by Patti Larsen
No one is buying it. The kids are so worked up Reid knows they will run the second he gives the order.
“Your father betrayed you,” Reid says, “sent you in here to die with the rest of us. And you trust him.”
Reid turns his back on Marcus, comes face to face with Leila. He is so shocked at her expression he loses some of his rage.
Her eyes are full of hate. But not for him.
She steps past Reid and plants a solid kick in Marcus’s side. He cries out, cringes from her while her mouth works and her lips contort. She spits on him, a shining wad of saliva landing on his face, before turning without a word and walks away.
As a group they abandon him, ignoring the soft sobbing that follows as they leave Marcus behind.
***
Chapter Twelve
They don’t make it far. Reid turns to make sure everyone is keeping up when he feels the hunters closing in. Grim, yet grateful for the connection, he hisses a warning just as the first of them attack.
His vision sharpens, then fades, flickering in and out, a distraction he doesn’t need. Reid struggles against the fire inside him, fights it for control and wrestles it back but sacrifices any chance he has to use what sharpened senses he’s gained in the process.
Panting from the effort, he sees three kids go down in rapid succession, all struck by the same hunter as they stumble and fall, huddling together in terror. The last one spins from the impact of the claws, frightened eyes meeting Reid’s, mouth a perfect ‘O’ of shock.
Reid sees the light leaves Alex’s eyes.
His fury takes over and this time he lets it, not caring if what he’s ingested is somehow turning him into the enemy. His heart pounds once, twice and he is suddenly full of energy again, though weaker than he had been the night before when the hit was fresh. His hand strays to his pocket, and the container of dust, but he doesn’t have time for more. The kids are running, panicked and out of control, their orderly scatter a mess of fear and screaming.
Reid howls his own battle cry and dives for the hunter who killed Alex, his knife in his hand, while the creature crouches low over its kill. It looks up at him, as though surprised by the speed of his assault and only has time to raise its arm when the blade penetrates its left eye. It shatters into a hissing cloud.
Reid is already spinning, fighting another, hearing gunshots, not knowing or caring if he is in the line of fire, his need to kill more powerful than his self-preservation.
The hunters are dead or gone on the chase and Reid’s desperate anxiety has no outlet. He trips and falls over something soft, levers himself up to find he has landed on Alex’s dead body. Giant tears pour out of Reid’s eyes, raining down on that tiny, dear face. Reid gathers the boy into his arms and shrieks his madness into the night.
Hands pull him free, drag him along, staggering and furious, killing rage rising again.
“Reid,” Cole’s whisper is a hiss, “we have to hurry. Come on.”
Reid can’t leave, has to get Drew and save him. But it’s not Drew, it’s Alex. His head hurts, the burning inside him driving a spike of pain through his temples, collapsing him to his knees. He clenches his head in both hands, a moan stuttering out from between his grinding teeth. He can feel Cole still dragging on him, hear the need in the boy’s voice, but is unable to act.
Something around him has changed. It snaps Reid into sharp focus, the pain gone in a moment. Stunned he still kneels there, one hand grabbing Cole and pulling him down.
“Quiet.” Reid’s hyper senses alert him just in time but way too late.
Soldiers rush from the trees around them, a solid line, rifles held ready. Reid pulls Cole to his feet and they run.
He has never run so fast or so well, the staggering boy beside him a burden but one he refuses to release. The image of Carly, her sweating fingers sliding from Reid’s, her death under hunter’s claws his fault for not hanging onto her, rides heavily in his mind. Not willing to let Cole go the same way, he swings the boy up onto his back mid stride and keeps going. He is lost, sense of direction skewed, unable to see the waning moon through the treetops. But it doesn’t matter. All he can do is run.
“Reid, look!” Cole points, but it’s unnecessary. The fence. They’ve reached the fence. Reid cuts to the right, following the open strip beside the barrier, seeing flickers of other shapes join him. His heart surges with new hope as he recognizes faces. Kieran and Sarah, Nishka between them. Milo panting and barely keeping up but his face set and determined. Leila, white blonde hair a banner blowing behind her. One or two others, then more, from the pack. Reid slows to keep pace with them, his energy fading but still beyond what they can manage.
