The Elementalists

Chapter 6

Kass

I don't know what I expected, but it certainly wasn't being lunged at by some random guy. All we did was walk out of the wormhole—and this boy just comes at us. I almost fall back through the wormhole. 

'Who are you?' The guy drops his rucksack and raises his fists. Oh, please. He can't be much older than me, and he's all skin and bone. 'Get out of our way.'

There's a girl, too, peering at us from behind the guy's back. Jet-black hair swirls around her face and it's weirdly difficult to tell where her waves end and the mist begins.

'Ahah!' Eldred claps his hands, then thrusts one under the boy's nose. 'Pleased to meet you, young man, pleased to meet you; the name's Eldred, Professor Eldred. Now, was it you who called, or your pretty sister behind you? I know who my money's on.'

'Get away from her.' The boy spreads his arms out wide. 'Pretty sister, my ass; get lost, you sleazebag, or I'll make you.'

'Phwoo! Feisty one, aren't you?' Eldred turns and raises an eyebrow at me. 'Hear that, Puffin? We best move, or he'll make us.'

'Don't call me that,' I mutter. Eldred seems to get endless entertainment by seeing how far he can push me before I snap; the last few days have been the longest nightmare of my life. My insides feel raw, like I'm crumbling away. Like the slightest gust of wind could knock me down and I'd never get up again. Plus, my asthma's at its all-time worst; we keep having to stop and for someone who calls himself a professor, Eldred's sure been unsympathetic.

'Come on, now, Puffin,' he grumbles. 'Stop slacking!'

But I can't. My entire world has disintegrated. FUTURE is nothing but a cult of murdering bastards. Whilst the Resisters, the fabled warmongers that destroyed the world, are actually. . . who?

I just don't know what to believe anymore.

When Eldred showed me that his black button was vibrating, I couldn't muster up much enthusiasm.

'Another of the Elementalists is calling,' Eldred said, dancing a jig on the spot. 'Come on, Puffin, let's go!'

He then tampered with the wormhole at the bottom of the mountain, slotting a red chip-card into the control panel. The control screen usually shows a map of the routes you can take within that specific wormhole's database; I managed a grunt as the map flickered, settling on a completely new location.

'Al-Abhor? Where the heck. . . That's not where this wormhole goes.'

'Oh, Puffin.' Eldred patted me on the head. 'That's what this is for.' He slipped the chip-card out again and pocketed it with a wink. 'Call it platinum-level access, if you will. Or—' He grinned. 'Platinum-level hacking. Come on—our next Elementalist awaits.'

And without a backwards glance, he stepped through the Wormhole. For a fraction of a second, I wondered—could I make a break for it? Would he return to hunt me down, or would he choose the new Elementalist? Then realisation came crashing down; making a break for it. Stupid, stupid. Even if I wanted to, where the hell would I go? I have nothing, nowhere.

I am completely alone.

*

'I'm warning you,' the boy growls, unearthing a blade from his pocket; although dull, it's enough to make the girl gasp and Eldred's eyebrows to raise a little higher. 'MOVE.'

'Or what?' A hot rage floods through me. The way he's looking at us. . . It's starting to piss me off. 'What are you going to do? Stab us? Yeah, right.'