by Jenn Vakey
“She could need medical attention,” I countered, standing up and stepping out beyond the safety of the wards. I strained my ears, hoping to hear something. Anything that meant she was just a little ways down. All I could hear were the sounds of the woods. “Waiting could make this child an orphan.”
When I looked back to face him, I could see he already knew everything I was saying. He understood just what could happen if we followed the rules and went back to Alkwin. It would be two hours minimum before we could get to the mother. A lot could happen in that time.
He answered with a sigh, showing no signs that he was willing to bend on this. “And if there’s a group of Sentry out there? All they need is one Tainted person to get them through the wards. That would put the entire community in danger. I don’t like it any more than you do, Leeya, but we don’t have any other choice. We’ll get a team together. It’s the best we can do.”
I couldn’t believe that. I just couldn’t. I wasn’t going to leave her behind.
“Take the girl back to Alkwin and get the others,” I told him, looking him square in the eye. “I’ll find the mother. I have my Healer supplies with me.”
“No,” he said abruptly, shaking his head. “You can’t go out there alone.”
I took a step toward Auggie, struggling to keep my building panic from showing. He was going to have to drag me back to Alkwin. I needed him to understand that. “I’m not Tainted,” I told him. “The most they could do to me is bring me back here and try to use me as leverage to get in. But I can’t leave her out there, Auggie. This little girl needs her mother back.”
He pulled in a breath, and I could tell he was already forming an argument against it. Before he could, though, my eyes found the little girl. She wasn’t where we had left her. Not outside of the wards at all. She had crossed through.
“She’s the Tainted one,” I said, pointing to the child. “You need to get her back to Alkwin. I’m armed, and I have my supplies. Please, Auggie. I have to do this.”
“Fine,” he said through clenched teeth. Pulling the bag off of his arm, he held it out to me, along with the crossbow. “But you’re taking this. If there’s any sign of trouble, hide. I mean it, Leeya. And if you don’t find her within the next hour, turn around and come back.”
I nodded quickly and took it from him. Then, without waiting for him to change his mind, I turned and started running down the path.
What the hell was I doing? I really did want to save this woman. I had a deep need to do so. But the rational side of my brain was telling me that I was being reckless. There was no way of knowing what had hurt the mother. It could have been an animal, which I could deal with, but it could have also been Sentry. I might have been able to hold my own when I had someone there with me, but I was alone now. Not just that, but assuming I could find this woman, I would also have an injured woman I needed to protect.
That wasn’t going to stop me, though. It couldn’t.
I kept my stride steady as I moved down the path. There was a lot of land to cover between the archway and Eden. Despite what Auggie had said, I wasn’t going to just stop and turn around while I still thought there was a chance I could find her.
There was no way of telling how much time had passed between the woman stopping and when her child made it there. That was impressive on its own. Hopefully it would mean that she wasn’t that far, though. Either way, I knew it would take at least an hour or two for the others to reach me. I had to be careful. If I ran into trouble, there wouldn’t be much of a chance of rescue.
It took me just under an hour from the archway before I finally found her. She was lying face down in the middle of the path, a pool of blood soaked into the ground around her. So still. I faltered for a moment, fearing I was too late. Watching her back, though, I could see the subtle signs of it rising and falling.
Breathing. She was still breathing. There was hope.
I reached her in seconds after that, carefully rolling her over and searching for the wound. It was in her thigh and appeared to have gone straight through. The type of wound was what worried me most. She had been shot.
“Shit,” I muttered, looking around as if help would magically appear. It didn’t. Shot meant that there were Sentry somewhere around here. I could feel my panic building again, but I pushed it down and started moving through the list of things that I needed to do.
She was bleeding, but not badly enough that it meant arterial damage. It would still take a little time to get her patched up. Time I didn’t have with Sentry in the area. There was no way I could carry her back toward Alkwin by myself, though. She was only a little heavier than I was, but we would still move too slowly. The only option I had was to get her off the path. Hide until the others came for us.
“Sorry about this,” I said to the unconscious woman. I placed the crossbow and my bags just out of sight, then grabbed both of her wrists and started dragging her into the woods. Thankfully, it was denser here than in some of the other areas. It wasn’t as easy to get her through it, but it would provide adequate cover.
Now for step two. Digging frantically through my bag, I pulled out my nearly empty water bottle. Swallowing the last of it, I held the opening to the wound and squeezed her leg around it. I was glad she was unconscious for this part. It needed to be done, but I didn’t like the idea of causing her anymore pain. I also didn’t want to risk giving her a pain patch just yet. Not if it could cause her to awaken before I had her patched up. She could panic and draw attention to us.
I collected as much blood as I could in the bottle, then pushed back out onto the path. Starting where the blood pool was, I walked back in the direction of Alkwin, leaving a trail behind me. When it was almost empty, I turned the trail so that it looked like she went into the woods on the other side of the path that we were now hidden on. If any Sentry came, hopefully it would distract them long enough for my friends to find us.
I had just leaned down to try to cover the trail I had left dragging her from the path when the distant sound of voices started to move toward me. Not ones I knew. Not people from Alkwin. Sentry.
