A thick, acrid aroma drifted through the one-roomed cabin like incense, encapturing the two young occupants in its heavy clouds. Adelaide had woken up to black fog and the choking odor of scorched wood. She was blinded by the combination of smoke and her own tears. "For fuck's sake." She mumbled as she struggled to untangle herself from the blanket that lay against the wooden floor. Her head felt as heavy as the smoke around her and every instinct inside her was telling her to bolt out of there. Waving the billowing smoke out of her face, the sound of crackling flames reached her ears. She could make out the sight of smoldering flames, hungrily sweeping across the wooden logs that held up the cabin. Common sense finally clicked in and she hauled her backpack and rifle over her shoulder and gazed around the room, coughing hysterically.

"Elijah!" She called, the roaring flames overwhelming her voice. Adelaide reached around and finally caught an arm. She yanked the sleeping boy to his feet. He staggered and glanced around in confusion, his eyes barely open. He choked on the smoke that reached his nostrils. She hastily picked up his bag and shoved it in his arms. "How the hell were you sleeping through this, you little idiot!?"She cried and yanked him toward the door only to find the inferno wounding itself and blazing out of control. Bolting over to a clearest spot she could find, she began kicking in the wood on the wall with strength a bit unusual for a girl her size, or for any girl. She finally managed to make a sizeable hole. Adelaide grabbed the wide-eyed boy and shoved him through it, "Go!"

Elijah couldn't exactly process much but after a hesitation he pushed through and crawled out on to the outside grass, coughing as his burning lungs finally got a taste of oxygen.
However, the hole wasn't big enough for Adelaide. He could see her trying to get through it but then she seemed to give up. He backed up, swallowing. There had to be another way out. Besides the fact she was his only companion and friend, he wasn't so sure he could survive on his own. Adelaide had always insisted that he could. He was pretty intelligent for his age, having only turned twelve a couple weeks ago. It was a miracle he even remembered his own birthday. Elijah could not remember life before traveling with Adelaide. 

Relief filled him as the brunette emerged from the chimney, the house under her crumbling apart. She climbed down the other side and came running over as the dark smoke billowed into the sky. She was quite a bit taller than him, with long wavy dark hair and a pair of brown eyes to match. Her jeans and jacket, as well as her skin, was darkened by soot. "You could have just got an alarm clock or something if you wanted me up early you know."Elijah informed her.

Adelaide managed an amused smirk. "You expect an alarm clock to wake you after you just slept through a house fire?" She asked, coughing. " Let's get out of here before we run into whoever decided it'd be a good day to try to set our cabin on fire." She did a quick scope of the surroundings, carefully letting her gaze slowly run along each and every tree of the forest around them. "Seems like a hit and run. Let's head toward Harrison Bay so we can wash up and figure out what we're doing. Did we lose anything of value?"

" Besides a couple of blankets that looked and felt like someone sewed a bunch of dead rat fur together, nope."Elijah replied, "I kept everything I need in my backpack." 

"So did I." Adelaide fixated her gaze upon the horizon as the rising sun splashed the sky with beautiful hues of amber and lavender. The sun was the only thing they couldn't fight back against, dragging them all into another day of living hell.