The Marked People

Splitting up

Phoenix

Usually Indigo and Demon can hide their emotions, but this time I can see the fear written on their faces. They know as much as I do that if the tracker catches up to us they might as well be dead.

I look at Indigo, the chances that she'll find a place where the water is closer to the surface is very small and I'm not planning on making it any easier for her.

Indigo begins to move off at a quick stride. Instead of following her like I've been doing all day I grab onto a tree and cling to it with my arms and tail. Indigo whirls around to face me "Phoenix, I promise that unless you let go and cooperate I'll-"

"You'll what?" I say cutting her off " Are you going to kill me? Because then I'll be no help to you."

Demon hits me between the shoulder blades making me jerk my hands back in pain. I hiss as Indigo grabs my arm and pull me along, forcing my tail to let go of the tree. Half yelling I flail around trying to hit her. The longer I waste their time the less time they'll have for searching. Indigo swears before yelling over my own shouts "Demon!"

I catch Demon out of the corner of my eye before he swings a decent sized tree branch.

My eyes go blurry before everything goes black. A shuddering pain travels the length of my body before driving sharp stabs of pain into my head.

My mind doesn't seem to care about staying awake and I don't even fight the sleep that promises relief form the burning pain that lives inside my head.

Indigo

I manage to catch Phoenix as he slumps to the ground. I nod to Demon "Thanks, I was worried that if I tried to knock him out I'd accidentally kill him instead."

With grim faces we begin to jog through the forest with Phoenix slung over my shoulder, his head bumping against my back. Every hundred meters we stop and I crouch listening to the movement of the water below. Each time I stand and shake my head before we keep moving.

The tracker is still behind us and because it's moving in a zigzag pattern to scout as much of the forest as possible we manage to put some more distance between us and the droning machine.

I can still hear the buzzing but I focus on the task ahead. If I think about the whirring of the tracker and the hum it makes I can feel the trickle of fear beginning to take over. Fear is welcome in small dosages, it makes me sharper and I perform at my best with fear.

Too much fear and I'll begin to drown in my panic, and so I push the sound away, only noticing it enough to know that the tracker is still coming. It gives me enough fear to work harder but I manage to stave off the flood that threatens me. Each time I crouch down and find the water still too deep in the ground I lengthen the amount of distance before I crouch again. The more we run the faster I want to go.

Even with Phoenix on my back I know that I can run twice as fast by myself then if Demon comes with me. The experiments had been more painful than I'd ever thought possible but I'd be dammed if I didn't use the advantages they gave me.

As I crouch down and check the ground again I hear can the water move, sliding along on underground streams that remain hidden from view. My eyes open and I give a sigh of relief, the water is closer to the surface, not close enough but soon it might be.

A dangerous spark of hope blooms in my chest and I remind myself to think logical before my mind forgets the real danger that flies behind us. Standing up I say "The water is closer to the surface but not close enough." Demon nods in understanding too tired from running to say anything.

"Demon I want you to wait here, the tracker won't sense you so long as you're beneath the trees. I can move a lot faster by myself than I can with you and if we have any hope of outrunning this thing and finding water I need to move a lot faster."