Petra's POV

First, everything was blurry, then my eyes adjusted to the horrifying feeling of being next to one of your best friends one moment and alone the next.

Thunder still rolled through the sky and rain still poured, but Carter and Jesse were nowhere to be found. I tried standing up, but a sharp pain in my leg prevented me from using it, so I toppled back into the rainwater, which was beginning to get really deep. I looked down at my leg and found that it was still attached to my body, but it was horrible to look at. I'm still glad that it didn't actually come clean off like I thought it did.

So, this is it, I thought, I'm just going to die.

I'm not sure why, but the thought that I was going to die tonight wasn't such a horrible thought. Maybe because Jesse was already gone.

I continued to lay helplessly in the dirt and let the rain wash my tears away. I laid there, alone, in silent sobs. My chest moved in an unnatural up and down way as I cried without stopping.

Thunder crashed again.

I played back in my head every memory I had of Jesse, up until the last time I ever saw her- giving up herself for me.

"Noo!"

Jesse's final word echoed through my brain in a terrifying sort of way.

Then it occurred to me that I didn't see her body anywhere. I didn't see Carter, either. I sniffed once more and sat up to get an awareness of my surroundings.

I instantly felt sick when I saw what was before me: Jesse and Carter, completely frozen into stone. I saw the look of fear on Jesse's face and a face of rage on Carter.

How did that happen? I thought.

BOOM!

I heard a crashing in the distance, but I could tell it wasn't thunder. I carefully stood up using my good leg, (Trust me, it's harder than it looks) and peered into the distance where the sound was coming from.

I could feel that I was beginning to lose balance, so I rested my weight on Jesse's statue. Bad idea. It immediately turned into dust along with Carter's figure, causing all three of us to topple into the water, which was now a little less than knee-deep.

I lifted my face out of the liquid and watched all the dust float away, making my heart sink to my feet.

I then remembered that loud noise I heard and decided to see where it was coming from. I slowly got up again and limped away in the direction that it came from.

Aiden's POV

"Aiden!" angrily exclaimed Maya, "You. Are. Freaking. Insane!"

"Mmm-hmm," I half-heartedly replied as I tried to pick the locks off of Lukas's chains with one of Maya's bobby pins... er, hair pins, or whatever the difference is.

"What in your right mind gave you the genius idea that you could use TNT to blow up the entrance to our cell!"

"Well, it worked," I replied casually.

"You could have seriously killed someone!" Maya protested.

The idea in my 'right mind' to blow up the jail cell was actually the workings of my ghostly sister, Katcha.

"Well, it's not as crazy as you trying to kiss someone while they're unconscious!" I said with a smirk. Maya blushed.

"She didn't kiss me!" Lukas argued, "That was CPR, mouth to mouth, not tonsil hockey!"

I chuckled at the fact that he used 'tonsil hockey' instead of kissing but didn't say anything else as I continued to work on the locks. I could only imagine how Maya felt about Lukas being disgusted about kissing her.

Click!

"Got it!" I exclaimed as the second lock came undone. Lukas gingerly held his wrists.

"Well, it's about time! I'm sick of looking at your stupid face!" said Maya as she grinned at me. 

So, I'm just going to assume that we've reached the point in our friendship where we can say super hurtful things in front of one another and not be bothered. Good to know.

"Ah, so you were staring at me!" I replied playfully. I know I probably shouldn't have said that with Lukas right there... oh, well.

Maya turned red. Oh, snap. What have I done? She's sort of known to have a short temper.

"If you want to keep your head you will never say that again!" she angrily exclaimed.

I laughed, "What are you, on your period or something?"

I think this just got awkward. Maya didn't answer, but I think that was answer enough.

"Whoa! How about we change the subject," said Lukas.

Suddenly, there was a scratching at the door.

"Is it a walker?" asked Maya quietly.

"No, it's a unicorn," I said sarcastically, "I'll find out."

I pulled my sword out and carefully approached the door. As soon as I turned the handle, a soaking wet, covered in mud, Petra collapsed onto the floor as she coughed.

"Petra!" Maya, Lukas, and I exclaimed at once.

"Hmm, so I finally get to meet the famed Petra," said Katcha from behind me, "kinda scuzzier than I remember you describing her as, no offense."

I ignored Katcha's remark and held out my hand for Petra to use to hoist herself up with.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

She looked at me with red eyes like she had just been crying.

"Jesse," she simply said.

"I'll get you a chair!" said Maya as she rushed into the room I was in earlier.

"What about Jesse?" I asked. She didn't respond.

"Here you go, Petra!" said Maya as she put a chair down for Petra to sit on.

"She's... gone," she said, "she saved my life."

My eyes widened.

"What happened?" I choked out.

Petra explained everything that had happened, from when she and Jesse were waiting for Lukas at the water to Jesse jumping in front of Carter's blade.

A silence filled the room as everyone thought about what had happened when Lukas broke in and said,

"What do we do now?"

