Selection (Book 2 of P.O.E. chronicles)

Chapter 1 - In the Jungle you must wait

“If you stay, we all die.” Owen said, then giving me a smile. “You guys are more important than me. If you don’t go, Evanna and Gail will die too.”

Owen had stopped running and once again turned to face the Lupas, ready to fight. I screamed and kicked as much as I can as Tom carried me away from Owen. Tears welled up in my eyes as I failed to free myself from Tom’s grip; I tried to stop the Lupas, but exhaustion was seeping through my body and all I could managed was establishing a paper thin wall in front of Owen, which would only buy him a second before the Legres reach him.

“Don’t look.” Tom whispered, hastening away from Owen and turning me away from him. Panic welled up and I tried frantically to get off Tom, but that only made him hold on to me harder. Roars and sounds of metal against flesh came a few moments later. My heart seemed to be squeezed by an invisible hand and I screamed and kicked, willing the Lupas to just back off and leave us alone. I could see the forest just ahead of us now, but the edge of my vision started fuzz as my eyelids drooped heavily down and I lost conscious.

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My throat hurts. My head hurts. Basically my whole body hurts. My mind was still cloudy from sleep and I held my eye shut, trying to figure out where I was. Then memories of what happened came flooding back and I snapped open my eyes and bolted upright in the crisp cold early morning air.

 I drew in a deep breath of fresh air and looked around me, momentarily dazed.  I could hear voices and footsteps coming towards me as my visions adjust.

“Are you okay?” Nate asked kneeing in front of me. I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded, not trusting myself to speak yet. I was afraid that if I opened my mouth I would end up screaming. I looked around to find Owen but he wasn’t there.

“Guys! She’s awake.” Nate shouted and I heard more people coming towards us. My vision started to clear now and I could see Nate, Holly and Casey in front of me with mirrored concern on their exhausted faces.

“Is she okay?” Tom asked Nate when he came to a stop behind Holly, who gave him an affirmative answer. I momentarily forgot about my heartache and gave Tom a glare.

“Don’t talk like I am not here.” I reprimanded, which Tom took no notice of. I huffed and  turned away from him. Whilst he had become more amiable since our escape, it doesn’t make him less insufferable.

The lump in my throat grew as the rest of my friends gathered around me, including Evanna. None of them looked sadden or depressed, but they could be putting up a brave front to deceive me.

“So, what happened?” I asked, hoping to prompt them into telling me about Owen. I just couldn’t bring myself to actually ask the question directly. The all looked at each other, as if consenting on some kind of story before Nate spoke again.

“A pack of Lupa found us, broke into our camp…” He started, but I quickly interrupted him.

“I know.” I said through my gritted teeth. Could they not see how desperate for answer I was? “What I meant was what happened after I passed out.”

“Oh.” Nate said, giving me a sheepish look. “Right. We met up again in the forest and brought you and kept running until we were sure they weren’t following us.”

Resisting the urge to slap or read his mind. I took a deep breath and settled on giving him a look. He knew what I wanted to know, he was just playing dumb with me.

“Gail, are you okay?” a voice that I never thought I would hear again asked, accompanied by groans of everybody. My head immediately snapped back to the source of the voice and saw a very muddy Owen emerging from our make-shift tent.