Oblivion (3 page)

then take you to the town hal . It’s safer there.”

“Of course,” I hear Danata say.

Cam stands up, grabs my hand, and starts to pul me

toward the back door. But before I can take a step, I

hear a commotion coming from the front door.

“Hey!” the soldier yel s. “Where are you going?”

For a second, I think he’s talking to us. But then I

hear the sounds of shuffling feet, and footsteps, and

it becomes apparent what’s happened. Danata’s run

out the door and into the forest, probably trying to

create a distraction so that the soldier won’t hear me

and Cam escape out the back. I don’t know if it wil

work, but if it’s going to, we only have a few seconds.

“Run,” Cam whispers. And so I do.

In a flash the two of us are out the back door and

running across the open field, trying to make it to the

edge of the forest before anyone notices us. I’ve

never felt so vulnerable in my life. Someone could

take us out with a spel at any moment, fry us like a

couple of ants under a magnifying glass.

But when we get to the line of trees, nobody appears

to have seen us.

We stop running for a moment as I try to get my

bearings. Natalia is already gasping for air.

“Can you find your car?” I ask.

She looks around, her wide eyes searching for

something familiar. “I don’t know.” She shakes her

head. “None of this looks like anything I remember.”

She bites her lip, then points toward a path that

opens up through the trees. “I think that might lead to

the front of the compound. That’s where my car is.”

“You think or you know?” I ask, my tone harsher than I

intended.

She flinches. “Don’t talk to me like that.”

“I’m sorry,” I say immediately. “I’m just scared. If we

get turned around now we could end up dead. Or

captured by Raine’s troops.”

“That could happen no matter what we do.”

I nod my head as a far away explosion reverberates

through the forest. They’d stopped for a few

moments, but it doesn’t matter -- I’m almost getting

used to it. “You’re right,” I tel Natalia. “Let’s just try

our best to stay safe.”

“Come on,” she says, taking my hand. “Let’s try to

find my car.”

We start walking, both of us looking every which way

as we move through the forest, our feet crunching on

leaves and branches. When the explosions aren’t

happening, it’s eerily quiet and I’m paranoid that

we’re going to be heard by anyone and everyone.

But after a few minutes, we stil haven’t been spotted

and I get the sense we’re even further from the

fighting. At long last, we make it to the road. Nat

looks both ways, a little uncertain again. Then she

points up the road, where it rounds a corner going

uphil . “I think my car is that way.”

I nod. “We can walk. But we have to stay off the road

since it’s probably the first place they’l look for us.”

“What if they’ve got the path blocked off where it

meets the road?”

I shrug. “We’l cross that bridge when we come to it, I

guess.”

We walk up the hil , staying wel inside the forest and

off the path. But when we round the bend, we’re

greeted by an unpleasant sight.

Nat gasps and I just stand there, trying to process

what I’m seeing.

The blackened skeleton of Natalia’s car is sitting on

the side of the road, surrounded by ash. It’s almost

unrecognizable. It looks like it was hit by a missile.

Part of the backseat is intact, but otherwise, the car

is total y wrecked.

Natalia runs toward it. I fol ow her, standing a few

feet away as she kneels down and picks up her bag

from where it’s laying on what’s left of backseat. It’s

covered in black ash, but she slings it over her

shoulder anyway.

“Nat,” I say, reaching out and touching her arm.

“What now?” she whispers. She’s stil staring at the

car, her gaze unfocused and blank.

“I have no idea.”

And then I spot them.

A group of three witches, obviously from Raine’s

side, since they’re dressed al in black. They emerge

from the woods and huddle together, talking

excitedly. One of them is holding a map and they

appear to be studying it as they try to figure out their

next course of action.

My breath catches in my chest, and I crouch down

behind the blackened car, pul ing Natalia down with

me. The two of us sit there, trying to stay as quiet as

possible.

After a little bit, I peek around the bumper of the car.

The witches are gone.

“They’re probably going to search every inch of this

forest,” I whisper in Nat’s ear.

“Are they looking for us, do you think?”

“I don’t think they’re too interested in me,” I say.

“Wel , maybe they are, if they think I can help Raine’s

energy.”

Nat puts her face in her hands and starts to cry

silently, her shoulders shaking.

I grab her in a big hug and hold her close to me. I can

feel her heart pounding against my chest. “I’m not

going to let anything happen to you,” I tel her,

meaning it. “I would die to keep anyone from hurting

you. I promise.”

She stops crying and wipes her eyes. “I’m okay.”

“You sure?”

She nods.

“Okay,” I say, “New plan. I say we make our way

down the hil , stick near the path, but far enough off of

it so that we can’t be seen. It meets up with the street

a couple miles down.”

“And then what? What do we do once we hit the

street?” she says.

“I don’t know. Hitchhike or something.”

She laughs. “That’s a great idea, Cam. Maybe

Raine’s friends wil be nice enough to give us a ride

home.”

“You have a better idea?”

“Wel ,” she says, “we could head back to the town

hal .”

I stare at her. “Are you kidding? I can’t go back there.

Reed tried to kil me, remember?”

“True. But that was when they had Raine, and she’s

gone now.”

“We don’t know where Raine is,” I say.

“We’re not safe in the woods, Cam,” she says, “They

destroyed my car for a reason. They know we’re

trying to get away, and they’re going to have this

place surrounded.”

