Chapter 10

I had literally one split second, but that was just enough to doubt my decision. The impact from hitting the ceiling jarred every bone in my body, and I felt Arianna’s arm slipping out of my grasp.

I tried my best to ignore the burning sensation running from my forearm to my bicep and shoulder, tightening my grip. Instinctively, I closed my eyes as chunks of plaster and wood fell down around my sheild.

Have you ever been so tired that you could feel your energy pouring out of you like water? That’s how I felt, and I knew that I couldn’t keep busting through ceilings and throwing force fields around, especially with Arianna’s dead weight.

I dropped to the floor--quite literally--on my side. I gasped for breath as a burning sensation spread through my ribs, each intake causing me to feel like I was being stabbed. I didn’t even have time to make sure that Arianna was alright before I saw the dreaded blue glowing shooting up through the ceiling.

One of the hostiles was trying to come through the hole I’d made.

“Oh no you don’t! Make your own hole!” And with that, I punched downward in a sweeping motion, my force field mimicking my movement. More floor splintered and ripped away as he fell back down.

I couldn’t stay there and play whack-a-mole all night. (I’m just not one for kiddy games, you know?) I picked Arianna and ungracefully tossed her over my left shoulder. I may have been short, but that didn’t mean I was weak. So, without further ado, I staggered to the window, blowing the entire thing out with a force field. Without looking back, I half-jumped, half-dove out the window.

Rain, mixed with hail, stung my face, the wind whipping long strands of my tangled hair behind me. Arianna’s torso had flopped forward, and considering the way that we were falling, she’d land right on her head and snap her neck. Using the last of my energy stores, I caught us both gently with a force field.

“Arianna, please, please, snap out of it! I need you!” I begged. I cast a quick look back upstairs, where my entire room was bathed with unearthly blue light. “Please! ARIANNA!”

A black blur shot towards us from above, and I had no choice but to run for the woods, dragging her behind me. I anticipated a jolt of electricity to course through my body at any minute, turning my internal organs to charred husks.

But for all the bad luck that I’ve had, something good actually happened--he tripped, face first.

It was just a few seconds, but the woods were within jumping distance now. In a few strides, I’d made it to relative safety. Well, the illusion of it, anyway. If we were to stay alive, Arianna needed to snap out of it. Yelling at her hadn’t worked, shaking her hadn’t worked. . . so I did the only thing I could think of.

I slapped her. “Get with it!”

The glazed look left her eyes, and in its place was pure rage. No hug, no “Thank you, Dani, for saving my life,” but instead, a slap.

“Good grief! I just saved your life!”

The eerie blue light poured out the window, across the lawn, and towards us. And, I hate to admit it, but I was scared. I’ve been scared lots of times in my life, usually that ART would just toss me out, dust their hands, and be done with me. Never anything like this all-consuming, all-encompossing feeling of complete and utter terror.

I was out of ideas, out of plans, out of energy, both physical and mental.

“Dani, do something!” Arianna screamed, eyes wide with terror.

“I...I don’t know what to do!” I yelled back. A small part of me had time to wonder, Did those words really just come out of my mouth?

“RUN!”

I didn’t argue as I stumbled after her through the woods. Apparently, Arianna was more of an outdoorsy girl than I thought, because she knew the woods like the back of her hand. Every pit, every tree, every rock. . . she knew where they were and avoided them. I, on the other hand, resembled a crippled bigfoot trying to dance. I swear every tree limb hit me in the face, and I landed in every animal hole.

“Can’t you do what they’re doing, whatever it is?” she panted when we finally had to stop for a breather a few minutes later.

“I don’t know, I never tried! And even if I could, I certainly don’t have enough energy!”

“Who are they? Why do they want you?”

“I don’t know!” I yelled back, struggling to be heard over the pounding rain, even though we were side by side.

“If we could get to my house, I know where Ax’s guns and ammo are.”

“I don’t think a gun’s going to do anything!”

“It’s better than nothing!”

We took off running again. The woods gradually sloped upwards, but it was raining so hard that the entire slope was a mass of miniature rivers. It was more of a pulling-yourself-up-by-the-tree-trunks sort of deal as oppossed to running up it.

But once we reached the top, it leveled out. An asphalt road snaked across it, and Arianna ran across it to the brush on the other side. She suddenly dissappeared from view.

“Where are you?”

“Right here!” she said, grabbing my wrist and tugging my through the mass of thorns--all of which got me in the face--into an old, collapsed shed. Water streamed down my neck to my back, and I shivered.

“Are you sure there’s nothing you can do?” she whispered.

“No! I can’t physically fight them, and I can’t telepathically fight them,” I said, frustrated.

“Can’t you get more telepathic energy?”

“No, I--” I stopped. “Wait! That’s it! I can get more energy, by taking your unused energy.”

“Great! But...will that do anything to me?” She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

“I. . . I don’t know! I’ve never done it before!”

Silence fell, each of us straining to hear if the enmy was approaching. Could they track our telepathic signature? Our heat signature? I’d practiced doing both, and I knew how well telepathic tracking worked.

“If we’re gonna do this, we gotta do this now. Are you okay with this?” I asked.

“I’ll take it over dying,” she said, scooting closer. “What do I do?”

“Close your eyes, and uh, concentrate on moving your energy to me? I don’t know, I’ve never done this before!” I’d seen it done before a couple times, but there wasn’t contact all of the time. Well, better safe than sorry. I placed my hands on her temples, closed m eyes, and concentrated.

I don’t know how long it took--seconds, minutes?--but I sat back. Rolling my shoulders, I said, “That’s better. now let’s go kick some butt!”