Chapter 2-Ice Grave

Six

"Do we just leave her here?" Ella's voice echoes in my head and I turn around, almost expecting to see Sarah run out of the skimmer yelling for us to wait for her, that she wasn't really dead and only sleeping. That she will go back and talk to John and he won't blame me for killing his girlfriend by dragging her into the killing zone. That we can all forget our pointless grief and focus on the war and win and have a happy ending with all of our friends still alive. But it remains still and her body lays motionless in one of the seats where we left her. Her skin is pale and her hands on her stomach and the wound that killed her hidden from sight.

"We could burn the skimmer." Adam says. "Isn't that what you humans do? Set each other on fire?" He says it innocently but Mark lets out a laugh even though he looks like he is going to start bawling. "When you say it like they it sounds silly but yeah, we do sometimes."

Ella looks on horrified. "We're going to burn her?" Her eyes are big and watery and Marina hugs her. "We need to do something special for her. To thank her for helping us." I nod and think. What could we do that would even begin to compare what she did for all of us. She left her life behind and her family.

"I got an idea," Marina says quietly. "Let me see if it works." I hear some slight cracking and see frost covering the skimmer. The air around us gets colder and I get goosebumps. The first layer of ice is covered by another and another until it changes color from blue to purple to orange. When she is finished, the skimmer and Sarah are covered in a beautiful ice sculpture and it sparkles like diamonds. It is just the perfect thing for her.

We all look at it in awe and admiration. "Will it stay frozen like this?" I ask Marina. She shrugs in response. "I don't know but it will last by the time this war is done and over with. Hopefully." She adds. I don't say anything about the "hopefully" part because I know what she means. We have no clue as to when this will all be over. But I have a feeling that we are close to the end.

"We should go," Lexa wakes us up from our trance and we turn away. We turn back on our friend and walk away on Sarah. It seems cruel to leave her like this now that I think more about it. Encased in ice. But no. It's not just ice, it's a beautiful creation of Marina's and we will come back for her.

"So where to?" Mark asks as we pick a random direction and start walking. It would have been great if our skimmer didn't get shot down by the mogs and we could just fly to the others and finally join together but it will have to wait just a little bit longer.

"There is a town about five miles away from here," answers Lexa. "We can stay there and I can get us a car. It will take us about one or two days to get there." Sounds good to me. I just have to survive five miles and we should be good. But I know better than to let my guard down.

We reach the town and since it is rather small, not many mogs roam around and it's easy to avoid them. Only once did we get caught but it was no problem to take them out. Unfortunately, we didn't think it would be safe enough for all of us to pass out with no one watching and I have first shift. Yay.

We went to an abandoned house and everyone fell asleep either in one of the bedrooms or on the couches. It's nothing special, kind of small but still a cute house I guess. I sit in the living room at the front door and twirl the phone in my hand that Sarah said her last words to John to. I wonder how he's dealing with it. After she stopped talking he hung up and we didn't get a chance to talk to him since we were being attacked by the mogs. I put in their number and wait for someone to answer. It rings a couple times without answer and I hang up. They are probably off doing something actually useful while I'm here sitting in a warm little house with no sign of mogs attacking anytime soon.

We really shouldn't be here, I think. We need to go out and fight before more lives are lost and Setrákus Ra gains even more ground. And I thought we were done hiding. Maybe some air will do me some good.

I take one glance around the house and see everyone peacefully sleeping like there is no alien invasion going on. So I quietly step out the front door and sit on the front porch, daring a mog to come out and attack me. Unfortunately none show themselves and I just sit here with my guilt eating me away. Ugh, what is going on with me?

"Yes! Finally!" A scream from inside draws me back and I find Adam holding Dust. He was paralyzed for a while and I'm not totally sure how he's back to normal, but I guess he is now. Adam's outburst woke everyone up and they're all sitting in the living room.

"What's going on?" Marina asks in the middle of a yawn. Mark comes up behind her and yawns when he sees her.

"Whatever Phiri Dun-Ra did to him must have worn off," Adam explains. "But we should probably be more careful in the future."

"Agreed."

The curtains light up as the dark sky suddenly lights up unexpectedly. All of us freeze and I have to push myself to get us to hide. "Get back!" I hiss at them as I sneak a peek through the curtain and see that a skimmer is hovering in the sky a few miles away. A bright search light shines down below it like a UFO is usually portrayed. Do they know we're here?

"I think it's time to go!" Lexa squeaks and she trails after the rest of us as we get into the car. This time it is Mark who is driving and he floors it away from the skimmer. Then I realize that maybe we should go and fight, not run, but our group doesn't seem to be in the best shape at the moment. Despite the situation, they look like they are about to fall asleep.

"How did they find us!" Yells Mark who is the only one wide awake. We are used to being tracked down by now and a few mogs won't be too difficult with all of us here and our legacies.

"Don't know, keep driving."

Wait a minute. Instead of driving all the way there, we could take the skimmer and fly there in a couple hours… "Stop!" I yell. We go to a screeching halt and Marina and Lexa hit the seat in front of them. Everyone looks at me questioningly. "How about we take it!" I explain to them my idea and they groan in response. I roll my eyes and after I get through to them that this would be faster, they are more willing to fight.

Okay guys, we're on our way.