Unable to resist, I turned my sights to the ship one last time. There was so much more of it I wanted to see. It was one of the few pieces of my home I’d ever seen, and who knew what it was still capable of doing. Even if it couldn’t fly, maybe I could figure out that language, or even send a message to–

  “This way.” Emily whispered, grabbing my hand and pulling me away from the ship.

  She motioned to the cliffside, away from the direction leading to the road. I nodded and we started trudging away from the site, keeping our flashlights off. It was getting dark, but just as we made our way around a large boulder, both of us heard someone enter the clearing from the other direction. I couldn’t understand the words, but I recognized the voice.

  It was that woman who’d come to my house.

  I felt my muscles tense, body frozen in place as a vice grip squeezed at my chest.

  It was her.

  Emily pulled me tight against her, both of us staying completely silent. The woman started walking closer, speaking through a radio.

  “...yes…yes, I’m looking at it right now. She found it…yeah, I’m checking now.” A moment after she stopped speaking, I heard the sound of someone rummaging through a bag.

  Emily whispered into my ear. “Tess, we need to get out of here.”

  I knew we did, but I couldn’t convince my body to move. It was as though my feet were nailed to the ground. I couldn’t breathe, much less really comprehend Emily’s words. All the fear, anger, anxiety, and hatred for this monster who took my life away from me was boiling up inside of me. We should run, Emily was right, but I couldn’t help but think about the idea of fighting her. With all this anger, I could snap her like a twig if I really felt like it. My hands were balled into fists.

  Emily grabbed my shoulder, giving me a soft shake. The sudden contact started me, and without thinking, I reached up and grabbed onto her arm. She tried to pull away, but I was as steady as a rock. I remained steadfast until we heard the loud blast of a gunshot ringing through the air. Both of us jumped, the sudden alert snapping me out of my trance.

  “You can come out now!” The woman yelled.

  A long, uncomfortable silence followed for what felt like minutes.

  Does she know where we are?

  I looked at Emily. She was crying and her teeth were clenched. Confused, I realized I was still holding onto her arm, and a small amount of blood was dripping from where I was holding her. Before I could apologize, she shook her head, bringing a finger to her mouth to remind me to stay quiet.

  The woman called out again. “You can come out on your own…or I can come in after you if you want. I won’t be so gentle if you make me come in there, I promise you.” She finished, practically growling those last words.

  There was such anger and disdain in her voice, but also the excitement of getting into a fight flowing through her cadence. More importantly, however, she thought we were still inside. We’d have a small window of opportunity to get out of here. Footsteps started moving toward the cave entrance. Emily tapped my shoulder, signaling to me. Once I heard the woman’s footsteps reaching the entrance, we gave it a few more seconds to make sure she was in the cave.

  Emily and I ran as fast as we could in what little light was left. We dashed silently along the cliffside, turning into the woods. We ran into the treeline. Seconds later, another gunshot rang behind us and a large chunk of bark from the tree next to me exploded. We kept speeding through the woods.

  I looked behind me for a moment, but with almost no light, I couldn’t see anything. They must have been catching up to us already.

  “Emily!” I yelled, both of us still running. “Emily, I need you to take this!”

  I pulled off my backpack, handing it to her.

  “What…” She started, already sounding winded.

  “Emily, they’re after me, not you. We’ll split up; I can move faster on my own. You go to the car. I’ll take the long way–” I yelled, hearing another gunshot before the water bottle on the side of my bag exploded.

  Both Emily and I jumped away from the blast, running in opposite directions. Emily turned south, heading to the car. I sped north, hoping to draw the woman’s attention. Without the backpack, running on all fours was much easier. Now faster and lower to the ground, I’d be a much harder target. As expected, I heard the woman behind me, running in my direction.

  Focused on her footsteps, I made sure to stay just barely within an audible distance, buying Emily as much time as I possibly could. Suddenly, the steps stopped. Knowing the woman was lining up her shot, I jumped and kicked off a tree, flinging myself sideways just as her gun fired. The bullet collided with a rock, pinging off like a siren, heading in the opposite direction. Another shot blasted from her gun before I had a chance to land. A sudden sharp pain filled my right ear as I heard the whoosh of a bullet passing right by me.

  Not wanting to press my luck, I hoped Emily had ample time to escape before bolting from the woman, running at full speed. The light was all but gone and I could only see a few feet around me, but through the darkness, I kept my focus on the sound of my hands and feet hitting the earth. Each loud thud reflected off of the nearby rocks and trees. The sound was just enough of a warning to let me know of any obstacles ahead of me, helping me weave and dodge past any blockade.

