Chapter 14: When the Cow Kicked it Over…

Sel reached out and grabbed the rope that was hanging from the barn ceiling. It sat in the middle of the barn about two feet off the ground. The bottom of the rope contained a small loop, and the top went up to the ceiling where it attached to a pulley.

She grinned as she jumped off the ground with her right foot, grabbing hold of the rope as tightly as she could and shoving her injured left leg into the loop. The rope sagged down a foot, coming only a couple inches shy of the ground. Sel felt something grab her left side, hard. The rope stopped moving down.

And started moving up. Very fast.

Clutching the rope as tight as possible, she felt something shred as whatever grabbed her was ripped away.

*Crash*

Wind rushed past her face as she squinted towards the rapidly approaching barn ceiling. The rope yanking her up so hard it felt like she was falling towards the sky.

It was only after she passed the pulley and continued flying towards the ceiling that she realized she might have made a small miscalculation.

Squeezing her eyes shut as hard as she could she prepared herself for the inevitable collision with the ceiling.

Is this how bugs feel about windshields?

…

Why am I not dead?

Sel peeked her eyes open, a grainy, wooden ceiling meeting her gaze, a mere half foot away. It was the old barn ceiling. But what was it doing here?

What?

And then, inexplicably, the ceiling started to rapidly run away!

Oh, I’m falling. Again.

Having reached the apex of her brief gravitorial reprieve, Sel became a sterling example of the wise saying, “What goes up, must come down”.

”AAAaaaAAAaaaHHHhhh!”

Sel swung back and forth screaming as loud as she could over the heads of a bunch of gibbering goblins, all running back and forth stumbling over each other as they tied to follow her path through the sky.

I think I’m going to throw up. This was a horrible, horrible idea.

When she first began working on her trap, she’d had a wooden ladder that was tied up to the loft so that she could climb up and escape the goblin/s that chased her. But after using a long pole and a crowbar to push a few of the rotting hay bales in the loft over, she had found another use for all that potential energy.

The wooden ladder swung and moved as she climbed it and was a right nightmare to go up and down on. So, she’d gotten the brilliant idea to push one of the hay bales over to the edge of the loft, tie a rope to it, and run it down to the floor.

It had taken a few tries to iron out some of the small details, like how to attach the rope to the hay bale, the needed length for the rope to pull the hay bale over the edge, and how close the hay bale needed to be before it could be pulled over by her negligible weight.

The hay bales scattered across the barn floor attested to the previous tries.

A lot of what she had done was under the influence of her previous self. Revealing a knack for planning and elaborate trap making she hadn’t known she’d possessed.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t accounted for the weight difference between her, a small thirteen-year-old girl, and a eight hundred-pound hay bale. Which is why she was in her current position, swinging above a band of goblins like a piece of string in front of a cat.

Well, live and learn.

At some point, the rope had started spinning while swinging. The rope would twist and twist as her world spun round and round until it, at last, started to slow for a brief, wonderful moment before she would start to accelerate in the other direction.

I need to get off. Now. I feel so sick.

Trying to get a gauge of where the loft was—while spinning and swinging back and forth—she timed her jump as well as she could and let go of the rope. She crashed into the loft rolling end over end before she finally came to a stop.

Crawling as quickly as she could over to the edge, Sel leaned over and threw up. The world kept spinning as she dry heaved again and again. Staying as still as possible, she waited for everything to stop moving, her head leaned over the side, a small trail of spittle dripping down from her mouth to join the gastric juices down below.

*Skrreeeeee!*

Sorry.

Unfortunately, the goblins weren’t taking a ‘time-out’ like she was. In contrast, their near capture and her amazing escape seemed to have sent them into a bit of a frenzy. They clamored and yammered below shrieking for little girl blood.

Well, I assume that’s what they’re screaming for. I don’t speak goblin.

One of them started trying to climb the rope… a very unsuccessful venture as it was still only attached to the ceiling by a pulley. After he had pulled on the length two or three times the looped end flew over the top of the pulley and came down and smacked the goblin in the face.

Others tried to climb up the supports and barn walls. These actually got up a few feet before being hampered by others who had the same idea. Any goblin who got too high would have their ankles seized as a handhold as other goblins tried to clamber over the one who’d got ahead. More often than not, after three or four goblins clambered on, the miserable anchor would lose its grip and the whole tumorous mass of goblins would fall to the floor.

What’s gonna work? Teamwork!