Taking a few more precious seconds to cover our tracks, I pushed back through the brush and ducked down next to the young mother just as the footsteps drew nearer. We were in a small clearing that was lined with thick trees and bushes, but if I pushed down low enough to the ground, I could just see the people approaching.
And my heart started to pound violently. Sentry. Four of them. I realized in watching them walk closer that it wasn’t just the rush of anxiety I was feeling. It was fear. I was completely and utterly terrified.
The men clad in the black uniforms stopped just outside of where we were concealed, each looking down at the pool of blood, then around for any sign of her being nearby. Then a sound echoed around me that made me feel sick, angry. One of them was laughing. A deep, bone chilling chuckle.
“Looks like we’ve got a fighter, boys,” he smirked, gripping the gun that was in his hand. “It’s always more fun when they try to run.”
It wasn’t until that moment that the reality of this entire situation really settled in. These weren’t men following orders because it was their duty to do so. They weren’t just hunting Tainted because it was the law of Eden. They enjoyed it, took pleasure in it. This was nothing more than a game to them.
They must have known that she was traveling with a small child. That didn’t stop them from shooting her. From tracking her, hunting her. How could anyone ever look at another human being like that? Finding joy in the fact that she was scared and running for her life? Laughing about it? It was disgusting.
Eden was even more broken than I could have possibly imagined.
I looked down at the crossbow that was clutched in my hands. I wanted to hurt them. To stop them from hurting anyone else like this. There were too many of them, though. I might be able to take down one with a tranq dart, but the others would know where I was. At most, I could hope to get another before they fo
und me. Seeing what they had done to her, I had no doubt that they would kill me after that.
I had to remind myself that it wasn’t just me I needed to think about right now. This woman was completely helpless. So was Lillith. I was the only person who even knew that Adler was holding her. If I died, there would be no one left to help her. I needed to be smart about this.
My eyes found the woman again. She was so pale. That’s where my focus needed to be at the moment. It would distract me from wanting to rush out and try to take these guys down. Give me time to actually come up with a plan.
Carefully and quietly, I reached into my bag and pulled out a blood patch. Opening it wasn’t easy. I had to move slowly so they wouldn’t hear the sound of it being torn open. When it was finally out, I pulled the top of her shirt down just enough for me to place it over her heart. It would buy me time to get her patched up. All I could do was hope that the increase in her blood volume didn’t cause her to wake up. Not yet.
As I had hoped, the men started moving down the path as they followed the false trail I had left. They didn’t stop again until it veered into the woods. I slid on my belly under one of the bushes to get a better look and watched as they all stopped and looked around. The man who had laughed before pointed out into the woods, and the others pushed through without question. He was clearly in charge. He didn’t follow, though. He just kept his gun at the ready as his eyes scanned the path.
The others would never be fast enough to get to us in time. Even if they were running, it would still be another hour, at least. The Sentry didn’t seem willing to just let her go off into the woods to die. They wanted her, and I had a feeling they weren’t leaving empty handed. It was only a matter of time before they started looking on this side.
She made a sound near me that caused my heart to skip several beats. Sliding back as quickly as I could, I pressed my hand over her mouth. She was still too out to know what was going on. I had a feeling she wouldn’t fully regain consciousness until after I stopped the bleeding. Until then, she was putting us in danger of being found. I had to get it taken care of.
On a whim, I had grabbed some of the skin gel before I left the clinic. I was glad now that I had, although I knew this was going to use a fair amount. Hopefully Noella would learn how to replicate it sooner rather than later.
Checking the path again to make sure that the men weren’t on their way back here, I squeezed some of the gel into the wound on the front of her thigh and held it closed. Then, when that one was secured, I maneuvered her and closed the back one. I wasn’t comfortable doing it this way. Without a scanner, I couldn’t be certain that there wasn’t a more serious reason why her leg was bleeding like this. Something that was beyond the healing capabilities of the gel. I didn’t really have a choice, though. All I could do at this point was hope that I fixed it enough to get her stable and awake until we could get back to Alkwin.
For added piece of mind, I also pulled out a sedative patch and opened it, ready to use it if she came to and I couldn’t keep her quiet. I really hoped that wasn’t going to be the case. I could really use some help here.
I wished that I was Tainted. I understood the risk of them getting ahold of a Tainted person, but having abilities could really help me right now. Give me an edge over these guys. But I wasn’t. I could only work with what I was actually able to do.
Maybe I could go out there and tell them that I was working for Adler. Convince them that his plan would be ruined if they didn’t turn around and walk back in the other direction. There was no way they would take my word for that, though. They would have to call him and verify, and there was no telling how long that would take. Maybe he would tell them to wait there to grab Rhydian. No, I couldn’t risk that. Not them getting their hands on him, not them telling the others what I had told them.
The sound of a gunshot ripping through the air pulled me out of my thoughts. I slapped my hand over my mouth, forcing myself not to make a sound. Trying to keep my breathing at a manageable level.
Were they shooting at me? The guys? No, there was no way they would be here yet.