"Oh!" I exclaimed, "I just remembered something!"

I reached into my inventory and grabbed my last healing potion. Okay, it was actually Carter's healing potion that I stole.

"Drink this," I said as I handed the drink to Petra. She weakly put it to her mouth but I instantly noticed her regain the color in her face.

"Thanks," she said dully, "we should go look for Jesse's flint and steel if we ever want to get out of here."

"Um, how about no," said Maya.

"Why not?" asked Lukas.

"Well, it's really flooded out there," she began as she walked over to a window at the front, "plus it's super dark, which would be dangerous if any walkers attacked us, all the mud and water would slow us down, and not to mention the lightning!"

Despite Maya's complaints, the next thing we knew we found ourselves trudging through the storm while trying to ignore her whining.

"This is terrible!" she complained, "It's awful, and dangerous, and gross, and I tried to warn you guys, but nooo, you had to ignore me! What does it take to get noticed around here these days!"

I was actually more trying to ignore Katcha happily flying around me and singing,

"Aiden and Petra sittin' in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

"Shutup," I muttered, which only made Katcha laugh.

When I looked up, I finally noticed what she was cracking up about. Everyone was staring at me.

"What did you say?" asked Maya with a little bit of hurt in her tone.

"What? I didn't say anything! You're hearing things!" I quickly lied. Maya scowled, but we continued walking. She didn't complain anymore, though.

"I thought you were supposed to by my guardian angel!" I whisper-shouted at Katcha.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," she began, "That was you who said 'shut up,' not me! I'm just here to save your life, not your ego! Boys! Am-I-right?"

I rolled my eyes as our group sullenly walked through the flooded woods.

"Okay, I think this is it," said Petra as we came to a stop, "This is where Jesse..." her voice trailed off.

Floating on the water were all of Jesse's old belongings- her enchanted diamond sword, a few sticks and things like that, and the enchanted flint and steel.

We all sort of took a minute to look at the remnants of our lost friend. Just looking at them put a lump in my throat, even though Jesse and I weren't really that close of friends. I kind of wish I could have gotten to know her better, though. 

"So, this is it, huh," said Lukas as he reached down and picked the flint and steel out of the water. He spoke with a forced smile, but I could hear the sadness in his voice, "we can go home!"

Maya's POV

I suddenly felt something... something deep inside myself. It might have been that I was gravely depressed, but maybe it was...

Blurrrg

Nope, I was hungry. I then realized that I couldn't remember eating my last meal.

"What was that?" asked Lukas.

"...my stomach," I admitted.

"Geez, Maya, you sound like Chewbacca!" Aiden exclaimed.

"I can't help it! I'm hungry!" I cried.

"I guess we could stay here a bit longer just to get something to eat," said Petra, "but then we have to get right back to finding that portal." Raindrops began to fill her eyes, or were those tears?

"Alright, alright," I said, "sounds good."

We wandered around some more to look for maybe someone who lived around here to help us out or an animal. Heck, I'd settle for rotten flesh at this moment! There's still a slight chance you won't get food poisoning from it...

"Guys, do you smell that?" asked Lukas. Right as he said that, I noticed that the smell of burning logs floated through the air. Weird that I'd smell something burning... in the middle of a flood.

"Yeah," said Aiden, "what is it?"

"Smells like burning wood," said Petra, "but that couldn't happen because— "

"Guys, look!" said Aiden pointing in front of him. I looked ahead and saw in the distance a burning building. In the rain. How is that happening?

"How is it doing that?" asked Petra.

"What if there're people in there?!" Lukas asked frantically.

"They could be in trouble!" I said, "Come on!"

We sprinted over to the house and realized it was way bigger than it looked when we were further away.

"How're we going to do this?" asked Petra, "I've never been inside a burning building before."

"Uh, hold your breath!" said Lukas as he barged through the doors. We followed behind.

The air felt like it burned our lungs to inhale, but we were all still alive so far. I couldn't help but notice that all the decorations were fire themed. Weird, weird, weird.

"Petra and I're gonna look upstairs!" Lukas yelled over the loud noise of the burning, "You two make sure there's nobody down here!"

"Got it!" Aiden yelled back as Lukas and Petra disappeared into the flame, coughing and wheezing.

"Let's go!" yelled Aiden as I followed him through the house, "stay close to me!"

He and I were coughing and sweating profusely. We couldn't find anyone until I heard him scream,

"Look out!" and pushed me onto the ground. The last thing I remember is a big, wooden beam falling right on top of him before I passed out because of the lack of oxygen.

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Hello, humans! Sorry that it's been a while! I haven't been able to post because I didn't have my computer with me, but I promise to get you caught up!

So, how is this building on fire? Are you going to show up at my house and murder me in my sleep for killing Jesse? Will there be any blossoming romances between Maya and Lukas or Aiden and Petra? Who knows? You will just have to find out yourself!

Stay tuned.