  I sped around the mountain, taking the long route before I turned to where the car must have been. Oliver had said they were about a mile ahead of the place we’d initially stopped. The woman’s footsteps had vanished somewhere well behind me. I was as light as a feather, darting through the woods, bursting with adrenaline. Time felt as if it moved faster as the rhythm of my hands and feet guided me. Within minutes, I had already passed Sheep Nose, now on my way to the car.

  As I approached, I saw a light in the woods, not far from the location Oliver had described. Once I got closer, I heard Emily’s voice…she was angry…she was fighting with someone. I turned toward her and heard a second voice.

  It was the man from the house.

  I recognized his voice instantly. There wasn’t a hint of fear in me. All of it was replaced with that anger inside of me again. Speeding toward them, I saw the man fighting with Emily, holding her bag with one arm around her while she struggled to get out of his grip. He was large enough to hold Emily with a single arm. To me, it looked as if he wasn’t even struggling to keep her from escaping his grasp.

  It was him: the man who killed John.

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  I was gliding, my arms and legs helping me bound between rocks, jump between trees, and swerve around obstacles. Body on autopilot, my mind could focus entirely on him. I could take him easily and escape with Emily, but I wanted to do more than simply get away from this place. My eyes were squarely on him as I rushed the pair of them. He must have heard me approach, but he didn’t have nearly enough time to react.

  Twenty feet away, I leapt into the air, twisting my body around as I let out a primal scream. My body curled in like a spring as I channeled all my anger, all my frustration, every last bit of my hatred and rage for this man. My legs slammed hard into his chest, and his ribs cracked. I could feel his ribs crack.

  I hit him with enough force to stop myself, landing right where he’d been standing. The man went flying for a few feet before crashing, body rolling for another few feet before coming to a stop. It was silent, then seconds later, I heard him wheezing, trying to lift himself into a sitting position. I clenched my hands and my jaw, muscles tense, rage still overwhelming.

  I hated this man. I wanted him to suffer.

  Emily said something, but I couldn’t hear it. The sound of blood rushing through my ears was too strong. Approaching the crumpled heap, my body shook in rage. As he looked at me, fear flooded his eyes. I kept moving toward him.

  “P-Please…” He begged, managing to scuttle into a sitting position, an arm clenched around his chest, trying to back away from me, “...please, you have to…listen…please…what happened before, it wasn’t supposed to go like that…please.”

  All the pleading in the world wouldn’t change my mind. I didn’t care. I wanted to hurt him. I wanted him to feel every last ounce of agony I had felt. I wanted him to feel the same fear, the helplessness, as if he were calling out into the darkness for someone to save him, knowing it was all futile. I wanted him to wallow in pain and despair.

  Emily yelled again, but I still couldn’t hear her. All of my attention was on the man who had destroyed my life. He quickly reached into his pocket, pulling something out. I braced myself to jump before he could do anything, but the world…went white.

  I could only see white. Wherever I was, it was an empty void of space. All thoughts, all emotions, everything was gone. I blinked, looking around me, trying to figure out what happened. I was…doing something. I couldn’t remember what I was doing, much less where I was. I tried to think hard, tried to remember what was just happening, but only vague pictures quickly flashed in my mind before evaporating away just as fast.

  Somewhere, way in the distance, I could hear a woman yelling. It sounded like…Emily. Maybe. Someone…screaming something.

  It went away again. I felt light, almost like I was floating. I breathed in deeply. It was nice here. No sound, no thoughts, no emotions…just emptiness. Every time I tried to pull a thought from my head, it escaped. All was silent…blissful…empty.

  I blinked again. The white light was…going away. The world was becoming more dark as I started to hear voices, much louder this time. The night sky blurred into my vision, then the trees and rocks, and the two people formed in front of me. One of them was fighting with the other. After another blink and a light shake of my head, I began seeing even more clearly.

  Emily yanked something out of the man’s hand, pushing him to the ground. He groaned, falling onto his back and clenching his chest. Emily stood, rushing to me. She placed both hands on my shoulders, looking into my eyes.

  “Tess! Tess! Hello?!” She said, shaking me gently.

  I smiled and nodded back to her.

