JAMES

Autumn leaves danced with the whispered wind. It overflowed his lungs with sweet, cloudy tastes of marshmallows cooked over a fire. He winced when his throat tickled and sliced through his entire chest. He laid in the grass, where his knees filled with lead. Wind embraced him, and he knew if he woke up, the frozen moment would continue.

A soft whir answered him.

Rayan... he's using my datacam. Again. I told him to leave the photography to me... Another soft whir responded to his breathing. Maybe I should stay here... pretend I don't hear anything. He found comfort in the waving grass while it echoed with his breathing.

His throat pulsed with embers, and he coughed. Mucus stuck to his tongue as he tried to free himself from its burning claws.

"... stabilizing... transport to Camp Shennen..."

Huh...?

Everything went silent.

Rayan?

He struggled to open his eyes past the grey field, no longer underneath the small tree in Rayan's backyard. Golden barriers rushed through him while a vita-monitor beeped in his ear. Unable to see the beautiful night sky full of rainbow stars, or the autumn wind in the air to guide him home. He squirmed with the pain tearing through his chest, causing one of the faceless scrubs to rush to him.

I can't...

"... we've got a response from him..." a disembodied voice said while wetness slicked across his brow. "...tell General Falae..."

An ashen haze swallowed him once more. Holographic sheens hugged him tight and close with the blankets wrapped around his entire body. Air pushed through his nose as he tried to keep his eyes open, to find clarity in the frozen moment. He switched his attention to the faceless while features bloomed when they came closer with a concerned expression, where deep shadows rested under their eyes.

"What's the ETA on that damn transport?" they questioned another pair of scrubs at the flap. "Bad smoke inhalation..." Another one. It echoed through his mind as the Medic checked him over. "...think we're losing him..." their voices disappeared into the field of ash, and he wanted to sleep underneath the tree which danced in the autumn wind.

Rayan sat at the edge of the pond, drawing quietly on a sketch pad while he observed and caught what he missed. His head pulsed, and he pressed his hand against his temple when Rayan turned back with a curious, concerned smile. It fluttered between a beautiful day and fiery hell.

"...detox levels are too low..." another voice joined the fray, fluttering the dream. "...It's a wonder his lungs aren't burnt beyond repair." Shadows tore apart the dream and returned him to the darkness. "Up the levels of the regenerative nanosprites. Get more air into him... transports coming soon..."

Come back, Ray.

"How's the other boy's inhalation levels?"

"Minor compared to this one."

Who are they talking about?

His last memories tugged at crinkled edges. He wanted to return underneath the tree of autumn, where he slept softly, soundly. In peace and safety — until Rayan interrupted his sense of serenity with the whirs of the datacam he gifted.

I want to wake up.

Distant sirens woke him to a flaming gate through his eyelids, but when he tore them open, the ground rumbled and the environment changed. Medical transport. Monitors beeped around him with hooked lines, with him strapped into the medical pod while he tried to investigate the angles, to find his way back home. Air continued to hiss into his ears and pushed into his nose, while two Medics stood with their hands on the railings above their heads while their voices formed into nothing but white noise.

James blinked when the farthest one poked the other, and motioned at him. He winced when the nearest one shambled to his side with the rolling transport, keeping themselves low as they slipped beside him with a faint smile of hope. The farthest one spoke something he couldn't hear, a question from the way their head tipped and eyebrows raised.

He followed the Medic's hands, keeping up with the blur. He stared at them while sirens wailed and drowned out their words.

Just take me back...

Their smile died after their words went unheard. One shake of their head at their companion as they reached over him to flick several buttons, and adjusted the vita-mask over his face. Autumn wind flowed through his lungs full of ashen cobwebs. He closed his eyes when it embraced him, and he found himself once again in Rayan's arms, on a happier day.

Everything ticked on.

His attention fluttered in and out of the darkness as the rumbling soon stopped. Images escaped and turned to sand in his hands without his camera to capture them.

Oh, yeah... I left it at Rayan's house... after...

After...

It cracked through the frozen moment on a line of embers.

"His heartrate's rising."

Distant sirens crawled into a scream, and he snapped open his eyes.

He tried to lurch back into action, but his body screamed at the movement. "Shit," one of the faceless Medic's became a person as they rushed to him while another held him down. "No." Their hands found the vita-mask around his face as he tried to swallow the remnants of autumn before he lost it all. "You're safe now, James Ranier."

