Centuries

Chapter 8

Hopefully the Darkling had an idea of where we were running to because I sure didn't. All I knew was that there were three Fijerdans on our tails and I couldn't keep running for much longer.

"You have a gun, shoot someone!" the
Darkling shouted,

"Don't you have a weapon?"

"I forgot."

Of course he thought he'd use his power and couldn't. His power would come back in an hour or two but that didn't do us much good right now. I wondered how he felt without them. He seemed fine but it was hard to tell when we were running for our lives.

The ache in my head wasn't as painful as before, that was probably only because of adrenaline. I turned around and saw two Fijerdan soldiers sprinting at us. I fired and missed.

"Aim lower." the Darkling said,

I could tell he was annoyed at me even though he didn't show it. I took his advice and fired again. One of the soldiers went down and the other was still chasing us.

I tried to hit him and missed several times. By now the entire forest knew we were here, which meant more Fijerdans were going to find us. I tried to fire again but nothing happened.

"It's jammed." I said fighting my rising panic.

"Give it to me." I handed the rifle to the Darkling.

"It's empty not jammed, reload it."

Saints. I didn't bring any extra bullets.

"I don't have any extra bullets."

"Do you see that ridge up there?" the Darkling said "We need to climb up there so we have higher ground, then set off a rockslide to kill or distract them."

"Are you sure that's a good plan?"

"It's...a plan." He offered

Great. Even he didn't have a good idea. There wasn't anything else to do but try to make it to the ridge. Both of us were slowing and the Fijerdans weren't. I hit the nearest one with the back of my rifle and he fell to the ground.

After winding around the trees we lost the rest of them but not for long. I knew I needed to keep running but it was growing difficult. When we finally reached the ridge I was relieved until I realized I had to climb. The ridge was more like a cliff now that I saw it up close. The forest was thinning and the Fijerdans would track us down soon. We had no choice but to climb.

"You can go ahead" the Darkling said,
I noticed his voice seemed slightly higher than normal

I started climbing and it wasn't as bad as I thought. I looked down at the Darkling who was falling behind me.

"Are you okay down there?" I said as quietly as I could.

"I suppose now wasn't the best time for me to overcome my fear of heights."

I wanted to drop a rock on his head. This was his stupid plan and he already was failing.

"You're right. It absolutely wasn't!"

I didn't care if any Fijerdans heard us anymore.

"It didn't look as high when I saw it from a distance." the Darkling said.

"Well you're committed now."

I would've flipped him off but I needed to keep both hands on the rock.

"Tell me before I get up there, which will be worse dealing with you or getting shot by a Fijerdan?"

I pulled myself over the edge, I was at the top and the Darkling was barely halfway up.