Winter's Edge

Chapter 52 - Outnumbered

Ian

I was relieved when Kat had gotten Abby out of the fight, but I was left alone, unsure if I could make it out alive. Maybe death was preferable to being captured.

Chen came to, picked himself up from the pavement, and walked toward me on the highway with a dark look in his eyes. I backed up, bracing myself against the SUV. There were limits to what a Telekinetic could move. They depended on strength and bracing. My increased strength was greater than anyone else in Winter's Edge, but I'd need the Suburban behind me for what I was about to do. I just hoped the opposing force wouldn't crush me.

I pushed hard off the ground with a telekinetic burst below the corner of an adjacent SUV beside Chen. The opposing force slammed back at me. I flexed against it, trying to keep it from crushing me. The adjacent SUV upended and Chen reacted, but not quickly enough. It toppled onto him, pinning his leg.

The darkness inside of me pushed out, seeking to swallow me. A whisper sounded in my mind. "Kill them all." I shook my head, snapping out of the strange daze.

Afraid of going mad and using too much energy too quickly, I began fighting on an even playing field with the remaining Hunters. The first one rushed me. I swept his feet, and he flipped to the ground. I grabbed his gun and brought its butt around to knock out the Hunter beside him. Then I swung it down on the head of its owner, rendering him unconscious. I wasn't going to kill them and chance going mad from the guilt.

I reached out for the neck of another man and found a silver collar around it. If not for the collar, he wouldn't be working for them. Maybe he'd help me if I freed him.

I grabbed hold of the collar and sent a telekinetic burst of energy through it. Electricity surged through me and the Hunter like we'd grabbed a high-voltage fence. We dropped like flies. Luckily, my blast had disconnected me from the collar and its taser-effect, but my muscles still twitched for a second as the last of the energy equalized in my body.

The Hunter wasn't so lucky. The collar was still attached to his neck, shaking violently right along with him as the electricity knocked him unconscious.

I grabbed a rifle and stood as two more black Audis approached and spun to a stop on my left and right. Men climbed out training guns on me. Then Merek stepped out.

He wasn't dead. But part of me wished he was at that moment. His face didn't even have burns on it from the wreck the night before. He'd had himself shielded the whole time in case of an accident. Smart.

The other Hunters joined the two new groups.

Exhaustion began tugging at me. I couldn't hold out much longer.

I used the gun I had, firing off three tranq darts into the necks and arms of the three nearest Hunters.

The gun clicked. Empty.

I dropped it just in time to throw up an invisible barrier that blocked the sudden burst of incoming fire. Merek's eyes lit up and he yelled out a cease-fire. Rawlins was right behind him.

Surrounded, I had nowhere to go. The barrier was eating my reserves so I dropped it. As soon as I did, a barrel pressed to the back of my head.

"Get on your knees!"

I started to squat but spun halfway through and grabbed the barrel of the gun. It fired off rounds into Hunters on the other side of me. I wrapped the weapon's strap around his neck, then kicked him into the two closest men.

Merek stalked toward me.

I leapt at another Hunter and flipped him backward. His friend stood close by. I grabbed him, pulling him my direction and used his momentum to throw him behind me. He toppled three other Hunters as he smashed into them. I pulled off of two more, moving past them, then slammed them against one another. I jumped toward the men and kicked both feet at their chests. The men crashed into two other Hunters behind them, and I flipped backward, landing on one knee.

As soon as I got to my feet, an unseen force of energy knocked me on my back, pinning me to the ground.

Merek.

I pushed against it, trying to resist. It was too strong. I pushed against the force with my own telekinetic energy. It didn't budge.

When Merek released the energy holding me, a Hunter dropped his knee onto my chest and shoved the barrel of a gun in my face. His helmet had been knocked off, and staring down the barrel of the gun was...

...my father.

***Please vote for this chapter if you liked it***

***Please comment if you liked or disliked parts of this chapter***