Happy Holidays!!!

Hey there everyone!! It's Skittlez here to wish you a

I hope you guys have an amazing holiday this year no matter what you celebrate!!

Best wishes,
♥Skittlez

Just a Quick Hello

I know, it's been a month...a month of nothingness, as usual. And I'm sorry to say I'm not back here with another chapter or anything like that, just to say that my last day of school before winter break is Friday, and I'm planning on writing. A lot.

But until then, I have final exams tomorrow through Friday, so I must get cramming (even though they told us not to).

If you have finals also, I wish you good luck!!

Until next time,
♥Skittlez

Happy Thanksgiving!!! && Some Other Stuffs

First and foremost, I want to wish all of you a...

This is gonna sound extremely sappy, but I'm so thankful for you viewers out there taking the time to visit my blog. Couldn't do it without you!! I hope you guys have an amazing Thanksgiving!! (of course, if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, as it is an American holiday and I know many of you live in "not America", have a good day!!)

Now for the boring update stuff that I'm trying to squeeze in here so I don't have to make another post titled "Update".

It's Thanksgiving break, so I get five days off from school!! :D I'm trying to get back into writing, at least for a bit. Hoping to get another chapter done, and work on some other stuff as well. I'm not making any promises, since I don't want to be the one to break them, but my goal is to put out some more stuff for you lovely people to read.

Oh, and I have no idea as to where ANTIDYSTOPIA stands...so, don't get your hopes up...

Bye for now,
♥Skittlez

Find Me--Chapter 10 ~Skye~

There’s a knock on the door early the next morning. I sit on my bed hugging my knees as Dillon opens the door. It’s Marcus. If he’s surprised to see Dillon, it doesn’t show, but I notice a change in his expression. I get up and walk toward the door, the wound throbbing under the bandage wrapped around my ankle as I do.

            “Hi,” I say, plainly. Marcus flashes a faint smile, but he looks drained; he was probably awake all night, making sure Olivia was doing okay.

            “What is it?” Dillon asks him. “Is something wrong?”

            “It’s Scarlet,” he answers. “She…” he trails off, begins to bite his lip, and his eyes fall to the floor. “She died last night,” he murmurs. I clasp my hand over my mouth and a cold, empty feeling rushes through me. Tears dribble down my face. The only thought that I could muster up is that this was all our fault.

            “They’re having a small service for her,” Marcus adds after a while. Dillon I both nod, and step out of the room, shutting the door behind us. I try to hide the pain that comes with simply walking, but it’s hard to ignore. It must show on my face since the two of them are at my side supporting me.   

            Marcus leads us to a door that I had never noticed before, and out to a large, thick trunked oak tree and everyone standing in its shade. I feel weak at the sight of the white sheet covering Scarlet’s body that’s lying on the grass. Olivia, whose condition has improved greatly, comes over to us, face damp with tears. Chase, Isaac, and Seth set down their shovels and gently lift Scarlet into the ditch they had just dug. Tears are shed all around. They then pile the dirt back on top of the sheet and pat it down. Violet unearths a bit of the dirt, and plants some scarlet colored flowers. Where she got them, I have no idea.

            Everyone’s silent, but all of the unspoken words of sympathy and remembrance hang in the air.

            “Scarlet was one of my best friends here,” Rae chokes out between bursts of tears.

            “She was a friend to everyone,” Seth continues.

            “She was great person to be around, even just for the short time that I’d known her,” Olivia chimes in, drying her tears.

            “She had a way of staying positive, even in bad situations,” Chase adds. I feel as if I should say something too, since Scarlet really was a nice person, but the only thing I can think to say at the moment is that I’m sorry I contributed to your death.

            Hugs are given to Violet before we go back inside. She stays behind while the rest of us somberly make our way to the dining hall. During breakfast, Headmistress Baumann comes in with an entourage of officials.

