“How do we do that?” asked Rena.
“You three hide,” Kirk said. “Get behind or under anything you can find. Use pine branches to sweep away your footprints. I’m going to keep going so that there are tracks for them to follow. Once they’ve gone past me, I’ll come back this way and we’ll regroup and plan our next move.”
He looked around at the three teenagers’ faces. “It’s going to be fine,” he said. “Just keep calm.”
“What if they find us?” Yo-Yo said.
Kirk pointed at Yo-Yo’s hands. “Then you send a fireball at them and run,” he said. “Now, go.”
He turned and left them. Rena pointed towards a part of the forest where the trees grew more densely. “Let’s go that way,” she said. “There’s more cover. I’ll go last and wipe away the tracks. Try to step in each other’s footprints so there aren’t as many of them.”
“How are we going to erase our prints?” Nemo asked.
“I’ve got an idea,” said Rena.
Yo-Yo went first, taking big steps as he moved deeper into the darkness of the trees. Nemo followed. “Hey, longlegs,” she said. “Can you shorten up the steps? Some of us don’t walk on stilts.”
Rena, going last, paused and concentrated on the snow. She focused her telekinesis and pushed, urging the snow to fill in their footprints and smooth them over. It mostly worked, and she hoped it was enough to fool their pursuers. At least the moonlight was shining on the prints Kirk had made leading up to and away from the hiding spot. That might save them.
The three of them found a place where two trees had fallen over. Although their branches had long since lost the needles that once covered them, the trunks were thick and provided something for them to hide behind. Nemo, Yo-Yo, and Rena crouched there in the snow, waiting. Afraid of making any noise, they didn’t talk, and for a while the only sound was that of the wind moving through the branches of the trees.
Then they heard the soft crunching of footsteps on snow.
Rena, who was in the middle, reached out and took Yo-Yo’s hand in one of hers and Nemo’s in the other. She squeezed them gently, her heart racing. When a bird somewhere in the forest hooted, startling her, she bit her lip to keep from crying out.
Two shadows detached themselves from the darkness and moved into the moonlight.
“What did he say they could do?” said a man’s voice.
“Fire,” answered a woman. “That’s the boy. One of the girls breathes underwater. The last one I didn’t quite get. Something about bringing dolls to life.”
The man snorted. “Not much of a challenge,” he said. “Except maybe the fire kid. We should have asked for a discount.”
“I think that’s why he threw in the military guy,” the woman said. “At least he’s got survival training.”
“Looks like they all stayed together,” the man remarked. “That’ll make it easy.”
“And boring,” said the woman. “What’s the fun of catching them all at once? I told you we should have gone on a big-game safari hunt instead.”
“Anyone can do that,” said the man. “Come on. The tracks go this way. Might as well get it over with. Didn’t Dennings say if we catch them within two hours we get half our money back? We could still take that safari after all.”
The two figures disappeared into the trees. Rena felt her heart slow a little, and she was able to breathe more easily again.
“Now what?” Nemo whispered.
“We wait for Kirk,” said Rena. “That’s the plan.”
They waited. The cold had soaked right into their skin, and crouching behind the trees was uncomfortable. After what felt like an hour, Rena looked at her watch. Only ten minutes had passed.
“Where is he?” Yo-Yo said.
His voice was too loud, and Rena shushed him. A moment later, a light flickered over their heads. Someone had turned on a flashlight and was now shining it around the trees.
“I hear you,” said the voice of the man they’d heard before. “Nice trick, trying to make us think you’d gone on ahead.”
The three teens froze, saying nothing.
“Come on out,” the man said. “Game’s over. Let’s all go back to the lodge and get warmed up. No sense freezing to death, kids.” He laughed, and the sound sent shivers down Rena’s spine.
Yo-Yo squeezed Rena’s hand, and she realized they were all still linked together. She looked at her friend. He shook his head no. His eyes were wide, filled with terror.
“All right,” the man said. “If you want to keep playing, we can play.” A second later, a dull thud sounded, and snow tumbled down from a branch above where Rena, Nemo, and Yo-Yo were hiding. Rena looked up and saw an arrow sticking out of the tree trunk a few feet above their heads.
