The Circadia Chronicles: Omnibus: The Complete Colonization Sci-Fi Series by Heather Heckadon (books to read to get smarter .txt) 📗

behind trees as much as possible. They’ll be shooting at us. Trying to stop us,” she said. “Sounds like there’s a pretty good chance we’re gonna lose a lot of people...”

“Yeah, it does. I have a plan to take out a few of theirs though,” I said. “Meet me at the safe place. Be careful.”

We both nodded, then began crawling away into the grass. When I was far enough into the woods and blocked by multiple trees from the line of fire, I screamed. “Retreat!” I repeated it over and over as loud as I could while running through the woods. I watched as people shimmied down and out of trees quickly. Soon after, the gunshots rang out. There were a lot coming from directly behind us, but I could occasionally here shots from above, and I knew we must have had the same thoughts.

Sounds of the bullets whispering through the trees haunted my every thought, and the shock of when one would collide with a tree and the surrounding matter would shatter scarred my soul. Every leap I took as I ran through the trees was daunting, and with every step, I was more and more surprised I was still alive. I began to hear running footsteps behind me and picked up the pace. The following pursuer matched my pace. I shot a quick glance behind me, to see Spencer following me. “Keep going!” he yelled. I turned and put my head down and sprinted as hard as I could.

I caught a glimpse of the others going over the hill towards the safe place as I turned right with Spencer. Trudging through the tall flower weed, both dead and alive, my legs ached, but I kept pushing through the pain. Spencer yelled out, “You going where I think?”

“Yep!” I answered.

“Hell yeah, let’s do this!” he said to me. Shouting back towards our assailants, he yelled “Oh shit! They’re following us! Hurry, run!”

The men running behind us now with guns picked up speed and so did we. The more we ran, the closer they got. We ran around a large hill and down into a valley. Crossing a field, they had open range targets to shoot at, and they tried but missed. Ducking back into another set of woods, they were right on our heels. I noticed the creek getting closer and pushed ahead.

Spencer picked up his pace to run side by side with me. We jumped into the creek from the muddy banks and ran through waist-deep water the best we could. Water splashed everywhere, and we were soaked when we came out on the other side. Our clothes were heavy from the water, but we kept running. When we heard the splashing of the men in the creek shortly after us, we stopped.

Turning around, we watched as the men fried. Electrical currents that had been sent into the water had been turned on the moment Spencer and I had left it, causing the creek’s next visitors to fry. It took a few moments for their screams to stop. Their bodies lay limp in the water and began to float around in the creek face up, eyes wide open.

A sigh of relief overcame me and I took a deep breath. “Thanks, guys,” I said to the trees. Derek Maples, the solar technologist emerged from behind one.

“With pleasure,” he said.

Chapter Twelve

“We’ve gotta move quickly,” I said. The solar team came out of hiding and joined us in the woods. “The virus didn’t work, and they’re pissed. There’s men all over the woods looking for everyone. We had to run right in front of them. Everyone knows to go to the safe place. We should get there as fast as we can now.”

“Why didn’t the virus work?” Derek asked, shooting a sideways glance at Spencer.

I cut in before Spencer had the chance. “We don’t know. It doesn’t matter now though. It didn’t work, and we need to go. Now.”

“Tell me what happened, at least!” he said.

We heard men shouting through the trees, and I knew we had no time to explain. He would just have to trust us.

“Let’s go,” I said with finality.

He looked at Spencer sideways one more time and tensed his jaw, then finally nodded, and we took off towards the designated meeting place. Everyone that got away should have been there by that time, but I was scared to see who was missing. We walked briskly through the woods filled with orders being yelled out from the soldiers far away, and when we reached the lake, we walked around the banks as their voices faded even further away.

We heard a rustling in the woods in front of us as the both of us quietly dropped into a squat to see what or who would emerge from the brush. Stumbling and clumsy, we watched as Dr. Mayhew and Smith with his broken leg stumbled out into the clearing. His face pulled into a grimace with each step, until he fell, not even noticing Spencer and I crouched just feet in front of him.

“Hey,” Spencer said, standing now.

“Holy shit!” Smith said, as his body seized backwards on the ground. Once he caught his balance with his hand behind him, his eyes shifted back and forth between us. “We didn’t know if you guys made it out or not...”

“Easy Peasy!” exclaimed Spencer. “Took out a few crew members on the way out, too!” Spencer gave me a wink, then put his hands on his hips proud.

“I don’t know why you were worried about us, look at you!” I said. “Are you okay?”

“Eh, yeah. I’ll be alright. Just trying to get used to this one leg thing, you know?” Smith said.

“It’s only temporary,” Dr. Mayhew said. “It will take a while to heal, but once it is, you will be good to go again! Just gotta give it time, which is easier said than done, I’m sure.”

“Yeah, well that’s nice, but we need to go. Agreed?” Spencer asked.

We all nodded and