Tracking through a forest was no easy task, even though we had all sort of got used to it now. To make sure we can respond to danger as fast as possible, we worked out a formation to walk in: with Tom in the front with me and Owen right behind as the spear head to detect and defend the front; Evanna encased in the middle behind us between Nate and Casey. Behind them are Fred and Natalie with Oscar bringing up the rear.
I didn’t especially liked being put in the front with Tom, but it’s either him or Fred, seeing as you can’t put those two together and those two and Oscar are the strongest one in the group, so naturally they should be at the front and back of a group. And Fred demanded that Natalie must be on his side, so there’s that. It’s kind of sweet, if he isn’t such a jerk.
Evanna was automatically put in the middle, since she is the most valuable member of us all. We were all on high alert today after the events of yesterday, no one wanted a replay on that. Me and Owen was working extra hard on detecting.
I revealed the fact that I could detect the surrounding like Owen after our first day in the forest. It wasn’t like I wanted to, but I could see that there was no getting out of the forest anytime soon and if we had to work together we needed to know what each other are capable of. However, their reaction wasn’t exactly what I had expected.
Tom eyed me suspiciously as if I was going to explode, before declaring that he knew I was hiding something all along; Fred responded similarly. Those two resembles each other so much that sometimes it’s creepy.
Casey, Natalie, Nate and Holly told me that they wouldn’t expect anything less from someone in Mr. Andrewson’s tutor group. And that they were numb from all the surprises from me.
Evanna smiled at me knowingly, she probably knew I was going to say it. Two minutes beforehand. Maybe that’s why she tripped over.
And Oscar being Oscar didn’t look that at all faze by the new information.
Sometimes I think I was the only one who is normal in the group. Maybe with the exception of Natalie.
“I don’t feel anything.” Owen declared next to me, jolting me from my little trace. Feeling guilty that I was day dreaming whilst he was doing his duty I did a double check of the area. No sign of anything.
“Same.” I said, a little too quickly earning an eye roll from Tom. Making a face behind him I return to my task with renewed concentration. Even though my job was made easier with Owen, but it’s still important that we get a warning as soon as possible if a danger is coming; so I got to stay focused.
On a typical day, we would usually detect one or two high class Legres and trek around them; on the off day where they happened to sense us we will run, or fight. That had only happened three times (including the time when we got chased by the Lupas), but mostly we avoid such nasty incidents because of Evanna’s warning rather than me and Owen’s scouting.
“There is a Hancock 10 o’clock five miles from us.” I said, feeling the presences of a Legre. Hancocks are a type of mutated bird-like Legre that’s the size of a big dog. Whilst they may not be big; their pointy beak is lethal and their mutation gave them speed and the titanium hard feathers that can shoot a hole through you. They are often found in families, so finding one meant there would be a few close by too.
“Oh god why.” Nate pouted, since we would have to detour around a vast area now to avoid the flock of Hancock. Everyone rolled their eyes at him; it wasn’t like we had a set route anyway. We were just heading North West vaguely. Fred, who come from a POE family said that judging from the code of the Citybase, we must be somewhere in SE China, and must head north to Europe to avoid looking suspicious upon entering. A group of white people entering a predominantly Asia Citybase. Imagine the horror.
The other problems we had was getting into a Citybase. To be honest I had never saw anyone enter a Citybase through the walls. They usually just fly straight in. I am not even sure there were any entrances on the walls. None of the others knew much about it either; and Fred, having live in Pax knew nothing about other Citybase. Somehow I felt there was something missing, that there is a plausible explanation that we just couldn’t put our hands on. That, or I am just being paranoid.
Of course, none of these problems apply if we don’t get through this forest alive.
Staying vigilant, I constantly surveyed the area within one mile radius, and doing larger searches every thirty minutes. In the early days when we just entered the forest it was exhausting for me to keep watching such a vast area over a long period; but I was starting to get the hand of it now. The key is to keep a minimal coverage on all area and move the main focus along like a patrol. It does cause a second of delay on the fringe area, but it’s more effective this way.
Owen used a similar method, but his way of sensing the surrounding is slightly different to me. Whist I sensed by projecting my mind out like a light would as it floods a room, Oscar feel with his mind like extending tentacles out. His way allows him to detect greater length than I do but cannot cover an entire area evenly.
“Gale, I sensed something weird in the North East.” Owen nudged me. It was about three hours into the day and we had successfully circled around the Hancocks. My mind was starting to drift in and out due to sheer boredom and I had to keep pinching myself to stay focus.
