Niragi

I held onto the bag Chishiya gave me like it was my life while running away a couple of metres from the Beach. I heard a cracking sound and turned around to see some big chunks of debris fall down from the building. I realized the Beach was on fire. Shit...

I glared through the gate of the exit again to look whether Chishiya was still there, but I couldn't see anything but fire and debris. My anxiety to loose him grew bigger than my will to obey him, so I ran back to the building to try and crawl through the window to look for him. I threw the backpack behind some bushes to pick up later and cracked my knuckles to prepare for the climb.

I jumped up to the lowest window and grabbed onto the window frame. As I pulled myself up, I heard the same sound of cracking concrete. I looked up and saw a big part of the building come down on me. The next moment, I fell and ended up under the burning debris, which caused another cracking sound. From my own body, this time. Fuck, the pain was horrendous.

Due to the smoldering ashes that landed on me next, my shirt started catching fire too. I felt the burning fabric scortch into my flesh, leaving my skin bloody red. I tried crawling from underneath it to escape the pain, but I was too weak to do anything. The next thing I remember was drowning in the dark depths of unconciousness.

Chishiya

After walking a couple of blocks, I entered the first building on my left. It was an avarage house with an easy to pick lock. I barricaded the door again with a chair and searched the ground floor for valuables. I found some marshmallows, a bottle of apple juice, some medicines like painkillers, bandages and a can of fermented soy beans.

On the first floor, I found two rooms: the master bedroom and a teenager's room. I walked into the second one and sat down at the desk. Above it hung a shelf with Lego trains and a poster of the city center of Tokyo.

I looked through the desk drawers and found math books, a blocnote and a pen. I grabbed the last two items and took the small piece of paper I found during the game out of my pocket. Staring at it, I realised it could have been a map. I teared down the poster and started searching for similarities.

Niragi

I had no idea how long I was laying there. Minutes, hours? When I woke up, the sunlight warmed my hand. I squinted my eyes to make my dazed look disappear and tried to push myself from underneath the chunk of concrete once again. Luckily, I succeeded and I sat down against it, watching over the remains of what once was Hatters utopian paradise.

After a while, I stood up and grabbed Chishiya's backpack from under some smoldering branches that once formed the bush. But I cringed when I hung the string from the backpack over my shoulder. That made me remember I was burned alive yesterday. Or whatever day it was.

I found a piece of a broken mirror near the Beach' remains and looked at myself while trying to touch the red skin on my chest. 'Aaaaaargh!' I couldn't oppress a cry of pain. My shirt was completely burned into it. Just like the rest of my clothes. Fuck. Shit. Chishiya would've known how to treat these. Sadly, I had to improvise myself.

I opened the backpack and found some bandages inside of it. I pulled some of the burned pieces of fabric from my own body and fully covered myself in the tightly wrapped bandages. This was probably not the right way to treat the wounds, but it was better than nothing. Hopefully, Chishiya could help me with it soon.

I started walking westwards, into the city center to look for a safe building to hide. The pain was insufferable so I had to look for a place to rest. I found an appartement block with a small store on the ground floor and grabbed some instant noodles and a bottle of water before heading upstairs. I opened the door of the third room and found a small condo with a semi-double bed.

I dropped the backpack next to the entrance and walked in. At the counter of the small kitchen, I opened the package of noodles and poured water over it. Cold noodles were better than nothing. I grabbed some chopsticks out of a drawer and stirred the noodles before walking up to the bed and sitting down on it. I ate in silence, watching my own reflection in the big mirror in front of the bed. I looked just how I felt: terrible. Now, definitely no one would like me, for sure.

After finishing the noodles, I laid down, not trying to focus on the pain. Eyes on the ceiling, I thought about the last days. I always had been more of a doer, what never caused me much trouble in the Borderland before. Until the last moments of the Beach, then. From now on, I had to be more careful. I had to become more of an observer until I got better. After pondering for a while, my thoughts drifted to Chishiya. Where was he? And did he manage to get out safely? Would he ever find me here?

I really hoped he'd manage to stay alive.

Chishiya

After looking at the drawing on the piece of paper the whole night and morning, I finally found the place it resembled. A specific metro entrance near where I was. I planned on going there soon, but I had to eat first. So I grabbed the marshmallows I found earlier and sat down again to devour them.

I pondered about my next steps and how I would be able to find Niragi. He had a big head start, because he was on his way since yesterday evening, before the witch hunt. I normally was more of an observer, but since I wasn't able to observe him much when he ran away, I had to just do what I thought was right.

Did he listen to me and ran straight to the West? Where was he? And did he manage to get out safely? Would I ever be able to find him back?

I really hoped he'd manage to stay alive.

[End of chapter twenty five and end of season one]

_______________________________________

I hope you enjoyed this season and are looking forward to reading more! I am so grateful for all of you who stayed until here and are still excited for my book to unfold! Of course, I'm going to start writing on season two soon and I promise that it'll be so worth it for ya'll...

Lots of love, Midnightwritings

Photo from the Alice in Borderland series on Netflix