This Is Not The End.

Chapter 13

I'd been trained for this, running away. Jack and Kai hadn't.

"I'm not gonna make it!" Kai yelled at me, shooting glances over his shoulder at the masses of dead. "Skye! I'm not-"

I gripped his hand as tightly as I could and dragged him with me, stumbling over his own feet, "You're not getting away from me that easily,"

The sound of our feet against the concrete floor drummed into our heads. Shops and quaint houses became visual luxuries which we just couldn't admire. It wasn't worth our lives.

Who I guessed was Beck, and the girl raced ahead, leading us down alleyways and the behind buildings until the roar of Infected merely haunted my ears like a distant memory. I didn't trust how easily we'd gotten away. We hadn't had a single break in the last two days, I wasn't expecting one now.

Beck and the girl yelled back reassuringly and led us into a forest bordering the edge of the city, putting on a last burst of speed as we opened out into a barren street which stopped at the treeline. Heaving as he tried to catch a breath, Jack managed to match my speed and, still dragging Kai by his arm, we caught up to them. Beck pulled himself up one of the bigger oak trees and reached down to help the girl. His dark hair fell into his eyes and he brushed a tanned hand through it effortlessly, grinning with adrenaline.

Jack scarpered up, grabbing branches and pulling himself up like he'd done it a thousand times, but Kai and I couldn't reach the ledge.

I wasn't even short.

"For god's sake," I muttered as I scanned the trees for another way up. Maybe if I jumped I could just reach the ledge... nope. I just looked stupid.

Beck pulled Kai up with ease, making sure he landed on his feet and didn't fall off the other side.

"Need a hand?" he smirked, reaching down to help me up. Blinking absently to get over the fact he was British too, I glanced between him and the ever-advancing horde, "C'mon sweetheart, we don't have all day,"

He was right. I swallowed my ego and took his hand.

"Good choice," he pulled me up and I found my feet, climbing a little higher so I could sit on my own branch and be out of the way. Kai and Jack sat awkwardly close to each other on the other side of the tree, trying to keep their legs from dangling but having no place to put them other than on each other. Neither seemed comfortable with that.

"Cara tells me you're all headed to Washington," Beck raised his eyebrows but kept his eyes on the street as it began to steadily fill with Infected. "How's that going for you so far?"

I narrowed my eyes, craning my neck to look down at him without losing my balance and falling, "What's that supposed to mean?"

The girl – Cara, it was nice to know her name – shifted, "They're from the bad place, Beck,"

"Oh! You're SWORD groupies," he nodded as if that made all the sense in the world, "It's a good thing you came through the town, then. Our scouts wouldn't have got you for miles,"

"What are you talking about?"

"You do know SWORD sent you out here to die, right?" he broke his gaze with the street to meet my eyes – expressionless. He looked like he didn't give a shit about anything. We were just extras in his franchise, and we were taking up his screen time. My mind lingered on the word 'die', and a part of me believed it, but not Ariadne, and not this mission. Not yet. Who was this guy to tell me what to believe?

"Excuse me?"

"I get this is the turning point in your story of self-discovery, and I'll give you the whole 'viva la revolución' talk in a minute, as for now-" he checked on where the Infected were staggering up the street and, apparently happy with how far they'd gotten, jumped down and landing with his knees bent. "-I've got a job to do,"

I'd only just met the guy, but I already thought he was a prick.

"Cara, my glasses, if you please," Cara dropped him a pair of aged Ray Bans sunglasses and he used them to hold his tufts of hair away from his eyes, walking out nonchalantly into the street.

My mind raced like Gold Cup geldings, the fences on the track being every time someone had shocked me, or oppressed me, or hurt me, and I hit every one of them. It wasn't a stretch to think that we were fucked from the very start, but I couldn't make the jump. I needed to believe in Ariadne, she'd never given me any reason not to. We were going to Washington to help the other kids back at the facility, save them from almost certain death; we weren't going to die. We had Jack, and we had Kai, we'd be the team to make it.

But Jack and Kai were nothing compared to Beck.

He grinned back at us and flicked down his sunglasses, his hair falling over his eyes again, but I didn't think he could see – his glasses were so dark I could tell they were blackout.

Turning back to the hordes, he cracked his knuckles and rolled his shoulders. Raising his hands, he began to channel every piece of energy he had inside him. The air dropped and I gripped to my branch, so I didn't fall off in the pull. With the wind picking up, leaves and trees began to gravitate towards him, aching to get close to him. Cara let out a triumphant shout, her red hair whipping her face. I just tried to stand my ground.

Everything stopped abruptly, and Beck stepped back, swelling in power.

"Not today, fuckers," he said, laughing.

"Don't look!" Cara warned me, shielding her eyes in her hands. Jack and Kai heard too, and we respected her enough to mostly listen.

Through the slits in my hands, I watched in a confused mix of awe and disgust, as the hordes of Infected before us imploded on themselves, and Beck walked away with barely a hair out of place.

Now that was a power.