What is this guy made of? Steel?
The same couldn’t be said for me. I didn’t possess any super human strength, but I did have power of my own. The sheer surge of the jolt would have killed a normal man. I needed to expect no one and nothing was normal anymore. While he twitched like a live wire, I curled my fist—still pumping with power—and socked him in the face.
His eyes rolled to the back of his head, and like a sawed off tree trunk, he hit the ground in plank formation.
Biting my lip, I impeded the string of swear words I had ready as I stepped backward, cradling my hand. Why does it look so easy in the movies when you punch someone?
I might have broken my hand.
Snatching my bag off the ground, I turned to Star, who quivered, and threw a haunting glance in her direction. If we were going to get out of here alive, she needed to calm down. “Are you okay?” I asked, doing my best to ignore the pain shooting through my hand.
She nodded, eyeing me with a weird expression, as if scared… of me. “D-did you…?”
“Kill him?” I added. “No, he isn’t dead. I just knocked him out.” Hopefully. “I told you I would protect you, and I meant it. Now all we have to do is walk out the gate.” I didn’t want to give her time to reconsider what we were doing. “We need to go.”
Putting a hand under her elbow, I guided her toward the exit. We edged out of the fenced compound and into the volatile Heights. Then we were running, each step taking us farther and farther from the Institute.
I don’t know how long we ran for, but my lungs burned and my legs felt like Jell-O. As we crested the top of a hill, I slowed our pace. Under the deep blue sky, I looked up and saw the stars glimmering like thousands of diamonds, and I wanted to weep for so many reasons.
A cold resolve hit me in the gut as I regarded the gleaming city behind us. I was out, but I wasn’t free. Not yet. My parents would look for me. They would hunt me as they hunted Dash. I had something they desired: my DNA.
I pushed aside the bleak thoughts of the Institute. It would take many therapy sessions to rid myself of the stain the Institute had left on my soul. But for tonight, I had bigger problems.
Where were Star and I going to sleep?
And how the hell was I going to find Dash?
Chapter Nine
Reality seemed to descend upon me all at once. Holy crap on a graham cracker. We had done it. We had really snuck out of Diamond Towers in the middle of the night.
My time at the Institute was behind me, but my journey was far from over. It seemed like a lifetime ago when all I had to worry about was grades, homework, and making sectionals in cheerleading. So much had changed, even from a few weeks ago when Dash had found me.
Finding him was going to be nearly impossible, but impossible tasks seemed to be my thing. If Star and I made our way to Hurst, Dash was bound to turn up there eventually. It was probably the closest thing Dash had to a home.
Star walked silently next to me, her eyes huge and a hand clutching her bag tightly. I could only imagine what she saw as her gaze roamed over the land—so much deadly beauty, for the darkness hid gruesome creatures and poisonous wildlife. I should have been frightened, but I wasn’t, not like what I’d just left behind, and I understood for the first time why Dash had vowed never to step foot inside the white city again.
My eyes went skyward, and as I’d hoped, I made out a black figure swooping down from the sky. Blink passed over the treetops, wings spread out like a glider, and gave one long squawk.
“Bossy bird,” I mumbled, but I think I knew now how I would find Dash. Blink had just become my guide. I only hoped trusting him didn’t lead to my unwanted misfortune.
“What did you say?” Star asked.
“Nothing. We need to keep moving.”
“For how long?” A pinch of a whine flavored her tone.
She was tired and overwhelmed. Who could blame her for complaining? “Until we find some place to hide during the day.”
Star hiked her bag over her shoulder, her eyes shifting in every direction as if someone would pop out at us at any second. “You want to travel at night? That doesn’t seem safe.”
“Depends on whether you would rather bump into the Night’s Guards or whatever the Heights throws at you.”
“Is there an option three?”
“I wish,” I grumbled.
“Where are we going?”
My gaze flicked up into the dark blue night, spotting the Blinken. “I’m not sure, but my instincts are telling me to go south”—straight into Somber Mountain.
Damn, Blink better know what he’s doing.
We walked in silence for a while, except for the occasional sigh from Star. This area of the Heights was less wooded and more open, making me nervous from the lack of coverage. The terrain became a battle, rolling up and down in rocky formations. My eyes every so often searched for the bird.
Miles later, I spotted what could be a suitable place to rest, as long as nothing else occupied the space, and even then, I wasn’t keen about our choice, but options were limited in the wild.
Star was breathless, struggling to keep up with my stamina, and she stumbled as I paused to scope out the area. “We’re stopping?” she gasped.
My eyes flicked up to the side of the mountain. “Yeah, we should rest. It’s been a long day.”
Her eyes were half-lidded, her cheeks flushed with exertion. She looked ready to drop dead on her feet. “Oh, thank God. I was convinced you were a robot.”
The cave I’d found for us reminded me of the first night I’d spent with Dash, which then brought on memories of the other nights we’d spent in the Heights: inside a tree, the lagoon, the tent in Eastroth, and the little abandoned house where we’d kissed.
How many nights would it take before I found him? Because I wasn’t letting myself think of any other alternative; I would find Dash.
We traveled for the next few nights only after the sun had gone down, and we stayed in the shadows. The small amount of food Star and I had packed in her bag was nearly gone, and by tomorrow, we’d be starving to death if we didn’t find either food or civilization. If Star was worried, she never let on, but I knew she was scared.
We both were.
Neither of us knew what to expect next, or how much longer we could keep going as we had been. We took it one day at a time. And currently, our top priority was the loud rustling sound in a patch of bushes off to our right. I stopped moving and craned my head to the side. We’d been lucky so far, not running into anyone or anything, but our luck was about to change. This section of the land seemed barren with its dried leaves and dead twigs. Light fog covered the ground, giving it almost a graveyard ambiance—eerie and sad. I swore in the howling wind I could hear weeping.
But it wasn’t the only sound out there.
An echoing roar shattered the desolate air.