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An answer I don’t have.

A solution that might save us all.

17

Saren

Matthias has discovered my escape.

I can feel him searching for me. Pain flares in my lower abdomen every few minutes, a spear of pure white fire. Before now, I never knew how far his reach spanned. He shouldn’t be able to affect me this far away. I need to move, to flee this lab, but I can’t make myself climb that ladder. If I head out into the open, I’ll be a sitting duck.

In hindsight, I should have brought supplies. At the very least, water. My lips are already dry, tongue heavy in my mouth. Doubling over, I grind my teeth and ride another wave of agony. Blood drips from my nose onto the steel tabletop. It’s entirely possible he’s got some sort of tracker inside me.

After my attempted escape, I was beaten to the point of unconsciousness. I have no clue what was done to me while I was out. What I do know is that afterward, my new guardian’s control over me was unquestionable. He owned me from that point on. Any time I disobeyed, he brought me to my knees. While he could never peer into my thoughts, he had other means to torment me.

Flashes from yesterday threaten to take me right back to his dinner table. Where he…touched me. Took from me. Used his mastery to coax my body to respond. If I had anything in my stomach, I’m sure it’d be splattered all over the floor. All I have are journals and papers. Information.

The pain eases enough for me to step away from the ladder and gather what I think might be useful. By the time I’m finished, my bag is overflowing. Halfway up the rungs, I pause. A soft rumble comes from the east. My first instinct is to hide. To close the hatch above and lock it. That’s what I should do.

Instead, I take a slow breath and close my eyes. I haven’t used clairvoyance in years. Matthias calls it a forbidden mastery. That, and precognition. While I have little desire to learn my own fate, I do need to know what vehicle is approaching. Who is driving it? Where is it going?

Images flutter about, blurry and too far away. I strain to reach them, invisible fingers clawing at chaotic energy.

“Come on,” I growl.

I use my own memory of the landscape to aid my search. The tumbleweed. The dirt. The endless miles of nothingness. My ability pulses off me in waves. Gooseflesh pebbles my arms. The ache in my vacant womb throbs uncontrollably as more blood leaks from my nostrils.

I almost give up.

But then I see it.

About a mile out from the tunnel, two vehicles slow and stop. A man steps out to relieve himself. The scene shifts, clears. Dark rags cover half their faces. Their weathered clothes are foreign. Large guns are strapped to their backs, and prisoners sit huddled close in the truck beds. An obvious leader barks orders, his voice muffled and distorted. But these people aren’t Telex.

Humans.

Bandits.

I pull away just as their leader looks around and tenses. He felt me prodding. Shit. Severing the connection immediately, I gasp and flick my eyes open. It’s risky. Stupid, even. But they are my best chance at escape. I glance down at my bag and nibble my lip, knowing that if I’m captured, they’ll take it all. The last thing I need is humans from the Barrens getting their hands on Patryn’s research and Ryx’s private journals.

I decide to abandon it all, levitate the bag to a drawer, and drop it inside. The letter is memorized. I know what I have to do. Find Ryx. Find Salem Winchester. Find Ryx’s bonded. Wiping the blood from my nose and upper lip, I hope more distance will sever whatever hold Matthias has on me, and I flee the lab.

***

My tag slaps my chest as I run toward the tunnel. The sun is already unbearably hot, and it’s barely morning. I never realized just how much the dome blocks out. We never have anything other than pleasant, manufactured weather. I’m dripping sweat, out of breath, and so thirsty I could cry. The screech of the gates opening the moment I left the shed forced my legs to move as fast as they could. I’ve never run so hard.

I stay close to the hillside, constantly listening for approaching vehicles. When I reach the tunnel, I dart out into the open. I have no clue whether the bandits are still stopped or have moved on, but I have to try. There’s a real possibility they’ll shoot me on sight. I’d do the same if I were them. But those prisoners give me hope. Maybe they like to capture their prey before consuming them.

By the first seer, it feels like I’m running directly into the sun. It’s too hot. The air is too dry. There isn’t even a puff of a breeze.

I blink rapidly, trying not to pass out.

Years I’ve spent studying far-off places, our world and what became of it after End Days. None of it prepared me for the vastness before me. How can it just…keep going? With nothing in sight? No trees. No buildings. Not even a bush.

Well, some decrepit shrubs shoot up from the dirt, but that’s about it. In the distance, I see something, but I can’t tell if it’s a mirage or a wandering shadow cast by the few thin clouds. Whatever it is doesn’t move, though. I aim for it. Hope for it to be something. Eons pass before I can see it clearly. But I’m so tired. Blisters bloom over my heels.

Fuck, I’m too close to quit.

I send out a pitiful pulse of my mastery, searching for life. It snags on something, but I can’t tell what. This could be a dying animal, for all I know. Maybe it’s my imagination. I slow to a limp. My feet dragging through the powdery earth. Don’t stop. Keep going.