Mortality

Chapter 8: Savannah

I let out a gasp before Cole pulled me against his body, while is other hand reached up to cover my mouth.

I struggled against him, but he was too strong. “Let me go,” I hissed through his fingers.

“Relax.”

I snorted in response; there is nothing less likely to work than being told to relax. “I’m going to let you go. You just have to be quiet. You really don’t want these guys to come looking for you.” I conceded his point and stopped fighting him. After a breath, I nodded and he loosened his grip. As I shoved him away from me, I couldn’t help but glance over at Zack and see that they’d stopped hitting him. They still weren’t letting them go, though. I don’t know what to do, I thought. I looked over at Cole and then back at my friend.

“What are you doing here?” I finally asked. “Were you following us?” Cole rubbed his jaw where I’d kicked him before as he shushed me, but he didn’t answer my question.

I was about to repeat myself when the murmur of noise coming from the army on the road hushed almost entirely.

I whipped my head around and watched as Zack frantically shook his head no. It had become so quiet I could make out the sound of a whimper as Zack was hit in the temple with the butt of a gun.

Zack’s head slumped to the side and his attackers released him. He fell to the ground in a heap. There was no question he was unconscious, and I fumbled for my gun. I have to stop this. Before I could do anything, one of the soldiers kicked Zack in the gut. A heartbeat passed. Another kicked him in the back. Why is this happening? Then I saw it. An insanely buff-looking guy with some kind of tattoo on the back of his head pulled his leg back, and it was easy to see right where he was aiming. Zack’s head. They’re going to kill him. What the hell is happening here?

I had been planning a last-second rescue, but it didn’t go exactly as planned. Panic filtered through every thought as the moment stretched out before me. In the split second I had left, all I could manage to do was scream incoherently. Thankfully, it was enough. My shrill yell shattered the silence, and every head turned toward the forest.

Cole looked horrified, and more than a little pissed off. Two armed men were coming right towards us. Great.

“Savannah, run,” Cole barked into my ear. I stood frozen, unable to take my eyes off Zack’s unconscious body and the two men headed right for me. Cole grabbed my hand and pulled me away. At first, my legs struggled to move properly, but it was enough to jerk me back to reality. I let go of Cole’s hand to put all of my effort into moving faster and faster, away from my pursuers, and away from my friends.

We pushed branches away as we ran, the two of us heading blindly into the thickest part of the forest. I heard heavy footfalls and knew they didn’t have any intention of letting me simply run away.

I couldn’t stop replaying their attack on my best friend. I felt like a coward for leaving him there and had to hope Alex and Pierce were able to come up with a better plan than screaming and running away. Brilliant as ever, Savannah. I could hear Pierce’s voice in my head, chastising me for putting myself in danger.

It seemed like all at once we were so deep into the forest I couldn’t even tell which direction we had come from, and Cole started pulling me toward a steep slope. I tried to pull back but couldn’t stop myself in time and my resistance caused both of us to lose our footing.

Cole managed to stay on his feet and skid toward the bottom of the hill, but I landed on my hip and rolled most of the way down. The fall only lasted about ten seconds, but I’m sure it looked about as ungraceful as it felt.