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Fire! | Shook Chapter 25 Part 3
A loud, high-pitched scream was heard from behind, and Dyan could have sworn it sounded just like Mrs. Blue. Screeches were also heard from beside them as cars stopped abruptly. The onesie-twosie cars in front of the truck retreated to the side lanes and stopped as well.
“Oh my god!” yelled Royal. She held a hand to her heart.
“We’re all gonna die!” True began to cry, covering her face.
“Now we really can’t go back home! Dad’s gonna kill me for breaking his truck!” Maya stiffened up.
“Where's the fire!? Why can’t I see it!?” Azure yelled, running across the inflatable boat to the front window.
“Because truck brakes are in the back of the truck, not the front,” explained Navy.
Dyan glanced at the sleeper window near the back of the truck.
She didn’t want to go back there. But at the same time she needed to see how bad the truck fire was.
As soon as she opened the window the smell of burning was more pungent, and she had to glare her eyes from the light gray, foggy smoke that puffed at her face. She couldn’t see the fire, but the trail of smoke coming from the back of the truck and the bright light coming from one of the wheels was enough to tell her that this wouldn’t end well if something wasn’t done fast.
As Dyan leaned back into the truck she bumped into the small crowd of people behind her.
“Is the truck really on fire?” Wild Yonder asked, his voice shaking.
“Yes!” Dyan yelled, breathing from her mouth.
Everyone was talking at once, even as Maya yelled for them to shut up.
“No, no no! Our lives can’t end this way!” Dyan teared up. She put her hands to her head and clamped them tight to her scalp. The truck was on fire, Maya, the driver, was panicking, and they were all headed straight for a bright yellow truck that would surely explode upon impact. Tears escaped her closed eyes and she sniffled, feeling powerless.
It was much easier to stare at the void behind her eyelids than the Blue children, who were either crying, yelling or babbling. She could still hear everything they said and it broke her heart.
“I don’t want to die! I would’ve rather just stayed at boarding school!” Royal cried.
“I would have stayed in Maine for the rest of my school career than face this!” Navy yelled.
“There has to be something we can do!” Azure wailed.
“Wait, you all are scared too!?” Dyan opened her teary eyes.
“Of course!” Maya yelled at her, her hands vibrating as she struggled to keep the wheel “Why would we not be!?”
“Well, I just thought you all never got afraid of anything,” Dyan trailed off, not wanting to say, I thought you guys would never get scared because you all are my book characters and I never once wrote that they got scared.
As if he could read her mind, Navy yelled, “This isn’t your adventure book, Dyan!” He stared her dead in her hazel eyes. “In real life, Everyone gets scared sometimes, even grown-ups! Fear isn’t bad, it’s just a warning sign for things! Like, hey you, if you don’t think of something quick, you’ll die in a truck collision!” he motioned a hand to the front window, where the opposite truck was fully in view and still getting bigger.
Dyan thought about this. Everyone did indeed get scared. They just found ways to deal with it. Maybe the Blues weren’t her book characters after all. Could she have just ran away with…normal kids!? Normal kids she had grown to love?
She looked at the truck, in which the fire had grown so wild it was eating the side of the truck nose, the smoke gray and thick in front of the windows. That made it hard to see the bright yellow truck headed for them.
They had about eight school cafeterias and a highway bridge of distance away from that thing, and even as Maya slowed down, they didn’t have much time left before they crashed.
Kayla’s words echoed through Dyan’s head. When things get tough, go slow. Think about what you're going to do, then find a way to do so. Back then, her problem had been a pesky moth. Now it was that she and her friends were stuck inside a truck on fire, headed straight for another truck. All Dyan had to do was figure out how they would get out of this. Though it pained her, she stared that growing yellow truck, challenging herself to look fear in the eye.
Her eyebrows sat right above her eyes as she took a deep breath in and out. “We’re not going to die.”
There was silence as all attention went to Dyan. She avoided looking anyone in the eye, staring past them at the road.
“How can you be so sure?” Navy walked toward her.
“I just am. We’re going to have to jump out of this truck.” Dyan said, looking around and piecing a plan together.
Find out what happens next in the next part!
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Hey there! I’m Shila! I’ve loved books since I could read, and decided I would write books I wanted to see written for others! Check my children’s book Imagination on Amazon!
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