The Anomaly Project

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

NOAH

Right from the beginning, I know this fight isn't going to go well for Todd and me.

Forrester was right when he said Erik was advanced. He reads both our minds at once and anticipates every move we make. I try to kick him; he steps to the side and sends me flying away from him. Todd swings at him; he ducks and slams Todd into the concrete floor with telekinesis.

We're a team! I shout frantically in Todd's mind, jumping up. We have to fight like one!

He's dazed. Erik really slammed his skull hard into the floor. When Todd tries to get up, Erik simply lifts a finger and flings him into the wall.

While Erik's distracted with Todd, I manage to hit him hard in the back of the knees. He stumbles and I whack his neck. He stiffens, but spins around and looks at me with determined brown eyes and before I know it, I'm skidding along the floor.

Todd, however, has regained his strength, and is now exchanging blows with Erik faster than my eyes can follow. Erik kicks at his stomach, and Todd makes himself intangible. Erik's foot passes right through him. Erik falters, surprised.

I run up behind him and sweep his feet out from under him. He falls, but he grabs my sleeve as he does and pulls me to the ground with him. He kicks me hard in the side, and then Todd is there, kneeling on his stomach, punching him in the face. Erik pushes his hand out to the side, and Todd flies into the air.

Erik gets to his feet and throws a punch at my face, hitting me in the jaw. I retaliate with a blow to his stomach. He's given up on the mind-reading thing, and so have I. It's too hard to keep track of people's thoughts while locked in combat.

"Why are you fighting us?!" I demand between punches. Erik looks surprised – I guess he wasn't expecting me to talk to him – but he doesn't miss a beat in the fight.

"Because I have to."

"No, you don't. You don't have to do anything Forrester tells you to do." I stop punching him. Confused, he stops as well. "You're just like us, aren't you? You were taken and experimented on against your will. Taken from an alley in downtown Colorado."

Erik's eyes widen. "How do you know that?"

So he is the boy from my vision; the one I had so long ago at home. "It doesn't matter how I know. But what else I do know is that Forrester is evil. Sadistic. You don't have to anything for him." I step back. "I'm not going to fight you anymore. I'm not going to do anything Forrester wants me to."

Todd is still on the floor, not too far away, watching the exchange. I guess he knows not to interrupt.

Erik looks thoughtful for a moment. His fists unclench and his hands fall to his sides. "He'll kill us if we don't do what he wants."

I shrug. "Then I guess he'll have to kill us."

"Oh, Noah Stone." Forrester's voice seems to come from nowhere and everywhere. "I suppose, if that's what you really want..."

The steel door opens and he enters, flanked by two guards. Big Nose stands at his right and he sends me a wicked grin. Forrester jerks his thumb over his shoulder. "Erik. Out."

Erik glances at Todd, then at me. He lingers, unsure. "Erik," Forrester says again, in a warning tone. "Get out."

I'm very familiar with that tone; Autumn managed to pull it out of him quite a bit during the time we were being held captive here. It's like thin ice when his voice goes like that – deceptively calm and safe, but you do one thing wrong and you're dead.