Blood and Bone | 1

3 | 3

The ringing sounds of gunfire were deafening as the two of us sprinted aimlessly through the woodland. Obviously, I had no idea of where we were and no ideas for escape. If, by some miracle, we were able to shake the Club members stalking us, there was no telling what could happen next, especially in a while different place.

I jumped over a hollow fallen tree and whirled around for a split second to hurl it into the approaching gang members. They were gaining on us, despite the fact that we had gotten a head start.

My legs ached with all the running I had done that day. I was able to run relatively fast for short periods of time, but I was no long distance runner. With every step I took, I could feel the energy trickling out of my body.

But with every bullet that was aimed towards me, I forced myself to keep running. I couldn't die. No, I wouldn't die. Not at the hands of someone like Hundsen. He reminded me too much of other faces from my time as an assassin.

The dead leaves on the forest floor flew up as a bullet whizzed past my side and plowed into the ground. The closer the Club members got, the better their aim became. Their yelling and shouting at each other became louder with every second, and I didn't dare turn around to see how close they had become.

A sharp pain suddenly hit the side of my left thigh as a shot buried itself into my flesh. It certainly wasn't a kill shot, but it was beginning to impede me from running away with my already-waning strength.

A throwing knife whizzed through the air and wedged itself into a tree trunk where Jake's head had been a split second before. He stopped for a moment to face the Club members, but I didn't know what he was doing; I kept running straight ahead.

Within a few seconds later, he had gone back to running at my side, and I looked over my shoulder to see what he had done. Fifty feet behind us was a spiked wall of ice. A few Club members were impaled on the deadly shards, but the majority of them simply had run all the way around it.

      I turned forward again, though I knew that my ability to run was slowly diminishing with every step of my injured leg. At this point, the pain was so great, I was half running, half dragging it on the ground.

     I struggled to keep up with Jake until he suddenly slowed in his pace and suddenly ran right. I followed his gaze and saw something large and dark through the sea of green and brown. It wasn't until I ran over a fallen fence that I looked up and saw that we had come to a building on the top of a small hill in the woods. It may have once been a house for some recluse wishing to get away from the city, but now it was clearly unfit to be a home any longer.

      There was no time to inspect the house before the Club members began running up the hill, still hurling throwing knives and bullets toward us. Jake turned to the house and back toward the nearing Crepuscule Club members, apparently concocting a plan.

      "Cover me," he demanded and began shooting a stream of ice from both of his palms onto the ground. I had no idea what he was up to, but I wasn't going to stand around and find out.

      Ducking down, I inspected the gunshot wound in my leg. The bullet was not very far in; I could clearly see it buried in my flesh. So I pulled it out with my mind, stood up, and sent it flying into one of the gang member's chests. I sensed the tug as it ripped through flesh and muscle and out the other end. Another Club member just happened to be right behind the fallen man, and the bullet buried itself into her stomach before she fell on the forest floor to meet her death.

     Once the other, smarter gang members had seen what I could do and realized that they had underestimated me, they became more wary. They hid behind trees and boulders instead of out in the open to shoot at us.

      I turned for a split second to see that Jake had formed a half-circle of an icy barricade around the small house. A throwing knife from a particularly daring Club member whizzed a foot to the left from my chest and clattered to the ground. I ducked down to avoid a gunshot to the head and picked up the small weapon.

      My throwing skills were nothing to write home about, but the Club member was getting closer, making him easier to hit. As he threw another knife, intending for it to catch in my stomach, I moved right. The knife caught my left shoulder and I wrenched it out, wielding two small knives.

      My opponent made a move to step backward, but I was too quick. I sent the first knife into his neck and the second into a Club member who was coming the closest to hitting me with his gun.

      "Tesla!" Jake shouted my name in all the chaos, signaling for me to come to him. Once I was inside the  wall of ice, Jake sealed the way I had come through. The wall wasn't smooth and even, but it ran all the way around the house and was at least seven feet high.

      I heard the sounds of the gangsters beginning to break their way in through the ice and quickly sprinted into the house. Half the living room and bedroom was missing, I noticed, but the kitchen was still intact.

      "Search for weapons," I advised Jake loudly as I pulled open every drawer I could find. Finally, I found one stuffed with an assortment of utensils and rooted around in it until I found a single steak knife.

      A loud banging noise sounded from outside; the Club was beginning to tear down the barricade of ice. I ran towards the back door, to which Jake had already made his way.

      I opened the door with my heart beating in my ears. Jake closed it softly behind him and told me, "Don't leave any footsteps."

      I carefully stepped onto a small grassy patch and across a line of small stones to avoid getting my boots' prints imprinted onto the dirt. When we had reached the other edge of the wall of ice, Jake gripped a very small handhold and climbed over it.

      Once he was over the wall, I gripped the ice tightly. It cut into my hands, but I hardly noticed it. I was more aware of the shouting that came with the wall being broken down on the other side of the circle; they had broken through. Almost slipping down several times on the swiftly melting ice, I finally got up to the top.

      I landed on my feet on the other side, sending a whole new wave of pain through my injured thigh. My leg buckled underneath me, but I forced myself to stand up and run after Jake. Eventually, they were going to figure out that we weren't hiding inside the house, and I needed to be ready for when they inevitably found us again.