Chaos

Chapter Two

Chaos

I let out a hiss of air. I spun and grabbed the closest child near me, yelling, “Everyone grab a child and jump.” Tightening my grip on the small child, I ran towards the cliff, whispering “close your eyes.” Not checking to see if the others followed my lead, I jumped. I hugged the child as close as possible, as if I was trying to become one with her. Halfway during the fall, I angled my feet towards the cliff and grabbed the harness to slow our decent. Stopping perfectly at the bottom, I removed the harness from myself and the child.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” I muttered to myself. The last time I raided a research lab near a cliff, some of the Pride shifters actually cried by this means of escape. I mean, so what, it’s only jumping off a jagged cliff that’s about two hundred some feet tall, no big deal.

“AWESOME!” squealed an enchantingly soft voice. “Again! Again!”

“Uh…” I stated dumbly. I looked down at the child and lost myself in an endless pit of violet eyes. I saw in those pretty eyes what my life and my friends’ lives would never have. I saw joy, happiness, laughter, love; not the anger and horror that consumed my life. I became lost in my past and my friends’ hopeless future.

The grunts and moans behind me snapped me out of my trance. Bryce walked up to me, getting ready to ask me something, when I abruptly shoved the child into him. Without even glancing behind me, I ran towards the large rocks jutting out at the bottom of the cliff. I jumped up on the rocks and flashed my flashlight three times in the air. The signal completed, I walked back towards Bryce.

“Do we just leave the harnesses?” asked Bryce, who was staring at me like I grew a third head.

“Well, yeah because I totally want the Agents to know which direction we went.” I scoffed. I walked back to my harness and grabbed the harness grapple. Pressing the blue button hidden in the hand grips, I tugged the harness as hard as I could. I continued to do this to all of the harnesses.

At the last harness, I turned around and found thirty pairs of eyes watching me. “What?” I threw my hand up in exasperation. The pack continued to stare at me, not responding to my harshly asked question. I shrugged my shoulders and turned back to the harnesses.

I grabbed the last harness and pressed the blue button. Before tugging, I informed the shifters that they may want to back up. I pulled on the harnesses as hard as I could. When I released the harness, I ran away from the remaining harness, counting to three Mississippis. When I reached the third Mississippi, I threw myself to the ground, wrapping my arms around my head for protection.

All at once the harnesses and ropes behind me reacted like a dying octopus, all the cords flailing out in random spasmodic spurts of movement. The cords whistled in the air, snapping at the cliff or sand. For almost thirty seconds, the cords continued their hectic dance. After a moment of complete silence, I raised my head and for the umpteenth time I found all eyes staring at me.