“I’ll count to three,” the man said. “If you’re not out by then, we’ll do this the hard way. One.”
None of them moved. It was as if time had stopped. Rena felt her friends’ hands in her own, but her body wouldn’t move.
“Two.”
Rena felt Yo-Yo’s hand slip from hers. She turned her head and saw him starting to stand up. He had brought his palms together, and a ball of light was forming between his fingers. The glow was already spreading as the ball of fire grew stronger.
“Yo-Yo,” Rena said.
It was too late. Yo-Yo stood up, revealing himself.
“Three,” the man said, just as Yo-Yo flung his hands out. A fireball shot forward. The sound blasted through the night. A tree somewhere in the vicinity of the man burst into flame. Then Rena heard herself scream as an arrow whizzed past her head.
Another fireball was forming in Yo-Yo’s hands, and he flung it at their attacker as Nemo and Rena stood up and looked around, trying to see what was going on.
“That’s more like it!” the man shouted.
“Run!” Yo-Yo told the girls. “I’ll take care of him.”
“No,” Rena objected. “We stay together.”
The boy raised his arm to lob another fireball. Then he gave a shout of pain, and the ball flickered and went out. Yo-Yo hunched over, clutching his hand to his chest. “Get down!” he shouted at the girls.
“Are you okay?” Rena asked, kneeling behind the trees again.
“It grazed me,” Yo-Yo said. “Hurts like a son of a bitch.”
He showed her his hand. Blood was dripping from a slice on the side of his palm. Rena knew they had to bind it up, but before she could do anything, another arrow thwacked into a tree beside them.
“We’re sitting ducks here,” Nemo said. “We’ve got to move.”
“What’s going on?” The voice of the woman they’d heard before rang out. She sounded excited.
“They’re pinned down in there,” the man said triumphantly. “I think the fire starter is wounded. What did you find?”
“Nothing,” the woman said.
Rena’s hopes rose. She hadn’t caught Kirk. But where was he?
She got her answer a moment later when he emerged from the shadows behind them. “We need to make a run for it,” he said. “Yo-Yo, can you do your thing?”
“I think so,” Yo-Yo said.
“Then now’s the time,” said Kirk. “Biggest ball you can make. Throw it right at them, then we’ll run back the way we came.”
Yo-Yo nodded. He held his hands together. The wounded one was still bleeding, and it shook as he focused hard on the empty space his fingers made. There was a spark, then another. Then a ball the size of a grapefruit bloomed, swirling with orange and red flames.
“Don’t miss,” Kirk said.
Yo-Yo stood up and threw the ball of fire. It struck something and burst into flames. There was a scream. He had hit the man.
“Run!” Kirk shouted.
The four of them darted away from the tree. The man, who was on fire, was staggering around as the woman yelled for him to drop to the ground. Nemo, Yo-Yo, and Rena dashed into the trees. Kirk, bringing up the rear, shouted at them to hurry.
Rena
heard a grunt. She turned and saw Kirk stumbling towards her. The front of his jacket was open, and on his chest a stain was blooming around the shaft of an arrow that protruded from his body. Then there was another whistling sound, and another stain. Kirk jerked and his mouth opened, blood spraying out and covering the snow.
He lurched forward. Rena held out her hands. Kirk clutched at her, his fingers grabbing at her necklace. He fell, and the necklace was pulled away with him. He didn’t get up.
“Rena!” Yo-Yo shouted. “Come on!”
Rena looked down at the body in the snow. She bent to retrieve her necklace, and an arrow whizzed over her head, making her fall back without the piece of jewelry. She got to her feet, turned, and ran into the darkness.
CHAPTER SEVEN
SIX
THE MOUNTAINS OF NORTHWEST MONTANA
SIX STOPPED WALKING SO ABRUPTLY THAT SAM almost ran into her.
“What?” he said.
“Did you hear that?” Six asked.