His thighs burn as he climbs and crests a hill and then he sees it below. The gate, all barbed wire and humming power, soldiers running through into the enclosure, leaving it wide open.
Wide open. His mind can’t believe it. This is it, their chance, their one and only. Reid doesn’t hesitate. He runs for it and his friends follow him.
Something darts from the shadowy trees and Milo screams, goes down. Reid doesn’t have time to check. A hunter, maybe. He can’t mourn his friend. Cole is sobbing in his ear, whispering Milo’s name but Reid can’t let that affect him either.
Freedom is too close.
Two more figures swerve out of the dark but this time Reid sees they aren’t the creatures who hunt them after all but soldiers, ordinary soldiers. They grab Sarah, lift her kicking and screaming. Reid sees Kieran stop, Nishka too, and knows they are lost.
They can’t stop. Not if they want to escape. And Reid very much wants to escape.
He keeps running. When Leila is taken Reid’s chest tightens, even while other kids are being rounded up all around him. He is almost to the gate, so close, and it is still wide open and beckoning him on.
Reid trips and almost falls when a group of soldiers leap from the trees and try to grab him. He turns, evades, runs again. They’ve taught him well, it’s their own fault. But in the process Cole’s arms loosen, release and the boy screams as he tumbles free from Reid’s back.
He almost stops. Almost. The need to rescue Cole, the drive to save even one of them is so strong his stomach heaves and bucks inside him. But his need drives him forward, the burning in his body peaking again. Freedom is just too important.
The power that has awakened isn’t enough. He knows it. They’ve seen him coming, are swinging the gate closed. It’s too far and he is just too weak.
He only has one chance and doesn’t stop to think or reason or wonder what it will do to him. He only has here and now and this one slim chance to get away. The plastic container almost falls from his hand but he manages to get the top off and bury his face in it, breathing deeply, just as he reaches the fence.
It’s like the dust has given him wings. Reid’s mind screams at him not to abandon his friends while the fire inside him flushes everything away. The world goes into slow motion, the soldiers around him suddenly clumsy and useless. One fires a gun at him. He dodges the bullet as if it were a thrown rock. He can see the gap in the gate and goes for it, every ounce of the power he’s stolen hurtling him forward like a missile.
A black shape flickers on his left. A hunter. Reid snarls at it. But rather than take him down, the creature grins, salutes and backs off.
He can see the panic in the soldier’s faces as they scramble to stop him but there is no way they can. Reid shoves two out of the way, feeling them bounce from his hands like toys, soaring through the air to crash land against the hot fence. Reid smells burning flesh, hears the dull screams of the dying men, the shouted orders, muffled by the slow motion effect, and then he is at the gate.
Through it. His feet fly over the ground as he barrels straight through a pack of soldiers with guns who don’t get off a single shot before he is past them, leaping straight up, one sneaker pushing him off from the roof of a truck as he clears it and lands on the other side, still running.
He can hear gunshots
behind him, feels a bullet breeze past his right ear with a hiss of air. Reid weaves and dodges, leaves the dirt road and dives headlong into the waiting forest.
He rolls to his feet and keeps running, the forest now his friend instead of his enemy, holding him close and protecting him from pursuit. He knows they are following him, can hear the roar of truck engines and the continuing shouts of his pursuers, but he laughs. They are too slow and they have trained him very well.
Only the hunters can catch him and Reid now knows from the approval of the one at the gate they will do nothing to hunt him out here, even if they are allowed to.
His conscience finally makes him circle back toward the fence and the camp. Reid knows they won’t be watching for him here and he needs to know what happened to his friends.
This time it takes quite a while for the effects of the powder to fade and he is crouching near the outside of the compound before he feels it easing off. What he sees brings him the rest of the way back.
