I was hiding out in a servo, looking out at the chaos outside. The ground outside ripped up like paper and bright red light shot into the sky. The same cloudy sky drizzling with pink glitter I had seen a hundred times before.

The light tore the ground open like it was nothing more than butter, being sliced by a warm knife. Definitely not how roads or pavement would naturally behave. The glass sliding doors were ripped from their places and splatted onto the ground like jam. The glass windows flapped around in the wind like curtains, and the shelves began to fray like they were made of wool. This is the scene I'd begun to get used to.

I had seen many objects, buildings, floor types and materials behave in many unordinary ways. Wood shattering like ceramics, concrete dipping like a mattress, metal squashing like foam, and even carboard being as brittle as glass. None of these materials had the properties to behave in such a way but that didn't stop it from happening. And the strangest part; when you touched it, it still felt exactly like it was supposed to. The wood was smooth from varnish, the concrete was rough like rock, the metal was cool and flat, and the carboard was soft.

The very laws of nature and physics were being defied. And I couldn't help feeling that it was more than just a figment of my imagination. Especially not with how I would physically react upon waking up. If I'd hit my head, it was pounding. If I scraped my knees they stung. If I twisted an ankle, I had trouble walking on it (although that could be down to my own clumsiness). Not to mention everything else that happened.

The damage inside the servo was minimal. The ground was still solid, and the ground sliced open around it. I watched as the red light opened the ground, connecting to form a circle around the servo. And that moment, when the circle completed itself, was when it all went down. Literally.

The building began to wobble. It tilted from side to side. The contents of the room slid across the ground while I struggled to not fall out of the window. Whatever was holding the building up was shaking around like a tree in vigorous winds. I was tossed around like nothing more than a leaf on the ground.

I needed to find a way out. And fast.

I used my arms to latch onto the counter for support. I began feeling queasy at the motion. The building tilted to the right so far that it was on its' side. The glass flapped about underneath my feet as I clung onto the counter for dear life. All I could see in the rip was red. Bright, dangerous red light. Everything was flat against the wall, and we all anticipated to be launched in the opposite direction.

But we never were. Instead, the building started to shake about while it's wall still acted as the floor. It reminded me of when dogs would shake water out of their fur. I watched as shelves were thrown into the red abyss. I hugged the counter tightly. But I lost both balance and concentration when the computer hit me in the head and dropped through the hole below me.

I felt a cut form on my forehead as blood dripped into my eyelashes. I slowly slid down the counter. My heart felt like it would rip through my chest and possibly even dent the counter. I slid down despite my tight grip, the sweat on my palms not helping my situation. When one of the freezer doors came off its hinges it hit the space right above my head. I screamed and pressed myself against the counter. The door rubbed past my back and fell through the open window.

My mind was running at a million kilometres an hour. If that door had landed any lower, it would have taken me with it. If anything hit me, I'd be a goner. I'd probably still be a goner even if nothing hit me. My hands were sweaty enough to kill me all on their own. And with the blood dripping into my left eye, I was in the worst position to make it out.

But something kicked in. My best guess is adrenaline and fight or flight instincts. I tried to pull myself up as best I could. Rock climbing with Ciara had more benefits than I first thought. I took a deep breath, trying my best to not think about the painful, bone shattering death below me. But I'll admit, I was failing. I took a deep breath and yanked myself upwards. I didn't get far, the sweat covering me making me too slippery for it to be efficient.

Plan B? I wracked my brain for any other ideas. Come on! There's got to be something! Think woman, think! But I couldn't do it. As soon as I looked down, I could only think about how painful the fall would be. My heart hammered harder, and I scrambled to get higher. But it was all useless. Utterly useless. There was nothing I could do to escape the fall other than hold on as long as possible.

And just as I began to slip, the building threw itself back into the correct position. I flew across the room and crashed upside down into the wall. I then fell onto the ground hitting my head hard. I sharp stabbing pain shot through my skull and my mouth filled with liquid. I tasted metal. When I spat it out, I saw red on my hand. Blood.

I staggered to my feet and struggled to gain balance. I saw the contents of the shop sprawled out across the floor like a mutilated animal. The screeching of metal scraping against the ground were its dying whimpers. The servo was completely destroyed, almost unrecognisable from when I first hid out inside. Most of the shelves had fallen out of the windows. The computer, a freezer door and even the sliding doors had all also been lost to the red abyss. One of the freezer doors was resting on the ground, one was still attached and the last was hanging on by one hinge.

I let out an exasperated sigh, falling over the counter and trying to slow my breathing. I smudged some of my blood onto the counter, but I wasn't too concerned about cleaning up after myself. When I looked up, I saw one flower peeking through the cracks in the tile. Geranium. Oh no...

Before I had time to fully digest what I'd seen, the building tilted forward. I screamed as I was thrown over the counter and towards the doorless entry. I slid down the floor like a slide. The only things nearby were also hurtling towards their doom. There was no way out. I had no escape. I. Was. Done for.

