Lost in the Crossroads

Prologue

It was night. Dark, cold and silent.

A direct contrast from the sun-lit disaster they were fighting through. A calamity that had been predicted to destroy a third of their country due to the shaking of the fault lines. The earthquake could have come any time in the next few hundred years but there it was, right now, right there.

It should have stopped as soon as it came, yet it didn't. The violent tremor continues, the ground moves as it were a wave on the sea and buildings that had stood for centuries started to crumble into their very own foundations. The deafening sound of shaking was like extended thunder that swallowed the screams of the people panicking.

Drivers should have stop their cars when an earthquake was happening and move out for safety.

Abelone choose not to, as the ground cracked open right next to the road. The screaming people running for safety didn't stood a chance and fell into nothing. It was a terrifying sight.

Earthquake drills be dammed. In their situation, it's either you move or die.

Her best friend had skillfully dodges all kinds threats which impresses Alexandra in a distant sort of way, if she wasn’t busy panicking in her seat and screaming from the top of her lungs along with her friends on the back seat. They have seen many buildings collapsed into the ground, trapping people under tons of rubble dead or alive. Suffocated from dusk and smoke. Their Trooper passed through a boy abandoned in the road crying for his mother. They could only glance and screamed at him before he was gone, trapped by a fallen signage board.

Then, it was game over for them too.

There was a fissure on the way that Abel couldn’t dodge, not even with her drifting skills. They ran into it straight and true. Their car tilted forward, passengers screaming and terrified out of their wits.

Hearts in their throat. Alexandra bitterly accepted they were to die right then. There was no way they were going to survive the fall. Not when they were going to crash into the river of lava underneath the earth.

For the last moment of her life, Alexandra choose to stare at her best friend, Abelone. A constant in her life. Abelone caught her gaze, silver eyes wide in horror illuminating the fiery depths of lava they were about to jumped into.

They were really going to die. No last words spoken.

The car skidded to a sudden stop with Abel’s foot stuck on the breaks. Her passengers lurched forward, screams cut off. Alexandra felt someone bumped on the back of her seat.

There was silence as everyone contemplated what just happened.

It was suddenly night. Dark, cold and silent. And they were still alive, somehow.

There was a scuffle, sniffle and coughs but no one spoke. No one dared to. All afraid to break whatever kind of miracle stop their imminent death.

The passengers collectively flinched when light illuminated inside the car with a click. Alex saw Abelone taking deep and calming breaths. Her hands were trembling on the steering wheel which sort of relieved Alex. Her best friend wasn't one to be easily intimidated, being a soldier and all. They were all soldiers but Abel was different. She was trained in the art of killing while they focused in the art of healing. Abel fought in the front line while they were in the side lines, patching up the injured and supporting the squadron of soldiers. She was relieved to see that her friend was still human.

Abelone was the first to move. As always. She removed her seat belt with barely trembling hands before she twisted her body to face their passengers in the back. No matter how much she tried to stop the trembling, it wouldn't.

They were all over each other on the middle seat, holding on tightly on what they can hold onto even if it was their friend's limbs. Drishti was tightly squished between Geneva and Kara. Tabitha was recovering from falling out on her seat and bumping into Alex's. At the back seat, Dein, Fenella, Blake and Hailey were a mess of bags and dust. All were shaking like a leaf in a storm. Their hair and make-up were a mess. But none seems to care at the moment.

Abel stared at them. Her silver eyes swiftly roaming over their forms for any visible injury. They were staring back at her with something akin to confused horror as to what just happened. Alex choose that moment to take her own deep and calming breaths.

“You guys good?” It was a question used more than once in their time as friends.

“Are we in…heaven?" Fenella whimpered, her eyes wild and lips trembling in panic and terror.

Alex sucked in a particular deep breath. They died?

“I don't think so.”Abelone replied without batting an eyelash.

“Hell?" Kara squeaked. In normal circumstances, they would laugh at that but this was no normal case.

Hailey nervously laugh at the notion of being in hell. That was a horrifying thought.

Abelone glanced calmly at the windshield, moving again to light the headlights on. There is no road visible. It was just dark even with the lights on. Her eyes flicked upwards, taking in the sight before her. She wasn't sure Hell have a sight like that.

“Doesn't look like it.” Abelone's voice remained neutral and flat, like the surface of a calm lake.

‘How the hell she does that?' Alexandra thought incredulously, exhaling loudly. She could see Abel's shaking limbs. Obviously, the soldier wasn't calm. She was good at faking it. But it still impresses Alexandra. As a doctor Alex has her moments of extreme calmness but what they experienced just now was totally different inside the medical ward. It’s not like she has patients or someone dying on her.

“Is anyone injured?" She hastily demanded, her eyes roaming their form just like what Abel had done before. “Anyone?”

Drishti, who have successfully disentangled herself from Kara and Geneva shook her head. Kara and Geneva didn't answer which is more than enough for Alexandra. If Kara was hurt, she will most likely inform the whole world she's hurt badly and dying. Geneva would be snapping angrily at her. Tabitha had enough time to recover from falling off her seat but she was ungodly pale just like the others.

“Dein?" Abel inquired at the back. Narrowed eyes fixated on front.

“I'm fine. Just a few cuts from shattered glass." Dein replied, clutching her right shoulder. Her hair was falling in her face and she was sporting a good few scratches from the broken back door's window. Her white t shirt was slowly soaking up the patches of crimson.

Alexandra grumbled a curse. Abelone glanced at the back seat from the rearview mirror, noticing the shattered glass of the back door with a pipe hanging on it. How did that happen?