“On it.” I said, sensing the presence of Oscar’s mind and following it NE. As I go closer to the source i realized my ‘vision’ started to get fuzzy. This had never happened before; and I was within my limits of detection. I frowned and concentrated harder to penetrate the fog surrounding that area, and as I did I realized that there was something different about it. Something that was distinctively different from what I had experience so far; but also something vaguely familiar.
“Oh my god.” I said, stopping dead in my track causing Nate to rammed into my back and nearly knocking me off balance. Tom caught hold of me and everybody looked at me and frowned.
“What’s wrong Gail?” Owen asked, thinking that maybe whatever was there had been the cause. And he wasn’t wrong.
“I think… I think there are POEs there.” I said, my voice shaking a little. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure, but that felt like someone else’s mind field. We were lucky that that person still hadn’t noticed us. Not that the POE was extending out too much.
“Are you sure? “ Casey asked excitedly, I saw Tom and Fred exchanged a discomfort look. They were just as skeptical as I was about this. Don’t get me wrong, I was excited at the prospect of finding other human beings in this wilderness, but the question should be why are they even here in the first place. The wild outside Citybase are no place for anyone to be.
“We should go and find them! Maybe they escaped from the test too!” Natalie exclaimed, the rest of us looked at her and she shrunk back a little and trailed off. “Or not?...”
“I don’t recognize this person.” I said, Natalie had always been the optimistic one. The likelihood of someone else escaping and ending up less than 10 miles away from us after three months is as unlikely as a normal person getting on a plane. Virtually zero.
“Are they looking for us?” Oscar suggested. My heart leaped up at the thought of Mr. Andrewson sending out teams of people looking for us; then it quickly sank as I realized it could very well be the other side searching for us.
“We need to get out of the way otherwise they would sense us.” Owen said, frowning. If we could sense them, who is to say they couldn’t? Once again everyone turned to Evanna .
“I can’t see anything yet.” Evanna said, her brows knitted together as her face scrunched up in concentration. “Too many variables at the moment from you and them.”
“Let’s make a decision first.” Tom said, “Otherwise we are just targets waiting to be shot.”
Trust Tom to make all of us feels at ease. Not.
“Let’s just go.” I said, my suspicious side kicking in. Who in the right mind would wonder out of the wall s of a Citybase? And no one can say what they will do if they find us. Plus we had been doing fine on our own so far. There was no need to complicate things.
“Maybe they know where the nearest Citybase is.” Casey said, Holly and Nate agreeing with her. Natalie bite her lip and I sent her a pleading look, it’s just not safe.
“I vote no too.” Tom said and I looked back at him in surprise; he gave me a serious look as if to tell me that it’s no time for a joke. I turned to Oscar, Evanna and Owen, if they vote no too then we would win.
Just as I was about to asked them I felt something prickling against the mind wall I set around us. My heart stopped and I exchanged a terrified look with Owen, who had evidentially felt it too; along with an equally petrified Nate who had been putting a force field around us.
“They sensed us.” Owen said; everyone else immediately changed into a fighting stance in our usual formation, protecting Evanna in the middle. I immediately reached out to see where they were, no need for caution now that they knew about us. They had stopped from moving west (which was away from us) but hadn’t made any movements yet. Maybe they would just leave?
“They are not moving.” I said, agitated by each seconds that ticked by as we stood there unmoving. “Let’s just go now, we can out run them.”
“But which way?” Fred snapped at me. “If they have a runner with them they will catch us in no time.”
“It’s not like we can’t fight one measly runner between all of us.” Tom retorted, and the two had a stare down again. I tried not to roll my eyes as Natalie scolded Fred, no matter how urgent the situation is these two were just not going to stop biting each other heads off. Didn’t they understand that we didn’t have time for this? Before I knew it the whole thing turned into a massive debate where everyone was shouting their opinion but nobody had moved a muscle out of their position.
“Too late.” Evanna suddenly said and the bickering stopped. Everyone turned to look at her; I could feel chills running down the length of my arm as her next words came out. “They are coming.”
---------
Here is the second chapter! Hurray! :)
Wattys has just ended! Although I am pretty sure we didn't make it :( but I am still excited to see the results! Hopefully if I finish Selection in time I can put it on Wattys 13 :D how would you guys like that?
Character submission is now CLOSED! (19/2/13)
Anyone whose character I use will recevie a dedication and a message telling them when their character comes up.
I am shock by the overwhelming numbers of you that respond to that! Thank you for entering :)
I think we should do more interactive thing, don't you? x
So I hope to get some feedback from you on this!