Toward town, things picked up, adults coming back from a long day searching. A noise made me jump into the bushes, pulling Elly and Vynce with me. Thirty seconds later, Mr. Ilt and Professor Fitz’s voices appeared, walking back from the Black Forest.
“...makes me so mad!” Mr. Ilt barked. “Those bastards, how’d we not find ‘em? Think they took a lev back already?”
“Patience, Merck, we’ll get ‘em. I’m as angry as you. We all are. It could have been anyone. We’ll give ‘em what they deserve. Besides, maglevs only come once a day.”
Professor Fitz’s voice shocked me, got me excited too. Was my Science History teacher a secret badass? Wouldn’t have guessed that. They passed us and he said, “So, we covered the northeast up to the Furnace, and Roge and Frank checked the northwest beyond the crypt. I heard someone did most of the southeast. Just leaves the southwest for tomorrow, and making sure they don’t backtrack.”
They agreed to meet at sun up and headed off in opposite directions.
I’d been so intent listening, I hadn’t noticed the other adults leave. All at once, we were alone.
“Ready guys?” I asked.
We were, sort of… but it was getting cold on the frozen earth anyway, so we hurried off.
At the field, a snap pulled me from my reverie. It was Vovi, I could smell her. Reptiles had an interesting scent, a bit scaly... wet… I don’t know, like snake’s skin? She was here, somewhere.
She activated her band’s field beam, illuminating the clearing and signaling us. We did the same, and all checked again to make sure we’d deactivated GPS. Didn’t need Mom finding out.
Vovi was bundled in three fluffy layers, and her face had an eerie greenish glint in the light. “I was worried you wouldn’t come.”
“What are friends for?” Elly hugged the short girl. “Besides, it’s not like we’re going to catch ‘em, just find ‘em so the adults can, right? That’s not so bad,” she added, as if trying to convince herself.
“We should get going,” I said.
Vynce nodded, and told Vovi what we’d overheard. “They didn’t search the southwest yet,” he said. “We should start there.”
“And stick together,” I added.
Walking to the start of the forest, I couldn’t shake the feeling this was an awful idea. I pushed the thought to the back of my mind. “Keep your light fields off until we’re further in,” I said. “Someone might notice otherwise.”
“We should have weapons out too,” Elly said in a hushed voice, her eyes jumping at every little noise. “You never know.”
We grabbed our knives while the girls unhooked staves for a few practice swings. Everyone looked as terrified as I felt, but no one said anything.
Once we’d worked out the jitters, we set out.
We’d been walking ten or fifteen minutes when there was a crash. I didn’t jump this time, but the girls did. After we recovered, we looked at each other as if to say are we really doing this? When we didn’t hear or smell anything, we continued, but not before spreading out to cover more ground. The wind howled an eerie whooshing. My stomach was in knots. My gut sensed danger.
What were we doing?
5
A Bright Light
“Vynce?” I turned. Nothing. No lights, nobody. It was graveyard silent.
Crap! What happened? Did the cynetics get them? My mind raced. How had I gotten lost?
Once I’d calmed, it hit me. I was so focused, I’d gotten distracted. We must have wandered apart. And the forest grew darker and more sinister with each passing step.
There was a huge fallen tree maybe five minutes back—three meters in diameter, hundreds of meters long. It was old. Maybe they’d went left while I’d gone right. That made sense, right? I retraced my steps, searching the ground.
A dark, ominous fear set in, growing more terrible with each passing minute. Cold sweat broke out on the back of my neck and I had to clench the knife in my hand to keep from shaking.
A yell. It sounded like Elly, or maybe Vovi. Where? I ran, heart pounding.
“Ahhh!” she yelled again, sounding more animal than human.
Elly? I tripped over a moss-covered log, stumbling before regaining my balance, and pushing my legs harder.
“Help!” someone cried. A muffled thud. Silence.
Elly was in trouble, I knew it. Shit. Something was wrong. Fear and anger boiled inside of me. Where was she?
A gap in the trees revealed two mysterious figures illuminated by creepy moonlight. They were bent over something and as the wind changed, I smelled her.
There was a body on the ground, a bloodstained face. It was Elly. The figure touched her. They’d killed my sister and were going to... I was going to be sick.
Something inside me broke. I exploded. Everything was red, a nexus of pain and hate. I stabbed the first. He shrieked in surprise and rage, eyes ballooning as his cries split the still night.
Grabbing his throat, I lifted him into the air, crushing, squeezing, ripping—doing everything in my power to kill him. My fingers tore through his reinforced skin. My hand tingled, glowing. What the—?
A burst of light shot out, like a flash or a laser. His head disappeared, obliterated by the blast, blood congealing in a burnt crisp.
The other cynetic who’d been attacking my sister turned, pale face filled with horror, his mouth aghast. Something in my eye registered a message firing away. What was that? Like an AR headset, but inside me. Throwing myself at the second cynetic, my fist connected with his gooey left eye. Again and again and again. I punched and stabbed and clawed until I collapsed, crying and exhausted, on the pine-strewn floor.
Darkness.
When I regained consciousness, I remembered Elly. She was lying there where I’d last seen her. No... I put my shaking fingers under her clammy jaw. There had to be a pulse.
I tried and tried but couldn’t feel anything. The overlay thing happened again—blue numbers showing her body temperature and heart rate. The heartbeat said zero. She wasn’t breathing. Come on, Elly. Mouth to mouth… I tried CPR.
No… The tears came.
Clenching my fist, I tried the electricity thing again. I had to save her, anything. It didn’t work. Nothing happened. I failed. Was she really gone?
I collapsed, and retched raw pain, stomach burning.
When I rose, I noticed the bodies littered around me. There was blood everywhere, my clothes, my hands, everything.
What did I do? I shivered. How did I kill a cynetic? That’s, that’s not possible... It didn’t make sense. That blast, I’d seen holos... Cynetics could do that. But not me, I was an animote. I was wolfish... Like Mom and Vynce and Elly.
No, Elly! Words died on my lips. My sister... I should check her pulse again. It was pointless, she was dead. But I had to be sure. I had to.
She’d done everything for me...
My body shook. Nothing. I was going to be sick again.
I should go home, find Vynce and Vovi, make sure they are okay. And Mom. How was I going to tell Mom?
I ran. Faster and faster, faster than ever. The trees and scenery whipped past. I didn’t notice or care, rage and grief driving me.
When I got home, Mom and Vynce were sitting outside with bags under their bloodshot eyes.