Daughter of fire

Out

I find myself waking up, sitting on the back seat of the van, my head resting in Liana's lap, while Daniel is softly shaking my shoulder, with an worried look in his eyes.  

"Did you wake up? Are you ok? Do you feel any pain?" Asks Liana with a soft voice. 

She takes my hands in hers, but she is a little hesitant. Is she afraid of hurting me or of me hurting her? I think she would be right to be afraid. It still hurts me a little, but right now even I am afraid of the hell I have learned I am capable of unleashing.  

"You've been pretty great back there, little girl."  

Gabi gives me a quick smile over his shoulder, then he goes back to focus on the road, calmly. So they don't fear me. A weight just got off my chest and I breathe in relief.  

"I don't remember anything more than the light of the flames."  I try to say, but I feel my neck so dry that it hurts.

Miri turns to me, too.  

"You're joking, right? That was the most amazing thing I've seen in my life. When I said we had to change your rating to A-type I didn't think you were that capable. I mean... you combusted everything that happened to be in your way, including pretty large parts of the wall itself, you know what I mean? It was like a bomb exploded right in front of us. And then you started walking forwards and we followed you. After a while, you fainted, and the fire stopped."

"And you?" I ask even though I can see they are fine.  

"The fire simply avoided us. But I still thought we'd die from the heat. And did you know the fire doesn't affect you? Well, almost, it burned your clothes."  

I look at her in horror and feel my cheeks get on fire, not literally, but close enough. I only have a blanket they must have found in the back, covering me. But that doesn't improve things. Daniel had seen me naked. Gabi had seen me naked. And then the real horror, the A-type boy had seen me naked! I'll have nightmares with this for the rest of my life. I don't want to know what they thought. Do I have fat legs? Oh, goddamn, I said I don't want to know what they thought!  

I manage to muster up the courage to look at them one by one: Gabi is attentive to the road, Liana and Daniel are fixing me, in order to make sure that I am really ok, and the A-type boy looks lost in his thoughts (does he think something about me? No, no, no. I must stop that.)  

And Miri... Miri does what she knows best, she annoys Daniel.  

"You know, the hero was so scared that his girlfriend might be hurt. He screamed until he made my ears bleed." She acts like she is talking to Gabi, but I see her looking at Daniel.  

"Shut up, Miri!" Says Daniel embarrassed.

Gabi curses as the car almost hits a tree.  

"Sorry, sorry. My bad."  

It takes me more than a minute to process what I just heard. To move a car? Daniel moved a car? Even though Liana looks shocked too, Miri is the one that finally asks out loud. 

 "Can you control large objects? A car?"

"Not really, but I can move it off the spot. Do you think you're the only ones that practice their powers ?"  

Daniel grins at me and Liana. Perhaps he was not as powerless as he claimed to be. Some part of me is proud of him, and another fears that one day he will be strong enough to stop needing me. So he will go away. But for now, I can only smile at him.  

Then I look out the window for a while. I am fascinated. Trees... and grass. Green grass, with pretty flowers everywhere. All the colors that I couldn't name under the blue, sunny sky. I've only seen things like this on TV. And even there it was blurred images. But right now, in front of me is heaven... I realize I may be a little too childish, drooling at the view, but when I turn around I notice that they all do the same. They enjoy that little piece of hard-worked freedom. But it's not over yet. We need to discuss how are we going to pass the next checkpoints.  

Maybe I can use the fire again... I am not sure.  

"How much longer do we have until the next checkpoint?"  

I feel they are staring at me in confusion, and then turn to each other, with weird looks on their faces. Like I am the one that is acting weird since I woke up. I mean... I've burnt a wall, not the entire base.  

"What, what happened?" I finally ask, a little annoyed.  

After a moment of silence, Liana is the one that answers.  

"You don't remember?"

"What should I remember?" 

Liana looks away so Miri is the one that finally says it out loud.  

"You've gone through all the checkpoints, Sweetheart. We're already out."  

What?!