Pretty soon, it isn’t interested in the spot where we previously stood and moves on. Connor breathes a sigh of relief and begins to climb back down, but I grab his arm. He looks at me with curiosity in his eyes, but I shake my head.
“Wait,” I say.
“What?”
“Wait.”
I don’t know what it is, but it’s as if I sense that there are more. It’s a new feeling, one that I haven’t really ever experienced before. It’s like I feel more of them coming. We both sit in the branches for a full minute before we hear the rustling of more leaves on the ground ahead of us.
Two greyskins. Four greyskins. Ten greyskins. A herd of greyskins crosses below us.
We absolutely cannot make a sound. Though most greyskins can’t climb, they also won’t leave us alone until we either fall out of the tree or they can knock it over. If even one of them notices we are in the tree, it’s over for us. We could shoot until we are out of ammunition, but with this many, it won’t take long before we’re on the ground, thrashing and stabbing until they devour us. That’s why we’re holding our breath. That’s why we can’t make a sound.
It feels like an eternity as they pass through. I lose count after about fifty of them. Why they are traveling through the middle of the forest like this is a mystery. I can tell they aren’t heading in the direction of the camp, so the others are safe for now.
Once the herd passes, I notice that I’ve been squeezing Connor’s hand tightly.
“Sorry,” I say as I pull it away quickly.
“Don’t be.”
“Where do you think they’re headed?” I ask.
“Well, unless they smell something, or heard something from far off, they aren’t headed anywhere in particular.” He looks at me with his eyebrows furrowed. “How did you know they were there? I was ready to climb down but you stopped me.”
“I don’t know,” I say. “I just felt it. I can’t explain, really.” And this is the truth. I really have no idea how I knew. The feeling is much like when I reached my hands up for the cranes and they came tumbling down. I wonder if this is part of the supernatural powers I’ve seemed to gain recently. I think about it almost every passing minute, curious to know if I’m the only one in the world that can do such a thing.
I climb down the tree unt C theryil my feet hit the forest floor. When Connor stands next to me he says something that sends goose bumps up and down my body.
“Let’s follow the herd,” he says.
“What?”
“If they do smell something, or someone, they could lead us to Aaron. For all we know they could be following a gunshot from earlier.”
“Wouldn’t we have heard it too?”
“Maybe not. I think sometimes a greyskin’s senses are heightened to make up for its loss of mobility.”
“Is that true?” I ask.
He shrugs. “I don’t know. It’s worth a try. Don’t worry, we’ll stay far enough back that they won’t notice us, I promise.”
I think it’s a terrible idea, but we are out here to find his brother, not mine. Connor hasn’t led me astray yet either. I let out a sigh and nod. “Lead the way.”
We keep a good distance from the herd. We actually can’t see it, but Connor and I are able to see the tracks enough to follow them safely, though I hope there isn’t a straggler lurking behind a tree, ready to grab my ponytail and bite into my neck. It’s a night like tonight and thoughts like these that make me think my grandma might be right about cutting my hair shorter. I touch the wavy locks with my fingertips and shudder slightly, hoping Connor doesn’t notice.
The further we go, the more we can see what the greyskins are moving toward and why. There is a bit of flashing light in the distance, and then the sound of a gun. Connor and I look at each other with stunned looks. He takes off in a sprint, and I’m not so sure that it’s a good idea but I follow him, pistol in hand.
Connor decides to flank the herd from the left. So far, none of them have noticed us because of the light and gunshots in the distance. After a minute or two, I can see what all the noise is coming from. Connor stops and hides behind a set of bushes and I crouch next to him. What we see is terrifying.
All the greyskins are making their way to a large area of boulders and rocks. At the top of one of the boulders, hanging on for dear life, just out of reach of the undead arms, is a man. He holds a shotgun in one hand, and with the other, he holds himself steady against the rock. A hundred, maybe two hundred greyskins are clamoring to get to him. I look at Connor and his eyes are as wide as they can be.