            “Attention!” she booms. Her voice projects throughout the silent room. “Due to yesterday’s events, you have the day off.” You’d expect cheers to erupt, but instead, people turn and murmur to each other. “Something else will be arranged, but in the meantime, you are instructed to stay inside, either in here, the common rooms, or your own rooms.” With that, she leaves. I’m surprised that she’s actually just letting us do whatever we want for the day, but I’m grateful for the free time.

            We settle down in one of the common rooms. No one knows what to say; we’re all still distraught over the attack yesterday and Scarlet’s death. After a while, I get up and decide to go see Violet. I’m pretty sure everyone notices me leaving, but no one makes any sort of remark. I struggle down the vacant hallways and out the door, disregarding the fact that we’re supposed to stay inside.

I approach Violet sitting by Scarlet’s grave.

            “Hey,” I say, sitting down next to her.

            “Hi,” she responds distantly. We sit there in silence for a minute.

            “I’m sorry,” I tell her. It’s a horrible thing to say. Those words don’t have any affect at all. Saying that you’re sorry just can’t describe the feeling you get when you lose someone you love.

            “Thanks,” she says. I can tell that she’s just trying to be nice and that she’s thinking the same thing I am. Another moment of silence passes.

            “I know what it feels like; to lose someone you love.” She doesn’t respond, and I don’t blame her. I just don’t know the right things to say to console someone, which I find pretty ridiculous considering I spent most of my time with Dillon, Marcus, and Olivia who are in the same position as I am.

            Then it hits me how selfish I am. I cry over my parents and all that’s happening while Dillon comforts me when he probably feels the same pain I feel.

            “How do you handle it?” I ask her. She looks at me in confusion. “I mean, it’s been so long since my parents died, and I’m still shaken up about it. I wish I were stronger…like you.” She gives me a faint smile.

            “Well, you’re under different circumstances,” she points out, “and I’m usually not one to show my emotions, but strength isn’t simply the ability to keep your composure. Strength, to me, is encountering something that tries to knock you down, but you manage to stay standing; even if you stumble along the way.” I sit there and take in her words. Violet was right.

            After ten minutes or so, I get up.

            “It’s getting late; we should probably go back inside.”

            “You go ahead,” she says, “I’m gonna stay out here.”

            “Okay.” I stand by the door, but before going in I add, “Thanks.”

            “No problem,” she replies, giving me a weak smile.

            I still have time before curfew, so I go back to the common room to find Dillon.

            “Hey,” he remarks. “Where were you?”

            “I’m sorry,” I blurt out. He takes me in his arms.

            “For what?”

            “I’m selfish and I haven’t even considered how you or Marcus or Olivia are taking everything I just break down and cry and then you come to calm me down and I forget how you’re going through the same thing and—”

            “Oh Skye,” he says, holding me tighter and stroking my hair. I let tears escape; knowing that this was a bad time to start crying, but something in me couldn’t help it.

            “I’m sorry,” I whisper again, voice shaking.

            “You have nothing to be sorry about,” he says, stroking my hair. “I know you’d do the same for me.” It had never crossed my mind before, but I realize that I would do the same.

            If Dillon were the one feeling dejected all the time, I would try to comfort him. If he were the one who was so unreachable, I would try to get through to him. If he were the one who didn’t have the heart to love someone because of everything else that had to be dealt with, I would love him despite that. 

 (Author's note: I'm not particularly happy with how this chapter turned out. Probably has something to do with the fact that i started this over the summer and am just finishing it now)

♥Skittlez

Whoops

Heh heh... yeah, we missed September. Apologies. :)

To make up for it, have this picture of an adorable pokemon.

Note: Check out my blog, Random Thoughts! :D (Keep your expectations low.)

My Fear of Realistic Fiction

Yeah, I broke the very temporary "Blogust". But here I am today hoping to squeeze some more posts and at least one chapter before school starts on Wednesday.

Anyway, I'm thinking ahead here, but I want to overcome my fear of writing realistic fiction. I suppose more than anything, it's the fear of it being too boring.

