March City: Rebellion of the Gifted [Book 2 | Complete | Fantasy/Sci-fi]

Chapter 18: Outpost

"Yeah," Ari sputtered. "God, does this ever end?"

A spatter and a sizzle near her made her jump to her feet and stumble back. A creature that had crept upon her screeched, almost human-like. It shied away, its skin bubbling in an angry welt where Daae's molten metal had struck its shoulder. It had a mop of tousled mousy blonde hair, almost like the birds' nests Ari had seen along the way in this world, ended in bright green tips. The injured arm hung useless but it reached the other arm over. It whistled and an explosion blew Ari backwards, forcing her to land in a splayed pile of arms and legs, disorientated and deafened.

She rolled and pushed herself up onto wobbly legs. The explosion had blown off the creature's legs so it lay in a struggling, bloody pile on the floor, one arm extended towards Ari. In its long-fingered hand, it rolled several pebbles together in an eerily familiar way. Ari recognised that hair and that gesture.

"...Jos?" she whispered. The creature made a nasally, inhuman noise. Her panicked, pained eyes darted everywhere; the girl, who was transplanted the bomb-loading ability and had casually told Ari where Mina was held beneath Area Six, did not recognise Ari. Ari couldn't move. Her limbs rooted to the spot. Jos crawled towards Ari, saliva dripping out of her mouth and her head jerking rhythmically. There was not a sense of humanity behind those glazed eyes.

Shon's next shot tore clean through Jos's head.

"Come on!" Fris's voice came urgently from beside Ari. A pair of hands yanked her to her feet. "Move it!"

"That was Jos." Ari's voice caught in her throat.

"What?"

"Jos. The student from March City. She—"

"She's not the first and won't be the last! Move it unless you want to become one of them!"

Ari forced her feet to follow Fris. They scrambled over the rubble, tripping over uneven ground and brambles that snaked all over. Shon's gunshots followed them, striking true with every fire. Fula sprinted ahead, spinning around and lobbing a projectile with ferocious speed. It whizzed past Ari and Fris, striking the nearest creature so hard a crack sounded and its head snapped back. A hiss sounded, followed by an explosion, scattering the group of pursuers.

The next outpost came into sight: a large, red-bricked building with Redstone Bus Terminal painted beneath the square, boarded-up windows. Metal fences lined the outside, not unlike Candra, but several breaks along its side meant it must have been overrun at some point. Not a human could be seen across its concrete ground with yellowed grass poking through its cracks. Closer to the main building were small structures made out of planks of wood, perhaps for lookout.

The group climbed through the holes in the fence. Shon kept lookout whilst the rest scavenged enough metal parts for Daae to weld into the holes, erecting the fence to keep further unwelcome guests out. It had almost become second nature, despite it being only about six hours and four outposts since they left Candra. Find an outpost per the virtual map, recover the peripheral fences, clear out any creatures left inside, update the virtual map to communicate their progress to Candra.

God knows how many ex-March City students they had slain along the way. Ari had known this; Lira had shown her the end result of the infection with that boy, Nero, back at the shopping facility. Was it because she knew Jos personally? They had but exchanged a few lines and then fought. Or was it because Jos was part of Kena's experiments, and Mina would have become her had Kena's plan succeeded?

"I can't help but notice all these monsters have abilities like ours. They can't all be from March City, could they?" said Fula, still out of breath.