More and more goblins were clambering into the barn, but it was impossible to get a proper headcount with all the moving and running around.

It really made Sel wonder why they were so desperate to capture her.

“Hey, goblins! I weigh less than a hundred pounds! If you’re thinking of eating me you might want to reconsider! I probably couldn’t even feed half of you!”

Some of the bigger goblins were getting closer to the top. Additionally, the sheer number of goblins was getting to the point where the body count was helping them get higher.

“There are deer in the woods! There’s more meat on them than on me! I’ve also heard they taste better!”

Mel had tasted her once and had told her that she tasted ‘gross’. Sel had tried to get back at her with a wooden sword and after that hadn’t worked, she had given her the silent treatment for the rest of the day.

“I really don’t taste good! I promise.”

The goblins didn’t listen though. They continued climbing and shrieking.

Sel found that she was having trouble focusing. Her mind just kept wandering as the goblins climbed higher and higher. The earlier fear and adrenaline being replaced with a bone-deep weariness.

I should probably get up. I had a plan. I really should get up.

She just wanted to tell all of the goblins down there to be quiet. Their shrieking and crying was really starting to get on her nerves. Her head was aching, and her eyes felt heavy.

It was only after a goblin hand gasped the loft two feet away from her that she felt that some expediency was needed.

“Aaaaaahhhhh!”

Sel rolled over to where the goblin hand had emerged and started throwing blows down on the little green hand. Smashing her tiny fists down on the goblin.

It didn’t let go.

Slowly, a small green head made its way over the ledge, its yellow eyes peering right back at her. It smiled at her revealing sharp yellow teeth.

She lost it.

*Smack* *Smack* *Wham* *Thud*

*Skreee—* *Thu-thump*

*Huff, huff, huff*

Her hands ached and throbbed, and her breath was coming in hard. But the goblin was gone.

Another hand grasped the loft floor.

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

Sel ran over to where the prybar sat. She’d used it to move the hay bales and had completely forgotten that it was even up there. Grabbing it she ran to the edge of the loft and swung it down at the green hand.

“Ki ki ki k— *thwack* *Skree!*

Sel had no time to appreciate the victory though. More and more hands were grabbing the ledge, running between each hand she swung the prybar down as quickly as possible. Usually, it didn’t take more than two blows for each goblin to fall, but they just kept coming!

I have to do it now!

In the side of the loft sat two long poles with their ends stuck in a bucket. Running over she grabbed one of the poles and the lighter that sat behind them.

*flick, flick, flick, fwo*

Putting the small flame up to the drenched towel produced an instant result as the end of the torch lit with a bright red flame. Providing the loft with some much-needed illumination. The sun was setting, and the ambient light was dropping like a hay bale.

She grabbed the other torch and was going to light it also when she heard a loud “creak” behind her.

*Creak*

She had no idea how she’d picked out that one noise from all the shrieking in the barn. It wasn’t that loud of a sound, but to her ears, it was more deafening than all the other goblins put together.

Turning around, she found standing crouched a few feet from her a goblin standing up from where it had clambered onto the loft. Its first step had made the wood creak ominously. Saving her from being attacked with her back turned. She just needed to grab the crowbar and—

The goblin uncoiled like a spring leaping for her! She swung the torch—

And felt the satisfying *thump* of wood meeting flesh.

Wood that was on fire.

*Skreee!*

The goblin clutched its face stumbling back, defenseless. She didn’t pursue, however. Grabbing the two buckets of oil that the torches were in, Sel swung them sending an arc of oil flying through the air, over the loft floor, and onto the goblins below. Chucking the two now empty buckets at the goblin still clutching its face and rolling on the ground for good measure.

Lighting the other torch she made her way back to the barn window.

Two more ropes waited for her.

This had been the epitome of her crafting skills. Grabbing the two ropes and pulling, Sel watched as the two barn doors, attached through a series of pulleys, slowly shut. Soon the only light coming into the barn was from the barn window and the two torches that Sel held in her hands.

Her back to the window, Sel watched six pairs of yellow eyes stare back at her. Their eyes wary of the two torches that she held.

The time it had taken to chuck the oil and close the doors had not been without cost. Six goblins had made their way up into the loft in that time.

The six goblins formed a ring around her. Slowly approaching her cornered form. Six had gotten over the ledge,

But no more.

*AaaAaaHH”

Sel tossed the shorter torch over the six goblins' heads. The flying light illuminating the walls and ceiling of the barn as it continued on its trajectory. Briefly silhouetting the six forms that stood in front of her.

