“We move as a group,” I whispered to the others. “Stay quiet and low, go slow towards my left. I'll keep the smoke between us and them—”
“For how long? You can't hide us forever,” Gary hissed. “Keep the smoke there. I'll take them out.”
“No, you can't see—” But I was too late.
Gary was already on his feet and in the smoke, throwing fireball after fireball. If not for the situation, I could have appreciated his skills. The fire he threw was like nothing I’d ever seen, immediately extinguishing itself if it didn't make human contact.
But Gary was firing blind. And the light of the fireballs gave the soldiers a target to aim at.
When they fired, the sound was louder, sharper this time. Deadly.
Gary went down, a replay of the man killed at the camp today.
How many more would I see killed before the night ended?
I should leave him out there.
Growling, I moved five feet to the left then bent over and set Tarah against a tree. “Stay here,” I whispered near her ear. “I've got to go get Gary.”
She reached out, grabbed my wrist, tried to say something despite the drugs still clogging her system.
“I’ll come right back for you, Tarah. I swear it.”
Then I forced my hands to let go of her and I took off running, hunching over to keep me just below the smoke. The smell clawed at me, raking up nightmares from the past, all but demanding I run away.
When I got to Gary, he was still breathing, but every breath came out choked with blood as it poured from his mouth. I grabbed one of his arms, slung it around my neck, and dragged him partially to his feet. Then I turned and half carried him as fast as I could back to his friends.
Behind the grouping of close-growing trees, I eased him down with their help. “You two get him out of here. I'll get Tarah.”
Movement at my left in the dark. Tarah trying to get up?
Gary grabbed the collar of my shirt, pulling me to him. “Fix…this.” The words gurgled out of him.
I didn't know how to heal. “I can't heal—”
“Not…me. Fix…this…” He flung a skinny arm out. It flopped to the ground. His eyes rolled wildly, as if he wanted to explain more but couldn’t.
He wanted me to find a way to fix the situation.
More noises from Tarah's direction, a whimper, scuffling.
“Tarah, stay down,” I hissed over my shoulder at her. Hardheaded woman. Even drugged, she would have to try to be independent.
I looked back at Gary. He stared blankly ahead, his eyes different now. Flatter somehow, dull.
I checked his pulse at his neck and swore. No heartbeat, at least not that I could find.
“Can you get him out of here?” I asked the others. Maybe there was still time. There had to be.
“Yeah,” one replied. Mike, or Matt, the Raiders High sophomore who'd volunteered to create the cloaking effect for the prison break teams.
“How fast can you make that cloaking effect work?” I asked him.
Understanding lit up his face. “As fast as we need it.”
“Then get it ready while I grab Tarah and we'll all go together.” I didn't wait for his reply before running back to Tarah.
Or at least where I'd left her.
She was gone.
I opened my mouth to call out her name then saw the drag marks in the dirt.
Instinct made me hit the deck just before a bullet exploded the tree trunk where my head had been a second ago.
The orb formed in my hand then flew out and knocked the two soldiers off their feet without my ever making a decision to use my abilities. I didn't check to see if they were alive. I just ran back to the remaining outcasts. “They've got her.” Saying the words made it real and drove home the panic.
My worst nightmare had just come true. They’d taken her, and because nobody could tell who was using special skills here tonight, they would assume she was an outcast too. They would throw her into the internment camp with everyone else, drug her till she was a zombie, then leave her to freeze to death.
“Gary's dead, man,” Mike said, his voice flat, maybe in shock.
His words jarred me back to life. I cursed under my breath. “Take him to a hospital anyway. They might be able to bring him back.” Twigs snapped, signaling the soldiers were trying to close in on our location. “Do it now, get yourselves out of here.”
“What about y—”
“Don't worry about me.”
They looked at each other, then looked back at me. “We can’t just duck and run like cowards. Gary would have—”
“He'll get what he really wanted. We're still going to the camp tonight. Drop him off at the ER, then meet me at Bergfeld Park by the slides in an hour. Gary's right. We have to fix this. But we can’t do that if we’re captured too.”
They looked doubtful. Doubting me? Wondering if it was another trap?
Bushes rustled behind us. The soldiers had slipped around us while we were talking, tightening their circle. It was now or never.
“Trust me!” I hissed.
I waited precious seconds till they nodded. Then I took off, whipping the wind so the smoke choked the soldiers long enough for all of us to gain some distance as we ran in different directions.
I took a wide circular route, heading for the side of the woods opposite the highway first to hopefully throw the soldiers off my trail, then cutting back into my own backyard.
But even after I made it inside the house, I wasn't home free yet.
“Hayden?” Dad called out from his study.
Silently cursing, I debated ignoring him. I was covered in dirt, Gary's blood all over my hands and jeans. The stench of smoke poured off me. And no way could I even hope to act like everything was normal tonight.
They've got Tarah, my mind whispered.
I promised her she'd never end up in the internment camps. Promised her I'd come back for her in the woods.
“Where have you been?” Dad said, standing in the study doorway. He took one look at me and his voice dropped an octave, becoming an order. “Come talk to me.”
He didn't wait for me to follow him into the study as he turned and headed for the mini bar opposite the blazing fireplace.
“Dad…" Where did I begin? "I saw an internment camp today.”
He scowled. “Why would you go looking for one of those? Jesus, Hayden, you could have been shot!”