Kyle West - Evolution

I didn’t waste another moment. I took my own knife, slashing wildly toward him. My blade connected to his arm. He screamed, and I felt his warm blood splatter on my hand. He staggered away, meaning to run. His back turned to me, the rest was easy. I jumped him, sending him crashing to the earth. With gritted teeth, I pinned him and gave him a deep gash in his throat. Blood spewed out, his scream silenced by my blade. His body grew still under me as what was left of his life ebbed away.

Right next to his body was my gun. I grabbed it, and turned to help Samuel, who was still going hand-to-hand with his adversary. I ended the fight quickly by placing my gun on the back of the man’s head. He paused in shock right before I shot. His body fell forward, sprawling on the ground.

Samuel looked at me with wide eyes. He picked up his own handgun from the ground, and charged away in the direction the girls had been taken.

We ran for thirty seconds or so, pushing aside foliage and branches that slammed and scratched our faces and hands. Uncaring, we sprinted on. It was only a matter of time until we caught up to them, and we couldn’t let either of them get away.

A scream came from our left.

We turned, and ran in the direction of the sound. A few seconds later, we came across one of the girls, netted in a clearing. She was alone, having clearly been abandoned.

“Anna, get Anna!” she yelled.

It was Makara. Not understanding, I ran forward to cut her binds.

“They left me here, and took Anna with them.”

“Where?” I asked.

“To my left,” Makara said. “Opposite direction you came from.”

I bolted away. Samuel could take care of Makara while I went after Anna. I had to catch them before they really got moving. Stealing a look behind, Makara was now out of the net, running with Samuel after me. Up ahead, I heard a whinny. They had horses. If they had horses, there would be no catching them. I didn’t yell Anna’s name, though I wanted to. I needed all the surprise I could get.

I burst out of the trees, finding myself on a dirt road. Four horses stood there, two men already mounted while two others were securing Anna to the back of one of the horses. She was wrapped in her net, and unable to break free. The men looked my way. Two of them reached for guns.

Out in the open as I was, I had no chance against them. Cursing, I dove back for the trees, rolling behind a fallen, rotting log as the first bullets sprayed chips of bark in my face. From behind, Samuel and Makara slid next to me.

“They have horses,” I said.

The gunfire ceased for a moment. The men were yelling again, the horses nickering and snorting. They were about to set off. We had to do something now, or it was never. I wasn’t about to let Anna become a slave.

Despite the danger to myself, I burst out of the trees, my Beretta aimed outward. It was then that the horses galloped down the road and into the night. They were heading in the direction of the settlement.

I fired a few bullets at the escaping forms, but nothing connected. Samuel, who had run up beside me, placed a hand on my arm, drawing it back.

I watched helplessly as the horsemen, with Anna, got farther and farther away. Despite the impossibility of catching up, I took after them.

“Alex!” Makara shouted, from behind.

This wasn’t over until it was over.

“Alex, wait!”

I didn’t heed Makara’s second shout. I sprinted down the road, the thunder of hooves dimming as the horses sped away. I didn’t know how far it was to the settlement, but I didn’t plan on stopping until I got there.

The road rounded a bend, and after making the turn, it led straight toward the gates. The horses stood in front, waiting to be admitted inside.

I increased my speed, my body protesting at the strain. I was fueled only by my desperation to reach Anna. If they got inside, there would be no getting her back. The walls would completely surround her, and obviously, the guards would kill us if we tried to get in.

The gates began to open. The hoses ran inside. I ran desperately, knowing as they began to close, that I would not make it in time.

“No…”

The gates shut, locking us out.

I stopped in the middle of the road. Makara and Samuel skidded to a stop beside me. I didn’t say anything, watching the now closed gates with a sense of defeat. Shapes of guards materialized on top of the walls. They pointed their rifles our way.

“Down!” Samuel shouted.

We all fell in tandem as the first bullets sprayed the dirt. I fought the tears that came to my eyes. We had been outdone. Anna was gone.

“No…” I said.

“We can’t do anything about it,” Makara said. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

A few more bullets entered the dirt road. For a moment, they ceased. That was when the gates began to reopen. I looked up, irrationally thinking that it could be Anna coming out. Of course, it wasn’t. It was men on horses — maybe five or six of them. The horses broke into a run, heading right for us.

“We’ve got to move, now !”

We scrambled out of the dirt, and gunned it for the tree line. If we could make it there, the vegetation would seriously hamper the horses’ speed. I looked back toward the city. It hurt, knowing Anna was in there, and knowing there was nothing we could do about it. We were leaving her behind.

“We can’t fight them, Alex,” Samuel said. “We’ll all be killed, and the mission will be compromised.”

“So what, we’re just going to leave her there?”

Samuel didn’t answer, him and his sister pulling me into the trees. Rather than fight them, I started running. As much as I hated it, they were right. I wasn’t going to cause them to die, too.

Die . Is that what was going to happen to Anna? No. Her fate would be worse than death. She was going to be enslaved, worked to the bone with little food or rest. And if her master was cruel, or perverse, then her fate would be much worse.

I turned back. I wasn’t leaving her.

“No, you don’t…” Makara said.

“She’s alive. I know she is.”

“We’ll come back for her!” Samuel said. “We can’t do that if we die here. Now come on, get your ass moving!”

Telling myself Samuel was right, I kept running. All the training in Skyhome had done me good. I had no problem keeping up with Samuel and Makara. Such wouldn’t have been the case two months ago.

Behind, our pursuers chased us into the forest. We entered the first of the trees, pushing our way past brambles and underbrush, putting as much distance between ourselves and our hunters. Fueled by shock, grief, and pain, I pushed myself on. For what, I didn’t know. I wanted to run the other direction and get to Anna.

Why hadn’t I listened to Makara when we came upon her in the net? If we had done what she said and immediately had gone after Anna, we could have saved her. If Samuel and I had kept running, we might have gotten to her in time.

I couldn’t blame myself for long, however. A bullet whizzed past my ear, hitting a nearby tree.

“Keep moving,” Samuel said, between breaths.

I could hear the men shouting from behind. They were on foot, now, having abandoned the horses.

The land began sloping upward. Mixed in with the dense vegetation were rocks and boulders. As we hoofed it up the incline, the trees began to thin. My lungs were bursting for air. Behind, I could see shapes chasing after us. We couldn’t keep this up for long.

“They’ll see us up here,” Makara said, pausing a moment. “We need a place to hide.”

Samuel pointed. “There.”

Against the side of the slope was an opening, deep and dark, moonlight reflecting off the rock surrounding it. The last thing I wanted to do was go underground. Not only did I have a lot of bad memories of things that had happened underground, it would take us further away from Anna. The more time that passed, the worse her chances got.