The six goblins rushed at her, their claws grabbing for the torch, for her arms, and legs. All reaching for the small girl in front of them.

All of them missed.

Sel leaned back against the barn wall, only there wasn’t a wall, behind her. There was only empty space as Sel, for the second time that day, looked through a second-story window from the wrong direction.

Glorg stared hungrily at the small pale female in front of him. The female kept waving her stick of burning in front of her. Its light hurt Glorg’s sensitive eyes and made them sting. Glorg didn’t want to be hit by the stick of burning, so he waited for one of his five ‘companions’ to make a move first. But none of them did. The cowards.

Glorg couldn’t blame them too much though. Flirp, the best goblin climber from their tribe, was still writhing on the floor clutching at his eyes from where he’d been hit by the stick of burning. Serves him right. Glorg had never liked Flirp.

Glorg didn’t like many things.

Still, Glorg did like the small little female in front of him. Even though it was waving a stick in his direction, he still licked her. Ever since he’d laid eyes on her running form, he knew that she had to be his!

When Dorg had returned with news of a human female, the tribe had been ecstatic! It had not been long since the twisted tree had brought his and his kind into existence. The tribe was weak. To much mana spawn, not enough flesh. Glorg didn’t really get it. The tree had tried to explain but everyone, aside from Chief Biggest, of course, hadn’t really got it.

There were a lot of things Glorg didn’t understand. But it did understand that whoever brought the human girl to chief Biggest would be heftily rewarded. They’d even get to have the human female after chief Biggest was done with her!

He just had to get past the stick of burning and keep his other five companions away. Then Glorg would be rewarded! He would get lots of food and grow bigger than Chief Biggest! Then he would be the chief and get all the human females!

The female tensed, one of the burning torches held above and behind her head. Glorg recognized this posture! She was about to throw the stick of burning at him!

Glorg took a step back just as she chucked the stick of burning at him! However, the stick sailed harmlessly over his head! Hah, hah! The human female had missed him! Now was his chance!

He leaped forward aiming to grab the arm that held the other burning stick. If he could just grab that arm, then Glorg would not have to worry about getting his face fried! Glorg was the smartest!

But instead of holding still and being grabbed as she should have; the human female fell backward out of the hole-in-the-wall! This human female wasn’t very smart!

Glorg pocked his head out the hole-in-the-wall. Down below he could see the human female laying in a pile of the yellow-nose-itch stuff that seemed to be everywhere inside the square-tall-house-place. Why would anyone ever lay in the yellow-nose-itch stuff? It was softer than dirt, but it stank! Just like the rest of this square-tall-house-place!

This human female truly wasn’t very smart!

Glorg examined the drop, before deciding that it was best to go around the square-tall-house-place. If he were to jump out of the hole-in-the-wall he would be just as not smart as the human female was!

And Glorg was the smartest! That was why he couldn’t jump!

It seemed that the five others with him were copying Glorg, because none of them jumped too. They all started back the way they had come. Hmph, they were trying to steal Glorg’s brilliant plan of going around the square-tall-house-place! He had to get around first!

Coming to the edge of the higher place, however, Glorg was stopped by a very terrible sight!

The stick of burning that the human female had thrown was starting to spread to the yellow-nose-itch stuff! The fire was getting bigger and spreading! Some of the goblins tried to stomp out the spread but it was spreading too fast! Others tried to open the bigger-hole-in-the-wall they had entered through, but somehow it was jammed shut!

One of the goblins stumbled back, bumping into a red container and tripping over it. Glorg noticed that it was eying the red thingy. Was there something special about the red container?

The goblin gave it an experimental kick again, before growing excited.

“The red-boxes have water in them! Open them up!”

Glorg gave the goblin an appreciative look. How did he know that the red box had water in it? Could he detect water by kicking things?

Glorg noted that if the other goblin ever died, he would have to collect his foot. It might prove useful if he was ever looking for water.

Glorg watched as the others quickly found the other red buckets that were scattered around. Glorg felt a sense of pride in his fellow goblins. They were all working together so well! Usually, nobody would listen unless chief Biggest was around and hitting people, but chief Biggest wasn't here, and the goblins were still working together! What a happy thing! To think that all it had taken to bring them together was the threat of imminent death! Even Glorg, the smartest, could not have predicted this!

Glorg was almost moved to tears! The goblins all working together to open up the red boxes. Sure enough, inside was water! Though it did stink just a bit. Still, it was amazing! Look what working together could do!

