A Clan of Novaks
Page 13
Victoria
The three of us thrust ourselves backward into the portal.
This was the first time I had ever traveled through a gate. It was the most bizarre experience, lurching into a gut-wrenching freefall through a seemingly bottomless tunnel, with no idea what we’d find on the other end. My parents had recounted to me on a number of occasions what it felt like, but nothing could’ve truly prepared me for it.
My stomach lurched, and I was sure that I would throw up before we ever reached the other side. But as we hurtled down, I could only feel thankful that the toxic smoke no longer choked my lungs, and we’d gotten away from those monsters. I had been afraid in the first few seconds of our fall that they would leap after us, but I managed to twist myself around and verified that they hadn’t.
When we arrived at the other end, I was totally unprepared. I hadn’t even known we’d been approaching the exit since I had been facing the other way. The three of us rocketed out and landed on cool, damp soil. The smell of wet bark filled my nostrils. I coughed, raising my head slowly. It was dark, and we had landed in some kind of… forested enclosure. The trees loomed so high, I couldn’t even see the top of them through the canopy of leaves. They were breathtakingly tall, taller than any redwood I’d seen in The Shade. Directly in front of us was a towering metal fence spiked with barbed wire. An electric fence?
Then my eyes fell upon something far more shocking. Three large, square, steel buildings with wide tinted windows—signature architecture of the IBSI—loomed behind us.
The sight sent my head into a tailspin. What? Where are we? Grace and Heath looked equally bewildered. We looked at each other, wide-eyed and nervous.
“What is this place?” I whispered.
Heath shook his head darkly, before breathing, “Wherever we are, we need to stay hid—”
“Intruders!” a male voice boomed through the enclosure.
We spun in its direction to see five men in IBSI uniforms racing toward us through the trees, a mutant on a leash pounding in front of them.
“Run!” Heath roared, and although we had no idea where to run to, being trapped in this enclosure surrounded by electric fences, we scrambled toward the other side of the fence. I was still so weak, I fell behind and it killed me when the other two slowed down to keep me with them.
Running was futile, of course. We made it about eight feet before the hunters released the mutant and it came hurtling after us. Attempting to withdraw my gun while quickening my pace to a speed my body simply couldn’t handle, I lost my footing and fell, dropping the weapon. A sharp pain shot through my ankle. I was sure I had just sprained it. I crashed to the ground, expecting to be engulfed in flames any second as the mutant arrived next to me, blocking me off from Grace and Heath, who’d tried to rush back for me.
But instead, letting out another bloodcurdling screech, it decided to go after Grace and Heath instead—perhaps seeing its battle with me was already won. The hunters seemed to share the same thinking as they too averted their attention to Grace and Heath—but not before collecting my gun.
Using what little strength I had left in my arms, I pulled myself across the ground toward a nearby tree. I gazed helplessly toward the mutant circling Grace and Heath. Heath exhaled a burst of fire, even as Grace made it spread and swirl around the mutant, but it simply shot upward in retreat before unleashing a plume of its own flames down on them.
I craned my neck in anxiety as they backed away behind a thicket and… I didn’t have a chance to see what happened next.
With a dull thud, something dropped down from the tree I was backed up against. Before I could look up, a thick, steely arm snaked around my waist and hauled me upward. My feet left the ground. Something, someone with incredible strength and speed was swinging me up the tree.
Craning my neck even as my stomach lurched at the sheer height I suddenly found myself at, I realized I was staring up at… that man. The werewolf we had freed.
Crap. He was climbing the tree with the power of a single arm while the other kept me bound tightly against him… suffocatingly tight. But at the speed he was traveling, he couldn’t grip me tight enough to make me feel secure.
A round of shouts came from beneath us. I was too afraid to look down now, but as gunshots fired, it was clear they had spotted me escaping. We’d reached the top of the tree by now, and with a leap that made my blood run cold, the wolf man lurched toward a neighboring treetop. And then he jumped again, and again, and again, like a wolf incarnation of Tarzan, from branch to branch, tree to tree, until we had reached the trees that stood outside the boundary.
He paused to catch his breath, but he did not stop here. My heart felt like it was going to give way as he continued to create distance between us and the hunters. Only when the screeching and shouts faded did he swing to lower branches before eventually landing on the ground with stunning grace, as though he were born to climb trees.
The dense wood had become so eerily quiet I could practically hear the blood pounding in my ears. Still gripping me firmly, he lowered me to the ground before standing over me. His cool eyes bored down into mine, his lips parted slightly as he breathed.
There were a hundred questions I could have asked in that moment, but the first one that came to my lips was:
“Why did you do that?”
He furrowed his thick brows, head cocking slightly to one side. He scrutinized me as though he found my question curious. “You helped me,” he replied in a low voice. “Now… I have helped you.”