He turns his head quickly to me, but I know what he’s going to say before the words come out of his mouth.
“It’s Aaron!”
I don’t know what is more surprising: the fact that Connor’s hunch about following the herd was correct, or that his brother, Aaron, is still alive. Either way, I’m not so sure that announcing our presence is such a good idea. It’s still only three of us against two hundred or more greyskins.
“We’ve got to call in for help,” I tell Connor. “We can’t take all of them alone.”
Connor nods and looks down at his wristband and swears.
“What is it?” I ask.
“They’ve been trying to contact me, but I left the volume down.”
He messes with a few buttons on the side, then brings the wristband up to his mouth.
“Heinrich, do you hear me?”
There’s no sound for a long moment, then a voice sounds from the wristband.
“What is wrong with you?” Heinrich yells through the radio.
“Are you near my location?” Connor asks.
“We’re about a minute out with the vehicles,” Heinrich answers. “You better have a good reason for leaving camp without my permissi Ct m>
“Come in carefully,” Connor says. “There’s an entire herd here. We’ve found Aaron too.”
“Alive?”
“Yes. Alive. Get here with guns ready. There’s about two hundred of them.”
“Got it.”
Connor lowers his wrist and double checks his rifle to make sure it’s ready.
“You’re going to wait for them aren’t you?” I ask.
He looks at his brother who is struggling to stay out of reach. “They better get here fast.”
The next minute is excruciating. With every passing second, Aaron looks to be losing his strength, and there’s no way to let him know that we are here to help him and that he only has to stay out of reach just a little longer.
We watch intently as the greyskins do everything they can to reach Aaron. We continue to wait for the others until Aaron attempts to climb higher onto a bigger boulder but slips downward. A greyskin reaches out to grab his leg with both arms and begins to pull him even farther down.
“No!” Connor yells as he lifts his rifle and aims down the sight. With a steady finger, he pulls the trigger and ends the greyskin’s existence with a bullet through the brain.
The shot not only catches the attention of Aaron who looks up in shock, but also the attention of all the other greyskins who were reaching for the helpless human on the giant rock.
For a brief moment, they all start to stumble toward us, but Aaron lets off another shell from his shotgun, splattering dark, greyskin blood in every direction. Now some are going after him and others are coming after us.
“I’m out of ammo!” Aaron yells to his brother.
We lift our guns and unload our weapons until we too are completely out of ammunition. Connor and I start to run away from the charging herd as we see the headlights driving in on the path about a hundred yards away. They stop and Heinrich and others jump out of their vehicles, guns ready.
As they charge in, I’m able run to the edge of the rocks as the greyskins now focus on the lights in the other direction. The sound of booming guns and clanging of ammunition shells against the rocks is loud enough to attract every greyskin from miles away. Still, there are too many for the men to take th
em all out quickly enough.
There’s nothing left to do but run and try to fall behind the coming vehicles under Heinrich’s leadership.
That is unless…
“Wait,” I say as Connor begins to run.
“We’re not waiting, let’s go.”
“Wait,” I repeat.
I know he’s not sure if he should listen to me. To be honest, I’m not sure either, but I know these newfound powers have gotten me out of a similar mess. Maybe they will again this time.
I reach out my hand and focus all of my attention on the small rocks all around us. I haven’t yet tried to move multiple objects at once, but I figure if I can move a giant crane, why can’t I move a lot of small rocks?
With a thought, I find that I can.
Hundreds, maybe thousands of rocks lift from the ground at my command. Like with the knife in Connor’s shack, I’m able to make them move where I want them to, and at a high speed as well.
First, I take out a line of greyskins making their way toward Connor and me. As quick and sharp as arrows, the pebbles rip through their bodies, and hopefully their brains. One-by-one they drop to the ground, blood and rocks flying in all directions.
I don’t Cem"eir have time to notice Connor’s reaction as he stands behind me, but I can see Aaron’s face as he takes it all in.