Glorg noticed a few other goblins eying the magic water-sensing-foot and made a mental note to keep an eye on them. He had noticed the foot magic first!

As the goblins all gathered to throw the water on the fire, Glorg had a thought. Was this what teamwork could accomplish? Look at all those goblins working together! Seeing his kind brought together to fight a common enemy seemed to ignite something in Glorg’s heart. It was like a small burning had been lit inside of him, but it was a good burning!

Glorg didn’t like many things but, at that moment, he decided that he liked this ‘teamwork’ thing!

Glorg watched as the goblin with the magic foot directed the ones with the red boxes around the fire. Explaining to them that they would each chuck their water at a different spot because if they all aimed at the same place, they couldn’t put out all of the fire.

Hmm, that goblin was a little smart! Though not as smart as Glorg of course!

The goblins chucked the smelly water at the fire!

The world turned white.

…

…

…

Glorg groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. His ears were ringing, and his nose seemed to burn. Glorg tried to breathe in but the air was hot and seemed to burn in his lungs! And above all these sensations Glorg felt…

Hot, so very, very hot.

Surrounding Glorg was nothing but more burning. It licked up the walls and the entire floor of the square-tall-house-place below was engulfed in it. Glorg couldn’t look long, because his eyes stung from the bad-black-air but it was long enough to see that the only goblins still around were the five others up there with him.

Glorg looked over at the hole-in-the-wall. Maybe he didn’t need to be the smartest just this once. Yes, just this once Glorg would do the not smartest thing. Sometimes even geniuses had to compromise.

Glorg started towards the hole-in-the-wall, closely followed by the other five.

Glorg was annoyed that the others were once again copying his idea. They should just go out the bigger-hole-in-the-wall they had entered through like they were originally planning! Stop following Glorg! How annoying!

Glorg didn't really like these five fellow goblins following him. Actually come to think of it...

As Glorg approached the opening and looked at the ground oh so far away, he decided that he really didn’t like the burning, he didn’t like stinky water, he didn't like the bad-black-air, and he didn’t like yellow-nose-itch stuff.

And he, especially, didn’t like teamwork.

Sel felt the air whoosh by her ear. Her vision filled with the sky, where small stars were starting to pop out. The barn in her periphery rapidly grew as she fell along its outer wall.

*Whoosh* *floomf*

And then she crashed into a very scratchy pile of old hay.

Oof, that knocked the air out of me again. I really need to stop doing things like this.

Smoke had started to billow out of the barn window. The shrieks of the goblins were muffled by the walls, though she could still hear them slightly, as they banged and clambered inside. Stuck in there with the fire. She shuddered.

It actually worked. My stupid crazy barn trap actually worked!

She lay there in a daze watching the smoke pour out. To be honest she’d expected a bit more of a “boom” rather than just a cloud of smoke streaming out. To think she’d poured all of those cans of paint, oil, and even left fifteen gallons of gasoline in there and this was all it produc—

*BOOOOOOOMMMM*

The front part of the roof exploded sending flaming roof tiles everywhere! A gigantic pillar of smoke, thicker than the barn was wide billowing up from the hole! Sel covered her head as smoldering tiles rained down upon her! And then, the shrieks.

*SkraAahaAhHahah!* *SkreEeeE!*

They just kept coming and coming. The awful, horrendous cries. Why wouldn't they stop? On and on they went seeming to last forever. Sel curled up in the hay and whimpered.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so so s-sorry.”

Laying there in the hay, she waited for the screams to stop. After the flames in the building stoked to a roaring, it didn’t take long for silence to fall. The screams ironically snuffed out by the barn fire. Sitting up she snatched her torch away from the hay where it had started to smolder. The light from its top not needed now that the entire clearing was lit by a building-sized bonefire.

She sat there for a moment. Watching the flames and smoke soar ever higher. Her face grew hot and red as the flames continued to grow more fervent. It was starting to become unbearable.

There had been a lot of hay in there. The fire would burn for a while.

Using her longer torch as a crutch/walking stick Sel started her escape from the massive pile of hay that she’d pushed outside the window. Just another part of her plan that had worked out better than she’d thought it would. She’d planned to use a rope ladder to get down, but once again it was so slow, so she’d made a backup plan to cushion her fall in the event she had to jump.

It had worked astonishingly well at breaking the worst of her fall. Despite falling just shy of twenty feet she hardly felt hurt at all, though her back did feel a little bruised.

