AUTUMN
The feeling comes out of nowhere. It just hits me, hard, like a ton of bricks, jolting me awake in the middle of the night. My hands fly to my stomach, where there's a fiery pain just above my belly button. I press hard on my stomach, trying to ease the pain.
Haley, who had been sleeping on the floor beside me, gives me a strange look. "Are you okay?"
I remind myself to breathe deeply. In, out. "Yeah, I — I think so. I'm not sure. I just have this weird pain in my stomach. Like I got stabbed or something."
"Let me see your stomach," Haley says. I obediently pull up the hem of my shirt a little bit. There's nothing out of the ordinary. Haley and I exchange a look. "I don't see anything wrong," she says.
"Me neither. But — ow!" I press my hands to the painful spot again. "It still hurts."
Haley frowns. "That's bizarre."
"Well, our whole lives are just full of 'bizarre'," I mutter. "Hey, wait – it's... it's fading."
"The pain? It's going away?"
I nod. "Yeah, but slowly." And it's true. The piercing pain is gradually turning less and less intense. After a few minutes, it's gone completely.
All that's left in its place is a dull, hollow ache in the pit of my gut, leaving me feeling as if I'm missing something; a part of me that I'll never get back.
And try as I might, I just can't ignore it, and I can't get rid of it.
***
TODD
I can't move. It's like every muscle in my body has turned to lead. I feel heavy, so heavy everywhere, but I feel heaviest in my heart. I can't take my eyes from Noah's body.
It just doesn't seem real. Maybe I'll wake up back at camp in a few minutes, and when I walk out of the dormitory I'll see Noah sitting with Autumn at the campfire, talking and laughing and alive.
But I know it's real. I know there's no going back from this. One of my best friends is lying dead before me, and I was the person to kill him.
Someone snaps their fingers behind me. "Get him up," I hear Forrester say. "And dispose of the body."
A pair of hands grabs me under the arms and I see another guard scoop Noah up like he weighs nothing and carry him out of the room. I shout something, my voice full of fury, but even I'm not sure what I say.
I manage to grab Noah's sword before I'm dragged out of the room. The guard holding me doesn't protest; I suppose he assumes he'll just take it away from me later. Forrester grins evilly at me as we pass by, and a fiery ball of rage rises in my gut. I've never felt such intense hatred before.
The second the steel door closes behind me and the guard dragging me, I turn myself intangible, and his hands pass through my body. I swing my fist hard at his neck. He chokes and grabs his throat. Then I slam my palm into his huge nose, snapping it. Blood flows down his face, soiling his clothes.
I kick his chest, and then his knees, and he falls to the floor. He goes out like a light when I shove the sole of my foot hard onto the top of his head. I attach Noah's sword to my hip and swing my own sword onto my back.
I run. I don't know where I am, or where I'm going; all I know is that I have to find Colton and Tessa and get out of this bloody building. I turn a blind corner and run smack into someone. A rather familiar someone.
YOU ARE READING
The Anomaly Project
ActionThe year is 2125, and 17-year-old twin superhumans Autumn and Noah Stone are living in the destruction left behind by World War III. When their father is kidnapped, the twins are thrown into an intense adventure and team up with a group of eight oth...