But then as my heart was about to burst through my chest an idea struck me. I looked out to see the petrol tanks were still mostly intact. They were right against the edge of the destroyed ground. I could make it out. I did have an escape. I wasn't done for.

I kicked myself off of the floor and launched myself towards the doorway. I landed right on the edge, the exit behind me. I wiped my sweaty hands against my pants, drying them off as best I could. I grabbed onto the doorway. I didn't know if it would work, but I had to try. If the building tilted even slightly backwards, I would fall out. No. This had to work. I couldn't think about what would happen if it didn't.

I took a deep breath and felt the building shift a little. It was my last chance. I gripped on tight and jumped out of the doorway, swinging myself back and forth. The building began to try and shake me off. But I held on tight. I continued to swing myself, trying to gain momentum, but the buildings movement threw me off. It was going to be a lot more difficult than I had planned for.

I took another deep breath, swinging so that I'd begin to fall in line with the buildings movement. I was confident now. I had the right momentum, and just the right angle to land close enough to the edge to grab onto the petrol tanks. I swung back and began to release. But the building continued to move back, ruining my plan.

I panicked as I flew towards the edge of the cliff. There was no chance of me getting out of this unscathed. I had to think fast, trying to reach for the petrol tank but falling short and not even touching it. I plummeted down and quickly grabbed onto the first thing I could. It wasn't perfect, and I was almost positive I wasn't going to make it out but thank whatever higher beings there were for my way out.

A hose. A petrol hose had fallen into the gaping ground, and I'd grabbed it just in time. Sure, my knuckles had become blood covered bone with no flesh, but I could make it out. I laughed out slightly in both shock and relief. I wasn't going to die. At least not then anyway.

I used my arms to pull myself up the hose and walked across the flat rocky wall. It reminded me of the playground at my old primary school. I brought myself to the ground just in time to watch the servo crumble into the abyss. But I knew better now. There was no time for leisure with the red light chasing me.

My muscles were lead, every fibre in my body ached, and I felt like vomiting. But I powered through. I ran as fast as my legs would allow. But in my injured, exhausted, and out of breath state that wasn't very fast. A stitch formed in my belly, making it painful to move. My head was pounding, my heart was hammering, and my legs weren't working. I collapsed, breathing heavily, spraying a few drops of blood onto the ground.

I was screaming at myself to move, begging to get up. But my muscles still felt like lead. Even simply lifting my head was too much effort for my body to handle. I watched as the ground ripped open like paper, the red light of doom coming for me. All of that effort for nothing. I'd been narrowly escaping it for three weeks and it was all for nothing. It was going to get me; I would die, and my family would have no clue how it happened. Maybe they'd perform an autopsy and blame it on the food poisoning I intentionally gave myself.

I closed my eyes, waiting for the light to take me. I didn't know what the afterlife held for me. Who knows, maybe there was a God and I'd be sent down to Hell for all of the shit I did. Maybe the Greeks were right, and I'd be sent to the underworld. Maybe Buddhism was correct, and I'd come back as some animal or plant. But no matter what happened, I would be gone. Flora Fickle's life will have ended.

I waited, but nothing happened.

I opened my eyes to see the ceiling of my bedroom. The utter relief I felt is indescribable. Any injury I obtained in the dream wasn't present, but my head ached, and my knuckles were sore.

I waited in bed, thinking I might start retching and the contents of my stomach would be emptied. But I felt another wash of relief when I didn't. The food poisoning wasn't going to cause any illnesses. There was only one test left. Death.

Death was the one I was most afraid of. Everything else had healed completely with no side effects, but death was something else entirely. Death was the final word. Death was what everything led up to. Whether you were a good person or a bad person, it was where nothing you did mattered. You were gone. The only possible way for it to matter was if you really were punished for your wrong doings. Which was something I very much doubted. Your dead. That's where I always figured it ended.

I pulled the doona off of myself and sat up, looking at my clock and seeing it was a quarter to seven. Time for school. But if I was being entirely honest, school wasn't at the forefront of my mind. It wasn't even high on my list of important things to worry about. More like the upper middle. But with everything going on could you really blame me?

I mean with my parents missing, my strange dreams, my new healing abilities, and people in trackie's hunting me down I wasn't too concerned about exams. Sure, the teachers were drilling it into our heads that we needed to keep all of our work so we could study for exams when they arrived, but that didn't mean I really cared. There are much more important things in my life that I need to be concerned about. Exams weren't even until week eight or nine of term two. It was still only just the beginning of week four in term one.

I pushed any and all distracting thoughts out of my mind and dropped to the floor. Today was the excursion. Samara couldn't drive Zak and I there, but she could drop us off at Joondalup train station. However, that meant we'd have to be out of the door fairly early. So unfortunately, I'd have to skip eggy-bread day.

I quickly dressed into my white, black, and gold uniform, brushing my hair, and slipping into my sneakers. I ran out and quickly made some plain toast, eating it while packing a lunch. I stuffed everything I would need into my bag until I was sure it might explode.

I got up and collided with Jade. She glared at me with a fury I'd never seen her wearing before.

"Woah," I attempted a smile, "someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?"

