ZARED

"Jinsen!" I yell out when I got closer.

He was a lot further away than I first thought him to be, but it was open space and it seemed like he couldn't hear me. I don't mind the others with him. They weren't important and I'll kick anyone's ass if they try to stop me from getting to him.

My sole focus was on him, to getting to him. He stands there, not moving still looking up into the sky fascinated by something. The tears continue to ran down my face as I get twenty, ten, five feet from him.

And just when I was reaching out something happens that causes me to come to a dead stop. I didn't understand why he didn't look at me, why he seemed to ignore me calling his name. Like he was completely oblivious that I was even there. Just like Seth and Mateo had been.

Now I stare in complete confusion and dumbfounded at what I was seeing. I was right in front of him. Right there. I could reach out a hand and touch him. But I watch as he lifts a hand and pushes on something that wasn't there between us. A slight wave of light flows from his palm and disappears into the air. I stare at it as he does it again, this time in a different spot.

I was breathing hard from the running. My heart aching and my throat closing in on me as I watch. Reaching out I try to touch him, but my hand connects an invisible wall of some sort creating the same light as before. It didn't make any sense of what was going on. We were so close to each other. Right here facing one another and yet...we weren't.

It made one thing clear as I took him completely in. He couldn't see me, couldn't hear me. Because whatever this is was preventing me from being with him. From him being with me. We were so close, so fucking close. My heart twists in pain and I felt like everything was crashing around me. Because while knowing he was still alive I wasn't any closer to him than that day at the mill.

I take in everything I could of him. He looked skinner, like he hasn't eaten for days. Dark circles were under his eyes like he wasn't getting enough sleep. He wasn't smiling and the light in his eyes were no longer there as if he basically has given up on everything. His hair hadn't been cut in weeks, maybe in months and his clothes...

New fresh tears gathers as I realize they were my clothes he was wearing. My shirt, my jacket. When had he gone back to my house to grab them? The bow slung over his shoulder I recognized instantly. I wanted to hold him, to show him that I was right here, alive. Placing both my hands on the wall I lean my forehead against it just as he drops his hand and starts to turn away.

Sniffling I whisper, "Jinsen, I'm here. I'm right here."

He suddenly stops looking back towards me without really seeing me. He frowns, his eyes skirting back and forth as if looking for something. Drawing up close, where if it wasn't for this damn fucking wall we would be in each other's space, he puts his hand back up creating the flow of light. Sliding my own hand up against his I swear I could feel the pulse of his heartbeat through my fingertips.

I watch him close his eyes and take a deep breath I couldn't feel or hear. Leaning as close as I can I whisper, "I love you. I'll find you. I promise."

Reopening his eyes I can see the tears gathering in them like he was able to hear me. But I know he couldn't. He starts to move away, and I couldn't help following alongside him as he follows the rest of his group. I wasn't ready to part just yet.

I could have walked alongside him for the rest of our lives if needed. But they start to break away from the invisible wall and into the trees. A boy roughly around our age yells something to him, pointing into the forest. I didn't hear what he said since his voice didn't penetrate the wall.

I stop walking when he leaves my side seeing another person joining him as he walks back down the hill we were still on. They each flank his side and I stand there watching all three of them fade away from me. I wanted to break down. Wanted so badly to follow him, show him I was here.

"So, is that him?"

I don't look away until they were well out of sight. Turning to Kyle and Alex who each came to stand by me, I say, "Yeah, that's him. That's Jinsen."

Kyle nods his head sadly, patting my shoulder. "Don't worry, Zared. We'll reach him."

"What the hell is this and why is it here?" Lacy pokes the wall watching the light flow and then fade.

"Not sure. After being here all this time I've never seen anything like this." I state, thinking on how Jinsen seemed just as perplexed as we are when he was standing there facing it.

"Why couldn't they see us, but we could see them?" Leo asks next frowning.

That I wasn't sure on either. But I needed to find a way to get past it. "There has to be a break somewhere." I look further down but it was hard to tell without being right next to it.

"Maybe we can try following it until it breaks. We have nothing else to do now that we found Jinsen." Lacy points out with a frown.

"They're going in that direction, slightly to the left. We should go that way in case we run into them again." Leo starts walking off and I couldn't agree more.

Following along with everyone else I couldn't help looking back where Jinsen disappeared too. All I wanted was to break down this weird, sudden, wall between us and wrap him in my arms. Just when we were in reach of each other, something else has to stand in our way.