When I think realistic fiction, I think about a normal person living a normal life (as opposed to living in a post apocalyptic world). Then, that normal life is turned upside down somehow. But, in the events leading up to whatever the life-changing event is, I feel like I wouldn't be able grab a reader, then they'd ditch my writing before getting to the twist. I suppose I have to find a way to make a main character intriguing. Just one quality or aspect about them or their life to pull a reader in.

Another issue, slightly less worrying though, is the lack to think about a concept that's unique. I mean, there are a bunch of very common realistic fiction themes (at least I think so). Such as:
-Cancer/life-threatening illnesses
-Sudden deaths of major people in the character's life (i.e. by suicide, or car accident)
-Mental disorders
-Relationships
Etc. etc.
There were a few other, but I forgot what they were..fail. :-P

So yeah. After I finish my current project, I'll probably try my hand at realistic fiction. Maybe at some point try some dystopia, but my concerns on that could be a whole other post in itself. I'm getting ahead of myself again. Haha.

Until next time,
♥Skittlez

Self-Critique: My Messed Up Logic

Hey, Skittlez here. I've decided to start a small series of posts in which I critique my Hold On and Find Me and just say some things that I would've done differently or would change (or maybe will change if I ever go back and do some major editing).

Let's begin, shall we?  

I don't know if you've noticed or not, but some of my logic in Hold On and Find Me is pretty ridiculous.

For one thing, I doubt you'd be able to recover from a bullet wound so quickly; or an arrow wound or a wound from any other of the weapons I've mentioned. I mean, given the way I deal with wounded characters, they should just be able to get away unscathed, right? Well, no...apparently in my mind, healing unnaturally quickly is fine, but being able to escape a bunch of people trying to kill you without a scratch isn't.

This is somewhat minor in comparison, but I'm not sure if concrete is flammable or not.

Also, I don't know how you would be able to skin, cut, and cook an animal you killed and have it be safe to eat, but maybe that's just because I'm living in a first world country and my biggest problem is when my WiFi goes out.

There are probably other things too, but this is what I've come up with so far.

I guess I haven't bothered to research things (LAZY). I doubt this will ever get published or anything, but if I decide to get more serious about the story, I'd edit it and rewrite it and change stuff. Also though, some of my most accurate research is experience. And, maybe you haven't guessed, but I've never been shot by an arrow or a gun, nor have tried to set concrete on fire, nor have hunted and cooked an animal over a fire.

Two days of what is supposedly "Blogust"! What a commitment. ;-)

Until next time (maybe tomorrow?),
♥Skittlez

A Quick Note

First off, because I can't seem to have a post without updates,

Chapter 10 of Find Me should be out in the next few days.

Chapter 8 of ANTIDYSTOPIA however, is at a standstill. I've considered working on it myself a few times, and might actually do so at some point.

But anyway, for my fellow young and/or aspiring authors out there, I highly suggest checking out this link to the FAQ page on Veronica Roth's (author of Divergent and Insurgent) blog. If you scroll down, you'll find a bunch of links to posts of hers with a whole bunch of writing advice and tips and such. I spent about an hour reading through them this afternoon and they helped me a lot as well as entertained me...and also made me feel like I should rewrite Hold On, which I've kinda been wanting to do anyway.

Oh and Arabesque suggested I do "Blogust" which would mean posting every day this month (even though I'd be starting a bit late), kinda like what some YouTubers do with vlogging. I don't want to make promises I won't be able to keep, which is basically what "Blogust" would be, especially with school starting soon. So, I'll try to post as much as possible, but most likely not every day.

Until next time,
♥Skittlez

Happy Blogoversary!!!

Hey people!!! Happy August and, if you couldn't already tell by the title, Happy Blogoversary!!!