The in-ear receiver she wore was tuned to Rena’s transmitter, while Sam was receiving Nemo’s feed. Although the wrist monitor Six wore was receiving the video feeds from both girls’ contact lens cameras, the smallness of the screen and the darkness of the woods made it impossible to tell what was going on.
“The shouting?” said Sam. “Yeah. Why? Did you hear something else?”
Six nodded. “Rena must be closer to them than Nemo is,” she said. “Something happened.”
“Is he dead?” said a voice in her ear. It wasn’t Rena’s and didn’t sound like Nemo or Yo-Yo either.
There was silence, then some scratchy sounds, as if something was being dragged through the snow. Then a woman’s voice said, “He is.”
“Good,” said the first voice. There was an odd quality to it, as if the speaker was in pain. “He was the only one with any survival skills. Without him they won’t know what to do.”
“The boy can still shoot fire,” said the woman.
“Yeah, I noticed that,” the man replied.
“Relax,” said the woman. “It only burned your jacket and part of your arm. You’ll live.”
“It’s my shooting arm,” the man complained. “And in case you haven’t noticed, it’s pretty goddamn cold out here.”
“We can stop at the lodge and get you another coat,” said the woman. “They won’t get far.”
The man grumbled something unintelligible, and Six heard the sound of feet on snow. They were walking away from the necklace, which Six guessed Rena had either dropped or lost. But that wasn’t what worried her at the moment.
“Patch through to Lexa,” she said to Sam.
A few moments later, Lexa’s voice was in her ear. “Where are you?”
“We just got to where they parked the truck. Now we’re heading up the mountain,” Six said. She hesitated a moment, then asked, “Are you still getting a read from Kirk’s tracking device?”
“I’ll call it up,” Lexa said. Then, in a more somber tone, she said, “It’s still tracking, but it’s on recovery mode. No signs of life.”
“Shit,” Six muttered.
“What the hell is going on up there?” Lexa growled, her usually calm voice bristling with anger.
“Someone is hunting the kids,” said Six. “Literally. Kirk was helping them get away, and—”
“How close are you?” Lexa interrupted.
“Not close enough,” said Six. “Can you help us out?”
“I’ll work with Nine on getting someone up there,” said Lexa. “But it might take a little time.”
“A little time is all we have,” Six said.
“Got it,” Lexa said, and disconnected the call.
“They’re really hunting them,” Sam said. “They’re as sick as the humans who sided with the Mogs.”
Six said nothing. Inside, she was raging with anger and frustration. She wanted to find Nemo, Rena, and Yo-Yo and get them out of there. Then, she wanted to find Jagger Dennings and the two monsters hunting the teens and show them what it was like to be on the run from someone who knew how to use her Legacies to their full extent.
She doubled the pace. She and Sam moved swiftly up the mountain, following the path that Cutter had led Rena and Nemo up. Without Rena’s transmitter sending them her feed, Six tuned to Nemo’s, hoping for clues as to where the three teenagers were.
What she heard was three frightened kids who were running for their lives.
“Are you sure he was dead?” Nemo said.
“No,” Rena said, her voice trembling. “But I think so. There was a lot of blood.”
“Fuck!” Nemo said. “This is all so fucked-up!”
“Yo-Yo, we need to bandage your hand,” Rena said in a calmer voice.
Good girl, Six thought. Keep them thinking about other things.
“What’s the plan?” Sam asked from behind her.
“First, we find these three and get them out,” Six said. “After that, I don’t know.”
“We find the two who are hunting them.”
“I’ll be more than happy to spend a few minutes with them,” Six told him grimly.
They reached the point where Cutter had transferred the girls to the ATV. Now, even though they were in great shape, they found the going tough. Six pushed herself on by listening to the voices of Yo-Yo, Nemo, and Rena as they looked for someplace to hide from the people pursuing them. They had bandaged Yo-Yo’s hand. Now they were debating whether to go to the lodge and try to steal an ATV or keep moving on foot.
“Dennings will be waiting for us to try that,” Yo-Yo argued. “I say we stay away from the lodge and head down the mountain on foot.”
“My feet are blocks of ice,” Nemo said. “My jeans are wet too. Rena and I aren’t dressed for this. If we don’t change or get warm, we’re going to freeze to death before we get out of here.”
