Adrenaline

Hands held, Teddy and Juniper stormed hellfire. 

And immediately upon entering, the flames attacked them. 

Strips of red and yellow, leaves of orange and lashes of white — the fire latched onto Teddy and Juniper the moment they entered. 

Within moments, the hairs on Teddy's arms singed off. His eyelashes and eyebrows, the hair that fell over his ears, it all burned — ignited like gasoline. 

But Juniper was there. In the reds and yellows, his ginger hair and pale skin almost melded with the flames. 

A tall and lanky man with a stream of freckles across his nose and pale green eyes, Juniper activated his Ability and white frost burst from his pores. 

The air around him froze, but the hellfire was tyrannical. 

The frost didn't even have a moment to turn to water. 

Instead, frost turned to gas. 

Oxygen and hydrogen, the frost particles skipped the liquid stage and instantly turned to vapor. 

The water vapor, the mist, it surrounded Juniper and Teddy like a cloak. And as Juniper continued to trudge into the fire, the cloak of mist followed and guarded them from the venomous tongues of flame that pounced at them. 

While running, Juniper suddenly stopped. He looked left then right: a crossroad greeted him. 

The two men made eye-contact and nodded simultaneously. 

Teddy crouched onto the ground. 

He placed his palm upon the ash and soot beneath them. 

Closing his eyes, he perceived the forest. 

A moment passed. Teddy's face contorted. 

Fear, anxiety, pain — Teddy's mind was engulfed by the screams of the forest. 

He felt their cries of agony as the flames devoured them. 

Teddy stumbled over. He collapsed to the ground, frothing at the mouth. 

"Hey hey hey!!!" Juniper smacked Teddy's cheeks. 

"Wake up, man!! Now is NOT the time!!" 

Teddy groaned. Flames tickled his ankles and Juniper's frost was depleting fast. 

"Fuck this!" Juniper wound his arm back and delivered a sonic slap upon Teddy. 

Teddy sprung up, light in his eyes. 

"Over there!!" Teddy screamed. 

Juniper dragged Teddy to his feet as he ran further into the hellfire. 

While running through the fire, panting and stumbling, their shoes sunk in melted flesh and stuck to the ash and soot that replaced the grass. 

Branches fell around them. 

Sticks lit aflame collapsed and plummeted. 

"WHERE ARE THEY, TEDDY?!!!" Juniper roared. 

His mana was nearly depleted. 

The air was getting warmer. 

His breaths were getting thinner. 

Teddy pointed weakly. 

'Over there!' He gestured. 

So Juniper and Teddy continued to run. 

Until the ground beneath forsake them and gravity enacted unto them. 

Juniper and Teddy tripped over air and fell into a giant hole. 

They plummeted over ten feet down and crashed onto something squishy and meaty. 

But down in the hole, huddled underneath the earth, the heat and flames of the forest fire above failed to reach them. 

A moment to catch their breath, Juniper's pores closed as his mana touched zero. 

Teddy pushed himself to his feet. He looked around the hole and… 

"Isaac?!!" Teddy rushed towards the aged gentleman. 

He was leaned against the mud wall, slouched over and unconscious. 

Teddy checked his pulse. He propped his head up and slid open Isaac's eyelids. 

Isaac seemed fine. 

His pulse was steady. His pupils dilated regularly. 

Teddy placed the back of his palm on Isaac's forehead. 

And his temperature was normal. Not too hot and not too cold. 

And yet. 

Teddy slapped Isaac awake. 

He tried to, at least, but Isaac would not wake. 

So Teddy tried again with Leon. 

He tried again with Darnell. 

Red handprints stung the cheeks of everyone present, but it was as if they weren't present at all as none of them responded to the stimuli Teddy provided. 

Meanwhile, Juniper gazed up at the surface. 

He studied the walls that surrounded them. 

Patting the soil, Juniper tried to dig his fingers into the mud, but it was like clay that had been heated. 

The walls had solidified. 

"Hey Teddy?" Juniper called. 

"Yeah?" 

"How do we get out?" 

For the first time since falling, Teddy took his eyes off of the people trapped within the hole and cast his gaze towards the hole itself. 

It was tall. 

Its surface was hard and smooth. 

Juniper looked at Teddy. 

Teddy looked at Juniper. 

They were trapped just like the people they were meant to save. 

"Wait." Teddy looked around. "Where's Olive?" 

*** 

An hour earlier… 

Clark subdued three of four Orcs. 

They were conscious and present, but their eyes were blinded and stinging. They could not see what was transpiring around them. 