Exactly one year ago, I started my blog Write Away, and since then, over 1800 people have viewed it. I never imagined that so many people would take a few minutes just to visit, and perhaps read some of my and Arabesque's writing. I just want to throw out a big thanks to all of the viewers out there. Thanks for your support!!! I'm also proud to mention that I've attracted viewers internationally, in addition to the many domestic viewers. If you're from Germany, Russia, the UK, Latvia, Taiwan, Sweden, Malaysia, Azerbaijan, or possibly from some other country that I missed since Blogger only lets you see the most recent/frequent ten, thank you. I don't know how you possibly came across my random blog where two teens post their writing, but I'm glad you did! And of course, I can't forget all of my fellow Americans. Whether you know me personally and were brought here because of that, or if you don't, thank you.

Just for the heck of it, I'll throw in one more thank you.

Now, I shall go before this gets even more cliché.

I love you guys!!!

♥Skittlez

I am a Procrastinator, but I do have a Calendar

Yes, I am very aware that in my Procrastination post that I said Chapter 9 would be out at the end of June. Well, apparently summer has caused me to not pay attention to deadlines...even ones that I set by myself. So anyway, I hope you enjoy Chapter 9, and Chapter 10 will hopefully be out soon...and by soon, I mean whenever I get off of my lazy butt and decide to actually write.

Anyway, now for a few things. One, and I already mentioned this before, I wanna start posting more here, since basically all that goes on this blog are lame update posts, apology posts, and chapters (of course). Basically, I want you guys to get to know me better, and give more material to read. I'll probably post some book related things, maybe some rants and/or thoughts, and if I can think of things that are at least remotely interesting that pertain to writing, I'll blog about that too.

Next, I have been thinking, and it's become clear that I'll need to write a third story in order to end the storyline well, and not too abruptly. I am determined to end this no matter how hard school is once it starts. You guys deserve that. :) As for the title, no clue yet. Let's continue the four letter word, two letter word pattern that didn't occur to me while I was naming the Find Me! Nah, I'm kidding for the time being.

And lastly, ANTIDYSTOPIA is in Arabesque's hands at the moment, and she is currently on vacation.

Uh yeah...I think that's all I have to say for now. Hope you guys are having an awesome summer!!

♥Skittlez

Find Me--Chapter 9 ~Dillon~

             The dining hall is much emptier than usual. Those who aren’t here are in the infirmary—or what’s left of it. Olivia was there, getting her burns treated, and Scarlet was there too, still unconscious. Marcus went with his sister, as did Violet, and Rae followed her. That left the seven of us, eating in silence.

            Skye had been pushing her porridge around for a while before saying, “Here. I’m not hungry,” and sliding her bowl toward me. I look over to her, worried. She hadn’t eaten since dinner last night and even though our portions had been cut in half due to the food supply and crops being destroyed and I was hungry, I slide the bowl back toward her.

            “Skye, you have to eat,” I tell her. I could tell that she’d grown skinnier just in the time that we’ve been here. She shakes her head and gets up from the table.

            “I’m gonna go visit Olivia and Scarlet.” Before leaving though, she turns and picks up the bowl of porridge. I get up and follow her.  

            The two of us make our way to the infirmary without conversation, Skye leaning on me for support. We stop once to ask a nurse which rooms Olivia and Scarlet were in, and she informed us that they were both the same room and led us there. It was normally quiet here, but it was in a state of chaos tonight. Nurses in light blue-green scrubs were running from room to room, some pushing people on gurneys, others carrying medicine. We stop as a patient is wheeled by. My mouth gapes open and I put my arm around Skye and she lets a tear escape. Almost every inch of his skin is charred and black, and there’s dried blood on top of that. His chest heaves up and down as he gasps for air. A pang of guilt hits me as if a bullet had been shot straight at my head. It’s not like it was our fire that burned him, but it was our presence that led to the fire.

            We thank the nurse and slide open the door to the room. Olivia sat in one bed, looking relatively fine except for a few patches of burned skin and a splint on her left wrist. Scarlet looked fine too; she was lying in bed peacefully, as if she were sleeping. But the solemn look on everyone’s face told me otherwise.

