Cade’s hand wrapped around my upper arm, he propelled me forward. We staggered, slipped, slid, and ran through the sifting sand. I could hardly breathe through the terror constricting my chest. I felt as if we were moving through quicksand.
We were almost to the tree line when light blazed over us. Everything seemed to slow; we were mired on the beach, trapped like rats beneath the glow. Everything around me was completely acute, bright, and vibrant. The air seemed to shimmer. I felt as if I could reach out and touch every particle. In those, the final moments of my life, I felt completely and entirely connected to the world, and the people around me. I could hear and see everything, I could feel the energy of the air, feel the life force that would forever connect me to the ones I loved. Though they were silent, I could almost hear the hum of the engines as one of the ships moved over us.
And then Cade was grabbing hold of me, wrapping his arms around me, and pulling me down beneath him. The earth rushed up to meet me, sand filled my nose and mouth. His hand was reaching in front of me, bronzed in the bright light. I didn’t know what he was doing until I saw the knife. Then, the rope connecting me to Aiden was sliced.
Relief filled me, hope and love bloomed in my chest as I realized he had just freed my brother and sister. They would be able to make it, we never would. We were too far behind, too far away from the sanctuary of the trees.
“Cade…”
“I love you Bethany.”
A sob ripped from me, my fingers dug into the sand. His lips were warm against my cheek, gentle as he caressed me. I turned into him, savoring our last moments together, taking comfort in the solid strength he radiated. I wanted to tell him that I loved him too, that I always had, and always would. The words stuck in my throat though, I couldn’t get them out past the terror encasing me.
“Bethany!” Abby’s screams echoed from the woods. Tears burned my eyes as I watched her struggling against Aiden’s tight hold. “Bethany!” I knew that Aiden would keep her safe. Ever practical, ever stoic Aiden would save Abby because he knew there was no hope for me.
Then another light blazed forth. A moan of agony and despair tore from me as it lit the woods. My siblings weren’t going to be able to escape either. They were as trapped as we were. The aliens had been waiting for us all along.
I was so caught up in my despair that I didn’t immediately recognize the noise that blazed out of the forest, erupted across the beach, and echoed through the night. Then, the sound pierced my foggy, distorted mind. I inhaled sharply, getting a mouthful of sand for my effort, but I didn’t care as gunshots continued to ring out across the beach. Far more gunshots than anything our supply of weapons could have achieved.
I lifted my head, wincing against the barrage of lights that burst from the woods. It was not another ship, but something else entirely. Cade was frozen above me, his muscles taut and hard. And then he was seizing hold of my arm and pulling me to my feet. “Stay low!”
I bent over as I ran forward, struggling through the sand sifting beneath my feet. I could barely see or hear anything over the noise and lights. Cade was beside me, he had ditched the tank from his back. He was reaching out for me when he tripped and fell. For a moment I didn’t understand what had happened, Cade was always so graceful and sure. Then I felt the sharp tug of the rope still binding us.
I cried out as I was pulled roughly back and knocked off my feet. My fingers clawed uselessly at the beach, but there was nothing for me to grab hold of, nothing to stop my violent propulsion backward. I flipped onto my back, horrified to see Cade halfway off the ground. One of those thingswas wrapped around his waist, tugging him into the air, and toward certain death.
A scream of terror tore from my throat. I lunged at him, trying to grasp hold of his hands as we were pulled backward. My heart hammered, it was not my life and safety that I was concerned with anymore, but his. Another tentacle snaked toward me, but Cade was somehow able to turn and knock it away. I was tugged sharply forward, lifted off the ground and awkwardly thrust back onto my feet. I stumbled, reaching for Cade again, but he was getting further away from me.
“Cade!” I screamed. Jerked roughly forward, I was spun sharply around before being slammed face down onto the beach as the rope joining us was pulled taut. The breath was knocked out of me, I could barely see as stars burst before my eyes. I struggled to clear my vision, spitting sand out as I tried hard to breathe again.
I was pulled toward the shore, drug by the rope binding us. Somehow I managed to flip onto my back once more. Grabbing hold of the rope I tried to dig my feet in, tried to get some kind of leverage as I fought to keep Cade from being torn away from me. My hands caught fire, rope burns tore across my palms, laying them raw, but I refused to let it go.
My feet hit the water; I was plunged in up to my knees. For one brief, horrifying moment, my eyes met Cade’s wide eyed gaze. For one brief, clarifying moment I knew true, and heart stopping, dismay. “Cade.” His name was just a whisper on my lips, a bare breath that even I barely heard, but I knew that he had somehow. I was jerked to my feet again as Cade cut the rope.
A scream of agony and fear swelled up my chest, choked through my throat, and tore out of me. “No!” I wailed as I fell into the ocean. I scrambled to my feet, crashing into the surf, trying to catch Cade as he disappeared from sight.
“No! Caaaaade!!!!”
I was so focused on him that I didn’t see the other tentacle coming at me until it knocked me off my feet.
CHAPTER 18
I didn’t know what happened after that, didn’t know where I was. Hands grasped at me, pulling me from the water, carrying me somewhere. I wasn’t handled roughly, but there was a hurried urgency to the hands that was disconcerting and frightening. I couldn’t quite make sense of anything; I didn’t know where I was. Time came in and out in flashing blurs that left me disoriented and confused.
At times I was certain that no time had passed, at others I felt as if an eternity had slipped by. Yet, through it all I was acutely aware of one fact and one fact alone.
Cade was gone.
He had cut the rope. He had been ripped away. He had been taken by those awful creatures. He was gone. He was probably dead.
In those moments of utter clarity the pain of his loss was so intense that it was all consuming, and debilitating. Agony would flare through me, it would sear me with its intensity and I would once again lose myself to the world of delirium and denial that enshrouded me.
And then one day, I awoke. At first I wanted to return to oblivion, wanted to lose myself to the world of delirium and denial. But I couldn’t. I had to face the facts, I had to face reality. I couldn’t simply curl into a ball and die like a part of me so badly wanted to. It hurt to breathe; my heart was a broken vessel that only served to pump blood through my veins. But it continued to pump, I continued to breathe, and apparently the world was still turning. It was time that I rejoined it.
I found myself in a small room, one that I didn’t recognize, and one that I couldn’t begin to place. I frowned as I stared at the dingy white walls, gray concrete floor, and ceiling fan spinning ever so slowly above me. I was on a metal table; a thin mattress had been placed upon it.
What the hell?
I sat up slowly, wincing as I swung my legs over the side. Pain ran up my left leg, it lanced across my hips and waist. I was wearing a shirt that I didn’t recognize and a lose pair of sweats that were most definitely not mine. I pulled the shirt gingerly up, my mouth dropping slightly as I took in the long red wound marring my skin and the stitches holding it together. Pulling the pants down, I was not surprised to see a bandage covering my hip and upper thigh.