Cade nodded as he studied the wall, and then the hill. His eyes were narrowed, and then, slowly, his head tilted back. My heart seemed to stop; I stiffened as a blast of terror tore through me. Before I could tilt my head back to see what had caught his attention, he grabbed hold of me and shoved me against the rough bark of a locust tree. My breath was momentarily knocked from me.
“Stay,” he hissed.
I was too stunned to move anyway. He had been so fast, so rapid, and I watched in amazement as he used that speed to grab hold of Abby and Jenna. He pulled them back, sheltering them beneath the leafy bowers of a large oak. The three of them flattened against the trunk of the tree as the small ship that had somehow caught Cade’s attention moved swiftly through the sky over a hundred yards away.
Fear constricted my chest; I glanced back down the hill we had climbed as I began to pray silently. Aiden, Bret, and Molly had been lucky before, I could only hope that luck held out. They were sitting ducks if they didn’t find some sort of shelter. Even if it was just a tree. “Bethany!”
I turned at Cade’s hissed whisper. He’d stepped from the shadows of the tree; his hand was outstretched to me. My attention was drawn back to the ship as it settled over the area of the bridge; I waited, breathlessly to see what it was going to do. “Bethany we have to go!”
A door in the bottom of the ship slid open. I froze, my heart hammering, my eyes widening as something dropped out of the ship. It was small, round. At first I had the insane notion that it was a cannonball, but right before it dropped below the tree line, legs unfolded. Another one dropped from the ship as the first one disappeared. They were the size of a grown dog, perhaps a shepard, but it was hard to tell from this distance.
What were they?
I gasped, nearly jumping out of my skin as Cade grasped hold of my arm. “We have to go!”
“What are they?” I breathed. He stared at me for a long moment. Horror circled through me, my toes curled in my shoes. “Those things. But they’re so small.”
“That means they’re probably faster.”
“They come in different sizes?” I asked in disbelief.
“They haven’t fed yet.”
I was going to vomit, I was going to deny his words, but they were right, hewas right. I knew it the minute he said it, he was telling the truth. They were small because they were not blotted with the blood of people. As they fed, they would get bigger.
And wemay be all they had to feed on.
“We have to run Bethany. Now.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice, his hand slid into mine as he pulled me up the hill. We struggled, slipped, and slid as we frantically climbed upward. I grasped hold of the thin vegetation, pulling myself up with straggling bayberries, ilexes, and seedlings. Cade released my hand to help Abby as she struggled up a steep section. Urgency filled me, my heart lumbered painfully. Though I knew it wasn’t true, I thought I could hear them scurrying through the trees behind us, gaining on us.
But perhaps I was right.
I chanced a glance over my shoulder. The awkward movement caused me to go slightly off balance. My foot landed awkwardly, I was thrown off balance as my ankle twisted out from under me. A startled cry escaped me as I pitched forward, slipping back down the hill. Cade reached out, snagging hold of my wrist before I fell to far. He held me for a long moment, his eyes blazing into mine as my mouth parted slightly.
“You’re clumsy,” he muttered.
“You’re fast,” I retorted as he helped pull me back to my feet.
His hand tightened upon me or a brief moment before he started pulling me forward again. Abby and Jenna had stopped to wait for us but as we started back up the hill again they turned and fled onward up the hill. They suddenly disappeared over the top. Panic filled me as my sister disappeared, but then Cade pulled me to the top and over the brink. It was briefly downhill before the ground leveled out and we became enclosed by the paintball course.
We raced past walls, covered in myriad colors of paint. Cade took the lead, dodging tires, sacks of sand, and buildings with ease. My legs were beginning to burn, Jenna was starting to lag, and Abby was struggling to keep up. The three of us were winded; Cade seemed as if he could go on for miles, even with the guns strapped to his back. I hadn’t thought he was much of an athlete; apparently I had been completely wrong.
He disappeared around a corner before swiftly reappearing. I stopped before him, laboring for breath as I bent over to rest my hands on my knees. “We have to keep moving.”
I knew he was right but all I wanted was to sit down and rest my weary, shaking legs. I took a deep breath and forced myself to move. Abby looked about ready to collapse, her dark hair was matted to her face with sweat and grime; her dark eyes were red rimmed, wild with fear and exhaustion. I thought Jenna was going to complain; instead she remained silent as she wiped the tangled hair away from her face.
Cade pulled a gun from the waistband of his pants; his dark eyes were intense as he handed it to me. My hand shook as I took it from him; it was the same gun I had used before. “Do not fire it unless it becomes absolutely necessary.” I frowned as my attention turned from the deadly weapon, to him. “It will only bring more of them.”
“More?” I breathed as Abby stepped closer to me. His attention turned toward the woods. A shiver crept up my spine, the hair on my neck rose as I turned slowly to survey the quiet forest. They were out there. My skin crawled with the realization; I took an involuntary step back. Cade seized hold of my hand, wrapping it around the gun as he squeezed me tight for a long moment as he tried to infuse me with his unwavering strength.
“This way,” he whispered.
We followed him as he moved swiftly and with relative ease through the course. A sign, painted in different colors, readJUNGLE COURSEand had an arrow pointing down a path. We followed Cade out of the cleared area and back into the forest. These woods had been transformed into a forest that was not from the northeast. Moss had been draped from the trees, I brushed it aside as it fell over the pathway enshrouding it with an air of mystery. Vines hung from limbs and crawled over the trees lining the small path. Some of them were as thick as my calf, others were small and thin. They climbed up the trees, entangling with the leaves and threatening to choke the tree. Ivy grew over the pathway, crawling over the dirt before slipping into the woods and into the trees. Fake birds and monkeys were propped up in the trees; I spotted a couple of jaguars, a few boas, and other snakes hidden within the landscape. I had never been here before, but I was momentarily fascinated by the atmosphere they had created. I probably would have been shot instantly as I would have been far more preoccupied with trying to find the things hidden along the pathway and in the woods.
Cade suddenly stepped off the trail and plunged into the woods. He pushed aside vines and moss as he moved. We followed behind, trying to stay as quiet as possible as we moved as swiftly through the dense woods as we could. Cade stopped near a large locust tree; he glanced briefly around his eyes narrowed as he surveyed the woods. I didn’t know what he was doing, but he seemed certain of something as he turned to the right and started walking again.
A twig snapped behind me. I jumped, instinctively raising my gun as I spun toward the source of the sound. I saw nothing amongst the vegetation and trees, but something was there, I knew it. I could feel it in the marrow of my bones as every primitive instinct I had came screaming awake. Cade was at my side, his hand gentle on my arm as he pushed it lightly down. He placed a finger against his lips, shaking his head at me as he gestured for me to remain quiet.
He pulled me back, searching the forest as we moved. He pulled me up, halting me at the base of three intersecting pines that had nearly grown together in the dense woods. He bent; grabbed hold of something and lifted it up. I watched in amazement as he lifted the forest floor into the air. It took a moment to realize that he was actually holding a large piece of plywood that had been creatively, and convincingly, covered with dirt, leaves, pine needles, and sticks. “In,” he whispered gesturing to Abby.