I’ve hardly put a dent in their numbers, however. I let the rocks drop when some of the greyskins get a little too close for comfort. There are too many for me to focus on killing each one.
I see Aaron jump from his high position since the greyskins have turned away. He too lifts his arms. I have to cover my eyes from the light that bursts from the vehicles in the distance.
A loud surge of electric bolts fly from them into Aaron. At first, I think some kind of strange phenomenon has just occurred that will surely kill him. But the bolts aren’t part of some crazy accident. Aaron is calling them to himself, letting the energy fly right into his chest.
The lights from the vehicles go dark, but then Aaron uses those same bolts of electricity and sprays them through almost every greyskin in the area, frying them to a crisp right in front of everyone’s eyes. The greyskins scream out in hunger and rage as it takes several seconds before they finally collapse and lie motionless on the ground, but they are dead.
But there was one still skulking behind him, and I seem to be the only one who sees it. The distance is too far for any kind of accurate throw, but it doesn’t matter. Without thinking, I grab the knife that’s strapped to my thigh and throw it in his direction. With the same focused attention I had with the rocks, I make the knife sail through the air past Aaron and into the forehead of the greyskin behind him, dropping it to the ground.
The atmosphere has turned from a deafening chaos to complete silence.
Everyone around says nothing as they stare at Aaron, and then at me in disbelief. Connor
’s mouth is hanging open, but I am no less surprised about Aaron.
Though I’ve given myself away, all I can think about is that there is another person like me. Another person with supernatural abilities.
Aaron.
CHAPTER FIVE
Nothing is said for almost an entire minute as everyone stands unmoving in the darkness. Aaron and I nearly destroyed the entire herd on our own.
I look back at Connor who still hasn’t seemed to grasp what has just happened. He appears surprised to see that not only do I possess some kind of mysterious power, but his brother does as well. How does Connor not already know about Aaron?
“What in the world was all of that?” Heinrich belts out. He looks from me to Aaron and back to me again. “I’m waiting for an answer.”
“I…I don’t know,” I stutter. “I wish I had some kind of explanation for you, but I don’t.”
Aaron shrugs his shoulders.
Connor comes up from behind me and stands next to me.
“You mean you could do all that and you were running away from the greyskins when I met you? Why were you running at all?”
I shake my head. “I had just figured out that I could do that,” I say. “I have no idea where it came from. I haven’t really had time to process it.”
“What about you?” Connor asks, looking at his brother.
“It’s good to see you too,” Aaron smirks.
Connor sighs and shakes his head quickly. He steps forward toward Aaron. “Sorry, it’s just so crazy.” He rea Fem"ei >
Heinrich is the next to speak.
“Are the others alive?”
Aaron shakes his head slowly when Connor lets go of him. “No. They were all killed four days ago.”
“Why did you fall off the radar?” Heinrich asks.
“You saw what I just did with the vehicles, only I accidentally did that to the wristbands.”
There are so many questions to be asked, no one knows what to say first. Heinrich turns to Connor. “You,” he says with squinted eyes. “You abandoned the camp when you were supposed to be on watch.”
“I set the device to alarm you,” Connor says.
“You’re lucky Bret had to get up and take a leak. You’re also lucky we didn’t shoot him before we realized he wasn’t a greyskin.”
“I’d say Bret was the lucky one in that situation,” Connor comes back. A few of the men stifle a laugh as Heinrich fumes.
Heinrich takes a deep breath and looks at Aaron. “I’m guessing you didn’t finish what you set out to do.”
“Yeah, it’s never going to work,” Aaron says, glancing at the others and then at me almost as if he’s unsure if he’s allowed to talk freely. “We were attacked before we could get the supplies we needed.”
