I found myself in the living room of the house we’d been using since reaching Warminster. It’s where I’d made a new reset point at the start of each day, hoping it wouldn’t be needed. I ran up the stairs to the bedroom Charlotte and Kian had been sharing and found the keys to Kian’s SUV on their bedside table. I grabbed them and ran outside, rushed to the car and got it started before pulling out and stepping on the pedal.
I had a rough idea of where the others would be as I came to the first checkpoint. There were multiple all over the small city, controlling who came in and out. I wound down my window, slowed enough for the guards to see me and they waved me through. I rushed through the streets, heading to the northwest, weaving my way past the soldiers, vehicles, and tanks spread across every street corner.
It wasn’t long before I got to the checkpoint on the northwest side of the city and slowed the car right down. A young soldier, barely past his teens came over to the driver’s side.
“Has Captain Davies radioed in,” I asked.
“I haven’t heard anything.”
“Can you get a message to headquarters that they need medical assistance and reinforcements at their location right now.”
The soldier saw the desperation in my face and gave me a curt nod as I pressed the pedal and headed for the fields.
The SUV lurched as it bounced across the uneven grassy fields, the tires kicking up mud. The headlights flashed over what seemed to be flatland ahead, but the vehicle’s suspension bounced with every dip and rise, giving the lie to the countryside’s smooth fa?ade.
I’d been driving for about ten minutes when the silhouette of the forest loomed ahead, growing taller as I got closer, the lights of the other vehicles already there acting as a beacon. I pressed the pedal as much as I dared, bouncing in my seat as the car roared through the muddy earth.
As I got closer to them, I could see soldiers moving between the armoured transports and the tanks. In the glare of my headlights, some of them looked up to see what was coming at them now. It couldn’t have been more than fifteen or twenty minutes since I had reset. I covered the last fifty metres and slammed on my brakes, the tires skidding in the mud with a screech as the car came to a stop.
I jumped out and ran towards the spot where we’d emerged from the forest. To my right, I could see the crater of the tank shot – a hole several metres across and a couple of metres deep, a little puddle of water pooling at the bottom. Ahead of me, at the edge of the forest, I could see soldiers emerging between the trees, the lights from the vehicles shining in their directions. They were carrying weapons, backpacks – anything that had been dropped.
Then I saw the medics kneeling in front of one of the armoured transports, medical bags open at their sides as they frantically worked in the glare of the vehicle’s headlights. I could see figures sprawled on the ground and I stopped running, my heart pounding in my chest as I forced my feet forwards one step at a time, terrified of what I would find.
I saw Charlotte first, blood spattered blonde hair plastered to her face, her eyes closed as three medics worked on her. Her fatigues had been ripped off, the medics doing their best to close the massive slash across her chest and the three puncture wounds at the top of her abdomen before she lost too much blood. Her face looked pale, but I could see her chest rising and falling in shallow, weak breaths.
Kian was kneeling at her head, a hand on her cheek as his left arm dangled uselessly by his side. There was another medic beside him, doing her best to pull him away, both to give Charlotte space and so Kian could get his arm looked at but he refused to go with her. Tears rolled down his face. I considered consoling him but decided against. It was better to let him be for now, and I’d only get in the way of the medics trying to save Charlotte’s life.
I moved past them, scanning the area, looking at where the other medics were and trying to see who they were working on. My heart was in my mouth as I searched for Carmen, hoping she was among them. I saw a young soldier, his lower leg snapped in two. Another soldier missing an arm. I walked briskly between each of the figures on the ground, a medic or two at their side but I couldn’t see her.
“River!” My head snapped to the sound of that voice. That beautiful voice. That stunning face. I ran over to Carmen, sat in the back seat of a jeep with Kaelyn leaning against the car. Carmen leapt out of her seat and ran into my arms, kissing me as I held her. She pulled away and I grabbed her by the shoulders.
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“Are you okay?!”
“I’m fine,” she replied. “A little shaken, but fine.”
I looked over to Kaelyn. “You?”
She just nodded, her eyes on the forest with a look of unfinished business about her.
“What happened?” I asked Carmen.
She glanced over to where the medics were working on Charlotte. “Kian was holding it and it realised Charlotte was healing him and protecting him somehow. It went for her instead and once she was down, it broke Kian’s arm and flung him aside. It didn’t bother with me. Ran straight past for you.”
