4.4
She turned the light away from Jelani and instead shined it upward. It illuminated around 40 feet up before being stopped short by a wall of wood–the lowest branches of the trees.
They remained in dead silence.
If there were voices outside, they couldn't hear them. Even the sound of gunshots wouldn't have penetrated their fortress of wood.
Inside this temporary room of safety, Jelani and Echo regained their strength, fully aware that they would have to make a decision before long.
Jelani imagined the pandemonium that must have been going on outside. Hoodsdale, a city in which even the concept of harmless elements was preached as a terrible thing. A city in which innocent people running away was considered to be one of their biggest issues, and one that they met with full force.
What the pampered city of Hoodsdale had just experienced was the first actual problem they'd faced in years. Impossibly, someone had smashed through the wall of their highest security room, broken through the city's unbreakable wooden barrier, and finally, using the powers of those terrible elements, created a ring of trees that was nothing short of alien.
The mayor and his subordinates had done everything they could to keep the details confidential, but they themselves were already on the verge of fainting from the stress of the situation.
Every soldier was terrified. Seeing the group of their comrades who'd been sent to confront the criminals come sprinting back as if they'd lost their minds had almost been enough to make them resign their positions on the spot.
The story of the soldier who was killed by his own bullet would be the only thought in their minds every time they ever held a gun again, assuming they could muster the courage to do even that.
A quarter of the soldiers in Hoodsdale were gathered around the base of the newly formed anomaly. A helicopter continued to circle the trees, but no one dared approach them. Not one soldier stepped within 40 feet of the wooden ring, and they all clenched their guns tightly, aiming at something, though none could be sure exactly what.
A collective yell of terror rang out through the forest.
Spears of wood at the height of a man's chest rocketed outward from every tree's base.
Some soldiers fell, some dropped their guns, and some lost their ability to breathe.
The massive spears had shot out without warning, but their speed was slow enough that none were killed. The soldiers who had fallen scrambled to their feet and stumbled backwards, doing anything they could to put distance between themselves and the danger of death.
A captain's radio fizzed on.
"We've spotted them," a muffled voice said through the speaker. "They're high. On the northern side. Must be around 200 feet up."
"They're on the northern side!" the captain yelled to the other soldiers. "Look high!"
Hundreds of feet above the ground, two colored specks could be seen standing at the union between a trunk and a massive outjutting branch.
"Stand by!" the captain yelled as a murmur went through the crowd.
Up on top of the branch, Jelani said to Echo, "Hold on tight."
He crouched down, gripping his hands into the deep grooves formed by the bark. The two of them lurched backward, nearly losing their balance as the branch suddenly began growing in length.
Over 200 feet above the forest canopy below, it shot outward at a flying speed, transporting Echo and Jelani far from the trunk.
"Make it thicker!" Echo yelled from behind Jelani as wind whipped her in the face.
"What?" he yelled back, unable to hear a word she'd said.
CRACK
The branch snapped under its own weight, and they felt their bodies go weightless and their stomachs enter their throats as they plummeted downwards.
Echo, still gripping the bark of the branch that was falling beneath her, yelled, "Do something!"
Jelani's eyes drifted to the rapidly approaching landscape of green below, and he tightened his hold on the wood.
He shut his eyes tightly, and a massive, spear-like protrusion came rushing out of the center of the branch and down towards the ground. When the point of the wooden spear came into contact with the earth, it stabbed deeply into it, cushioning their fall as it sunk into the dirt.
Their bodies were flung off the branch and slammed into the ground, but they survived.
Jelani and Echo stumbled to their feet, knowing that an entire army would be chasing behind them.
As they sprinted, they suddenly entered an area where the trees thinned significantly, almost disappearing completely, and Echo took the opportunity to glance at the sky.
It had been a sunny day, but, ever since that morning, a wall of dark blue storm clouds had been approaching from the west. Now, the sky rumbled, and the ominous ceiling of thunder was nearly upon them.
"Turn left," Echo directed.
Jelani didn't question why, and the two of them turned sharply to the left, following the strip of thin forest and heading straight towards the storm. Because their endurance wouldn't last forever, they prioritized speed over secrecy and took the path of least resistance.
Helicopters reappeared above them, and the gunners inside leaned out to fire shots down at the runaways. But with those methods, their bullets would never land.
A cold wind gusted into the faces of the criminals, and, when the storm covered the sun, the sky finally darkened.
"Turn right," Echo commanded, and the two of them turned, diving back into the thickest part of the forest.
They sprinted for another minute or so before a powerful rumble shook the earth beneath them. It had come from directly above.
Echo dug her heels into the ground, instantly erasing her speed.
Raising a finger, she pointed at the sky.
The forest flashed pure white for an instant, and the sky was torn apart with a roar worthy of gods.
When the frail trees finally stopped shaking, they were engulfed in fire.
Flames flooded the woods with the speed of pure anger.
Jelani and Echo, now chased by another threat to their existence, ran with the flames licking at their backs.
Barely, they outran the monstrous orange attacker, and the heat faded away behind them.
As they proceeded forward, the forest got ever thicker, and they were finally permitted to slow their speed to a walk.
Wildfire bloomed in the distance behind them, its light illuminating the dark sky around it and its thick smoke curling up between the deep green pines in a blue-gray haze.
For those watching from a distance, the fire surged beautifully beneath the dark, purple sky.
"Get me food. And water," Echo gasped at Jelani as she fell to her hands and knees.
Jelani's chest heaved and he clasped his hands together behind his head.
When he finally began to recover his breath, his body screamed at him for sustenance.
He staggered away, and with a handful of rocks, successfully landed a few squirrels, along with some edible plants, but the thing he was most happy to find was a small, winding creek.
Stumbling to his knees at its edge, he plunged his face into it, taking long sips from the clear, cold mountain water.
Having carefully memorized the path he'd taken, he stood up to return to Echo, but when he heard a sloshing noise behind him, he turned in surprise to see his companion already drinking from the creek.
Echo crawled away from the water like some wild beast, eyes dead set on the food Jelani had procured. He wondered if she was going to take it all for herself.
She didn't, of course, and after devouring their meal of raw squirrel and wild plants, the two fell asleep to the sound of trickling water.