For the next hour we walked and have yet to find an end. I was getting frustrated because the further I am from him the longer it was going to take to become reunited. Soon enough the river starts to bend getting closer to us against the wall. At this rate it'll divide into the water preventing us to move on as the rapids become even more unsteady than before.

"Shit." Lacy states just as we come to our end of the line.

The raging waters was loud in my ears as I look to see it was to dangerous and too wide for us to cross. "What do we do now?" Kyle asks.

"Do we turn back?" Lani places her hands on her hips looking around.

I didn't want to turn back damn it. I wanted to stop wasting time and get to Jinsen before the day was out and got even further away from me than he already was. My frustration was slowly turning into anger.

"Either way, we need to think how we're going to do this. We haven't really left the area and we already wasted enough time trying to figure it out." Lacy steps up to the boulders that had a slight incline to the water.

Suddenly loud voices rang through the trees in front of us making my entire body stiffen. They were at first muffled but then got clearer as they came closer to where we were at.

"I'm telling you it's this way!"

"We've been walking for hours and hit three different spots with you saying the same damn thing! We have yet to find it Seth!" A woman's voice snaps out.

My eyes widen and my heart starts hammering at the sound of his name.

"It's not my fault that everything looks the damn same around here!"

"This is exactly why I was against this idiotic idea in the first place! You got us lost!"

"You guys, stop fighting. We'll eventually find it, hopefully." Mateo's words rang out just behind them as they broke free of the trees on the other side.

Instantly they all come to a stop, staring at us with wide eyes of shock. There were four of them standing there just staring at us like a deer caught in headlights. I push my way through everyone until I'm faced in the front. As soon as they see me, their eyes widen in surprise.

"Zared?!"

"Holy shit, Zared!"

Both Mateo and Seth came rushing forward but stop when they see we couldn't reach one another from the river. I smile hugely thankful they were able to see me this time. Seth starts laughing, wiping his face from the sudden tears while Mateo looked like he was ready to crumble to the ground, he looked so damn happy to see me.

"Bro! Where the hell have you been?!" Seth yells out then looks around me as his brows furrow. "Where's Jinsen?"

My smile disappears hearing his name. "We got separated."

He nods his head looking a bit somber now. "Are you trying to get past the wall?" He asks next pointing to the right of us.

"Yeah, you know about it?"

"For a while now. The river is the only thing that breaks it, but only in certain areas." Mateo points in the location of the river.

"Okay! Enough chit chat! I like to get back on the other side to get to our group who are still waiting for us." The girl from before snaps out.

I don't know who she was, but I could tell I wasn't going to like her one bit. Lacy comes to stand next to me. "Hey, you guys, see we don't seem to matter to you." She sasses but has a smile on her face that was rare indeed.

"Lacy...and Cristina!" Mateo cries out now just realizing who was all with me.

"Holy shit, Leo and Lani are there too." They both look at Alex and Kyle giving them once overs wondering who they were.

"Nice to see you both made it out alive." Lani calls out, waving. I knew she was dying to find out about Chuck and Jacob. But that will have to come later until Seth says,

"Jacob is with our group on the other side. Chuck..." His words dies as he looks to Mateo.

Sadness overcomes them and I couldn't help saying. "We found Rissa under the rubble. Jinsen and me." My voice breaks remembering his wrenching sobs and heartbreak seeing his best friend dead.

"Us too. Chuck...he...he's the reason I even made it out of there." Mateo looked like he wanted to break down.

"We don't know what happened to Vi or Daisy. We saw them run off just like we did but in a different direction. There was too much going on with the fire getting out of control, the building collapsing...we were just running not realizing we all ended up getting separated." Seth finishes for him.

So, Violet and Daisy could still be alive out there somewhere. It's been months though, there might be a huge possibility they weren't anymore. I wanted to know what happened that night, of why the place was on fire in the first place but looking at the impatience of the girl with them I figure it could come later.

"So, how do we bypass this?" I ask sliding my hand on the wall and we all watch the light flow then once again fade.

"That's the tricky part. We have to swim." The other person with them yells out heading for the edge of the rocks.

We don't say anything more as we watch the guy climb down, places his hand against the wall on the other side and carefully sinks himself down into the raging waters. Then with a bit of difficulty he allows the river to take him until he snatches onto a branch that was protruding from a cluster of boulders and roughly get himself back out of the water and onto the other side of the wall.

It all took a good ten to fifteen minutes for him to accomplish and it caused a little anxiety within me that we'll all have to do the same. Only one problem on our end. Our side was more rock slabs than clusters and there was no branches or fallen trees of any kind for us to grab onto.

So, how the fuck were we going to be able to do that to get to the other side?