Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
DEUS
The fawn is curious but the mother is wary. No one is moving so she’s standing frozen, thinking that it might cause us to leave without taking note of her. Then I see the way her ears flick and her eyes shift to something beyond us. Whatever she sees, she deems it scarier than us.
The adult deer bolt and the fawn struggles to keep up as they disappear into the underbrush.
Landon reaches for me, obviously expecting that I’m returning to carry him, but I put a hand up that his face smacks right into before I push him away.
“Deus, why? I loved you!” Landon cries but stops complaining when I pull my rifle off my shoulder and dash into the trees.
I lift my gun, but all I see is Ellison’s back and the illusions stretched out around him.
One turns and looks at me before reaching out to me and then they’re all gone.
“What happened?” I ask, but Ellison drops to his knees.
I rush in, the scent of blood hitting me as I realize that blood is dyeing the shirt he’s wearing. A single slice runs right across his chest, cutting through his suit and his flesh.
How could I have not heard someone? How could I have missed them? Can they go invisible like I can? But still. I can always sense them. It doesn’t matter what type of illusion or invisibility someone uses, I can always find them.
“Oh my god,” Landon says, the others having followed me. “What the fuck happened?”
I drop my bag and retrieve the medical kit. I pull a large bandage out and begin winding it tightly around his chest, but Ellison grabs me to stop me.
I still his hand. “We can’t have you bleeding out. Who attacked you and where did they go?”
“I have enough cell service to call someone,” Lex says.
“Ellison?”
Ellison isn’t responding. He’s in shock and seems to be a bit out of it.
How could I have let this happen?
“Asmodeus, this is why people died—because you weren’t good enough.
Do you understand? Their deaths are because of you.
Because of your incompetence. This is why you need to be better.
Look at them! You sit here and you look at their bodies until I tell you that you can leave.
Look at what you caused and think about the lives they’d have lived if you weren’t such a fuckup. ”
I snap out of my memories as I buckle the strap then pick Ellison up.
“Oh fuck,” he groans.
“The ambulance is heading here,” Lex says.
I grip Ellison tightly as I start to move, hurrying back toward the parking lot where the ambulance will hopefully be by the time we reach it. Ellison groans again and his hand clenches on my shoulder.
“Ellison, can you tell me who attacked you?” I ask.
“I… don’t know. I don’t even know what happened,” he whispers.
“Let me carry him,” August says. “I can run while carrying a person with ease.”
I hesitate, not wanting to hand him off. It’s my duty to protect him and I’ve already failed.
“Deus, I’ve got him,” August says, and I know that while I could move quickly for a short period, I’m not going to make it to the car with him in my arms without some struggle if I’m running.
So I grudgingly pass him off to August as Ellison passes out, sinking down into his arms. My arms are coated in blood, the ground is coated in blood… there’s so much blood.
I race after August, only capable of assisting when it comes to which way to run since his sense of direction is not really the greatest out here in the woods.
When we reach the parking lot where our vehicle is, the ambulance still isn’t here, so August lowers Ellison onto some grass.
“Ellison, you with us?” Landon asks, he and Lex having managed to keep up with us because we weren’t too far from the car. “It’s going to be okay, alright?”
I stand watching the trees to make sure that no one can get past, no one can hurt the rest of them, but the trees seem silent.
My hand tightens on the rifle. If I failed to notice them the first time, what will keep me from missing them this time?
I hear the ambulance and eye them as they pull up.
“Deus, I think Ellison wants you,” Landon says.
I waver, not wanting to look away from my post, but I go over to Ellison and kneel down.
“Don’t… don’t go out there.” His hand reaches out and wraps around my wrist, squeezing it. “Don’t.”
And then the medical team are on him. He’s still holding my wrist when they try to pick him up, so they have to pull his hand free to turn away.
“You heard him, right, Deus?” Landon asks.
“Of course. I’m right here.”
“Let’s get in the car and follow them,” August says as they head to the SUV. I watch the medical team load Ellison into the ambulance and the moment the doors are shut, I turn myself invisible and run back into the woods.
I make it to the spot where Ellison was attacked and look around. I don’t remove my invisibility while I examine the spot where blood is splattered on the ground.
Why did he go over here? We were looking at the deer, so why did he go over here alone?
I knew he wandered off, but I thought he was just going to the bathroom or something else.
I thought very little of it. Did he see something?
But if it was something scary or wrong, he wouldn’t have left us without alerting us, right?
I don’t know what you’re planning on proving, but you will never be good enough. You’ll never save anyone but yourself, you selfish little prick. I will beat it into you again and again if you need me to.
“SHUT UP,” I snap, trying to quiet the thoughts in my mind. I can’t think when all I can hear is them rambling on about my inadequacies.
Focus, focus.
The wound began from the side of his waist and ran up to his chest, where it was the deepest. The person must have swung from below at a diagonal to create it.
It was so fast that it looks like Ellison didn’t even have time to step back before the attack took place, telling me that he either didn’t see the culprit or he knew them.
Then he put up a barrier of illusions to trap the person—
I hear something and turn.
“Deus, you little piece of shit!” Landon yells.
I freeze and look back as Landon pants, his hands on his knees. What is he doing here?
“I… don’t… know… where… your ass… is at… but I’ll… find you… and kick it!” He starts blindly waving his arms around like he’s trying to give ultimate air hugs. I don’t see August or Lex, so… why is he out here by himself? Does he want to get hurt?
