Deep in the dead plains of post-apocalyptic Illinois, a girl named Lily roams, searching for civilization wherever it may be. Her strength is fading, but her hope survives. The grass has died but she lives on. Buildings have burnt out, but she's still on fire. Her heart pounds with excitement at every sign of survivors she finds.

As she walks down what used to be a path, she runs into a root sticking out of the ground. She, of course, pulls it, and the ground collapses to reveal a golden kingdom, completely untouched by fire.

Her eyes glisten in childish wonderment. Where did this come from?? How did it get there?? She must find out! Her feet start moving before she even realizes it and before she can say wow she's in front of a large golden gate studded with sparkling diamonds in the most beautiful way. Her jaw drops the length of the Eiffel Tower and she can barely catch a glimpse of this site before her eyes shoot open and she hears gunfire. She jumps up and grabs her rusty machete, the best weapon she could find, really, and runs out the door.
Of course that was a dream, I should've known it was too good to be true, she thought.

With the sound of gunfire ringing in her ears, she runs for her life, swinging her  machete and knocking down grass and bushes as she goes. In the chaos she trips and falls, but she quickly rolls into some shrubs to the side. She hears heavy footsteps walk towards her, they hesitate, but sure enough, they keep walking. She gets up and begins to walk again, ready to bolt at any sign of danger. The sound of a twig snapping behind her sets her off, but before she can run, she's caught in a strong grip.

"Let me go!" She screams and struggles, trying to be free, but it's of no use.

"Settle down, little lady." A man's groggy voice stings in her ears and she has already grown to hate it.

"Let me go!!" She kicked and punched and bit and slapped, but the guy just laughed at her, his breath tickling her neck. She cringes.

I keep struggling hoping he'll get tired and let go. He doesn't. Dude, this guy is strong.

He tightens his grip on her arm, and she inhales sharply. He begins to pull her along.

"Now listen here, Miss, you do what I say and you don't get hurt."

She screamed a high pitched scream, hoping to alert someone or something to come and save her. He only tightened his grip on her arm and she could feel it go numb.

"Would you cut that out?!" He yelled. "There's no one here to save you, you might as we--"

His voice is cut off and her arm is ripped backwards along with him, luckily, he lost his grip. Lily ran as fast as she could, hoping that whatever got him wasn't after her. When she had gotten a good start, she turned around to see a dragon had stopped and was EATING her kidnapper. She screams in terror, and the dragon looks up and tilts his head as if to say he's friendly.Nevertheless it's still a dragon and she ain't gonna chance it. Again, she picks up her feet, even though she's exhausted. She can't hear anything behind her, but she still runs as fast as her body can take her.

Suddenly she hears something up in the air chasing her. She looks up and realizes it's the dragon. She stands frozen in fear and whimpers as the dragon lands. He opens his mouth and she screams as lava sprays out, a drop shooting through her heart like a bullet.

In an apocalyptic world, it wasn't zombies, disease, or starvation that killed Lily. It was a dragon.

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BEB273
BAM you've been tagged so I don't have to do that challenge :)