writing this one. Hope you enjoyed. What do you think of Georgia?  Looks like she's not so normal after all.

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