End Wars: A Hi5 Studios Story

Burned: Chapter 3

*Matt's P.O.V, 2035, Monday 25th 7:00 A.M*

As everyone walked around, looking at the burning buildings and cars, I sniffed, trying to clear my nose. My nose had been stuffy for a while, but I didn't stay home because I didn't think it was that bad.

 Once my nose was more clear than it had been, I sniffed again, but with a shock, I realized the air was dry. Like all the moisture had been taken away. Like all the water in the air had evaporated or something.

Also, the air tasted dry too. It didn't taste...fresh like it used to. What on Earth was going on? 

Once I got over the fact that the air was dry, I smelled the rank smell of burnt asphalt and flesh. Not a great smell, as you can probably imagine.

I walked over to a lip of the parking lot and sat down. I looked down, expecting to see lush, green grass, but instead I saw dirt. No, not wet, moist dirt. It was a light tan color now, and fissures and cracks, like ice in the arctic. 

"Guys, look at the dirt!" I said, pointing to the dirt. 

Everyone gathered around me and stared at the dirt, just as shocked as I was that it was so dry. 

"What happened? Why is everything on fire?" Sam asked, but, well, nobody really knew the answer, so we just ignored her questions. I mean, we weren't trying to be rude, but how were we supposed to answer when we didn't know anything either? I'm just saying. Don't ask questions nobody knows the answer to yet.

Woods limped over to where I was and was going to sit down by me, but I stood up and grabbed his arm. "Hey, you shouldn't sit down here. It's too low for your leg." I looked up at Woods' face and was about to gasp at the sight of his face. He didn't look good at all. Blood was still pouring down his leg, bone still out of his leg. His face was somehow even more pale, and he looked like a hollow statue. 

"Guys, we need to get him to a hospital. Now. He's not looking good," I  said, handing Woods over to Tanner.

"What the-" Tanner started to protest, backing away from Woods, but got interrupted by a flashing light that streaked across the sky. It was a black ball with orange, yellow and blue flames attached at the end. It looked like a shooting star, but it wasn't nighttime, so it had to be something else. And it was.

I stood as straight as I could and looked to where the streak was going to land. It was less than a mile from where we were. And then it landed. A loud BOOM! shook the streets, making everyone fall to the ground. It felt like an earthquake had just hit. Heck, maybe an earthquake did hit, and at the same time, an explosion. Debris flew towards them, and on the ground, I could see a huge mushroom cloud of smoke and flames fill the area. 

"Put your shirt over your mouth! Now!  We don't want the smoke to get in our lungs!" I screamed to everyone around me. I put the collar of my shirt over my mouth to protect myself from dangerous vapors that might come from the smoke. Everyone around me did the same.

When they did so, I finally got a good look at my employees. They didn't look good. Not good at all.

They were all covered in thick dust and mud. Their faces and lips were cracked and dry, like the dirt that had turned tan. Their lips were chapped, and some parts of their clothing were burnt and torn. All of them had cuts and bruises on their faces, arms, and legs. I looked over at Paul and saw that he had a blistery burn on his leg. I noticed he'd been limping, but not as bad as Woods.

"Paul, what happened to your leg?" I asked, confused. Of course, it was probably from the explosion when we were all inside, but I didn't say anything about that. I looked to him to continue.

Paul, looking at me, shrugged, chuckling. "I don't know. I was editing in my office when that explosion or whatever hit and I sort of blacked out," he paused, putting his hand over his neck. His face hung in shame. From the color I could see on his face, I noticed he was blushing. "That's when Sam came in and got me out." He paused, looking at Sam and smiling. She nodded assent but didn't say anything.

Suddenly a group of masked people came running up to us. They were dressed in all black, a black mask covering their faces. I did notice though, that all of them were wearing black vests over their clothing. Maybe...Kevlar vests? I didn't really have time to think about that because they got out huge black guns and pointed them at us. One of them seemed to have a rifle. There seemed to be about twenty of them, and they were all yelling at the same time, pushing us towards these big trucks. I noticed they were camouflaged trucks, and there were duffel bags and what looked like food in the back of the car.

Of the masked gunmen grabbed Paul, Sam, Connor, Patrick, Roze, Mike Badal, Micheal Talamentez, Gunner, Marvin, and Bobby, and forced them all into one of the trucks, then another masked gunmen grabbed me, Kevin, Nicole, Hannah, Tanner, Sierra, CJ, Woods, Bryan and Joey and forced them into the other car. 

I noticed though, that the gunmen realized Woods was hurt and one of the gunmen took him to the back of the car, lay him down on the bed of the truck, untied my poor tourniquet, wrapped some white gauze around the wound, and then got Woods back in the car where I was.

And they did all this without even trying to explain what was going on.