Carmen looked me in the eyes. “Did you reset?”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“Don’t waste another one.” She said nothing further but kept her eyes on mine. I knew what she meant. I glanced over at Charlotte. The female medic had managed to pull Kian away and was looking at his arm, but he had his eyes firmly on Charlotte.
It was an unfair position to be in for me. Having the power to fix her, but being unable to. Believe me, I wanted to. I wanted to drag her and Kian away, and reset. But I knew I didn’t have many left. The world was depending on me. As I watched the medics work on Charlotte, a part of me was grateful that it hadn’t been Carmen. What did that say about me? I kept my thoughts to myself. There were some things that other people didn’t need to know.
“You’re gonna need to explain yourself.”
I recognised the voice and turned around as Captain Davies walked towards us. Carmen stayed by my side, my arm around her shoulder.
“I was sure I had killed you,” Davies said. “I was even feeling bad about it.” His rock carved face almost looked unhappy. Or rather, he looked a bit bewildered. It was the first time I’d seen him be unsure of himself.
“Keep it between us?” I said. The Captain nodded. I pointed at the gem in my forehead.
“If I’m killed, I reset to a point earlier in the day. Just me and anything within a few metres of me. But it’s limited use. I don’t have more than two or three resets left.”
Davies’ black brows almost reached his hair as he took in what I said. It was no point hiding it, but I was wary of people knowing about the gem. But then his face took on a look of understanding.
“That’s powerful. Very powerful.”
“I need you to promise you won’t tell your superiors. You know they’ll try to lock me up and study it.”
“You have my word. You’ve saved us more than once. Least I can do to repay the favour.”
I smiled at him. “Thank you.”
Davies frowned. “But if it resets anything within a few metres of you…”
“Yeah. That thing is wherever it was this morning at eight.”
“I can kill it with your help, River,” Kaelyn said, her hand tapping the hilt of her dagger.
“No,” Carmen said, grabbing my hand like she was about to bundle me into the jeep and take me home.
Kaelyn raised an eyebrow. “Do you suggest we leave it alive until it makes its way to the base and kills us in our sleep?”
“Do you know what it is?” I asked. Kaelyn shook her head.
“But it’s stronger than you?”
“A little,” she said. “I think it’s probably a rank A or maybe an S.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“River,” Carmen pleaded, grabbing my head and turning it towards her. “It’s too dangerous.”
“She’s right though,” I said, grabbing Carmen’s hands. “We can’t leave it out there. Tell us, Kaelyn.”
“It managed to get the better of me, but I got away before it was able to hurt me. I went back the way it came and checked the building. It’s using it as a base. If you rest, regain some of your mana, then we go there. You hold it in place and I can wear it down until I can kill it.”
Carmen was shaking her head. “And you could both just as easily die.”
“I’m with Carmen on this one,” Davies said. “It’s too dangerous.”
“What about if we had bigger guns?”
“Unless one of you is strong enough to carry a tank, I don’t think so. We don’t know if even the bigger guns could do it damage.”
The growl of engines and the rhythmic beat of rotor blades cut our conversation short as a convoy of vehicles appeared, and two helicopters descended from the night sky, landing in a clear patch. Medics jumped out of the helicopters and the vehicles, bringing more equipment and gurneys for the injured. Several rushed over to Charlotte, who seemed to be the worst of those who were still alive. They got a mask over her head, several medics lifting her to a gurney as others continued working on her chest. Kian followed her as they loaded her into one of the helicopters. Before he got in, he had a quick look around the field, his eyes settling on me. He gave me a nod and a small smile, before he jumped in and we watched as it lifted off and headed back towards the city.
I watched the helicopter’s lights disappear into the distance and turned back to the dark mass of the forest. That creature was in there. I doubted it would try to attack again tonight. Especially not out here, with the tanks. I considered whether I could lure it out somehow. It wanted my Divine stone.
I looked at the three of them standing with me. “Let’s use me as bait. Let’s rest tonight. Let me recover my mana and then at dawn, I’ll head in with Kaelyn. The creature will be focused on me, so we’ll lure it back to here, and trap it for the tanks to kill it.”
Carmen’s eyes shone with disapproval, but she said nothing.
“I’ll let you figure out the best way to do this and set up the tanks?” I said to Davies.
He nodded. “If you’re sure.”
I looked back to the forest as if I could see the bear in between the trees.
“I’m sure. We go at dawn.”