Safe?

No, we have to run.

He trembled and coughed up the mucous cobwebs over his tongue. He dug his fingertips into his chest as one of the medics bustled at the table. "I need you to lie down," the main Medic whispered and set him back down. "The regensprites haven't done their work yet."

Webbed sensations wrapped around his throat. "The attack—"

"It's over," they whispered as they slipped a cold wrap around his throat. "It's over. You're not well."

Pain rocked through his chest. "My-my family, are they here?"

"We can try to explain everything once you've laid down and rested," the Medic instructed, then turned to the Elite at the tent flap, who peeked in. "Tell General Falae he's finally awake." James heard the sigh of relief on their voice as their shoulders slacked. "Finally..."

Huh?

James slumped deeper into the golden bed with a cough and flinched when the other Medic gently slipped a needle into his skin. The soft whirs weren't Rayan using his datacam at all. It had been the monitors of the healing pod. He fought to get up, but the Medic pushed him back down.

"Let us take your blood."

No, I need to... this is a horrible nightmare, right?

Wooziness joined the swirling embers, but he fought to stay awake, to hear the truth. "What happened?" he asked, where the hoarseness dragged its teeth through his voice. "Where... someone...?"

"General Illiya Falae brought you and Meryn to the forward relief camp," the Medic answered while they wrapped his elbow and arm. "I need you to take deep breaths for me, Mr. Ranier."

"My family—"

"Deep breaths," they repeated and flicked through the monitors. James followed their insistent instruction, lulled back into the autumn sleep from the sweet, cloudy air flowing into his nose and mouth from the vita-mask. He refused to drown in the flame-lit dark, where the campfire crackled in his ears and roared into an inferno.

Deep breaths...

His head burned.

Deep breaths...

He ran through an ashen-cloaked forest.

Deep breaths...

Nothing, nothing but white, and a dragon-headed shape which stopped the descent of the tree about to take him to his family. His home, in flames, before the tail—end of a stray artillery lazer wiped his sight clean.

His lungs hurt every time he breathed deep. Faint beeps denoted the blood pounding through his chest and heart. The Medic came back into view as they shook their blurry heads at the monitor. "I know it must be so hard," they whispered. "You need to let yourself rest."

"No..." He coughed again.

Exasperation and distress hid behind the Medic's calm facade. He drew his attention to the tentflap when it rolled open, where he spotted the main cabin of Camp Shennen. Darkness settled across a familiar shape. "James?" they asked as they came closer into his picturesque view. He peeked closer, and for a stuttered moment, thought it was Rayan.

Molten gold dripped into ice blue. His world shivered.

"Mrs... Falae?" he asked, then coughed when smoke scratched his throat.

Relief escaped her with a soft, painful laugh. "Yes, it's me." She sat beside him. "How are you feeling?"

"I... I don't know," he rasped, then sat up and tested the Medic's patience when their lips folded inwards. "Mrs. Falae, where is my family? Are Rayan and Ava here? Did anyone escape?" Questions burned in his throat, but his memory scattered, embers into the stars.

Illiya Falae breathed deep. "I need you to lie down first, James."

"Why?" He sat up further and ignored his burning body. "I can hear you? How long was I out?"

"I don't doubt that you can hear me... and we'll get to that if you lie down," she instructed, soft.

"Tell me like this," he insisted. "Where are they?"

Mrs. Falae clasped her hands together. "I'll tell you if you lay down and breathe."

James relented and returned to the golden cocoon.

"Now," she whispered. "First, I must ask what do you remember? I don't want you to force yourself into recollection... I just need to know where I need to begin."

"I..." James winced. "It's foggy. I remember... texting Meryn to meet me outside of Eastpoint. I stormed off from home..." He lurched, and the Medic came closer to settle him. "Meryn?"

"Meryn is okay," Mrs Falae assured. "He's with Aelius and his mother. I'm moving them out of this district."

"Aelius?" James questioned. "What about Rayan and Ava?" His heart pounded. "I have to see them."

Mrs. Falae tented her fingers and considered him with a weary crease to her brow. Nothing else betrayed the emotions in the ice. "Okay... James, you were in and out for a full twenty-four hour period," she explained. "It was... for a lack of a better word, worrying for you." Her chin rested on the tips of her fingers while a mother's concern clutched at her lips. "They weren't sure you'd make it."

James frowned at her. "I did..."

"Yes, you did."

