Spaces Between

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•Chapter Twenty-four•
Zombies? Zombies.
(EARTH)

Someone shook me awake. My eyes flashed open and I shot up. I was sitting on grass and the air smelt heavily of smoke. I started coughing.

"We must go," a voice beside me urged. Too loud. My ears were ringing, the voice only sounded loud and jarring. I shook my head, blinking. A hand fell on my shoulder.

"Lorien," the voice called again.

"L-Lady Koa?" I stammered. What had happened? My gaze turned wild; fire and wreckage surrounded us. Where are the others? Where were Alrekr, Nat, and Bucky?

Lady Koa slipped her hands under my arms and lifted me off the ground, "up you get."

I stumbled, "Where—where are they?"

"The others are safe," Lady Koa reassured, steadying me again. "But we must go. Whoever shot down your friends' ship out of the air may be coming back."

A lurid, seeping cold crept up my spine as she picked up my messenger bag and slipped it over my shoulders.

Who had shot the quin-jet down? Was the other okay? Was Tove okay?

***

"Lorien!"

The familiar voice shouted before Alrekr came barreling towards me. A relieved sigh escaped my lips as Koa released me. I stumbled again, but I stumbled again into Alrekr's open arms.

"I was so worried," I mumbled into his shoulder. Alrekr scoffed lightly, still not letting go.

"You were worried?" He started, "the rest of woke up with you nowhere in sight."

"We thought you had been taken."

It was Natasha who had spoken. I glanced over Alrekr's shoulder as we stepped apart. Both Nat and Bucky stood behind us—the former looked beyond disheveled. She had been flying the quin-jet and it looked like she had taken the worst of the crash. Her red hair was a mess and her cat suit was shredded in several spots.

"What happened?" I asked, carefully stepping around Alrekr. He gripped my hand loosely as Natasha shook her head.

"This freak," she paused, throwing her hand towards the sky, "storm knocked half of my sensors out."

As if she said something incredibly disrespectful, Koa went rim rod straight. A look of horror and realization spreading across her tanned features.

"Oh by the Gods no." Was the only thing she uttered. It was enough, combined with the dread on her face, to send goosebumps down my spine.

Bucky stepped forward, "what is it?"

Koa's wide gaze shifted up to Natasha and Bucky's, "draugar."

"What's draugar?" I asked, looking from Koa to Alrekr—who had also stiffened and gone pale.

"They are creatures of Hel." Koa explained as her hands hovered over the blades at her waist.