Shadows

Chapter #10

We run for a few minutes and we end up being a lot farther from the mountain than I expected. Adaline could almost keep up with me when I was jogging and she didn't have the chip, so now I'm struggling to keep up with her when she's running at full tilt.
We weave our way between the trees until they become thinner and thinner. We're in a meadow with tall grass and a single dead, burnt, twisted oak tree. It looks as though it was struck by lightning and it split the tree in half.
Adaline stops at the base of the tree and looks up at the twisted branches. I run up beside her and look up at the place she is. A heart, carved into the tree with the initials K and V in the center. It must have been carved by someone a long time ago because it's really high up.
"Kind of strange don't you think?" Adaline says, I look at her and she just staring at the heart. She turns to look at me, "It stayed through everything and the tree didn't even grow around it or anything."
"Yeah, but it's kind of sweet you know. A reminder of their love stayed through all this tree's been through." I say, looking back at the heart.
We stand in silence for a few moments before she says,"Okay, well, I guess we should keep moving." She runs her hand along the tree and turns away.
"Just one thing okay?" I ask, I look at the ground and find a rock. I wade through the grass and find a sharp rock.
As I walk to the tree, Adaline looks at me with a confused expression. "What are you doing?"
"You'll see."
I carve the heart and put J+A in the middle. I drop the rock, wipe the wood shavings off my hands and step back to get a better look.
"What do you think?" I ask.
She walks over to me and looks at it.
"Beautiful."
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We run for a few minutes and then Adaline stops again.
"Do you hear that?" She asks, looking at me.
I stop and slow my breathing until I can hear the rush of water from up ahead. I look at her and she smiles. We run to the source of the noise until we come to a clearing. There's a waterfall that rushes into pool at the base. It flows into a stream that twists through the trees.
I rush to the edge of the pool, kneel and cup my hands. I dip them in and the water looks relatively clean so I take a drink and it seems fine so I do the same again.
I look at Adaline and she's looking at me with a horrified expression. I sit back on my heels.
"What's wrong?"
"Do you remember this waterfall? Or that meadow? Or any of this?" She asks. I shake my head. "I know that I got shot and knocked out but I don't recognize anything. I'm just hoping I was knocked out for a lot longer than I thought because if we didn't pass any of this stuff it means..."
"We're on the wrong side of the mountain." I finish for her. "I guess that's why I haven't heard from anyone, the mountain must be blocking us or something."
"The Warpers' base must be directly under the mountain and we came back out on the wrong side." She says.
"Maybe we're not that far though, I mean we could just be a few miles away. There is a stream near the sanctuary." I tell her.
"We could follow the stream a little while and see if you recognize anything."
"Okay, that's probably a better plan than mine."
"What was your plan?"
"Wander around."
"Nice."
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We walked down the stream for a while until we could not hear the waterfall anymore. I hear a familiar humming noise coming from behind us. I look back and see a hoverbarge really close behind us.
"Adaline, run!" I yell, already running faster than I have ever before. "There's a hoverbarge behind us! The sound from the waterfall must have drowned out the sound of the motor!"
She is just a few paces behind me but the hoverbarge is quickly catching up with us.
"They're going to catch us we might as well go down with a fight!" Adaline says as she stops and turns around.
"Alright!" I turn around and wait.
Three members of the Storm drop down out of the hoverbarge. Their glossy, all black armored suits glint in the sun. Their helmets are sharply ridged down the middle with points in the front and back of the head are used as weapons along with protection.
"Don't try and fight us, mech-heads!"
"Yeah you disgusting abominations!" Spits a female voice as if it's painful to say.
As they run towards us, Adaline snaps a branch off a tree nearby and gets into a fighting stance from one of those old karate movies.
One of the soldiers laughs and says,"I've got this one."
Adaline turns to me and says, "I've got this one." And I laugh.
One of the other soldiers rushes at me so I grab his helmet underneath the point in the front and slam his head against an ironwood tree and he falls to the ground because he's knocked out.
I look at Adaline and see her on one knee on top of the soldier with her stick against his throat. Well I guess she's got that taken care of.
The last soldier walks over to me and we circle. She runs at me and I kick her as hard as I can. I run to a tree and climb up it.
She runs over to the tree but just before she gets here I jump on her and hold her down.
I stick my foot under the front spike and use all of my strength to kick it off and see a guilty looking girl with blond hair and icy blue eyes.
"Sam?"
"Look Jeremy, it's nothing personal, it's just... I get to see my family again. Surely you -"
"How long?"
"Three months."
I spit next to her face. "I ought to kill you right now you traitor."
Suddenly she gets a smle on her face. "Just try it."
Adaline lets out a cry of surprise and I turn to look. Four or five members of the storm have her off the soldier and on the ground.
I look around myself and see that I'm surrounded.
I curse under my breath and look at Sam.
"You could always join us."
"I'd rather die."
"Your choice." She says as her smile widens malisiously.
Then everything went black.