"What about Rayan and Ava?"

Mrs. Falae tipped forward. "I want you to listen to what I'm about to say," she said and stood up. "Rayan Falae, my son, is missing. As for your family, including Ava Ranier, are among the now identified dead."

Worlds cracked and opened into oozing blood through the embers.

"No." James shook his head. "No. No. Ava was at your house. Both of them were at the safehouse." He attempted to release himself from his bonds, but the Medic kept him in place. "No. You're wrong."

Mrs. Falae frowned deeper. His heart dropped into the black hole when she tugged out a familiar necklace, soaked in ash and grime.

The wolven necklace.

His last connection to Ava.

"I need to see," he snapped. "Let me go home!"
"You don't need to see that," Mrs. Falae said. "You'd never be able to unsee it. We had to block the entire town off. You don't need to see that carnage, James. You'd puke."

James leaped out of the bed, causing the monitor to beep in alarm. His entire world tipped, but he held himself strong against the frontline while he made to push past Illiya Falae, determined to prove her words a falsehood — a lie.

Ava was safe. Rayan would keep her safe. They are both safe, they can't be gone.

The Medic rushed to him to turn a dial on the side of his vita-mask. It hissed in his ears, and he fell forward from the pressure. Mrs. Falae caught him and lowered him to the ground on his knees. "No." Tears overflowed. "No. You're wrong. Did you even look?"

"I identified them, and so did Aelius Matthey."

James struggled when the Medic picked him up and placed him back in the golden cage. "You're wrong. You're wrong. You're wrong." He squirmed in the blankets. "I sent her to the safehouse, I sent her..." He sobbed while the world darkened. "It couldn't... how?" His lungs filled with ash, and the autumn burned to nothing.

Soft whirs continued to drag him into the endless torment.

Mrs Falae came closer to him. "I'm going to contact your father."

Wretched flames heated his throat, but no surprise danced along it. He wanted to puke the embers out of his system. "He's alive?" he rasped. "Oh, of course he is. No one else is..."

He cried.

"I'm going to tell him you're alive."

James grabbed her hand.

"Please don't."

"Why not?" Mrs Falae asked. "You need your father, James."

"Please." Rain fell across his cheeks. "Tell him I'm dead. Let me be dead."

The Medic frowned and eyed Mrs. Falae. He lost his strength to fight against the tide. He coughed his misery, though the Vita-mask pushed the sweet air into his soul. "I don't want to see him," he rasped. "Please... I'm done."

"James, you're not—"

"It's my choice, I don't want to see him," he managed. "I still have that choice." He pushed the necklace back into her hand when it burned into his fingertips. "Give that to Meryn..."

Mrs. Falae rubbed the bridge of her nose with a small shake of her head. "We'll have to talk more once you're well enough," she said. "Close your eyes, James."

"You need to let me... go back..." James fought against the call of sleep, but all feeling washed out of his body as he slipped into the embrace of the bed. Golden shimmers wrapped around his limbs, and the world rumbled and shook.

In and out of reality.

He fought.

Time moved past, but he failed to grip onto his reality. Figures shambled around him, and one pulled the blanket closer to his chin. Another cloth replaced the previous, cold on his brow and calming in its spread.

It wasn't horrible flames.

Ice.

"Any other survivors?"

"No, only the two that we have," one of the Medic's replied. "Meryn Matthey is ready to leave with Dr Matthey. James Ranier is in no condition too—"

Every voice faded.

He floated in darkness and longed to remain there — to pretend the world was a lie — its truth, a lie. It fluttered around him while the images dripped onto a palette of colour, as if Rayan painted it for him.

"You can put my name in then," Mrs. Falae's voice mixed with Rayan's in his head. "Transport him to the Odaport General Hospital. He can stay with me until he recovers fully."

Stay with me, Rayan begged.

Stay.

Stay...

Darkness claimed him again while embers burned the beautiful painting.

"James?"

Ava? Rayan?

"Jamie."

He twisted and turned with whatever swayed beneath him, trying to escape the sterile sights and sounds of a place unfamiliar. He released his consciousness before it took him to confusing places he no longer recognized.

I should've been there. I wish I was. I don't want to be here anymore. I want to be with them, with her... like I was supposed to. I was supposed to come back.

Everything burned and he couldn't breathe.

The frozen moment no longer stayed in place.

I wished I stayed.

He wanted to wake up to molten gold.