“Nemo’s right,” said Rena. “My teeth are already chattering, and I can’t feel my toes or fingertips. We’ve got to dry out somehow.”
“Okay,” Yo-Yo said. “There’s another building. Some kind of barn or storage shed or something. Down the mountain a ways from the lodge. I heard Dennings tell Cutter to go get something out of it. We can try to go there. Maybe find some weapons while we’re at it.”
“Won’t they be watching that place too?” Nemo said.
“You got a better idea?” said Yo-Yo. “Unless you can build us a cabin somehow, that’s all I’ve got.”
“We’ll go there,” Rena said decisively. “It can’t be any more dangerous than trying to get down the mountain in this weather. Besides, Sam and Six are probably on their way to help.”
“We are,” Six said aloud, forgetting that they couldn’t hear her.
“We have our tracking devices, and if they’re listening, they’ll know exactly where we are,” Rena told the others. Then the sounds of talking were replaced by sounds of walking.
Six looked down at her wrist. She was wearing a GPS that showed their position in relation to the lodge, the coordinates of which she’d put in once they’d used the data from Rena’s and Nemo’s tracking devices. They were only about fifteen minutes away.
All of a sudden, there was a screeching sound in her ear. She pulled the receiver out, seeing that Sam was doing the same thing.
“What was that?” Sam asked.
“I don’t know,” said Six, rubbing her ear. There was a ringing in her head. “It’s like something fried Nemo’s transmitter.”
She looked at Sam as a horrible thought filled her mind. If the transmitter had been destroyed, it might mean Nemo had been hurt, or that Dennings had discovered it was a transmitter and removed it. Sam, likely realizing the same thing, said, “We’ve got to get to them.”
Finding the barn was not difficult, and it’s setting—below and away from the lodge—meant that it was hidden from anyone spying from the main building. This didn’t mean it was safe, though, and Six and Sam weren’t about to just walk through the doors. Instead, they first
peered through one of the windows on the side. The inside appeared empty. Then Six noticed movement towards the back, plus a flicker of light.
“They’re in there,” she said with a sigh of relief. “But if they’re smart, they’ve barricaded the door from inside. We need to get their attention.”
Sam looked around. The barn was filled with pieces of furniture, boxes, and tools of various kinds. But one thing stuck out at him. It was an old pinball machine, sitting not far from the window. Why it was there, he had no idea. “This might do it,” he said.
Concentrating his attention on the machine, he brought it to life. The lights around it suddenly flashed, and the various bells dinged as a ball was launched up the shooter lane and the flippers went wild. It wasn’t the subtlest way of announcing their presence, but it did the job. A moment later, a worried-looking Nemo peered out from the shadows. Sam waved at her, hoping she would be able to tell it was him and not think someone was attacking them.
She did. She ran to the window, then to the door, which opened a crack. Sam and Six slipped inside, then they barricaded it again. Six looked at Nemo, who was trembling with cold. “Are you okay?”
Nemo nodded even as her teeth clacked together. “Yeah” she said. “Just hiding out from some nutjobs who are trying to hunt us down like a bunch of deer. The usual.”
“We heard,” Six said.
Rena and Yo-Yo appeared. Relief flooded their faces when they saw Sam and Six. “You made it!” Rena said.
“Let’s go in the back,” Six suggested. “Away from the windows.”
Rena led them to the rear of the barn. There, they found a fire burning inside a large metal cauldron that hung suspended on chains from a steel frame. “Hunters and farmers use these for cleaning animals they kill,” Yo-Yo explained. “You fill them with water and heat it to help de-hair hogs and such when you’re skinning them. I saw my cousins do it once. It’s kind of gross.”
“It makes a nice fire pit,” Sam said, holding his hands over the dancing flames.
“I don’t think I’ll ever feel warm again,” Nemo said, standing close to the cauldron.
Rena looked at Sam and Six. “I think they killed James,” she said, her voice breaking. “I tried to . . .” Her words trailed off, and she started to cry.
The Legacy Chronicles - Into the Fire Page 6