His friends, surrounded by soldiers, are being herded through the gate. Part of him is encouraged. At least they aren’t inside the enclosure anymore. Reid’s eyes flicker to a large cage, twisted wire roofed over, and sees a familiar figure inside.
Marcus. Reid’s rage soars. This is all his fault. If the dumb ass hadn’t turned them in to his traitor of a father… Reid shakes his head. It’s ironic, but true. He is free. And he has Marcus to thank for that.
He runs over a hand full of plans in his head until he finally has to admit the truth to himself. He can’t free them. The dish of powder is gone, discarded while he ran. He watches the soldiers herd his friends forward, sees Marcus get up and go to the only gate. Marcus is forced to back off at the threat of a bullet as the soldier in the lead points his rifle right at him.
The kids are stuffed inside the small cage and locked up again. Reid does a quick head count, trying to recognize faces, and sags in relief when he sees Leila. Milo. Kieran and Sarah. Cole and Nishka and a handful of others. Most of them made it. They are alive, at least for now.
And while Reid hates to leave them, if he wants to save them he only has one choice. He has to get help.
Swearing silently to each and every one of them he’ll be back, Reid turns and runs.
***
Chapter Thirteen
Reid runs for a while, trying to get his bearings. He knows the compound was pretty much due West but is on the far side of where he saw the interstate his first night.
Then he shakes himself. The town. The sign. Of course. There has to be an off ramp around here somewhere. Reid stops long enough to figure out where the town would be from his location while his mind taunts him. The sign could have been faked. Maybe there’s nothing out here but miles and miles of wilderness. But Reid won’t let himself go there, not yet.
As he orients himself, he listens at the same time. He’s so used to being in the forest by now he can easily filter out the regular nighttime noises and pay attention to the unusual ones. He can hear commotion behind him, knows the soldiers are searching for him. He ignores them. Off to his left, however, he hears something else.
Tires on pavement. His acute senses pick up the hum of rubber on asphalt and Reid’s heart leaps.
He runs, struggling for control over his vision, worried as he goes about falling and hurting himself. That would be perfect, really. Gain his freedom then bust a leg or get a concussion right when he’s about to be rescued.
Reid refuses to let his friends down like that.
His sharper vision finally snaps into place and stays with him by sheer force of will. Now that he has it, it’s easier to maintain. Reid feels around inside himself as he pours on the speed now that he can see. But from what he can tell he has no desire to kill and eat anyone, no homicidal tendencies aside from his need to kick Marcus’s ass and maybe the soldiers who did this to him. And the hunters. Them he will gladly kill given the chance.
But those feelings seem normal to him, revenge normal. He winces at what’s become so commonplace in his life and tries to focus on just getting help, not ready to examine the state of his soul.
Reid knows that this time something has permanently changed inside him. The black, gaping hole is wider and more alluring. Even his body feels different, as though he’s reordered how he’s put together somehow. And even though the super-strength he experienced has faded, now that he knows how to access and control his hyper senses he realizes that control and ability isn’t going away.
It’s then he has an epiphany. If he is really experiencing what it’s like to be a hunter, and he’s sure it’s only a fraction of what they can do, he knows now how futile the kid’s efforts to run and hide really were. Not to mention fighting back. And it makes Reid wonder how they managed to kill any of the hunters at all.
With no way to uncover any answers, he shoves the understanding aside and goes back to his first goal.
Finding help.
When Reid spots lights ahead he slows, rejoicing in the sound of vehicles hurtling by on the road ahead. He eases to the edge of the trees, eyes feasting on the two big trucks that roar past. He’s made it. But he’s not safe yet. This is just a side road, two narrow lanes with barely a shoulder to them, winding through the trees. He spots a shining sign ahead, considers it, trying to keep his cool while he rejoices.
The interstate. He’s going the right way after all. Reid wonders if this road goes all the way around the enclosure and realizes he doesn’t have that kind of time if it’s true. He has to get help now, not two days from now. His friends could all be dead by then.