Hobbling out of the pile, she prepared herself for what would be a long trip home. Her left leg was still only barely supporting her weight, causing her to heavily lean on the oversized torch. She had to be careful to not catch her hand or hair on fire though as it took on more of the weight from her left side.

Something wet dripped down her leg.

Reaching to her left side Sel’s hand came away covered in blood.

What the? When did I get hurt?

Patting down her left side, she quickly found the source. Some deep furrows were carved on her left side. Bleeding merrily.

Ah, I remember now. A goblin grabbed me when I activated my pulley system. I didn’t think he’d hurt anything since I didn’t notice any pain. Kinda interesting. How adrenaline. Can do that.

Sel thought about just sitting down and waiting for morning. Someone was bound to go and investigate the huge pillar of smoke sooner or later and Emi was scheduled to pick her up tomorrow. Even if she didn’t walk the miles back home, someone would come eventually. She could just sit here and wait.

It was warm by the barn. A little too warm but she was so very, very tired. Resting sounded so nice right now.

I just need to stop the bleeding. Then I’ll sit down by the fire and wait till morning. Maybe I’ll even make a bed out of hay. Tomorrow I’ll worry about getting home. For now I—

*thump* *thu-thump-thump*

Sel heard something behind her. Hobbling around she found that she was no longer alone. In the pile of hay she had just extracted herself from, sat four very singed goblins.

*thump*

Five very singed goblins.

*thump*

Six.

Crap! Crap! Crap! How did they survive!? The entire barn went up in flames… right?

Examining the loft window where the goblins had emerged, it became quite clear that although there was a torrent of smoke escaping from the back of the barn, it was the front that had taken the brunt of the damage. The back and loft, though burning, were still largely intact.

The six goblins who made it into the loft! They must not have been caught in the blast! It would have been simple to follow me out the window! Why didn’t I think of that! Dummy! Dummy! Dummy!

It had never occurred to her that she could be followed through her escape route. Though in her defense, her original plan was to keep the goblins from ever even reaching the loft. Their sheer tenacity and numbers, however, had made that an impossibility. Still, she could have come up with some countermeasures! She could have lit the hay on fire after she got out of it. Or maybe put some rocks or sharps into the pile or…

That doesn’t matter now! Run before they notice you, idiot! Run! Run! Run!

Stumbling around, she lurched toward the direction of the road. Screw waiting! The goblins could sit tight for the authorities to show up, but she wasn’t going to keep them company. It didn’t matter if she had to hobble down the entire game trail in the dark! She was getting out of here!

“Ki ki, Grirgum!”

She grit her teeth when she heard the sound of pursuit behind her. They’d seen or heard her. Probably seen. It was hard to be stealthy while limping with a walking stick whose top was on fire. Regardless, despite all her efforts, all the suffering she’d gone through, she was once again being chased.

Why? Why? Why!?

It wasn’t fair, she’d tried so hard! She’d made her plan work! She’d killed more than ninety percent of the goblins that had shown up! Her! A small thirteen-year-old girl! She’d outwitted them and fought on and on, despite wanting nothing more than to curl into a small, little ball and give up! She’d been so close to being safe!

But it didn’t matter. None of it! Because right now she couldn’t fight one goblin let alone six. She barely made it twenty feet before she stopped to face her pursuers.

I can’t outrun them. And those large yellow eyes look better suited for seeing in the dark than mine. Better to fight in the light than to die without struggle in the dark.

When the goblins got within range she swung her burning staff at them. The burning flame at the end flashing in front of their faces.

*Fwoosh* *Fwoosh*

The goblins backed off a little. Farther than they’d done up in the barn. They eyed the fire with greater fear than before. Giving it a wide breadth and flinching whenever she pointed it at them.

*Fwoosh*

It still didn’t matter though.

The goblins started to spread out. Sel tried to hop backward fast enough to keep the half-circle of foes from turning into a full-on encirclement. It was a losing battle. Her left leg would no longer bear any weight without the staff and her right was cramping up from bearing all the weight.

Her left side hurt. Her left arm hurt from where it had been scratched up days before. Her head hurt. Her thoughts sharp from adrenaline barely cutting through the fog of exhaustion and blood loss that hung around her. Threatening to swoop in and muddle her thoughts if she let her guard down.

She felt bruised all over from all the windows she’d chucked herself through. Even the parts of her that weren’t injured felt sore and unresponsive.