            “Is she o—” I start to ask.

            “She’s in a coma,” Violet cuts me off. She didn’t say it harshly, but she said it in a way that told me she didn’t want to deal with the question. Guilt rushes over me again. We leave her and Rae and sit with Marcus and Olivia.

            “How are you doing?” I ask Olivia.

            “Better, but not great,” she replies. We’re silent then. After a while, Skye sets the bowl of porridge on the table next to the bed Olivia was in.

            “One of you can have this,” she says quietly. Neither Marcus nor Olivia makes a move for the porridge; they probably have as much of an appetite as Skye did.

            “We’re leaving,” I blurt out then, “tomorrow night.” I didn’t leave much room for argument, but no one will disagree anyway. “We’ll meet at your room, Skye and Olivia, around curfew, then, I guess we’ll just make a run for it. Toward the forest I suppose.” Everyone else nods. We all knew that there was no doubt that this would be easier said than done. But staying here would be an even bigger risk; at least leaving put no one else in jeopardy besides ourselves.

            The other five came in later, telling us that it was almost curfew. Rae hugged her brothers goodnight, then resumed her spot by Scarlet’s bedside next to Violet. Skye and I get up and say goodbye to Olivia, Marcus, Violet, and Rae and tell Scarlet that we hope she gets better, despite her unconsciousness.

            I walk Skye to her room and open the door for her, but she hesitates before going inside.

            “I don’t want to be alone,” she says quietly. I remembered that she shared a room with Scarlet, Violet and Olivia, all of whom were spending the night in the infirmary. I take her words as an invitation and wrap my arm around her and lead her inside. We push her and Olivia’s bed together. Skye lies down and I lie down facing her. “Where are we supposed to go?” she asks me, voice low. She pauses, waiting for my response, but I don’t have one, so she continues as if I had spoken. “What if we get caught? What if we get lost?” She sounds more panicked as she presses on; as she explores all of the possible things that could happen. “What if—” she stops suddenly. “What if we don’t make it?” She dropped back down to that hushed tone that was so soft and frail and possessed so much fear.

            “Shh,” I whisper as I stroke the side of her face with my hand. She sighs. “You’ll be fine.” I would make sure of it. After giving me a despondent look, she rolls onto her other side, her back facing toward me. I drape my arm around her and soon after I do, she laces her fingers with mine. Neither one of us says anything after that; I just listen to her breathing as it steadies and she drifts off to sleep.

            I close my eyes too, and attempt to clear my mind of everything. All of the pain, loss, doubt, fear, and try to not to focus on anything except for the current moment in which Skye and I were alone. Together.

Procrastination

Well, yesterday I opened up my Word Document for Find Me and put on Pandora intending to finish chapter 9 since chapter 8 came out like 3 months ago, and it's summer so I really don't have all that much to do. The result of that was me writing two pages...

...of a random idea that probably won't become anything anytime soon.

So I suppose there's no shame in sharing part of it. 

It’s a scary thing; waking up and not knowing where you are. I lie in bed, eyes wandering. The bed I was in had white sheets and was made out of wood, and there was an identical one on the other side of a wooden side table with a lamp. A wooden dresser, a round blue rug, and a window are the only other things in the room. Besides a small bathroom, this room makes up the whole top floor of the house I was in.

I go to the bathroom to splash water on my face, but catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I reach out, my hand shaking, and touch the reflection of someone who had to me, though I did not recognize. There’s a prominent dark purple bruise encircling my right eye and several cuts scattered around my face. My dark brown hair, which used to be well down my back, is now cut just below my shoulders. I run my fingers over the cuts and wince as I do, but I have no recollection as to where they came from.

The stairs creek under my feet as I step from one to the next. The bottom floor seems slightly bigger and has a kitchen with a table for two, and a living area with a couch, chair, and table; all made of wood. There wasn’t anyone in the house, and nowhere for anyone to hide either. I felt uneasy being in a strange house with no one around but I soon hear a faint noise coming from outside.