She frowned noticing something at the back of their car. The lights were good enough for her to realized it was a tree trunk complete with barks and mosses. Abel gazed back in front, just pure darkness below. She wasn’t sure how they landed there but after their experience with the ground crumbling beneath the wheels of her car, Abalone had this feeling they were on a cliff with a huge tree behind them. She rarely doubts her instinct. It saves her a lot in the battlefield.

“Don't worry. We got her." Blake answered, already searching through the various bags in the back seat. Fenella catching some of the bags Blake threw in her direction.

“Okay. Hold on." Abel shifted gears, glancing back and forth. All eyes turned into her, confused.

“What are you going to do?" Kara squeaked again.

The Trooper slowly and carefully crept backwards. Most of them yelp when the back of the car lifted sideways. Slowly it balances again, indicating something being run through by the tires and lifting again. Nervously they strained their ears for anything, hear the soft crunches of the ground beneath the car, the whirring of engine, crickets cricketing and rustling.

“Abel?” Alexandra questioned, noticing land was slowly revealing on their path with tire tracks.

“Look up.” Abel finally answered.

Alexandra embarrassingly tilted her head up, facing the cream-colored roof of the car. The others embarrassingly and stupidly followed her example.

“Outside, you idiots.” Abel snorted, finding amusement with their slow uptake. The car stopped, bumping softly into something. Abel guessed it was just the root of the tree behind them.

“Say that sooner, you—oh!” Alexandra’s eyes widen and her voice died in her throat as she saw what Abel wanted them to see.

Abel rolled down the doors window for the others to see. Fresh air hit and enter the car as winds blew. It rustled the leaves of the tree behind them, creating an intermittent and uneven song of a forest along with the noise from the bugs.

For a moment, they have forgotten about the earthquake, the terror, helplessness and panic in the midst of the whole disaster. There was just the night sky, cloudless and filled with shining like diamond stars. It was magnificent and enchanting sight. A sight they have never thought they would see again.

When the civil war started and terrorists create havoc in their country, the night sky had filled with dark clouds and smoke along with the screams of despair of its people. The night was always dark and cold but never silent. Somewhere around their country, there will be gunshots, soldiers marching and bombing. The nights in their country were always be the darkest.

Letting them soaked up the sight of the star-filled sight and comfortable silence, Abel opened the compartment on the passenger seat for a flashlight. She couldn’t remember where she’d put her phone.

Alexandra barely noticed the movement as she stared above, breathing in fresh air in her lungs. Even Dein had momentarily forgot she was wounded, not that her wound was life-threatening. And Blake that she got a patient.

Geneva though, noticed Abel swinging her door open and set one foot on the ground filled with thick roots as her flashlight shone upon it. The driver didn’t move further than that one foot.

Geneva c****d an eyebrow at the comical position made by Abel at the opened door of the driver's seat. One foot on the ground and the other on the car's threshold, Abel's left hand reached out for her gun on the back of her ripped jeans. The flashlight she's holding on her right hand fixated something on a root. A little red and round light.

“What is that?" Drishti whispered, just right on Geneva's ear as she was leaning onto her to view the stars. The red light became two, then three, then four in varying colors. There was green, yellow, blue, orange and many more.

Geneva leaned back, feeling nervous all of sudden. “I don't know.”

Gradually the air is filled with dozens of tiny little balls of different colors, drifting up into the air.

“They were just fireflies, right?" Kara lightly commented.

“I thought fireflies were just green." Dein replied, confused. Blake hastily proceeded to help their wounded friend just in case something bad happen again.

“Abel.” Alexandra called for her friend who didn't moved from her perched, body tense and ready to fight whatever those things are.

“What is happening?” She asked slowly and anxiously, her hand busy rummaging through the open compartment for any kind of weapons. At the very least, the lights weren’t trying to get inside the car.

Abel poked one light, a red one, with her gun. Nothing happened. It merely drifted off.

“They're just…lights.” Abel answered, posture relaxing.

“Not fireflies?” Kara inquired.

Geneva poked one with her finger from the open window. When she felt nothing, she caught one, colored blue, and shows it to the others. Abel was right it was just a ball of light. Like a balloon it drifted up from her palms and hit the car's ceiling. Pitying the ball, Tabitha gently caught it and release it outside.

“Is it just me or the lights were just on us?” Blake wondered, cutting the sleeves off Dein's white shirt.

Abel turned off the headlights. She finally set her other foot down as she surveyed the sight before them. Just as she set it down, there was a sudden violent gust of wind, rustling the leaves loudly and spiraling the balls of light like a tornado only with myriad of colors.

“Abel!" Alex shouted, the wind making a more mess of her hair.

Abel met her best friend's accusing gaze as she shielded herself from the onslaught of winds on the open door. "I didn't do anything!”

“Well get inside!”

Just as it started, the wind stopped. One second there was nothing, only them taking deep breaths and sorting their frenzied emotions, then the next all around them was filled with color and light. They flinched then stared. The stars were nothing compared to what was being presented to their eyes.

There were layers upon layers of light and colors, mostly passionate scarlets and immaculate whites, but brilliant golds, deep azures and natural green danced across their surface like sunlight on a lake. The light and colors moved like a curtain flapping softly with the wind. It was everywhere, overwhelming and surreal.

“Are you seeing what I'm seeing?” Kara inquired softly, her eyes wide and awed-struck.

“Are you talking about the light show?” Drishti asked back, her face had the same expression with Kara.

Kara grunted a reply, leaning her body forward on the front seat to get a better view from the windshield.

“We all do." Tabitha answered. She was leaning out of the window.

“What is going on?" Fenella asked slowly, voice trembling and on the verge of panicking again. She could only take so much in one day that most of them shares.

“Have any of you wonder where the hell are we?” Hailey asked out loud.

All eyes turned to their driver.

Abelone didn't meet their eyes but she felt them. Her eyes transfixed to the curtain of light and colors unveiled before them. “Lost.”