Why? Why is everything so… so… so STUPID!

When a dog corners a cat…

”AAAaaaahhhh!”

When a goblin corners a Sel…

*thwack* *Skreee!* *thump* “Skruk!” *twack* “Glorg umper!”

It took the goblins two minutes to wrestle the burning stick out of her hands. Two minutes where she beat, scorched, and screamed at the poor goblins. Not a one got away unscathed.

*Huff* *Huff* *Huff*

Even when she stood there bare handed, barely able to move, the goblins still hesitated to approach. All of them sported spots of skin that were redder or greener than their usual complexion.

Huh, so goblins bruise a dark green. I didn’t know that.

Something about that last thought tickled something in the back of her head. But she was too tired to think about it. Sel felt pretty proud about the wary looks the goblins were giving her. Even without a weapon. It was kinda funny, watching their expressions once full of hunger and greed become marred now with fear and worry.

It was funny! Funny, because it didn’t matter! Hah, Hah, Hah! Sel felt like laughing. She was done. She was barely able to stay standing right now. If one of the goblins were to approach right now, she wouldn’t be able to do anything. But still, they feared her. It was just too funny.

Too bad she was too tired to laugh. That would have been a pretty cool way to go. Laughing her head off.

Off in the distance, Sel heard something approaching from the woods.

*Vrrrrrrrr*

What now?

Maybe it was more goblins coming to drive in just how hopeless her situation was. Or a man-eating Ogre? Wouldn’t it be funny if it was a dragon? Here she’d tried so hard to beat the goblins when a freaking dragon shows up to highlight just how pointless it all was! Wouldn’t that be funny! Ha ha ha!

What could it be?

It does sound familiar. Where have I heard it before?

*Vrrrrrrrr*

“…ehl.”

What?

“…eehhll!”

She’d really lost it now. She could’ve sworn she’d heard someone calling her name. As if a dragon would know her name! Haha!

“Seeeeelllll!”

Around the bend of the road that led to town, came a white beam of light. No, two beams of light. Following the beam, a truck came zooming down the road, far faster than was proper down such a curvy road. It swerved precariously around the bend its path careening wildly.

“Seeeellll!”

“Mel?”

It couldn’t be. She must be hallucinating. Maybe she was already dead. That made more sense than why Mel was here with her dad’s truck. Ah, it all made sense now. This was all just a terrible, terrible dream. There was only one last question that needed to be answered,

Why does this dream hurt so much?

Though she'd settle for a way to wake up from it.

The truck swerved its beam swinging across the yard, the house, the flaming barn, before landing on Sel and her six goblin pursuers.

“Sel!”

Yep, definitely Mel.

“Mel!?”

The car curved in its path heading straight for her and the six goblins behind her. It approached rapidly, tearing up the lawn with its huge tires. Eating up the distance at a voracious rate…

And then it passed right by her, barely swerving out of the way at the last second.

Sel looked down at the tire marks only a couple of feet away from her. She felt more shocked than when she’d fallen out the window.

Oi. Oi, Mel. You almost ran me over! Is that why you came? You wanted to take me out before the goblins could? I can’t believe I thought you were super cool there for a second! Curse you, Mel! I'll remember this in my next life! I've even got a good track record that indicates that I might!

Sel had thought having a dragon show up would have been an ironic end to her night, but she now figured that she hadn’t been nearly creative enough. A dragon couldn’t even hold a candle to getting ran over by her best friend after surviving everything else that had happened tonight.

The car came to a stop a short distance away, the driver side door popping open and a red-headed girl hopping out.

“Haha, oops! I accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake! My bad! Are you okay? And why is everything on fire…”

Mel’s voice trailed off at the end as she took in the scene.

“Mel!”

Sel had watched with disbelief as Mel jumped out of the truck. Even after hearing her voice she still couldn’t believe that she was actually here. She was still struggling to figure out if this was a dream or not. This certainly felt dreamlike.

Screw it. I’ll figure out if this is a dream later. For now, I’m just happy Mel is here.

She started to hobble over to the truck, exhaustion and pain forgoten.

Then she felt something shove her from behind and her vision was filled with the sight of the ground rushing up to meet her.

*Oof*

She felt dazed the world spinning again. She tried to get up—Mel is right there!—but before she could rouse herself, she felt several bodies crash into her sending her hurtling back down. Pinning her to the ground.

Then the beating began.

Fists smashed into her sides and back and clawed hands tore at her skin.

“SEL!”