Hesitantly, I step outside the door. There’s a chill in the air, though the sun is shining, and the dewdrops on the grass get my feet and ankles wet. I walk toward the back of the house and distinguish the sound to be someone whistling. As I get closer, and the whistling gets louder, I feel as if I recognize the tune, but I can’t recall from where.

I find a guy who appears to be skinning some sort of animal. He spots me and sets down the animal and the pocket knife he was using and walks over to me.

Yeah so that's that...like I said, it was just a random idea, that I'll probably scrap later (that wasn't the whole two pages nor the entire idea fyi).

Now for some updates because I know how much everyone loves those. 

Chapter 9 of Find Me will be out by the end of June

Chapter 8 of ANTIDYSTOPIA will be out...uh...well you can check Arabesque's schedule for that... http://www.randomthoughts328.blogspot.com/p/antidystopia.html

Yes, my blog has a new background and fonts and whatnot. I like to change things up every one and a while. ;-)

I wanna try and branch out a bit...in other words post more since chapters have been coming out every few months which is a long wait. I'll think of something...probably... 

Blogoversary in 47 days!! :D

♥Skittlez

(Idk why the formatting gets all screwed up after I copy and paste from Word...weird)

 

A Postless May...

Hey, Skittlez here...long time no post eh?

(excuse my extremely lame humor)

First I'd like to wish everyone who's done with school a happy summer and if you're still in school, then, sucks for you!!! Kidding, kidding. Anyway, now that school's out and there's nothing to do half the time, hopefully chapters will come out much more frequently. Not only new chapters of Find Me and ANTIDYSTOPIA (both of which are hopefully coming soon...I'll do my best on Find Me, but ANTIDYSTOPIA isn't within my control at the moment), but maybe some other little bits of writing as well.

Hope everyone has a good summer!!!

♥Skittlez

So here's what's been going on...

Arabesque and I are in school until the end of next month (scary how fast the time goes) and then it's summer vacation!!! Until then, we have a speech coming up, and two projects including this insane World War II scrapbook. Anyway, Chapter 8 of ANTIDYSTOPIA will be out whenever Arabesque writes it (it's in Heruna's point of view). I can't really tell her to hurry it up since that would be hypocritical. Chapter 9 of Find Me will be out when I figure out what should happen before more bigger things happen.

While you're waiting for the stories to pick up again, you can hop over to Arabesque's blog, Random Thoughts, and read all the stuff that we post there. Both of us just pondered the future.

♥Skittlez

Find Me--Chapter 8 ~Marcus~

All of the eighteen year-olds came pouring into the room we were in after the first explosion. Dillon, Chase, and Violet quickly found us and ran over. Seth, Rae and Isaac came over too.

“What’s going on?” Dillon shouts.

“Someone’s attacking the building,” an official answers, trying to stay calm. “We have to get out of here!” He instructs us to follow him up the stairs and out of the east exit. Everyone starts sprinting up the stairs, but Skye stays put.

“Skye?” I ask. She has a distant look in her eyes and a stricken look on her face. She doesn’t answer me, but snaps out of whatever trance she was in and follows everyone else up the stairs.

The official thrusts open the door only to find that nothing but flame lies behind it. He curses under his breath and tells us to follow him to a different exit. He instructs Dillon to shut the door and runs off to find another while everyone follows. Before Dillon closes the door, I see a sweep of auburn hair amongst the bright orange flame. It can’t be, I think to myself, but whether it really was Olivia or not, someone was out there, probably needing help.

I dash out the door and immediately feel like I’m being roasted alive.

“Marcus!” I hear Skye shriek behind me. I look back, and see her running toward me. The door seemed miles away. “What are you thinking?” she shouts at me. I don’t answer right away, I just keep running. As I come to her body, I figure out that it was in fact Olivia, and she didn’t look good. Her skin was badly burned, the ends of her hair were singed, and I she was in some unnatural position on the ground.