“I’m wil ing to take my chances.”

Neither of us say anything for a while. We just sit

there, listening to the sounds of the forest and the

occasional burst of explosions in the distance.

Obviously the battle hasn’t ended.

“I’m starting down,” I say, standing up. “Are you

coming with me?”

She hesitates, like she’s thinking about it. But after a

moment, she nods.

We start to walk, keeping off the path, trying our best

to keep from making a ton of noise as we tramp

through the underbrush. But it’s impossible to be

total y quiet, and if anybody happens to be nearby

searching for us, they’re going to hear us.

I just hope we can make it before too much time

goes by and whoever ends up winning this skirmish

has time to real y organize a search party.

But our good luck doesn’t last. About a mile down

the hil , we’re spotted by someone from Raine’s

side. A lone soldier dressed in black is standing on

the path and sees us when we come over a slight

hil . He immediately puts a cel phone to his ear.

“Campbel and The Queen are on the path,” the

soldier says. “Repeat, Campbel – ” But before he

can finish, Natalia swats at the air with her hand and

his phone flies out of his grasp and lands in the dirt.

Then she makes another slapping motion and the

soldier flies headfirst into a tree trunk, col apsing into

a moaning heap on the ground.

“Jesus, Nat,” I say. “How’d you do that?”

She turns and looks at me, her jaw trembling. “I don’t

know. Reflex?”

“We need to run,” I say. “Now.”

“We need to go back to the town hal , Cam. We

need protection.”

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “Fuck that.”

“We tried your way already,” she says. “Now it’s my

turn.”

“No.”

“Wel , we have to go somewhere,” she says,

throwing her arms up in the air. “We can’t just stay

here.”

“I should have known you’d be sitting out in the open

like a couple of clueless teenagers,” a voice cal s

from behind us. I spin around and see Hadley

emerging from a cluster of trees. “You’re lucky I’m

the one who found you and not someone else,” she

says. “What the hel are you thinking, being out here

in the open like this?”

“What else were we supposed to do?” I ask. “We

tried to get out of here, but Nat’s car was torched,

and then someone spotted us.”

“I want to go back to the compound,” Natalia says.

She crosses her arms over her chest and looks back

and forth between me and Hadley, chal enging us to

defy her.

But Hadley shakes her head. “The compound’s been

overtaken. Our troops are scattered al over the

grounds. We’re fighting on al fronts.”

“And Reed?” I ask, glancing at Nat out of the corner

of my eye.

She shrugs. “He’s here somewhere. I wouldn’t be too

anxious to see him if I were you.”

“So what are we supposed to do now?” Natalia

asks.

“There’s a place I can take you that not too many

people know about,” Hadley says. “It’s not far from

here. If we can wait out the night, things wil hopeful y

have calmed down by the morning. Then I can work

on getting you transportation out of here.”

“Are you sure it’s safe?” I ask her.

Hadley smiles at me. “Have I steered you wrong

yet?” Then she laughs.

“Actual y, don’t answer that.”

Natalia and I look at each other, both knowing we

have no choice.

A moment later, we’re running through the woods,

fol owing Hadley to our next destination.

We start fol owing Hadley through the forest. I want to

ask her how far away wherever it is that she’s taking

us, but I’m afraid. I don’t want to know the answer. I

don’t want to know how far we’re going to have to

walk. So I fal silently into step behind her, Cam

beside me. He reaches out and takes my hand, his

fingers wrapping around mine. It makes me feel a

little better.

We walk for about forty minutes, stopping every so

often to duck behind a tree if we hear the crackle of

walkie talkies, or spot a soldier through the brush.

Eventual y, though, things seem to start calming

down. We aren’t encountering as many soldiers, and

the sound of explosions seems to be getting further

and further away.

“We’re almost there,” Hadley says, turning around.

“You guys okay?”

“Yeah,” Cam says, “We’re fine.”

“Good,” she says, “As soon we get there, we’l – ”

Suddenly, she stops. Ahead of us, further down the

path, is a figure. It looks like a girl, in jeans and a

black hooded sweatshirt. But hood is pul ed up over

her head, making it hard to see her face. It’s too late

to run.

Cam and I freeze.

“Who is that?” Hadley yel s. “Who’s there?”

The person doesn’t answer, just takes another step

toward us. Hadley puts her hand up, getting ready to

cast a spel . But then, at the last second, the person

pul s her hood back, dropping it from her face.

“Relax, Hadley,” Raine says, rol ing her eyes as she

walks toward us. “You’re always so paranoid.”

My jaw drops.

“Stop!” Hadley yel s at Raine. “Don’t come any

closer.”

Raine rol s her eyes again and keeps walking, until

Hadley shoots a warning firebal out from her fingers.

It lands a few inches from Raine’s feet.

“Fine,” Raine says, holding her hands up. “I’l stop.

You don’t have to get al crazy with the firebal s.”

“What are you doing here?” Cam asks. “We didn’t

know where you were. We thought you might have

gotten captured.”

Raine scoffs, like the thought of her being captured

is ridiculous. “I faked being unconscious once the

battle started. I was feeding off your energy, Cam,

and so I felt strong, too.” She shrugs and sits down

on a huge rock. She crosses her legs, like she’s out

for a summer strol , instead of in the middle of some

kind of supernatural war. “After you guys took off, the

guards tried to get to me, but I fought them off and

ran.”