Amidst the confusion and urgency, the fourth Orc, or the Orc still standing, stretched his vigilance thin. 

He nervously looked from the bushes to the trees to the sky, his head shot around all while his heartbeat steadily increased. 

Clark was in the bushes right beside him. 

In his hands he held the crushed flower petals of the dandelions. To his surprise, they were poisonous. 

He wouldn't have known that normally, of course, but when he built his third doll — the dandelion man — the Status registered it as a new sub-creation: a poisonous doll. 

If not for that, Clark would have assumed the dandelions were no different than the ones back on Earth. 

Across the small field where Olive hung, Clark's two dolls sprinted through the forest and readied themselves for the final push. 

Now in position, the acorn man ran into the open grass with a rock in his grasp. 

He arched his stick arms and tossed the pebble into the air! 

The pebble flew across the sky, clearing the tall grass just before crashing against the Orc's jade skin. 

The Orc spun around with a wild roar. 

He spotted the little acorn man and exploded across the field. 

The Orc arrived above the doll in a flash. He raised his monstrous foot above the acorn and prepared to crush it. 

But before he could, 

*splash* 

The dandelion man jumped from the tree branches above and expunged its poison infected pollen into the Orc's eyes. 

The dandelion man sneezed midair. 

A puff of yellow dust splashed against the Orc's face. 

And before his foot could plummet down, the poison took effect. 

His eyes stung. His nose grew runny. 

The Orc stumbled backwards, narrowly missing the acorn man beneath him. 

Then, Clark burst out from the bushes. He ran across the field towards Olive and slashed the ropes tied to her appendages. 

Olive fell into Clark's arms. It was a miracle he could even hold her. 

Adrenaline pumped through Clark's veins. 

The moment he caught Olive and pulled her out of the flames beneath her, Clark didn't stop moving and he didn't look back. 

He ran back into the brush of the forest and disappeared behind its foliage. 

Meanwhile, the severed ropes fell into the flames. 

And some of the ropes, although severed from Olive, were not yet severed from the trees themselves. 

So the flames danced along the ropes until they reached the rope's end. 

But then, with the ropes tied around the trees, the flames had yet more to consume. 

First, a branch lit aflame. 

Then, the leaves followed. 

The leaves burned quick and hot. A flash of brilliance and then a slow fade to ash. 

The falling ash of the leaves, some contained embers. 

The embers glided unto the forest floor where the overgrown stocks of grass awaited its embrace. 

Embers to flames. 

The grass ignited. 

The fire spread. 

Until it reached the first hut of the Orcs. A building constructed of wood and dried grass. 

A building highly susceptible to hell's mascot. 

The flames consumed all. 

The forest fire began and it could no longer be stopped. 

Clark bolted through the woods. 

His arms were quickly losing strength. 

He was losing control of his breath as his lungs churned hotter and hotter. 

His foot hit an exposed root. 

Clark's momentum hit a brick wall, but Olive continued. 

She slipped out of Clark's arms and flew forward. She crashed into the ground and rolled to a stop. 

Clark's knees were bloody. 

He stood up despite the pain. 

He made his way to Olive, whose legs were still twisted and whose hands and feet were still blue. 

But the sudden jolt forced Olive awake. 

Pain assaulted her, but she had learned to ignore it. 

Instead, she focused on her surroundings. 

For one, she was on the floor. 

The smell of smoke crept into her nostrils. 

And she could hear panting behind her, like a slobbery dog after a long walk. 

"Don't worry!" Clark said out loud but to himself. 

"I got you! I got you!" He ran to Olive's side. 

He grabbed her shoulders to pull her up, but the sudden death stare from Olive's black irises caught him off guard. 

Clark jumped back. 

"Oh my god you're awake!" He panicked. 

He jumped back. 

But then he jumped forward. 

Indecisive. 

"Oh my god are you okay?!!" Clark tried to get his hands underneath Olive's head. 

Meanwhile, Olive continued to stare at the boy. 

She recognized him but, 

'What the hell is he doing here?!' Olive thought to herself. 

"The others?" Olive's voice was tattered. 

Clark shook his head. "I could only get to you!" 

"The others were kept together, but I don't know where exactly!" Clark spoke fast. 

The adrenaline still had its grip around him. 

"Clark!" Olive snapped. 

She tried to turn her neck as far back as she could so she could look Clark in the eye. 

"Get a fucking grip!" Olive spat. "And come to the front of me!" 

"Right! I'm sorry!" Clark ran around her. 

Olive stared at him. 

"Listen to me!" She said. 

"I need you to draw something!"