CHAPTER 43

"Help me," came a soft voice in Jeff's head. Jeff needn't ask who the voice belong to before he saw himself running to the direction. He had been carried away by the abnormality of the keepers that he had forgotten his friend. He felt panicked growing inside him. The appealing whisper in his head had been filled with agony and talks more about someone who was desperately in need of help. Jeff ran and ran with all his might, using his hands to knock out any leaf of tree that stood on his way. It would have been encouraging if he'd remember the route back to the place he'd come, but now he finds himself wandering with his bag behind him and calling out to Ema, for he was lost.

Jeff paused to catch his breath; he was sweating profusely and smelled of dirt too. His heart was pounding like a drum and seemed to be coming up to his already dehydrated throat. He wiped his brow and looked around but could only see green petals everywhere. "Why was I so stupid?" he blamed himself "I should have stayed around and not wandering far away like a wild animal" Jeff tried to spit but his mouth was too dry. He opened his right palm and studied the Flame card again. Just when he stretched out his hands to throw it away, the flame card started beeping with red tiny light. "It must be trying to locate its controller" Jeff thought.

The flame card only beep when he placed it on the westward direction and like a compass, the beep was more rapid when he moved westward. Jeff followed its lead and moved westward. He was unsure where the flame card was taking him but it was the only option he'd at the moment. The air was moist and the sun peach over the horizon, giving out rich gold light with little heat. Jeff walked for a very long time, his feet were weak and his throat was dry, but he kept on walking, with gaze plastered on the flame card. His once racing heart was now back, to its rhythmic beat and his initial sweaty brow was dry and cold.

Unknowingly, Jeff tripped over a root of a tree and fell, rolling over and down to the base of a small hill. He had been paying attention more to the flame card than the surroundings.

Jeff coughed and sat up weakly, his head was throbbing and his muscles arched. The flame card had stopped beeping but Jeff stared with wide eyes when he realized where he was. He was back at the spot where he'd left Ema. Dry brown leaves littered the ground but the little undergrowth under his feet, were all lying down showing that there had been struggle here. Two paces away from the point he stood were five dead keepers, pulping out smoke like roasted chicken. Five keepers with the flame card in their brain? Ema really wasn't bluffing when she said her expertise was fighting. Her black bag was on the floor and was open, revealing her sport-light red H-board. The black jumpsuit of the academy was on its mouth, like the bulging tongue of a dead animal. Her make-up kits littered the floor, together with her Sol-X device.

Jeff picked up the bag with tear filled eye, he looked around calling out to Ema but the only reply he got was the continuous song of the birds on the tree. Jeff turned in a three sixty degrees and was boiling with range, Raz and his friends had tricked them into coming out here, they had betrayed them. He found fluid in his mouth and spat with confusion, what was he to do at the moment? He couldn't go back to the academy now. The fence was already up and won't go down until the next day. He was still in his dilemma when the flame card in his hand started beeping again. The beep this time was weak and was pointing to the westward direction.

Jeff tucked Ema's H-board into his bag and collected some of her Sol-X, the rest he left behind. I'm coming for you Ema, he said in his thought as he ran westward. The farther west he ran, the stronger the beeping of the flame card.