Part 18 (1/2)

”We get five minutes here,” said the herbivores' counselor. ”Then you have to give us a head start.”

Leech began to say, ”No probl-”

But he was cut off by a sound from the trees. A call, starting in a low pitch and rising steeply to a high screech at its end. ”Ooouup!” ”Ooouup!”

We looked around wildly.

Now an answering call, from nearby: ”Ooouup!” ”Ooouup!”

Everybody peered into the trees.

”Ooouup!”

”CITs?” Xane whispered.

The calls seemed to be coming from so close that someone should have been able to see them. Unless...

I looked up. Thick branches, fans of needles... And then I saw a shadow, high up against one of the trunks.

”They're in the trees!” I shouted, and even by the time I had turned to run, they were swooping down on us, on ropes they'd tied in the branches. I saw that they weren't my CITs; this was a team of others. Five of them, coming from all sides.

”Ooouup!”

”Ooouup!”

”Run!” Leech screamed.

Our group had two steps on the other half of our cabin, and that turned out to be the difference. We careened around the side of the cougar pen and blasted down a path that sloped steeply downhill through the trees. Behind us, I heard Jalen cursing as his team was caught.

”That way!” one of the carnivores shouted. Footsteps pounded after us.

Our legs wheeled beneath us. The path dropped steeply and then flattened out and opened up at a tiny pond bordered by tall gra.s.s and weeds. We broke out into the sun again, all turning around to look for our pursuers.

”See anyone?” Leech asked, breathless.

”Nothing,” I said, and the others agreed. The forest behind us had become eerily silent.

”Why would they let us go?” said Beaker.

”They're probably collecting tokens from the other group,” said Leech. ”I think we're safe.”

I turned, hands on my knees, catching my breath. My eyes fell on the little pond, its surface reflecting the sky.

But beneath that, something moved.

”No, we're not,” I said, scrambling backward to my feet.

”What?” asked Leech.

But the tan water was already starting to bubble and roil. As I stumbled back, my fellow monsters burst out of the pond.

”It's a trap!” Noah shouted.

They surged out of the frothing water, Evan, Marco, Aliah, and Lilly, skin and bathing suits glistening, and, only apparent to me, gills tucking themselves away.

Or maybe Leech noticed them, too. ”Fish monsters!” he shouted.

In the second before I ran, I caught Lilly's eye. She was smiling wickedly at me, and I knew our game was on.

My team scattered. I sprinted into the trees, the cras.h.i.+ng of footsteps seeming to come from everywhere.

”Ooouup!” The call came from up the hill. Silhouettes hurtled down toward us. The other CITs were joining in the pursuit. Now they had us pinned from both directions. The call came from up the hill. Silhouettes hurtled down toward us. The other CITs were joining in the pursuit. Now they had us pinned from both directions.

I ran to my right, figures flying on both sides of me, everyone darting and flicking among the trunks.

Behind me I heard a scream like someone had been grabbed. Technically, the rules were that if someone in your group was caught, that was it, but I saw Leech still sprinting, and I kept going too, sure that Lilly would be doing the same.

Someone came flying down from my left. A CIT I didn't know. I angled down the hill, vaulted a fallen log, amazed I even landed the jump, heard a sc.r.a.ping of dirt, and looked behind me to see the CIT girl tackling Xane in a spray of pine needles.

I raced on, glancing back over my shoulders. Bodies still moving back there. Where was Lilly?

I wove through the trees and emerged into another patch of sun. I was at the far edge of the little pond. A stream burbled out of it, through tall gra.s.s and then down a cascade of rocks, disappearing into the dark woods in the direction of the lake. A narrow trail ran beside the stream. I started that way.

A b.u.t.terfly dropped down, bouncing on the air nearby. It had teal wings with jewel-green dots, and seemed to hover, facing me, and I wondered if, up in the Eye, someone was monitoring our locations in the Preserve.

Then footsteps, pounding, close behind me. The sound of the stream had masked their approach.

I glanced over my shoulder, smiling, ready for the chase- But it wasn't Lilly. The figure was too big, still-wet shoulders working. Eyes peering at me coldly.

Evan.

I turned and sprinted down the little trail, pressing as hard as I could with each step, telling my legs to do all of this faster, this moving up and down and still avoiding rocks and roots, things they were not good at.

I could hear him closing.

The stream and the trail leveled out and left the trees again to meander through a flat area of high bushes. I could barely see over them. Their branches sc.r.a.ped my arms and thighs.

The trail made a sharp turn. Ahead was a tiny wooden bridge over the stream- ”Gotcha!” Arms wrapped around me and shoulders slammed into me and I was falling forward, to the side of the bridge, into the tearing fingers of the bushes then out and down a dirt bank, weight crus.h.i.+ng on top of me, down to the stream's edge, my hands smas.h.i.+ng against rocks, my face ending up right by the water.

Hands flipped me over.

”What's up, flavor of the moment?” Evan leered down at me, his princely face twisted with malice, and now I knew that Leech wasn't the most dangerous predator in these woods.

I didn't answer him.

He punched me in the face.