I could feel myself crashing down.
But there was no one, no one to catch me. No one to hold me as I fell and crashed onto the muddy ground that was mixed with the blood and flesh of people.
Men, women, boys, girls... all around me. Dropping from up above me, beside me, before me, behind me, and even... beneath me.
People were being shot down from whatever building was still standing tall, and tall buildings were crashing down to dust and killing thousands in its wake.
And as I fell, I could hear it, loud and clear.
I could hear the screams, the screams of children crying for their mothers, wives for their husbands, and husbands fighting to reach their families. The ones still alive.
But I could also see, mothers deserting their children, wives dragging back their husbands, and husbands forsaking their families.
And I couldn't help but think, ``Ah, this really is the end of the world.``
I couldn't help but wonder if I could really make it to the portal in time.
I was scared. Scared of falling onto a pile of bodies, scared of becoming a lifeless body myself, scared of never being able to see my family again, scared of—
"I got you!!" Skye's palm wound around mine and she pulled me up straight and stopped me from falling.
I smiled gratefully at her, "Thank you, let's go!" I ordered, and she nodded.
After that, we had missed the chance to get into three portals already, even though by then, my hunch had been confirmed. It was the golden plane that was opening the portals.
But knowing this didn't guarantee our entry into the portal. It was hard, before we reached there, either a dragon would block it, or those wretched people would begin to send blasts toward the portal.
Before this, I always enjoyed trapping ants in a jar. I loved watching them scurrying around, effortlessly trying to escape, to save their lives. I never understood how those ants felt… Until this day.
We were equivalent to ants trapped in a jar with nowhere to go. We scurried back and forth, effortlessly trying to save our lives. I then understood the feeling of the ants.
The dragons and blasts have reduced us from thousands to a number of tens. Now, the number of people standing were no more than fifty, and half of that fifty were either without an arm, or were severely wounded.
It was a miracle but I and Skye were among the half who still stood without any lost limb or severe wound. We both only had scratches and bruises, other than that we were fine.
The blasts had reduced, and there was just one dragon on the ground. The rest flew back up.
It seemed this last one was stalking us. Its sparkling green eyes seemed to stare in every direction.
"That's the next place, Skye, we have to make it." I whispered to her.
"Kiva, we'll make it right?" She asked. I could see the fear in her eyes. I was scared too. There were less people now, we were an easy target now. But, we had to make it…
"We will," I assured her. At that instant, another portal was opened, "Now Skye! Run!!" I yelled, and we both moved our feet as fast as we could move them. And so did every other person still alive, but then…
"There's another portal!!" Someone yelled and pointed in the direction of the place we just ran from.
"And another one," someone else yelled.
"There's another one over there!" came the voice of another person.
Now it seemed the portals were opening everywhere around us, it seemed those bastards up above were toying with us! They've been toying with us from the very beginning, but now, they have lost their minds.
"Ahh!!" the cries of people being attacked by the dragon filled our ears. But we kept on running, dodging the dragon's hot flames and its vicious long tail.
"We're going to make it!" I told myself as we ran toward another portal yet again.
At some point, the fifty had been reduced to thirty, and the thirty were down to fifteen. Everyone was dying, but we kept on running. Tears blinding our eyes as we feared for our lives.
Our entire body trembled, but we could not dwell on that fact, not when we were down to about five now.
At some point, we no longer ran toward portals, we just ran, and ran, and ran, until…
"K_Kiva! A p_portal," Skye stuttered. My eyes opened wide, as right in front of us, about six feet away, a portal had opened.
At that moment, my head turned to the side, and I saw the wicked eyes of the dragon glaring right back at me. It seemed like he was daring me to take a step toward that portal.
The distance between myself and the dragon was about fifteen feet. Just a swipe of his tail would end me and Skye. But did we have a choice? If we moved, we died, if we didn't move, they didn't plan on sparing anyone, so we still die.
But fighting was better than giving up…
"Run! Skye!" I locked our fingers tighter than ever! And with the last strength in us, we ran.
And as we did, just as I expected, I could see the dragon's tail coming toward us. "Almost there, almost there," I tell myself.
"Just an arms length away," I comforted myself. I gazed at Skye and I saw the look of hope in her eyes. I wanted her to make it. She had to. But the dragon's tail was almost upon us.
So with all the strength I could muster, I tossed her forward, forcefully tearing my hand out of her own. I saw the shocked breath that escaped her lips as half of her body entered the portal.
"Go, one of us has to make it." I said as I slowly fell backwards and I knew my back would be colliding with the dragon's tail any second now. I saw Skye's eyes widen with horror. She'd probably hate me for this, but at least she was alive, I thought as I closed my eyes and waited for the impact with the the dragon's tail…
But then…
"You idiot!" Skye's hand wind around my own, once again stopping me from reaching the ground. "It's either us both or nothing!" she yells and pulled me along with her, and with one huge leap, we jumped into the portal.
But I could only wonder, what happened to the dragon? It was so close to me. We shouldn't have made it. We couldn't have. But we did. We made it into the portal.
We survived…
Or so we thought.