The Pursuit (The Permutation Archives Book 2)

by Kindra Sowder

  The bullets froze mid-air as we crossed into the tree line. I poured my power into turning them toward our enemy as blood dropped from my palms and elbows, and forced them to fly back toward them, the bullets making a beeline toward the black and shadow-shrouded figures. Grunts and cries penetrated the trees as I turned back toward Ryder and my companions, running with them in the direction that Jameson led us in. I assumed it was toward the wall itself where we would move under, over, or through it. I wasn’t even sure which or how it would work, but that was where we were headed.

  More gunfire moved through the trees and around us, missing us altogether as they slammed into the ground and sent plumes of soil in all directions. A few hit trees, splinters flying into the air around us, Moving through the packed forest was difficult. The government planted these trees in such a manner as to keep those who had been caught travelling illegally from running, but we had a determination to reach the wall and Kiawah Island that no one else could rival.

  Doctor Devi cried out and stumbled, her hand going to her left arm as she righted herself, blood blowing between her fingers. She had been hit, but kept moving regardless of the pain, her arm swinging lifelessly at her side as she ran.

  “We’ve got to lose them,” Caius yelled over the gunfire, turning back just slightly at the rest of us in hopes of a plan.

  Julius slid to a stop, causing the rest of us to do the same as the gunfire slowed and voices could be heard in the distance and moved into the trees with us. He looked around frantically and his stare settled on a massive tree, much larger than some of those in the immediate vicinity.

  “I got it. Go. I’ll be right behind you guys.” Julius looked at me and then back at Ryder. “You keep her safe, you hear me?”

  Ryder nodded and pulled at my hand and when I attempted to jerk away, he pulled even harder. Julius turned to the tree, and yellow acid dripped from just below his wrist as he put his hand out toward the tree’s base.

  “No, Julius,” I cried as I watched in abject horror, being pulled along like a ragdoll with no will to be dragged at all.

  The acid he ejected ate at the delicate flesh and then spewed out, hitting the base of the tree and eating away at it until there was a loud cracking sound, the tree buckling in his direction. His eyes widened, and he turned toward us, following as quickly as he could and joining us again as the tree fell with a shattering quake to the ground behind us as we ran. I hoped it would block their path long enough for us to lose them, but even I wasn’t certain about how well it would work even though the tree was massive. Julius rejoined us, and I let Ryder begin to lead me, following Jameson as he led us toward our salvation. Toward our people’s salvation. I looked at Julius running beside me as we moved through the trees, each of us missing any that crossed our path. The soldiers coming after us were still yelling in the distance, but the pounding of bullets into the ground at our feet had ceased. We had lost them, but for how long? The tightly packed giants around us were confusing, yes, but I was beginning to see the pattern and recognize it, knowing when to dodge and when to sidestep roots.

  Julius followed seamlessly as if he had done this before, even though I knew he hadn’t.

  “You know, I could have done that,” I said with a smirk that was answered with a smile.

  “Yeah? Then why didn’t you?” Julius asked, his breath coming in short gasps as the sound of a raging river got louder and louder.

  “Oh, I don’t know, you seemed like you had it handled,” I replied.

  The river came into view as we ran over a slope that nearly had us sprinting, the sloshing of white rapids cutting through the greens and browns of the forest like a scar. We slowed and stopped just before we could fall into the rushing water, my feet perilously close to the very edge of the bank.

  “Shit, Jameson?” Ryder shouted as he took a careful step away from the bank and pulled me with him. “What now?”

  “We follow the river in the same direction we were going,” Jameson said as he pointed to his right toward the coast that was only so far away now I could almost smell the saltwater of the ocean on the breeze that penetrated the forest.

  “We need to throw them off our trail,” I said, looking from one of them to the next as a plan formed in my head.

  “And how do you suggest we do that?” Doctor Devi asked as her brow furrowed.

  I turned to Julius and grinned. “Want to try a joint effort?”

  “Hell yes,” was his only reply.

  I dropped Ryder’s hand and moved close to one of the trees as the sound of our pursuers moved in on us again. They were just one step behind us, so we needed to act as quickly as we possibly could so they didn’t see us following the path of the raging waters next to us. Julius stood beside me and stared at the massive trunk that was no doubt wider than any of us were tall, confusion on his face until something finally clicked in those few precious seconds.

  “Ah, I see.”

  I chuckled. “Then, you ready for this?” I asked, my eyebrows rising in amusement at his expense. “You break down the base, and I’ll guide it to fall across the river. Make it look like we used a bridge to get over it and went the other way.”

  “Sounds good to me,” he said as he looked back at the others. “You may want to step back.”

  They all did as he suggested. I put both of my hands out and my power unfurled even more, curling out toward the tree’s trunk as I focused and pushed it outward, attempting to remain in control as best as I could as invisible tendrils of it lashed out in all directions. I felt each one snap and ebb, trying to pull away from me as I struggled to keep it in control.

  “You might want to make this quick. I don’t know how long I can control it,” I voiced, not taking my eyes away from the tree as it shuddered in response to my power. Pine needles sloughed off and fell to the ground in a shower, gliding along the tendrils of energy as they did so.

