The One Who's Fallen

Chapter 62

"Stop!" A male voice yells from behind us, the sound of boots hitting the ground getting louder.

I turn around and automatically take Lexa's hand. The Maunon are right behind us and they have guns. They have machine guns pointed at us and half a dozen guards. They stop a few feet away, just far enough so we would have to move forward a bit in order to reach them with our swords. One man strolls behind them casually, and I immediately hate him. He has a cocky smirk on his face, so I know he has to be the leader of the guards. This must be Cage.

He stops in front of his guards, within our range of being able to hit him with a sword. "Hello, ladies." The way he says it, like it's an insult makes me want to punch his smug face even more. "I have to say, I'm impressed you got this far. But your play time is over." His voice hardens, making Lexa and I tense, our unoccupied hands resting on our sheathed swords. "Give up and come with us. You don't need to be hurt. I know you two are smart." He says that like he doesn't believe it.

I glance at Lexa and see the hatred burning in her eyes. She spits at his feet, making his mouth turn up into a sneer of disgust. "Never. I would rather die than surrender to you ripas (murderers)."

The guards automatically turn the safety off of their guns. After being held at gunpoint by guards like this on the Ark, I can't forget that sound. I turn my head towards Lexa's ear under the guise of a gesture of submission.

"Jump. Our armor is good and should help break the fall. Don't stick out your arms." Lexa nods subtly and I take a deep breath. "Three, two, one. Go!"

We both leap backwards, and I take delight in seeing the surprised expression on Cage's face. We fall through the air, letting go of each other's hands. I brace myself for the impact. I hit the water with a loud and painful smack and I submerge quickly.

The shock of hitting it, even though I was expecting it, makes it feel like my limbs are frozen and I can't move. Air bubbles come out of my nose and mouth as I use some of my strength to stop myself from breathing in the water. My lungs scream for oxygen and I start moving my arms and legs, trying to get back to the surface. There's a dark blur the size of a person to my left. I turn my head and my eyes widen. Lexa!

After everything she's been through, she's weaker than usual. When she hit the water it must've sapped a lot of her strength or something. With renewed determination, I swim over to her and drag her to the surface. I gulp in air and hear Lexa weakly sputter in my arms. I swim towards the shore, dragging her until just her feet are in the water.

Lexa's breathing heavily and I turn her on her side. She spits out water and coughs, shivering. I flop down next to her, exhausted. There are trees over us. Hopefully we'll have enough time to take a nap...

I wake up to the distant sound of shouting voices. I sit up and start shaking Lexa's shoulder. She sits up and I notice with fear that she's even paler than when I first saw her. This whole must've really drained her (no pun intended). I help her stand up and she blinks tiredly.

"Lexa, we need to move. The Maunon are getting close." I whisper.

Her eyes focus more at my words and she leans on me less. "Alright, we have to go."

We head into the forest, in the general direction of the other mountain, the one we were kidnapped off of. We run/stumble for what feels like hours but the voices behind us aren't getting much quieter. Every time we think we lost them, they're back too soon for us to even sit down.

We're stopped at the top of a steep hill, both of us panting and exhausted.

"They have to be tracking us somehow." I gasp out. "There's no way they're this good." I try to think what they may have done. "Search your skin. If there's an odd bump, they may have put a tracker inside of you."

I run my hands over my body, finding an irregular lump on my left leg. They're smart, it's alarmingly close to my femoral artery and will be a pain to dig out. But I'm smarter. I'm a healer, I know my way around bodies. Even my own.

"I found one." Lexa remarks quietly, not wanting to alert the nearby Maunon to our location.

"Me too. They're thorough. Once I take out mine I can take out yours." I offer.

I pull out my dagger and carefully dig mine out. I manage to not hit my artery, so I don't bleed out. I look up at Lexa just in time to see her rip out her tracker with her teeth.

"Lexa!" I gasp. "That's so dangerous!"

I pull out a piece of cloth from my pocket and wrap her arm. It darkens with her black blood. I hear the shouts getting closer and more irritated. They're climbing up the hill.

"Come on, hold onto your tracker. I've got an idea!" I say and we start running again. We keep going until the shouts are fainter. We pause and I start explaining. "First we need to capture an animal."

The sound of snuffling makes me grin. I let adrenaline flood my veins, hoping I won't get impaled by this boar. It's a large one, about three feet tall. We creep toward it and when I get close enough, I leap on its back.

It squeals in surprise and collapses, my weight too much for it to stand. I open it's mouth. "Lexa, put your tracker in here!"

She does and I put mine in its mouth too. I close it and it grunts angrily. I tilt it's head back and it automatically swallows when the trackers go down its throat enough. I gesture for Lexa to her out of the way and she does, getting behind the boar. I stand up and slap its back. It runs away from us, squealing.

Wow Clarke's pretty smart, huh? I hope I named the right artery... I'm not sure about that. Next chapter, more running! Thank you all for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!