Maren
I can’t see anything but orange light and the shapes of people running.
“Sera! Mom!” I scream. My throat feels like I swallowed a stone.
“Maren! Stay close to me!” Sera’s voice is right there, then it isn’t. A crowd of men from the pack... men who never looked at me for twenty-two years... shove past us.
They aren’t fighting. They’re just trying to live.
“I’ve got you! I’ve got you!” I yell back, reaching out. My fingers graze the wool of her cloth, but then a beam from the roof of the tool shed crashes down. It’s a wall of fire between us.
“Go to the trees, Maren! Run!” she screams from the other side.
“No! I’m not leaving you!”
I try to jump through, but the heat is too big. I look around, crying, trying to find a way around the flames. The houses are burning in a weird way
