Girl on Fire

Chapter 9

The next thing that happened was so fast, I barely even saw it.

Something that looked like a blur whizzed past and slammed into the guard. He let go of Ali in shock and pulled the trigger.

The shot went wild and ricochets off the wall.

"It's them, GET THEM!" He yelled out, alerting everyone around us to our presence.

"Get away!" Someone yelled from behind me.

I turned around to see a figure dressed in a black clad suit with a hood pulled over their head.

"Didn't you hear what I said? GET AWAY!"

With a final glance at the figure, I grabbed Ali and shot away as fast as I could, heading for the gate where we broke in. A boy of about six suddenly appeared next to me, running so fast that I couldn't take it in. I stopped and stared at him in shock. The boy grinned at me and stuck his tongue out.

"How do you guys run so slow?" he said with a sigh and grabbed my arm.

Immediately, I was propelled forward faster that I had ever gone before as we whizz through the gate. Ali screamed with joy.

"Stop showing off, Ryker." The voice came from behind me again. The boy, Ryker apparently, stopped and I turned to face the figure again.

"Who ARE you?" I said.

A shot buzzed right past my ear and I jumped, rigid from shock.

"I think that can wait until later." The figure said distastefully.

"No," I said stubbornly, " they're just tranquillisers. And why should we trust you? Tell us now."

The figure sighed and lifted their hand to their head.

"If you insist." And she pulled off the hood. I gasped in amazement.

"Tasha?"

Tasha quickly put her hood back on and grabbed my arm in a vice-like grip.

"Now do you trust us? Come... now."

She dragged me off and I knew as she held me that I would not be able to get out of her grip. It was like she had suddenly developed super-human strength. We ran off towards the city and I glanced behind me to see if River and the twins were coming. I felt intensely relieved that they were right behind us, though they were lagging behind a little.

"Slow down!" I hissed in Tasha's ear and I immediately felt us slow down considerably. They caught up to us and River put his hand on my shoulder, panting heavily.

"Stop!" He said breathlessly. "Can't... breathe!"

I started trying to yank my hand out of Tasha's grip, to no avail.

"Stop! Let go of me!" I said angrily, wrigling around and digging my heels into the ground. Tasha growled with frustration and stopped, glaring at me angrily.

"For God's sake! Why are you stopping? We need to get away!" She said with a shake of her head.

"Because not all of us can run like you!" Jemma said aggressively, staggering up to us.

"Well, fine then! If you want to get shot, knocked out, and most likely tortured, then stay right where you are. I can see the hunters over there now, they're catching up to us nicely."

"Hunters?" I glanced over my shoulder and my heart thudded in my chest. The P.E.F officers are almost upon us.

"Oh, those hunters." I racked my brains for an idea for escape and then realised how stupid I was being. "Our powers!" I gasped. I turned to Natasha and said, "I am sorry if this freaks you out but-"