A deafening noise tore Liz from her sleep. Everything shook so violently she thought her organs were going to mash inside her. She snapped her eyes open and saw a gaping hole in the middle of the room, wreathed in flames.
"MOM!" Liz screamed at the top of her lungs, still not fully awake. She tried to get out of bed, but her body was still jittery, and it took way more out of her than she would've liked. As she was getting up, her mom ran into the room and grabbed her hand.
"We've got to go!"
"But…"
"Elizabeth, now!" She tightened her grip on Liz and yanked her out of the house.
Even though they left so quickly and the fire wasn't at its full power yet, Liz still inhaled far too much of the poisonous smoke. It was hard to breathe, and she couldn't stop coughing. Her veins pulsed with hot blood, her head was dizzy, and it ached terribly. When Liz looked up, she saw enormous fireballs raining down on the city. The sky was deep red, as if someone had cranked the hue all the way up.
But wait, some of them weren't moving. Some were just stuck in the sky.
Liz slowly looked around. Everything was half-frozen: people, their pets, birds, and even some arrows from the intruders and city guards were suspended in mid-air.
I must be dreaming.
"Come on, we've got to go," Mom said, grabbing her right hand and pulling her hard.
"What is going on?"
"I don't know, sweetie, but we've got to keep going."
"Look, his head and his left hand are moving, but the other parts are not." Liz pointed at a man frozen mid-step on his way home. Terror was carved into his face, and he was crying for help.
"I DON'T CARE, MOVE!" Mom shouted at her without ever acknowledging what Liz tried to show her. She looked away from her daughter's eyes and started to move. Lizzie's lower lip began to tremble as if she were about to cry, and her whole body was twitching, but she gave up and let her mother lead her away. She looked back one more time to see that man again, but he wasn't shouting anymore. The light had already left his eyes, and his chest was empty, with a hole the size of a ball she often saw young boys play with in the yard. Something had pierced his body and vanished, leaving only the sound of blood sizzling from the heat that had torn through him.
She almost puked, but someone ran into her, and Liz fell hard on the ground.
"Get up, we have no time," her mother said, helping Liz to her feet and pushing her to walk again. Lizzie's eyes began to water, and she hated it. Frustrated, she wiped her tears and followed her mom through the falling city of Frey.
They finally reached Golden Street, which was not as wrecked as the rest of the city. Only a couple of buildings were on fire, so they had time to think about where to go next before the enemy found them. They weren't the only ones who chose that approach. A large crowd of frightened people, split into smaller groups, argued over what to do next.
Liz pulled her mother's sleeve."Look! Is that Barb?"
The girl was shaking, her face puffy from crying.
Liz shouted, "BARB… It's me, Lizzie!"
Barb turned her head with big, childlike eyes, searching for Liz. As the girl started to open her mouth to shout back, like a lightning strike, one of the suspended meteors unfroze and crashed into the middle of the crowd.
Liz found herself lying on the ground. She tried to check if everyone was okay, but everything was shrouded in smoke, and she couldn't see much. She struggled to get up, but when she finally did, a sharp pain shot through her right arm. It was torn apart like a dog's toy and was gushing blood all over the place. Her mom reached her before she fully grasped what had happened. She ripped off her own shirt sleeve and wrapped it around Lizzie's arm to slow the bleeding.
It's not that bad.
It's not that bad.
It's not THAT bad.
She couldn't move her hand at will, but to her surprise, it also wasn't hurting as badly as she thought it would. Liz looked at her mom's face for reassurance, but it was cold as stone. She seemed fully focused on escape and couldn't spare more attention for her injured daughter.
"Mom, do you think Barb…" Mom twitched a little, and her grip tightened for a second before she collected herself.
"I don't know, sweetie…" Liz could tell her mother was not okay, that she was only trying to get them through that hell.
How could she be so focused and not just break down and cry her eyes out?
After walking for another fifteen minutes, Liz was exhausted, and her hand started to hurt really badly. Her legs barely moved.
"Darling, we've got to make one last push," her mom said, but Liz ignored her and dropped onto her butt.
"Just… give me a second…"
Her mom looked at her fatigued daughter, sighed, turned around, and pointed her fingers at her back, signaling that she would give her a piggyback ride. Liz was about to start crying, but they heard someone approaching from the cross street.
"Lizzie, hide behind that wall. I'll check who it is."
While Liz moved awkwardly, her mom peeked around the corner of the half-destroyed building and saw three silhouettes in unfamiliar armor approaching them. As they drew closer, she could clearly see that none of them were humans. No, those creatures were something else. Their skin was gray, like that of a wild wolf. Their ears were long and narrow, worn like daggers set in a crown. They were tall, much taller than the average human, and their nails were so long that their hands looked more like claws, ready to tear flesh apart. Their very presence terrified her, as if they made her feel hunted by a natural predator.