With my head low, I saw glowing red, orange, and yellow bullets spit from the weapons and fly across the field toward our attackers. In the distance, I heard men screaming as they were shot.
"Get them!" I heard a man shout from deep within the woods. "Capture the women and that boy! I want them alive! I want that boy alive!"
Just as the man said that, bullets flew toward us and one hit Michael's left arm, causing him to fall back onto the ground right in front of me.
I stared, paralyzed for a moment as I watched him bleeding and struggling to get back up. When I had managed to snap myself out of it, I rushed over to him, and with shaky hands, I ripped the sleeve of my shirt and tied the material around his arm tightly. By the time I was done, my hands were stained with Michael's blood.
Breath heaving heavily, Michael said, "Thanks, Alfie. Now, get out of here. Run." He pushed me away from him, and behind me, Aria took me by the arm and pulled me back.
"Come on, Alfie!" she shouted. "We have to go."
"Come on!" Brenna shouted, too. "We have to run. We have to get out of here."
With her hand tight on my wrist, Aria led me away from the field toward the woods, with Brenna right behind us. Meanwhile, Michael was back on his feet. He was shouting at us to run as he and his comrades continued to fire their weapons at the steadily appearing army of men. Were they the bandits Felix and Caleb were after? But why were they here?
Finally reaching the woods, Aria forced me to hide behind a tree and told me to stay hidden.
I asked, my voice shaking, "Are we going to be okay, Aria?"
"We're going to be fine, Alfie." She assured me.
I wanted to believe her, but I had this sinking feeling in my stomach that we weren't because we were so outnumbered.
Suddenly, I noticed that Aria was going pale as she tried to concentrate. She said, her voice shaking, "I can't get through. I can't connect with the team. What's going on?" She turned to Brenna and asked, "Brenna, you try."
Brenna, who was currently shaking from head to toe in fright, nodded her head. She closed her eyes and concentrated, as she had done this morning when she had contacted Caleb via the WIFI communication. She suddenly frowned, and she shook her head, too. She said, "I can't either. What's going on?"
Aria looked up and then she swore under her breath. "Shit! It's a forcefield. They're blocking us."
I raised my head and saw the blue-tinted glow above us, which stretched beyond the woods.
Suddenly, the sound of men shouting became louder as they screamed. Then I heard the stomping of horse hooves, and the three of us peeked at the battlefield. The moment I saw the sight before me, I gasped.
Tears started brewing in my eyes. Oh God! Our soldiers were down and had been captured by the enemy. Michael, Allan, Travis, and Peter had all been shot in the limbs and were bleeding severely. They were being dragged away toward the trucks at the back.
I shifted my gaze and saw a man in a black garment pointing his fingers this way and that, aggressively ordering his soldiers about. I used my lenses to zoom in on him, and the moment I saw his face clearly, I gasped. Masculine, angular face, straight nose, and firm lips, with dark-brown hair and blue eyes, the man was handsome. From the looks of things, he appeared to be the leader of the pack.
"Your Highness!"
Your Highness? A prince? Was that man, the leader, a prince?
I flicked my gaze to the one addressing the man. This one was bulky, with dark hair, brown eyes, and tanned skin. He looked like a hunter of some sort. He said, his voice hard and cold, "The bastards have slaughtered the Black Wing squad."
The prince's handsome face turned dark, and he looked as though he were about to go ballistic. "Fuck!" he screamed loudly. He turned his gaze in our direction and shouted, "Get them. I don't fucking care how you do it, but get those bitches and that boy! I want that boy alive. I want him, and I want him now!"
My body froze in terror at this prince's words. He wanted me, and it was most likely due to my pure qi. I felt sick in my stomach as my mind raced.
Aria said, drawing my attention to her, "We have to run!"
I nodded, my face drained of blood and my body shaking in horror. Aria pulled me and Brenna by the wrists and made us run with her.
My tears were blurring my vision as my heart raced.
The prince was going to kill me, wasn't he, once he had captured me? My mind couldn't stop thinking about the distorted expression he displayed on his face when he had been in a rage. Yes, he was going to kill me, and it'd be without mercy. I could tell it in my gut.
We ran until our legs were sore and tired and we couldn't catch our breath. And it wasn't long until we were surrounded by the enemy, with their rifles and other assortment of nasty weapons pointed at us. There were five or six men on horseback, too, and they chased after us relentlessly until we were exhausted.
Aria tripped, pulling me along with her, and the enemy came upon us. Brenna tried to pull Aria up, but Aria was too exhausted to keep going.
"Aria," I said. "Come on. We have to keep going."
Aria shoved me away and said, "You have to go, Alfie. We're going to be fine. Just go. Run!" she commanded.
I shook my head as tears rolled down my cheeks. "No. I won't go. Not without you two. Come on." I pulled at Aria's hand.
Aria shook her head. "We can't leave." She pointed ahead. "That forcefield won't let us leave."
Forcefield? I turned to look behind me and noticed a blue hue glistening in the distance.
Of course, the forcefield.
"You can get through it, Alfie. But we can't. Now go!" she ordered. "Go get help. We'll be waiting." She threw her magic bag to me. "Take it. Now go!"
Why couldn't she and Brenna go through it? And if they couldn't, then how could I?
Still confused, I hastily grabbed for the bag. My gut instinct told me to trust Aria. I did and started running like the devil was chasing after me.
As I ran like I had never run before, I heard men who were chasing after me screaming at me that they were going to hunt me down and kill me.
I didn't listen to them. My mind was on one thing only, and that was to run past that blue forcefield in the distance and get help.
My legs were hurting badly, but I ignored the pain and continued sprinting until I came within an inch of the forcefield. There, I took a deep breath like I was about to dive into the ocean, closed my eyes, and raced right through the blue-tinted light.
As I passed, I heard a faint hum. It was only when I was some distance away that I slowed my pace and glanced back. To my astonishment, the men who were chasing after me ran, smashing their bodies right into the forcefield, and bounced backward as if they had just hit a wall.
I didn't have time to think what had just happened and kept running deeper into the woods, away from the enemy. I kept running until I couldn't hear the men's voices anymore, until I was so tired that I finally collapsed onto the ground.