“You get her?” the Sentry on the path yelled out. He didn’t look alarmed at all, or even bothered by the thought they would have just shot her when they found her. They really didn’t care. They were here to kill, not to capture.
A chill ran up my spine. How many bodies were in these woods? People they had just shot and left there. Rhydian might have joked that the best place to hide a body would be outside of the archway because the Sentry would be blamed, but I was beginning to understand just how realistic that would be.
Was the real Caine Jones out here somewhere?
“No, just an animal,” someone within the woods called back. “One of those scaly ones.”
Although I didn’t even think it was possible, my heart started to pound even faster. A snox. There were snox out here. If one of those found me, I was in even more trouble than I already was.
Just then, the woman started to move beside me. I slid back quickly, ready with the sedative patch if I needed it. Her eyes slowly opened, blinking as if trying to focus them. She was whispering a name. Likely her child’s. I put my hand over her mouth, which only managed to make her snap out of her haze faster. Her eyes widened, swinging around frantically. Fear filled them as panic seemed to completely take her over.
“Shhh,” I pleaded on a whisper, moving my face down in front of hers so she could see me. “I’m from Alkwin. Your daughter made it to the archway. She’s already back there. Safe.” I kept my gaze on hers, trying to make her see that I meant every word of it. To my relief, it worked. She blinked again, then started to settle. “You have to be quiet. Sentry.”
That panic didn’t leave her as she started looking around. But she nodded, and I felt comfortable pulling my hand away.
As soon as I knew she was actually in control of herself, I moved back over to my vantage point and checked the location of the Sentry again. They had all started coming back out of the woods, giving up on the idea of finding her out there.
“She can’t have gotten far,” the leader said. “Split up. You two, start moving toward the archway. Dirk, keep looking on that side. I’ll check this one.”
The other men branched off as ordered, then the leaders stepped into the woods on our side. I gripped the crossbow tighter, looking down at the sedative arrow. I knew we were running out of time. I didn't have a choice now. I had to stop him before he found us. I just hoped that this would drop him before he had a chance to yell for the others.
“I don't suppose you're Tainted?” I asked my patient who was still lying on the ground. She shook her head, but there was no hiding the fact that she also knew how serious this situation was. “Okay,” I said, looking around the clearing we were in. She was hidden from the path, but not from anyone who was walking around in the woods. So I grabbed her shoulders and moved her further in, then started pulling her under a bush. She picked up quickly what I was doing, because she shifted her body, fighting through the pain, and helped me to get her better covered. When I was satisfied, I grabbed the sedative patch and placed it sticky side up on her palm. “Don’t let it touch your skin,” I told her, keeping my voice at a whisper. “If they find you, pretend to be unconscious. Put this on any exposed skin the first chance you get.”
Her eyes widened as she looked from the patch back to me. “Please don’t leave me,” she pleaded.
I reached out and rested my hand on her head, trying to provide her with some comfort. “I’m not going far,” I said. “I have to slow them down. My friends are coming.”
She still looked so scared, but she nodded and let her body still. Giving her one last smile that I hoped was reassuring, I rose to a low crouch and started moving deeper into the woods. She had a fighting chance if she was found. Well, as long as they didn’t immediately shoot her. I had to hope that wouldn’t be the case.
Being in the woods was frightening for me. Harun had told me when I left
Eden to stay out of them. Hearing the sounds of the animals as I moved only caused that fear to grow. But I couldn’t stop. I just moved as quietly as I could and hoped that I wouldn’t encounter any of them.
I made it about fifty yards from where I left the young mother when I spotted the Sentry. He was looking around about thirty yards from where I now stood. Moving in our direction. I knew now that I had made the right decision in taking the offensive. It would have only been a matter of time before he found us.
Positioning myself behind a tree that I hoped would hide me, I took in a slow breath and looked down at the crossbow in my hand. I had gotten better during my practice with Rhydian, but I still wasn’t very good with it. If I missed, it would alert him to where I was. He would call the others in. Then the only chance I would have would be to try to fight my way out of this. They were armed, though. My bastons weren’t going to protect me against guns. The woman was in no shape to help me.
I closed my eyes and took another breath, trying to steady the shaking of my hand. Trying to remember everything Rhydian had taught me. I wished he was here. Even if just to make me feel safer. Then I opened my eyes and aimed at my target, said a quick prayer, and pulled the trigger.
I missed.
The Sentry didn’t appear to know what had happened, though, which probably saved my life. He was just looking around in a state of confusion as he tried to determine what the source of the noise had been.
I grabbed another arrow from the bag and quickly loaded the crossbow again. I didn’t think this time. I simply aimed again and fired, thankfully catching him on the side of the arm. It wasn’t a perfect shot, not even close, but hopefully it would do the trick.
I watched as he took in a breath to yell. Images of just how badly this could go flashed through my mind, but then he dropped to the ground before any sound could come out. It wasn’t a silent fall, but hopefully the others were too far away to hear. I couldn’t count on that, though. It was time to get back to the woman. Time to get ready to fight.