  Julius reached out beside me, getting closer to the tree than I was comfortable with, acid pouring out of his outstretched hand as it hissed and ate at the flesh of the tree. It began to lean and voices, a lot nearer than they had been, came over the crest in search for us. But I knew they had seen the tree move. It leaned a little more in the opposite direction I needed it to go in. I moved the energy around it, cocooning it so that I could have a better influence on its directionality. More pine needles fell to the forest floor. The blast of a gunshot echoed through the air, and a bullet punched the ground next to my foot. I screamed and nearly lost what control I had over the giant, pushing more energy into it as it began to tilt and bend to my will. Soldiers came over the crest as the tree’s trunk cracked loudly and gave way, my invisible hands guiding it with not much accuracy to bridge the river and its rapids. It crashed to the ground just where we needed it to be, and I pulled my power away from it and sent that energy toward the men who were now storming toward us. It wasn’t as many as it had sounded like, but it was enough. At least ten men came over the hill, most with weapons strapped to them, but a couple without. Those were the ones I needed to focus on. Three men and one woman, the woman being one I recognized instantly. As it was the same blonde, I had nearly killed at King’s Forge during the attack.

  I cursed to myself, wishing I hadn’t stopped and finished her off then, so I didn’t have to deal with her now. Not when we were so close. The man with black, dead eyes watched me intently, but the woman touched his shoulder and shook her head. Her blue eyes stared at me, almost through me if I didn’t know any better. Her power wasn’t that deep. It was a profound muscular strength that didn’t run any deeper than the surface. I felt it as I heard my companions fighting around me.

  “No, Gace. This one is mine,” she said with a snarl, twisting her beautiful face into something primal. She stalked toward me, smooth like a predator as her muscles moved underneath her pale flesh, rolling and flexing with her movements.<
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  It was then that I knew my own power should guide my body. Not the other way around. This tactic had worked for me so far when faced with something where I was certain my own control would be thwarted, by either anxiety or fear, and I couldn’t let this be one of those times. Our survival beyond that point depended on it. I relinquished the energy to my body’s will and felt it move down into my hands, focusing in my palms and around my open hands. She and I, it seemed, were going hand to hand. I sensed her power and my body acted if it did as well, pouring itself into the tools I would need to finally defeat her. It shimmered slightly, hovering just over my skin like it had multiple times before that moment. I watched her carefully, every move she made stored in my mental vault to use against her during our fight. She had a slight limp, looking as if her left knee was giving her trouble. I smirked as I noticed the dull gray veins working in a network of rivers underneath her skin, knowing that was damaged I had inflicted.

  Gunfire erupted behind me as she launched her attack, striking where I assumed she thought my weak spot would be. My hands. Little did she know what the shimmer in them meant. It was something I figured she would’ve noticed after our first meeting, but common sense didn’t seem to be something she was capable of. Even most could put two and two together. The sides of her hands attempted to strike the sides of my forearms, trying to throw off my focus in that area, but all that happened was a small flash of light as her skin collided with the shield my power produced. A whooping sound emitted from it as well, my feet sliding back along the ground as the tiny explosions propelled me back. I pulled one hand back and my body knew what to do, moving the energy from that hand into the one still held out in defense. Energy pulsated in the palm of my outstretched hand and forced its way out in a wave of ripples in the air toward my opponent.

  She dodged it, the ball of fluctuating energy careening off into the distance, splitting off and coming back to greet me as my body absorbed it. She kicked out with a sweep of her leg and I jumped, missing her foot altogether. I wasn’t prepared for the punch that made an impact with my mouth, the taste of iron hitting my tongue as warm ran down my chin from my lip. It stung. I stumbled back a few steps, but kept my eyes on her and my power focused where it needed to be.

  I wiped the blood from my chin with the back of my hand, a slight spark coming from the shield as it met my skin. When I looked at my hand, my blood was sitting just on the surface of the sparkling shield, running off like water. Anger seethed in me just underneath the surface, causing the slight white shimmer of my energy around the flesh of my hands to take on a red tint I had never seen before, but I couldn’t stop until she was dead and we were across that wall. At that moment we became a flurry of kicks, punches, and shining light with every impact. I heard the explosion of a single gunshot in my right ear, the cool air of a bullet whizzing past alerting me to its presence close to my neck. I lurched back and avoided it, lashing out with a fist cloaked in a protective force. When it made an impact with her skull, I knew I had her. There was a loud crunch as my power put all there was inside of me into it, the feel of her skull collapsing beneath my damaging hand echoing off of the trees despite the other sounds, one of them being gunshots, around us.

  There was an urge inside of me to hold my hands out to my side as she collapsed to the ground, everything moving in slow motion. And it was as if I was seeing everything through someone else’s eyes, blazing heat in my eyes and bouncing from one end of my body to another. All bullets stopped where they were, each soldier and traitor taken into my invisible hand by the will of the power inside of me. And then the heat was flowing out of me and into them, leaving my companions untouched as they watched, fascinated by what they were seeing. I heard their screams as the power went to work on their bodies, moving the atoms and splitting them inside of them without even an ounce of effort. And it had all happened in a matter of seconds, where I hadn’t been able to do it so quickly before.