The three of us thrust ourselves backward into the portal.
This was the first time I had ever traveled through a gate. It was the most bizarre experience, lurching into a gut-wrenching freefall through a seemingly bottomless tunnel, with no idea what we’d find on the other end. My parents had recounted to me on a number of occasions what it felt like, but nothing could’ve truly prepared me for it.
My stomach lurched, and I was sure that I would throw up before we ever reached the other side. But as we hurtled down, I could only feel thankful that the toxic smoke no longer choked my lungs, and we’d gotten away from those monsters. I had been afraid in the first few seconds of our fall that they would leap after us, but I managed to twist myself around and verified that they hadn’t.
When we arrived at the other end, I was totally unprepared. I hadn’t even known we’d been approaching the exit since I had been facing the other way. The three of us rocketed out and landed on cool, damp soil. The smell of wet bark filled my nostrils. I coughed, raising my head slowly. It was dark, and we had landed in some kind of… forested enclosure. The trees loomed so high, I couldn’t even see the top of them through the canopy of leaves. They were breathtakingly tall, taller than any redwood I’d seen in The Shade. Directly in front of us was a towering metal fence spiked with barbed wire. An electric fence?
Then my eyes fell upon something far more shocking. Three large, square, steel buildings with wide tinted windows—signature architecture of the IBSI—loomed behind us.
The sight sent my head into a tailspin. What? Where are we? Grace and Heath looked equally bewildered. We looked at each other, wide-eyed and nervous.
“What is this place?” I whispered.
Heath shook his head darkly, before breathing, “Wherever we are, we need to stay hid—”
“Intruders!” a male voice boomed through the enclosure.
We spun in its direction to see five men in IBSI uniforms racing toward us through the trees, a mutant on a leash pounding in front of them.
“Run!” Heath roared, and although we had no idea where to run to, being trapped in this enclosure surrounded by electric fences, we scrambled toward the other side of the fence. I was still so weak, I fell behind and it killed me when the other two slowed down to keep me with them.
Running was futile, of course. We made it about eight feet before the hunters released the mutant and it came hurtling after us. Attempting to withdraw my gun while quickening my pace to a speed my body simply couldn’t handle, I lost my footing and fell, dropping the weapon. A sharp pain shot through my ankle. I was sure I had just sprained it. I crashed to the ground, expecting to be engulfed in flames any second as the mutant arrived next to me, blocking me off from Grace and Heath, who’d tried to rush back for me.
But instead, letting out another bloodcurdling screech, it decided to go after Grace and Heath instead—perhaps seeing its battle with me was already won. The hunters seemed to share the same thinking as they too averted their attention to Grace and Heath—but not before collecting my gun.
Using what little strength I had left in my arms, I pulled myself across the ground toward a nearby tree. I gazed helplessly toward the mutant circling Grace and Heath. Heath exhaled a burst of fire, even as Grace made it spread and swirl around the mutant, but it simply shot upward in retreat before unleashing a plume of its own flames down on them.
I craned my neck in anxiety as they backed away behind a thicket and… I didn’t have a chance to see what happened next.
With a dull thud, something dropped down from the tree I was backed up against. Before I could look up, a thick, steely arm snaked around my waist and hauled me upward. My feet left the ground. Something, someone with incredible strength and speed was swinging me up the tree.
Craning my neck even as my stomach lurched at the sheer height I suddenly found myself at, I realized I was staring up at… that man. The werewolf we had freed.
Crap. He was climbing the tree with the power of a single arm while the other kept me bound tightly against him… suffocatingly tight. But at the speed he was traveling, he couldn’t grip me tight enough to make me feel secure.
A round of shouts came from beneath us. I was too afraid to look down now, but as gunshots fired, it was clear they had spotted me escaping. We’d reached the top of the tree by now, and with a leap that made my blood run cold, the wolf man lurched toward a neighboring treetop. And then he jumped again, and again, and again, like a wolf incarnation of Tarzan, from branch to branch, tree to tree, until we had reached the trees that stood outside the boundary.
He paused to catch his breath, but he did not stop here. My heart felt like it was going to give way as he continued to create distance between us and the hunters. Only when the screeching and shouts faded did he swing to lower branches before eventually landing on the ground with stunning grace, as though he were born to climb trees.
The dense wood had become so eerily quiet I could practically hear the blood pounding in my ears. Still gripping me firmly, he lowered me to the ground before standing over me. His cool eyes bored down into mine, his lips parted slightly as he breathed.
There were a hundred questions I could have asked in that moment, but the first one that came to my lips was:
“Why did you do that?”
He furrowed his thick brows, head cocking slightly to one side. He scrutinized me as though he found my question curious. “You helped me,” he replied in a low voice. “Now… I have helped you.”