Heinrich swears and spits on the ground. I obviously have no idea what they are talking about. All I know is that Heinrich said he would take me home after finding Aaron. Right now I would feel more comfortable with that than going back to Salem. I have no idea what it is they are involved with. It’s all too apparent they aren’t looking for farm equipment. I glance at the Screven guard, Rob, who seems to have a confused look on his face.
I wouldn’t mind being away from this entire group. That is except for Aaron. Someone that has another supernatural ability, but one that is so different than mine is intriguing. Or at least I think my abilities are different. Do I have the power to shoot out electric bolts? Can he move things with his mind? Perhaps he has some answers. I can’t help but notice that he keeps glancing in my direction, maybe thinking the same thing about me.
Rob steps to the front of the group. “Let’s get out of here and start heading back to Salem.” He looks at me. “You too.”
“Why?” I ask. “I was hoping you might take me to Screven, but if not then I would rather you just take me home as originally planned.”
Rob shakes his head. “No,” he says. “Your skill would be of some interest to the higher ups in Screven. Krindle will be interested to talk to you.”
“Wait just a second,” Connor says, stepping forward. “She’s not one of us. You can’t just make her come to Salem.”
“I can, and I am,” Rob says.
“You think you can stop her?” he asks, looking at me.
“I am asking nicely,” Rob says. “Besides, possessing special abilities might make it more likely that you gain an audience with Jeremiah.”
I hadn’t thought of it like that. Maybe it’s not such a bad idea to go with them then. I just hope Rob is true to his word.
“How long have you been able to do that?” Connor asks Aaron.
Aaron shakes his head. “Connor, I… just don’t worry about it.”
“Don’t worry about it? We’ve got two people here, one of whom I’ve known my whole life, the other for a day, and both of them can do…that.” He waves his hands in the air, not really knowing what to say.
“Come on,” Heinrich says. “It’s time to go Ks air.”
With a quick thought, I call my knife to me and it is wrenched out of the greyskin’s forehead, land
ing safely in my hand. I bend down to wipe the blood on a shirt from one of the many corpses on the ground. I don’t really know that everyone is watching me until I stand up and see them staring. I feel my cheeks go red, but it’s dark so no one can see my embarrassment.
I don’t know why I feel embarrassed. It’s almost like I got caught doing something I wasn’t supposed to be doing, but this is my power. Should I be hiding it? I don’t know how long I will be able to hold on to this power, nor do I know if it’s coming from within me or from an outside force that I can’t see.
Rob said my skill would be of interest to higher ups in Screven, but I don’t want to be useful to them. I want to be useful to my people back home. If I can use this power to protect them, that would be great, but I know I can’t do it on my own. Can I?
We all make our way to the vehicles in silence. Thankfully, Aaron left one of the vehicles with power, but we still have to wait a few minutes for each of them to jumpstart another. Soon, we are off.
The long ride back is quiet. Connor tries to ask his brother more about his powers, but Aaron isn’t talking about it. He keeps saying that he will talk to him about it some other time. But this doesn’t keep Connor from asking me about mine. I tell him everything I know. I tell him about the cranes and the knife in his shack as the others listen intently. Connor isn’t satisfied with the story, but neither am I really. I want to know where these powers have come from, but I’ve got no answers. The only person that might be able to tell me anything is Aaron, but he won’t talk. I feel like it’s because of me, but I can’t be sure.
Once Connor realizes he’s not getting any more information, he stops talking and I lay my head back against my seat. Rob sits to my left and the two brothers sit across from me. As everyone begins to drift to sleep, I can’t help but notice the two don’t look all that much alike.
Both of them are handsome, but in different ways. Connor has brown hair and hazel eyes. He is way more rugged-looking than his brother. Aaron has jet-black hair that is cut more closely, and his eyes are a deep blue. I’ve never seen two brothers who looked more different. I can’t help but wonder if they are actually brothers, or if they were adopted, or if they have been close friends since childhood and are as close as brothers. I don’t suppose it matters.
The Starborn Saga (Books 1, 2, & 3) Page 6