Everlast: Story of the Horizon

Chapter Four

We all stayed to watch the stars come out. It was really the only time we could ever talk about leaving without being scolded for the idea. We daydreamed and joked with each other for a while until it was about time we started heading back.

After climbing down from the roof, we were walking back toward the village and chatting together when Raven stopped, her expression confused.

"Wait," she said, "I hear something."

We all stopped and turned to look at her, seeing her head tilted and eyes darting around as if trying to figure out what it was.

"Uh, you okay, Ray-Ray?" Blaine asked, concern on his face.

"Just hush and listen." She commanded him and silence fell over all of us.

At first, I didn't hear anything, but after a few seconds, we all heard some whirring noise.

"What the heck is that sound...?" Ezra asked, brows furrowed and looking around to find where it was coming from.

"Is it..." Eve muttered to herself before looking up. She turned her head a few times until her eyes widened and she quickly pointed up to the sky.
"There!" She called, making us turn our attention toward whatever was causing the noise.

Up in the sky was a blurry black shape we couldn't make out in the dark, but whatever it was, it had a red, blinking light attached to it.

"What...?" I strained my eyes to see what the thing was, but I couldn't make it out. It was so dark, we couldn't even tell how close or how far it was. None of us had ever seen anything like it before.

Seconds later, the thing flew closer and started making this beeping sound.

"What kind of sound is that?" Blaine's nose scrunched in distaste, all of us starting to feel a sense of unease.

"Um, guys...?" Ezra's voice made us look over and we saw a small red dot on his chest.

I quickly looked down, seeing one on mine as well.

"Hey...!" I tried to swipe it from my clothes, but it wasn't going away.

We all had a little red dot on our chests and we couldn't get rid of them.

"I think we need to run...!" Eve's voice was panicked and it didn't take us but one second to agree and take off into the trees.

"What the heck is that thing?!" Blaine cried while leaping over tree roots and tearing past branches.

"I don't believe any of us know the answer to that...!" Raven replied, sounding a bit more frightened than usual.

"Just keep running and we'll get away from it!" I shouted, feeling my clothes catching onto the trees we were darting past.

"If we don't?!" Blaine asked, voice breaking in his panic.

I couldn't find the words to answer him. I didn't know what that thing would do to me and my friends.

"Just don't stop!" Ezra urged.

He was right. We couldn't stop. None of us knew what kind of twisted this thing might be.

Raven ran just as fast as the rest of us, but our terrain was uneven. Her foot caught in the dead branches of a fallen tree when she tried to jump over it, sending her to the ground and she let out a cry of pain.

"Ray-Ray...!" Blaine skid to a stop, slowing us all down and ran to help her up.

"Just run!" Raven tried to push Blaine up, but they were both startled when a loud thunk cut through the air.