  She looked extremely concerned for some reason. “Tess, let’s go. We need to get out of here.” Emily quickly grabbed my hand, tugging me as I blinked.

  Giving her a confused look, I stayed rooted to the spot, pointing at the man on the ground. He looked like he was hurt pretty badly. I didn’t want to just leave him there.

  “Should we help him?”

  “What?! No! Tess, we need to go!”

  “Oh…” I said, not really understanding.

  Emily pulled my hand again and I started walking with her.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “Tess, what the hell happened to you?”

  I shook my head a bit harder. My thoughts were cloudy, but slowly, they were shifting into focus.

  Emily continued. “We need to get out of here…we need to get to the car.”

  As she spoke, my muddled thoughts became fully clear: Oliver, the car, the people on the mountain, the ship, the man I’d kicked to the ground. I remembered the rage I’d been feeling, but all of it had dissipated.

  “R-Right, yeah, let’s go.”

  The two of us hurried as quickly as we could. Somewhere behind us, I heard the man quietly speaking, but soon, his voice vanished. I was still slightly dazed, but Emily guided me until we reached the road.

  Quickly grabbing her radio, Emily spoke into it. “Oliver, we’re on the road, somewhere between you and my car. Can you pick us up?”

  “Oh my way.” He said from the other end.

  A few hundred yards from us, we saw a pair of headlights roar to life. Oliver pulled away from the shoulder of the road, driving toward us. Emily crouched to my height, holding my shoulders as she looked into my eyes.

  “Tess, what was that? What happened? You just…froze.” She asked, concern imbued in her voice.

  “I don’t…I don’t know. Everything just went white. I don’t know what happened, then I saw you fighting with him and…it was like all my thoughts were gone. I couldn’t remember…anything…”

  “Are you okay?”

  “I think so…yeah. Yeah, I’m okay.”

  Emily nodded, standing to her full height while the van approached. The breaks lightly squeaked as Oliver stopped. Emily and I pulled the sliding door open and quickly jumped inside the van. Just as the door slammed shut, the driver window suddenly exploded, beads of glass bouncing all over the inside of the van. Oliver screamed, holding his shoulder.

  I slid onto the center console to find a softball sized rock in the passenger seat. Oliver was still gripping his shoulder, his left arm bent at the wrong angle. There was no way he could drive in this state. Without hesitation, I grabbed him by his good arm, pulling him out of his seat and into the passenger side.

  Oliver gave another scream, but even through the pain, he must have also realized he couldn’t drive. He wiggled himself away from the driver seat as best he could. I grabbed his legs, pushing them into the passenger side footwell, taking his place in the driver’s seat. Suddenly there was a loud scream from outside the van. It was the same woman from earlier. I leaned tightly against the back of the chair just before another rock hurtled through the cabin. It whizzed by me, smashing into the center of the dashboard.

  I pushed on the bulb Oliver had shown me, gripping the wheel tightly as the van suddenly lurched to life. Standing on the seat to see through the windshield, I focused on keeping the van on the road. This speed wouldn’t be quick enough. I pushed the bulb as far as it would go, accelerating the van far faster than expected as I kept a strong hold on the wheel.

  Another rock smashed through the back window, shattering the glass. Emily screamed, but it didn’t sound as if she was hit. I heard the woman yell something from behind us. Oliver was still holding his arm, groaning in pain as I kept the van steady, zooming down the road as quickly as the van would allow.

  I saw the place where we’d first stopped. No one was there, but Emily’s car was. All of the doors were open and the inside light was activated. Just behind it was the black SUV. At that moment, I knew what I had to do. This was our chance. I pulled the bulb back, pushing it down to stop the van. Tires skidding, I waited just long enough for the vehicle to stop before jumping out of the destroyed driver window.

  “What’re you doing?!” Oliver and Emily both yelled at me.

  I landed right next to the SUV. The van began to roll on its own, but it was okay. My idea wouldn’t take long.

  Running up to the SUV’s nearest tire, I wrapped my jaw around the corner and bit down hard. My teeth plunged into it as I crushed the rubber in my grip, getting a sudden burst of air around each tooth. I let go, running to the next one. One by one, I gave a quick, sharp chomp to each tire until the air began pouring free from each tire.

  The van was a few feet away from me, but I quickly bounded to it and jumped back through the window, pushing the bulb forward once again as we hightailed it out of the area.

  “Yeaaaaaaaaah!!” I yelled triumphantly as we drove away.

  It felt great to get back at that SUV.