Reid is about to emerge when he sees an Army truck thunder by. Of course they’ll be watching the road. He needs to be careful, kicking himself for his impulsiveness. They will be desperate to catch him and contain him.
Reid waits until they pass to scoot out to the edge of the road. He plants himself, belly to the ground and waits. The stretch of asphalt is quiet, the night deep. When no other cars or trucks pass, Reid rises and runs on.
The interstate must be close. The sign didn’t display a distance, which means the on-ramp has to be near by. He’s sure of it. Reid is so focused on getting there he doesn’t notice lights coming up behind him until it’s almost too late. He glances back over his shoulder and dives for the trees. The car slams on the brakes as he tears into the forest, kicking himself for being an idiot.
Until he hears a familiar voice call out. “Reid!”
It can’t be. He freezes in his tracks, spins back. Hovers, fearful to believe but knowing what he heard.
Again she calls to him. “Reid!”
He returns to the edge of the trees and looks out. And catches his breath. She stands there, hugging herself, her car door open, light spilling out onto the ground, the warning bell calling to her to close it. Her long blonde hair hangs over her shoulders and into her face. He can see her clearly, so lovely, just like their mother.
“Please, Reid.” It’s a whisper, but Reid hears her and can’t resist.
He could never deny his sister anything.
Reid staggers out onto the shoulder toward her, so overwhelmed he chokes on his rising emotions. “Lucy.”
She sobs once, runs to him, her arms going around him, pulling him to her. She squeezes him so hard it hurts but he doesn’t care, doesn’t, just hugs her back and feels his tears trickle down his face and into her soft, soft hair.
She jerks free and drags him forward, unresisting. “We have to go.”
Lucy climbs in the driver’s seat, slamming her door. He stares at her as her window hisses down, so shocked he is unable to act.
“Reid, get in. Reid!”
A pair of approaching headlights makes up his mind for him. He scrambles around the engine bonnet, jerking the door open, throwing himself inside. The lights pass their car by as he hunches down, out of sight.
Lucy doesn’t even wait for him to sit up before tromping on the gas pedal. Her tires squeal and smoke before catching on the pavement and hurt
ling them down the road.
“Oh my God, Reid, I can’t believe it, you’re alive, I was sure they killed you, I’m so sorry, this is all my fault.” She weeps as she rambles on, whole body shaking, hands locked on the steering wheel.
“Lucy.” He just smiles at her, like she’s some kind of apparition, an angel maybe. It makes him think of Cole.
“I found you, this is amazing, I never thought I would.” One of her hands unwinds from her death grip on the wheel and squeezes his knee. Her fake nails dig into his leg, almost painful. But he’s grateful for the contact. It makes her feel even more real.
“I thought you were dead,” he says. In fact, he was sure of it. The men who came that night to her apartment. Didn’t they take her too?
“I’ve been looking for you.” She glances his way, smiles, her perfect model’s face made up, flawless. Even her tears make her more beautiful.
“How did you find me?” He can’t wrap his head around it. He knows he’s nowhere near their home state of Arizona. Best guess the East Coast. How did she know where to look? “Where are we?” It’s important he know.
“Don’t worry,” she says. “Mr. Syracuse helped me.”
Syracuse. Reid tenses, all his anxiety and anger and fear roaring back as his own deductions fed by Ashley’s sobbing story tell Reid he needs to be careful. He is suddenly a trapped animal in the front seat of her car.
“We have to get out of here.” He hates the wobble in his voice. He’s been through too much to allow emotion to stop him now. Surely Lucy must know it was her boss who got Reid into this in the first place. How can she not know?
“We are,” she says. “I’m taking you somewhere safe. Oh Reid, I’m so sorry and I’m just glad you’re all right. It’s going to be okay.”
Her sincerity suddenly seems forced, her smile edged with untruth. There is a scent in the air, sharp and unpleasant. He realizes it’s the smell of her fear. She’s not clutching the wheel because she’s afraid they’ll be caught. She’s doing it because she’s afraid she will be.