“I was thinking that Olivia needed my help,” I respond, not meaning to sound sarcastic. She doesn’t make a sound as I scoop her up, and I try to reassure myself that she was still alive. “Don’t worry Olivia, you’ll be fine,” I whisper to her.

“Do you need me to help?” Skye asks between the crackle of the fire. Beads of sweat were gliding down my face and I could feel my skin starting to burn.

“Just watch my back,” I say. We begin to race back to the door; Olivia limp in my arms, and Skye trailing behind. It can’t be more than five yards away, but the flame surrounding us makes it seem a lot farther.

Skye screams behind me, I look back and see her face down on the ground. A bullet had grazed her lower leg. They were close, we had to get back inside, but then find another way out. I see Dillon rush out the door and pick up Skye and follow me. There were more gunshots as we both run through the door and Chase slams it shut. I set Olivia gently on the floor.

“Olivia, Olivia!” I call, desperate to see her green eyes open, to know that she’s still alive. She stays still for the next few minutes, but just as I’ve lost nearly all hope, her eyes flutter open.

“Marcus?” she asks. Her voice was quiet and strained. “What happened?” I can’t help but give a weak smile. She looks around at everyone. “You’re all okay,” she says. “I was afraid that—”

“I’m sorry Olivia,” I say, picking her up again. “We’ll explain everything later, but we really have to get out of here.” As if on cue, another bomb goes off, exploding the wall to our left into a pile of rubble and shooting us with bits of debris.

The nine of us hurry up another flight of stairs, no one in particular in the lead.

“Out here!” Rae shouts, motioning toward the door that leads to the fields. She holds open the door for everyone. We’re all running for our lives, breathing heavy, trying to stay positive while hearing gunshots, explosions, and crackling flame in the distance.

Not a moment too soon we reach the forest and see a massive group of people including officials, nurses, cooks, and other residents, trying to stay hidden between the trees. We all sit on the grass and catch our breath. The officials were trying to see that everyone was accounted for, while the nurses were floating around tending to those who were hurt. I let Olivia rest her head on my lap.

“Are you okay Olivia?” I ask gently. “What happened?”

“My skin’s burned and I’m kinda dizzy and my head hurts, but I don’t think anything’s broken,” she answers weakly. “I was in the fields with Caleb and Lyra and we were walking back when the first bombs went off and a fire was burning at the east end of the building. I knew you, Skye, Dillon, and everyone else were working there so I just wanted to go in and make sure you were okay…”

“Oh Olivia,” I sigh. “I just want you to be safe. You’re my sister. I wish you wouldn’t put yourself in harm’s way just to try and save me. I can’t lose you.” She supports herself on her arm and moves into a sitting position to face me.

“But you’re my brother,” she counters. “I know you’d give your life up for me. Is it so wrong that I’d do the same?” It’s useless to tell her that to me, yes, it is wrong. She doesn’t know how horrible it’d be if I lost her.

She lies back down. “What happened after that?” she asks.

“A bomb blew up one of the rooms downstairs,” I begin. “An official led us upstairs to the east exit, but it was blocked because of the fire. He led everyone else to a different exit, but I thought I saw someone outside in the fire lying on the ground. I could’ve sworn it was you. So I ran outside to get you, and Skye followed. But they started shooting, and got her in the leg. But we all made it out alive.” She’s silent. Then, Dillon walks over with Skye limping at his side.

“Are you okay Olivia?” Skye asks her. She and Dillon both sit down next to us.

“I suppose…” she replies. “You?”

“I will be,” she answers, looking down at the cloth she pressed against the wound.

“We really have to get out of here,” Dillon says. “They aren’t just harming us. By being here, we put everyone else in danger.” We all nod in agreement.

Skye and Olivia finally get the attention of a nurse and one comes over and helps them the best she can with the limited space and supplies.

“When should we leave?” I ask Dillon. He glances over at Skye and Olivia; at their poor condition.

“As soon as possible.”