Daylight

8 - The Trees

I'd never been much of a runner, in fact exercise in general was something I didn't particularly care for. When I had been at the Academy, they had mandatory training time. It was easily my least favorite part of the day. We would run around the entire inner perimeter of the Compound, luckily there were short cuts a few of us knew about to avoid actually doing the whole lap. A lot of kids ended up in Protection and if they joined straight out of the Academy (which the majority did) then the introductory training wouldn't seem so difficult. It would just a continuation of what we had been doing at school.

It was amazing what adrenaline could make you do. I followed Kai through the tall grass towards the distant tree line. It didn't seem that far to the trees when the doors opened, but as the sky darkened they only seemed to get farther away. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears and my lungs had begun to sting. Tears were escaping my eyes, sliding sideways across my face as I kept running. Kai was getting too far ahead of me. 

Don't loose me, I kept repeating in my head. I wouldn't be able to survive on my own out here. I needed him. He had to slow down before he disappeared into the dark. I knew in my heart that we escaped to save the others, but how in the hell did I ever allow this boy to bring me outside the walls? I won't last a day out here.

It felt like an eternity before we reached the trees. Kai waited for me as I slowed my speed to meet him. My hands gripped my knees as I took massive inhales to try and regulate my breathing. Everything burned, and what made it worse was that Kai looked like he had just finished his daily morning run around the Compound. I looked up at him to speak, but couldn't get the words out yet. I shook my head as I went to sit on the soft grass beneath us.

"Not here." Kai commanded as he lifted me up by my arm. I groaned in pain as he jerked me up to standing position. I followed his eye line to see he was gazing up to the top of a large tree a short ways away from us.

"Absolutely..." I couldn't finish my thought without taking a few more much needed breathes in between the words "...not. You're crazy."

"Don't worry Wheezy, I'll help you. We can't stay down here much longer. It's a miracle the morphs haven't run across us yet but that's only a matter of time. We need to get to higher ground, it's our only chance that they'll pass by us. As long as the Compound is a laser light show we're safe, but they have every person in there working on shutting that down." I followed Kai over to the tree. I tried to steady my breathing even more so after his little nick name for me. The tree he choose had large knots in the trunk that would make for decent foot holds, and the branches looked thick and sturdy enough for us to take a break on. The branches were full of large green leaves that would hide us from the sight of the monsters below. 

I started up the tree and felt Kai boost me from behind. I shot him a look when I felt his hands low on my waist, he only replied with a wink. It was enough to get me to the higher branches and from there it was a pretty easy climb, or at least it would have been with rested legs.

That's when we heard it, a rumbling coming from deeper inside the forest. I looked down at Kai who just stared up at me and mouthed 'climb faster'. Moments later we were both high in the tree gripping the branches for our lives.

Below us a horde of morphs began to run through the dense forest. It was unlike anything I'd ever felt before, everything was shaking. They were making feral noises and crashing into one another as they ran, their red eyes glowing in the dark. I looked at Kai terrified.

I had never seen a morph except for in the holos they showed us at the Academy, and they did not do them justice at all. These things were massive, angry, hungry. I had never seen a more dangerous looking creature in my life. I doubt one existed. My heart was pounding fast in my chest and my hands were sweating profusely, I was worried my grip would start to slip if the sweating kept up. I turned back to look at Kai and noticed that he had begun climbing higher up into the tree.