The Meeting (Emerge)
Page 5
I spotted Nina as I took cover behind an overgrown rhododendron. She was standing without a coat, her pale-colored shirt almost glowing in the predawn light. I couldn’t make out the expression on her face, but she didn’t appear to be moving, and I could see the fear in her ice-blue eyes.
I saw no one else.
I couldn’t see enough of the campsite to figure out what was going on, so I decided to take in the campsite from another angle. I moved right. I realized I would have to expose myself briefly in order to reach the next large tree that would cover me. I took in a deep breath, and just as I moved my foot, I heard movement behind me. I froze. I started to whip around to my left when the movement advanced on me too quickly for me to react.
An arm encircled my waist, and a hand covered my mouth. “Shhh. It’s me. Don’t scream,” Dax whispered close to my ear.
Every muscle in my body ached with tension as I turned in Dax’s arms, letting out the breath I was holding. “What happened? Something doesn’t feel right.” I kept my voice low.
“I woke about an hour ago and decided to go looking for you. When I returned, three men had cornered Nina and Dylan. I’ve never seen them before.”
“They’re from New Caelum.”
Dax jerked back like he been punched in the gut. “What are you talking about? What are they doing outside the city?”
“I don’t know. I watched them leave. Four trucks left the compound about thirty minutes ago, heading in different directions.”
He held a finger to his lips, warning me to keep quiet. Grabbing my hand, he pulled me away from the campsite. We circled around a wide perimeter and came at the site from the opposite side.
From a spot well hidden in thick forest underbrush, we could see and hear three men questioning Nina and Dylan. Nina stood with her hands hanging to her side. Her fingers shook, and she shifted her stance.
“Who else was with you?” a man with short dark hair asked. He didn’t appear especially threatening, despite Nina’s obvious fear. “The two of you were obviously sharing this spot when we got here.” He pointed to where they had slept. “Who do these two sleeping bags belong to?” He held up Dax’s and my sleeping bags.
Nina and Dylan traded glances. I knew they wouldn’t say a word about us. But I feared what the three men would do to my friends as a result.
One of them bent and sifted through Nina’s bag. “Ryder, I think I found something.” At the sound of the voice, my head popped up. Due to the lack of morning light, I had failed to notice that one was a girl. Her hair was short, and she was quite a bit smaller than the other two.
I squinted, studying the girl as she pulled what appeared to be the map Nina always carried around with her. We always teased that she’d get lost without it—which was true. I, however, had the entire area memorized—every tree, every body of water, every established community east and directly west of the city.
The one named Ryder grabbed the map and held it up to Nina’s face. “What is this? What’s it a map of?”
Nina remained silent. The third one, the one who hadn’t yet spoken, stood back, appearing to take everything in. Though it was still dark, there was something about this one… a familiarity of sorts. I wanted so badly to get a closer look at him.
“You don’t feel like talking? That’s okay.” Ryder opened the map and turned it in a few different directions until he decided on one. Almost as quickly, he folded it up. “We’ll take this.”
“Are we going to bring them with us?” the girl asked.
“I’ll make that easy on you,” Dylan said. “Over our dead bodies will we go with you. I don’t know what you want, but you won’t make it one day out here in the wild.”
Ryder smiled. “What makes you say that, pal?”
Dylan stepped up to him. “Well, pal, you’re obviously from the city. I’m going to guess you’ve been there a long time. The people on the outside won’t take to you very kindly.”
“Maybe they’ll take more kindly to us if you’re with us.” Ryder raised a hand slightly and pulled a device from his waistband. Next thing I knew, he had stuck the device into Dylan’s side, and Dylan collapsed.
Nina screamed and fell to her knees beside Dylan. “What did you do?” she yelled.
“He’ll be fine,” the girl said softly. “But we need you both to come with us. We have no intention of hurting you, but we need your help.”
Ryder scooped his arms under Dylan’s. The other man grabbed Dylan’s feet. They carried him away, in the opposite direction from Dax and me.
By now, darkness was lifting. The sky was brightening. Through the trees, I followed the two men with my eyes until they reached one of the trucks from New Caelum. I could now see that they were younger than I had at first thought. Teenagers, probably. Boys.
The girl stood in front of Nina. She, too, was young. “I promise we don’t mean you harm. We’re looking for someone. A girl about our age. There are others from the city who are looking for other information, but we only want to find this person. You’ll be more protected if you come with us.”
Nina seemed to think about that. “Well, it’s not like I have much of a choice. I’m not going to let you just take Dylan.”
The nameless boy returned. “Ryder’s waiting for you. You’re going to go on ahead. I’ll search the area for the missing companions. I’ll contact you on the PulsePoint.”
Nina smiled. “You’ll never find them.”
“Either way, you can either go willingly with your friend, or we can force you.”
I could practically hear Nina’s brain processing the choice. Finally, she sighed and followed the girl toward the large truck.
I cocked my head and watched as the remaining city boy bent at the knees and picked through the rest of our belongings, standing when he found something.
I squinted my eyes to see what he was holding. When the small item came into focus, my hand flew to my neck. It was my necklace—a leather necklace, with exotic beads from my parents’ travels, and adorned with a small wooden charm, a gift from a friend.
He slid the necklace into his pocket, and my blood boiled. But I tried to hide my emotions, not wanting Dax to do anything to alert this guy to our presence. The city boy then surveyed the rest of the campsite, circling the fire, and studied the foliage. He moved toward the trees that I had squeezed through earlier that morning and disappeared into the forest.
I recognized a tracker when I saw one. This guy was tracking my moves from earlier. How the hell would he have learned to do something like that?
And why were we so important?
Dax stood slowly and motioned for me to follow him. We circled around the back side of the campsite, opposite where the mystery guy had disappeared into the trees.
The truck pulled away and continued making its way east, heading directly toward the community we’d left just the day before. I prayed Nina and Dylan would be okay. But we all knew and accepted the risks of going rogue, away from one of the established communities.
Slowly, Dax and I continued to circle the camp area. The mystery guy was gone.
Dax faced me. “He’s tracking you.” His tone came out in a harsh whisper. We’d both watched the guy studying the broken branches, the bent grass, and the impressions my feet had left in the moist dirt.
I smiled. “He can try. He won’t be able to track me very far.” I had learned long ago to cover my tracks.
Dax put his arm around me and pulled me to him in a playful hug. “That’s my girl. Let’s get our stuff and get out of here. We have to warn as many others as we can.”
Also by Heather Sunseri
The Mindspeak Trilogy
Mindspeak
Mindsurge
Mindsiege
Tracked (A Mindspeak Novel) - coming soon
The Emerge Series
Emerge (Click the title to purchase from Amazon)
“The Meeting” (An Emerge short story)
About the Author
He
ather Sunseri was raised on a tiny farm in one of the smallest towns in thoroughbred horse country near Lexington, Kentucky. After high school, she attended Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, and later graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in accounting. Always torn between a passion for fantasy and a mind for the rational, it only made sense to combine her career in accounting with a novel-writing dream.
Heather now lives in a different small town on the other side of Lexington with her two children and her husband, Mike, the biggest Oregon Duck fan in the universe. She is a recovering CPA, and when she’s not writing, she spends her time tormenting her daughter’s cat, Olivia, and loving on her son’s Golden Retriever, Jenny.
Heather loves to hear from readers. Please sign up for her newsletter—A Piece of My Mind—to hear when future novels are released by following this link: http://heathersunseri.com/newsletter. You can also connect with her in several other ways:
Heather Sunseri
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Versailles, KY 40383
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