G.U.A.R.D. Book #1: Clandestine

-16-

    My feet hit first. For a moment, I felt my balance fail me, and I flailed my arms wildly, taking a few steps forwards. But the momentum was too strong, and I fell, hitting the ground. Pain hit my forearms like lightning, and tears sprung to my eyes. And, yet, at the same time, I was panting in relief. Grass. Oh, sweet grass. I rolled over onto my back, welcoming the pointy stalks beneath my body, feeling comforted by their hardness, the pricking they made in my back. Unfortunately, the pleasure was short-lived.

The tinted helmet of the League agent crossed my mind, and my eyes snapped open in alarm. They scanned the dark sky, but none of the stars looked to be anything more than... well... stars. But was I actually safe?

I looked over to Jay, who was standing up, folding the parachute in his bag. It was then I noticed the humid heat of this place. We were still in May, May twenty-fifth, if I remembered correctly, and here it so plainly showed summer was coming.

"Where's Knife?" I asked, sitting up with a wince. My head pounded in the temple area, most likely where Jay had "stitched me up" earlier.

He looked up at me, but then focused back on his task. "Don't know."

I rubbed the side of my face, where a piece of bark in the grass had scraped it. "How can you talk?"

Jay smirked and held out his hand, which I took. With the same strength he used when I first met him, the young man pulled me up. A head rush erupted before my eyes, but he didn't notice. The guy just shouldered the parachute bag.

"So..." I said. "What's with the change of mind?"

"Nothing," he answered. "Just when Carly's around, I don't exactly have to talk about anything."
"Carly?" I questioned incredulously.

"Knife's real name. Well, her real false name."

I stared at him.

"You'll learn about that soon enough." He glanced around. I took his lead. We were on a large clearing covered with green grass, a few bunches of brown stalks here and there. On one side of us, there was a road next to a white-fenced field—slightly smaller than the one we were on—that housed four horses. But looking to the right, I saw a forest. I didn't know how long it traveled for, but it didn't appear to be big. Besides both of those, there was a large house painted white at the end of the road, with a small stable in the field we were in.

"Where are we?" I questioned.

Jay rolled up the left sleeve of his jacket to reveal a thick black band around his wrist. It sported a screen about the size of an iPhone, which he tapped. I couldn't see clearly, so I just waited until he told me what he was doing.

"We're in Texas," he announced. "Just a few miles north of Dallas."

"Texas?" I stuttered. "I mean, I kind of figured we weren't in North Carolina anymore, but Texas?"

He continued touching the iPhone thing on his arm and began walking away, to the forest.

"Where are you going?" I asked, not moving.

"Knife's belt has a tracking device installed in it," he answered without turning around. "She's in the forest."

I ran after him, and soon, the trees enveloped us. Darkness seemed to obscure everything around. The night was bad enough, but with the overhanging branches blocking out the sky, we could barely get any light. Jay's iPhone—which I guessed showed Knife's tracker—gave us a little bit of help, but it wasn't that bright. Ducking under a branch, I tripped over a gnarled root sprouting from the ground. Jay caught and righted me with one hand.