I turn to walk away from him, but if I leave him… could he get hurt as well?
I drop my invisibility and turn to look at him just as he hugs a tree. I’m… not quite sure how he’s going to find me inside of a tree before I realize that he’s exhausted from running all this way after running to the parking lot and is using the tree for support.
“Why are you out here?” I ask.
His head snaps around to look at me. “Why am I out here? I’m out here because you ran off and I wasn’t just… going to let you sacrifice your life when I could help you. I sent August and Lex with Ellison, in case the person is after him and has left this area.”
I stare at him. “I still don’t understand why you’re out here.”
“Because you’re not supposed to be putting your life in danger alone! You’re supposed to do that shit with friends!”
“Why would you put your life in danger with me?” I ask.
Landon reaches over and shakes me. “Because. I. Care. About. You!”
I still while I let that sink in. Really, it seems to be quite a complex assortment of words that I don’t know what to do with, so I settle on turning invisible. He growls as he hangs on to me, and since my invisibility does little when he won’t let go, I become visible again.
“Alright… I have read many murder mystery books and I almost always figure out who the bad guy is. I’m just… really good like that. So… I… think it is… uh… Valerie!”
“Valerie had that conference today, but if she cloned herself and left one Valerie at the conference while the second Valerie came here to commit the ultimate crime—”
“It was a joke.”
I hesitate. “Right, right.”
Landon kicks a rock. “I’m going to be really honest… I kind of only know how to pick up things with my brain and smash other things.”
“The deer were over there, and we were right here, so why did Ellison move over there?” I ask.
“I don’t know… maybe he’s afraid of deer?”
“Ellison is only afraid of getting his suit dirty,” I say.
“Exactly. So… he saw something that caught his interest? Where he ended up isn’t in the direction of the car, so it’s not like he was going ahead of us.”
“Right,” I say as I walk over to examine the spot. I look at the area directly in front of where he must have been standing and inspect the snapped twig and the grass that’s bent over. The culprit stepped here so briefly before disappearing…
But to where?
“I don’t understand why I didn’t hear them,” I muse.
“None of us did.”
“It’s different,” I say. “I can hear a squirrel fighting another one in that tree, I can hear a deer drinking from a puddle over there… but I didn’t hear that.”
I look at the way the grass is twisted and point. “It looks like they went this way. Go back to the others, I’ll catch up.”
“Nope, I’m going with you,” Landon says stubbornly.
“You’re dead weight… literally. I can’t move quickly and carry you.”
“I will… I will suffer for Ellison, okay? I will suffer, so let’s go,” Landon insists as he follows me.
I watch him for a moment before giving him a nod. “Don’t step on any evidence.”
“Uh… okay, yeah, sure. I bet I’d be less likely to step on anything if I was being carried.”
Ignoring that request, I keep moving, following the tracks, but I find it strange that I never see a single footprint. No shoe treads to track. Nothing but cracked branches or bent-over grass. It’s like they were careful to never step on anything that would give them away.
And all too soon, we’re standing by the spot we’d camped for the past two nights.
Were they watching us at the campsite and I never saw?
“Are you just like… wandering? Like what the fuck are you even seeing?” Landon asks as he squats down to try to see what I’m seeing. He grabs a stick and pokes an earthworm like it might have the answers.
Then I follow the path out of the camp and over to where we spent part of the first night.
Were we really being followed for that long? And I never once noticed it? No… longer than that… all the way back to where we got lost, maybe a bit before. I look around, realizing that I’ve lost the trail. So I’ve figured out where they first found us, but not where they’ve gone.
“Did we just walk in a circle? Did I sacrifice my legs for a circle?” Landon asks.
“They started following us here.”
“Are you joking? They were following us for two days?”
I draw in a sharp breath. “I left you all alone. I left you sleeping and unguarded so many times.”
“Deus, you realize we’re all supers, right? And that this doesn’t all fall on your shoulders? No? I’m talking to a wall? Am I? Oh wow. Good conversation.”
“I’m a failure,” I decide.
Landon grabs me and begins trying to choke me. I just let him because I deserve it.
“You little shit, you didn’t just… ‘fail.’ None of us noticed this! So it’s not all on you! They’re obviously not here anymore, so let’s head to the hospital and see how Ellison’s doing. We have shit reception out here.”
“You go ahead; I’m going to keep looking.”
Landon switches from choking me to grabbing my face in his hands. “You’re really worried about Ellison. I can tell.”
I pause before shaking my head. No, my focus is on figuring out what happened. What others think. Not my own feelings or thoughts. Never my own. My own feelings and thoughts don’t matter.
He grips my face harder. “For me. Please. Go for me. What if you need to protect Ellison at the hospital?”
I debate that, but I know he’s right. “Okay. Let’s go.”
I just really hope I’m not making a mistake. That I’m not leaving something critical behind.
Landon grabs my hand and squeezes it. “Come, come. I need your guidance and your help, and possibly even your legs.”
“You have walked farther than I bet you’ve walked in your entire life,” I say.
He lifts a finger, like he’s going to tell me I’m wrong, before shrugging. “You’re probably right.”
Then he holds his arms out to me, telling me that this is why he wants me to go with him. I heft him up and throw him over my shoulder so I still have easy access to my guns. “Watch my back.”
“Yes, sir,” he says as he hangs there like a limp noodle. He’s quite pleased by this arrangement and has no problem being carried out of the woods like this or being seen by others who have brought us a vehicle.