The Event

14.

"Kayne!" I screamed, my legs kicking beneath me as I bolted upright from the mushy ground and skidded down on my knees at his side. "Kayne!" I yelled again, grabbing his face in my hands and turning his head to face me.

I dropped my hands and sat back on my heels when he blinked slowly and sighed. "I'm alright." He stammered, his voice still a little frantic from the sudden fight. "We've got to hurry." He said suddenly, jumping up from the ground and scooping KaRayna's body from the ground with ease and running into the direction she'd come from.

"Wait, what?" I asked confused, but he pushed on and my only option was to run with him or get left behind.

Tommy jogged to my side, looking over at me, the confusion on his face visible as the sun was finally coming to make her appearance. "He shot her?"

"Yes."

"Then the plan is over, isn't it?" He asked.

I could feel that thin string of hope I'd not even realized I was holding onto so tightly begin to slip through my fingers. "God, I hope not."

Kayne stopped for only a second up ahead of us, whipping his head back and forth and then he continued to the left around an old dilapidated hut.

"Sure ran to his side pretty fast." Tommy commented, not looking at me.

"Yeah." I mumbled. "We need him if we have any chance of living again." I reminded him.

"Right, sure." Tommy replied thoughtfully, then he picked up his pace a little. "Just seemed like a little more than that."

I shook my head while I ran, tempted to scream at the top of my lungs just to release some of my frustrations, but the fear of what Kayne had said about not knowing if his people have already begun their takeover of this planet kept my lips sealed.

I froze when a banging sound rang out around me, but Tommy called me forward. When I caught up I saw Kayne slamming against the door of a red barn that didn't seem to have been used in years since all of the grounds around it are so overgrown, the grass in the opening tickling at my knees.

"Thomas!" He called. "I need your help."

In the growing light the red of Kayne's face was visible as he continued to ram his shoulder into the door, trying not to jostle KaRayna's limp body too much. Tommy ran to his side and together they kicked in the door, splitting the old wood down the middle.

"It's veiled!" I heard Kayne cursing as I walked into the dark and dusty barn. Clearly KaRayna had been staying here judging by the cot that was set up over near one of the cloudy windows and the few containers of packaged food. Kayne placed her gently on the cot, then went running like a mad man around the open part of the barn until he ran into something that I couldn't see. "Here it is!" He said, then waved me over to his side. He took my hand and placed it on top of something smooth and cold, but all I could see was the barn around me. "Stay here."

Tommy looked between me and Kayne as he ran to pick up KaRayna's body and he was back at my side, with her hand outstretched until he found the right spot. The panel lit up white around her hand and the egg shaped pod manifested before my eyes as I snatched back my hand from the side of it. Kayne laid KaRayna down beside it and he jumped into the pod, digging through a side compartment. "Come on...come on..." He was chanting to himself. "Yes!" He cheered, pulling out some kind of tablet looking thing and he jumped out of the pod and knelt over her body.

Kayne pulled the thin metallic black fabric of her shirt up over her stomach and I had to look away. She wasn't bleeding like I would have expected, but instead there was just a gaping hole where Kayne had shot her, a perfect black circle as big around as the top of a soda can. Even picturing it in my mind made me feel queasy, so I turned away and looked out at the wall instead.