Countdown.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

          This time, I do kick the truck again, but I don’t care about the pain. I set off at a run, back the way I came, nearly suffocated by the need to get back. I can’t be like Lav. I can’t be like Lav. I can’t be like Lav.

          0000 d 00 h 01 m 04 s. I panic and run faster, my nerves stretched past the breaking point. I already know I won’t see her. I’m going to turn out just like Lavender. Faster and faster. I can’t feel my legs anymore. 0000 d 00 h 00 09 s. In a last ditch effort, using the last of my energy, I veer off to the right where I can see what looks like an abandoned farm in the distance.

          And then, all the wind is knocked out of me as a dark form barrels into my chest from the left. “Ah!”

          My wrist buzzes, and a sensation passes through me unlike any I’ve ever known. Without looking down, I know without a doubt that my wrist now reads 0000 d 00 h 00 m 00 s. How is this possible?

          I look at the mass of limbs that sits on my chest. It’s obviously a girl, so I know it must be her. She’s the one. She disentangles herself from me and sits up without my help. I stare at her.

          The first thing I notice about her is the scar. Jagged and loud, running down her face with blatant obviousness. From her forehead to her chin, her face had -recently, it seemed- been torn open. Framed by pale, wispy blonde hair, her scarred face is still beautiful. Light green eyes look up at me, filling with tears. Why?

I stand and offer a hand to help her up. She refuses with a stubborn shake of her head. I frown. “What’s your name?”

          She looks up at me, frightened. Frightened? What on Earth could have put her out here in the middle of nowhere, running just as fast as I was, dressed in black, and now nearly in tears? She silences my internal thoughts when she answers my question in a small voice. She hangs her head low. “Alice. I’d like it very much if you would just leave me alone. It seems I’ve just missed my timer.”

          For some reason, a smile breaks out on my face. “No, Alice, you didn’t.” I lift my wrist and grab hers, putting them side-by-side. She looks up at me wide-eyed.

          “You-you…?” Alice’s look changes from scared out of her mind to plain bewilderment. “But… I thought for sure… You can't possibly be…”

          She trails off as her tone drops to one I can no longer hear or understand. I tip up her chin so that she’s looking at me again. “Hey. Alice, whatever happened, that doesn’t matter right now. Okay, soul mate?” The beginning of a smile forms on her scarred face. “Why don’t you start from the beginning?”

          She tenses then, and shakes her head. “I can’t. Not now. They’re too close. But... maybe, in time … um. What’s your name?”

Her words confuse me, but I nod my head slowly. I understand not wanting to share. “Ohio.” I supply.

          She smiles at me. “Come on, then. We’ve got to go. The only thing I can tell you as of now is that the Council is after me. We have to go. We have to go now, and run as far away from Redsaw as possible. Will you come with me, Ohio?”

          I thought about it. About leaving Asher, and the Redsaw Print, my mother and father, and the town I had grown up in. How could I leave that for Alice, a girl I literally just met? And, not just leaving, but to run away from the government for an unknown cause. Why would I do that? Because she’s my soul mate, I realize. That’s why. I put down a solid resolve then: I would trust this girl no matter what. So I nod and offer yet another smile.