The Gender Lie(89)

Power—there it was again. It baffled me how much people were willing to do and sacrifice in order to gain and keep it. There was a depraved lunacy in the pursuit of it that spoke to the darker side of humanity. I was content without power, so it was hard for me to imagine why anyone would go to such great lengths to acquire it.

That didn’t stop me from appreciating the irony of the whole situation. Here we were, so-called enemies of Matrus, tearing through The Green in a mad dash to save the very institution that had labeled us as such. Well, I wasn’t sure of my status, but I was pretty sure they didn’t expect a Patrian male to attempt to save Matrian lives. However, I was likely an enemy of Patrus at this point—I had failed in my mission to return Violet to Patrus to face justice for her crimes. And that meant that I was also working to save Patrus from a senseless war that it had no idea was coming.

It was enough to make me chuckle, and help me keep going in spite of the exhaustion that was sending warning signals rolling through my body that I needed to stop and sit down.

The sun had long since faded, and we had paused shortly before to pull out the flashlights that Jay had provided. Now we ran in pairs, with one person holding a flashlight to illuminate our path. Occasionally, Jay and Tim would break off to help disguise the trail to buy us more time. We paused more than once to drink water, catch our breaths, or pass the bag. Even with all that activity, the hours slipped by in a tense silence with no sounds save for our footsteps and labored breathing.

The steady sound was lulling us into a false sense of security. After hours of not seeing anyone other than Jay, we were beginning to nurture the hope that we had somehow lost any pursuers. I had thought it through, and I was fairly confident that the boys would have likely stopped when night fell. The forest was a scary place during the day, and for all of their enhancements, they were still young enough to fear the dark and the creatures that inhabited it.

It turned out that we were all wrong on that account.

Just as I began to hear something new over our falling footsteps, a shout came up from the forest behind us. I skidded to a stop, my muscles protesting the sudden change in status. Whipping around, I cast my flashlight toward the forest behind us; I was breathing heavily behind my mask, sweat dripping down my face and chest.

Ms. Dale had already pulled her gun, much to my annoyance, and Violet’s hand was twitching, like she wanted to hold hers. I held my breath, straining to hear.

The seconds turned into a minute as I listened intently, my muscles twitching from overuse. A faint rustling drew my attention, and I took a step forward, staring intently at the intermingled vines, branches, leaves, logs, and bushes, trying to make out anything through the wild chaos of the forest.

I heard the rustling again, drawing closer. Something was behind us, approaching at an alarming speed. I turned back to the others and nodded.

“Run. As fast as you can. Get to the river.”

Violet and the others nodded and turned, beginning to run in spite of the clear exhaustion that was stamped into them. Fear was a powerful motivator, however, and they ran, ignoring their aches and pains with one singular goal in mind.

I followed closely behind, keeping an eye out behind us. The new sound I had begun to hear was exactly what I had hoped—the river. Hopefully the bridge was still there, but who knew how long we would have to search the banks before we found it. I wasn’t even sure if it was further to the north or south, and I only had Alejandro’s word that it was there.

Still, I clung to the hope that we would see it and be able to cross it before the boys behind us caught up.

Violet was the first to spot the river, and let out an excited, albeit ragged, cry. “Over here,” she shouted, her boots kicking up clumps of earth. I pelted after her, coming to a stop a few feet away from the water that seemed to glow. The trees parted here, allowing the light of the moon to illuminate the banks of the river.

I quickly scanned up and down the river and gave an audible sigh of relief when I saw a gigantic overturned tree connecting the two banks a few hundred feet north of us. “There,” I said, pointing to the natural bridge.

The others began racing toward it. The tree was ancient—probably the oldest thing in the forest, given its size. Even sideways, the trunk was wider than I was tall by three to four feet, and it stretched all the way across the water.

Violet was in the process of scaling the trunk to get on top when a sharp crack of a breaking tree branch came from the dense tree line directly behind us. I didn’t stop to look, just began shoving our group up the trunk as quickly as I could. I climbed up behind them, about to urge them to run, when I realized I didn’t have to. They weren’t wasting any time.