Somehow, her expression grew in anger. "Worry about your own sleeping patterns Flora," she spat.

I felt my face go warm and she went into the kitchen to make breakfast. She knew nothing of my sleeping patterns! I was fighting for my life just about every night and she was just pissed off! I couldn't think of a reason why. She had been settling into our new circumstance just fine until recently. Clearly, she was just reverting back to her old annoying self.

I stalked into the bathroom and quickly brushed my teeth. I shoved it back into the holder and did my makeup as quickly as possible without poking my eyeball out.

Soon enough, Zak walked in to brush his own teeth.

"Morning Flo," he greeted. "What do you think we're going to be doing? Like, surely they don't think they can keep two hundred teenagers entertained for five whole days."

"I don't know," I shrugged. "Maybe they'll do two products a day with some very long and boring speeches about things we don't care about."

"What does this have to with what we're all learning anyway?" Zak asked. "I'm doing basic cell structure in my Science class and you're doing genetics."

"I suppose it's relevant," I suggested, putting my brush down. "We are in the middle of a pandemic, and they are developing a cure."

"Ah yes," Zak nodded, "the miracle cure. I call bullshit on that. There is no way, they think they found a way to cure every illness or infection with one medicine!"

I chuckled as Zak shook his head.

"No, I'm one hundred and ten percent positive of it!" Zak put his toothbrush into the holder. "Everyone knows you shouldn't mix medicines because they'll cancel each other out! Not to mention that to get enough of the medicine they'll have to make giant pills. You'd probably be able to OD on just one."

I sighed. "Sometimes I think scientists have no common sense," I claimed boldly. "Seriously. If you watch those shows where they explain pictures found on satellites, they're ridiculous. 'I wonder what that dark circle on the Earth is? Maybe a bunch of birds! Definitely not just the moons shadow!'"

Now it was Zak's turn to laugh. "Flora Fickle you crack me up."

I smiled before leaving. I went into my closet and looked for my jacket. It was only the beginning of autumn, and this was Australia, so I highly doubted I'd actually need it, but it was always good to have it on hand. Or on hip, I guess?

I pulled it off its hanger and caught sight of the jacket I was wearing that day. The day I was chased down by strangers in tackie's. Something about it put me on edge, like I needed to find a way of protecting myself. And I probably did.

The people in trackie's hadn't stopped after that day. I'd catch them just about everywhere. Leaving school, in the shops, going for walks, even at the library. I didn't know what they wanted from me, but I had a fairly good guess that they somehow found out about my new abilities. It was all just happening too neatly for any of it to not have to do with each other. Just the same as my parents disappearing, but I'd let the police figure that one out. Really, I was in no position to be investigating it when I wasn't anywhere near the scene.

I was almost entranced by the jacket. I would need a way to defend myself. That, I was certain of. Then, out of the corner of my eye I saw my journal. The one I'd been using to keep track of everything I did to myself. A thought came to mind. Next to it lay a switchblade. The knife became unreliable when it was dirty, and I had to find something else to use. But it was perfect. I was accustomed to it and how best to use it myself. I'd never before considered using a knife on another person, but I didn't feel I really had any other options.

I took the switchblade in my hands and looked it over. The blade itself was quite plain, however I'd learnt in my Engineering class how to sharpen a blade. I'd done so to make it easier for me to use it, but it wasn't so bad that I'd cut myself with the lightest of touches. It had a few spots of dry blood here and there, but that wasn't too much trouble.

The handle was actually quite intricate. Zak's Dad had designed it himself just for me. He'd always enjoyed my feisty nature, although looking back it probably wasn't right to give a ten-year-old a weapon. Especially not now that he was in jail for murder.

I rubbed my fingers against the design. A series of thorny vines curling around it with the indentation of flowers. To my grandparents and him, I was their pretty little flower. Fitting for a name like mine.

I'd never really appreciated the gift or the design of it. I'd mainly ignored it because – like I said – it was a bit odd to get this as a gift to a ten-year-old. But I supposed I should thank him really. If it weren't for this very thing, I wouldn't have been able to do multiple of my experiments. It would also probably be the thing keeping me safe from the people in trackie's.

I tucked it into my sneaker and walked around to get used to it. I'd never particularly minded it when something go into my shoes, but this wasn't some bit of dry grass. This was a large bit of metal rubbing against my ankle. It felt much more unnatural than a simple bit of grass. It took a few seconds, and it still felt quite odd, however it'd have to do until I had somewhere else to put it.

I left, putting my watch on, and reading the time. The hands pointed to 7:28, so Zak and I would have to leave soon. I found Jade sitting at the table, still sulking about God knows what. She sent a glare my way as though I had somehow offended her by simply being in the same room as her. Which was entirely possible if she was in such a mood.

I rolled my eyes at her and threw my bag over my shoulder. Zak was already there, waiting with Samara next to him. We all said a quick goodbye to Jade and left for the car. I got in, slamming the door shut and buckled my seatbelt, still shuffling my foot in my shoe, trying to adjust to the switchblade.