  The power snapped back into my body as they fell to the ground, black and dead blood pouring from the eyes and noses and mouths of those that were bent on killing us to keep us from hopping the wall. Granted, I was confident they didn’t know that was our objective, but they knew something. My knees shook as I shuddered, each muscle within me couldn’t stay still, the weakness causing me to shake violently if I attempted to hold myself up with my arms.

  Ryder knelt down in front of me first, taking my face in his hands so I would look at him. He was quickly followed by Doctor Devi and Julius.

  “Are you alright?” Ryder asked as all three of them watched me in concern. Both Jameson and Caius hung back, giving me space to recuperate.

  I retched, pulling my face away from his to lean to the side and bring up the breakfast I’d had that morning. I hadn’t eaten since then, so most of it was sour and burning stomach acid working its way up my throat. I cleared it, sat up, and wiped the remnants of it from the corner of my mouth with the back of my hand.

  “Mila, look up at me,” Doctor Devi ordered, her voice as soft as it could be when it was so shrill with terror.

  I looked at her, and she raised one of her hands with two fingers pointed up.

  “Follow my fingers.”

  I almost couldn’t focus, double vision taking hold, but slowly getting better as my body adjusted to what had just happened to it.

  “Come on, Mila. Follow them.”

  I did as she asked, putting all of my will into the action itself until she smiled weakly, looked back at Caius and Jameson, and nodded.

  Caius crossed his arms over his chest as Ryder took me into his own, cradling me against his chest until the world stopped spinning in such a way I felt like I could vomit again.

  “Looks like you pack a lot more punch than we thought,” Caius laughed.

  And there was no way I could deny that.

  Chapter

  TWENTY-THREE

  It wasn’t long before we heard the sound of voices drifting to us over the crest of the small hill again. They were indeed alerted to our presence in the forest and had sent even more soldiers after us, knowing full well that I was in the company of the small group. King would see to it that he’d have my power whether I came with it or not. That I was certain of.

  My retching had not only emptied my stomach completely of its meager contents, but it had helped with the overwhelming dizziness and disgusting sensation of being filthy deep within me. And we were on the run again, closing the rest of the distance to the wall in record time before collapsing against the cool concrete of it with exhaustion just as the sun rose on the horizon. I saw at the base of the massive structure, Ryder beside me leaning against it with hands on his knees. His breathing was heavy and ragged, nothing like he had been trained by King’s Army for long distance running. Maybe he hadn’t, but it was something all of us would be getting used to until this was all over for good. My people would have their freedom then. The freedom to live their lives without being underneath a microscope. The freedom to live without being used for what they had that the others didn’t. And I couldn’t wait for that day.

  I smiled at Ryder as I attempted to catch my breath and teased, “You know, I thought you military types could run miles without stopping. You a softy or something?”

  The others laughed and took part in the jabs, but then the giggles faded and Ryder’s face went hard and serious.

  “You guys joke now. I’ve been working in the compound for almost three years. I’d like to see any of you run this without getting a little winded.” He said the words through deep breathes, pushing the air out of his lung quickly to pull in more. “Plus, don’t you have something you need to be doing, Jameson?”

  All of us turned to Jameson, and if he could blush, I couldn’t tell, but he smiled and moved to the wall, placing his hand flat against its surface. His eyes were closed and he took a deep, resonating breath. A bead of sweat from our marathon r
un tumbled down his forehead as he focused on his task. I wasn’t certain what he was doing, but I knew the look well. I had only worn it myself a good number of times.

  “There something you guys didn’t tell us?” Julius asked as he watched the show.

  Jameson, without turning, made a shushing noise. Doctor Devi only watched in pure wonder. I stood and made my way around, coming only as close to the man as I dared just in case he would explode or something. Or if he blew a hole in the wall, which would be impressive. I looked at his face, as still as a statue except for the sweat rolling down his face, and then to his hand on the concrete. Nothing happened at first, and I was about to tell him to stop whatever charade he was trying to pull, but as I silently watched, something began to happen on the surface just around his splayed fingers.

  A ripple moved through the stone, localized just around his fingers at first, then moving outward. They stopped only to start again, rippling and continuing to do so in an oblong shape as large as the man in front of me. Definitely large enough for someone to fit through if that was what this achieved. I was impressed considering no one had even mentioned he had an ability as well. And how had he escaped testing to work for the Paradigm? Particularly since he as a military man.

  “Wow,” I breathed, a smirk taking residence on his face as he dropped his hand, took a step back, and dropped his hand. Even without his touch the wall still ebbed and flowed.

  I looked at him and raised an eyebrow in interest. “Can I touch it?” I asked with a jerk of my head.

  Jameson nodded and chuckled, “You can even go through it if you want.”

  “You’re serious?”

  “I am.”

  “Wait, is that safe? It doesn’t look safe,” Julius stated as he took a step forward, putting an arm out to stop me when I took one toward the undulating mass.