Efferent

Chapter 13

We stood frozen, both of us unable to look away as the information that Clark had just revealed sank in. Subconsciously, that fact had floated in the back of my mind, but running from imprisonment and death has a way of taking up most of one's mind share.

"Katherine," I swallowed, "Knew Travis?"

Clark nodded and inhaled sharply. "So you see," he turned his back to the hill that Travis had just strolled down, "Our only option, now, is to not trust him. To get as far away from here as possible."

"Do you think he was lying?" My breath caught, "About the shelter, the others like us? Everything?" I stepped closer, clutching at my chest.

Clark ran his hands through his hair and shrugged. "I can not read minds. I would suggest that we tread lightly and head in the opposite direction that he was heading in. Research his claims on our own, and try to find the shelter if there is one to be found."

"And if there is not a shelter?" I clenched my fists, "What then?"

Clark looked directly in my eye, reaching out and grasping my crossed forearm in a comforting manner. "Then we make our own.

I nodded, silent, refusing to look back up at him, for fear in that he would read my disappointment. In trying to avoid Clark and his gaze, my eyes landed on a flurry of motion at the bottom of the hill.

"Travis?" I whispered, furrowing my brow. He lay sprawled on the grass, unmoving. My heart beat rapidly and I turned to Clark, grabbing his arm. "He's hurt!"

"Or dead-."

"We need to go help him!" I started towards him, pulling Clark around. "He probably overused his powers and passed out, just like we do."

"Ardyn, what?" Clark shook off my grip, furrowing his brow. "We just had a whole conversation about the nature of our relationship with Travis. And how we don't want to have one."

"Why is that relevant?" I ignored his resistance and my steps went by faster as we ran down the crest. "He could be in serious pain!"

"Ardyn," I ignored him again, a few feet away from Travis' still body until Clark turned my around in my tracks to face him. "Ardyn, stop! If he is alive, we need to take this opportunity to run, get as far away from him and his threats as possible."

"He is like us, Clark," I pivoted on my heel and grasped Travis' wrist, feeling for a pulse.

"Efferent?"

"Shouldn't that mean something? You saved me, and then he saved us. We can not leave him out in the open for the government and their hunters to simply scoop him up!"

"It is either us, or him, Ardyn!" Clark through up his hands, but knelt by me regardless. "It is our survival, which he threatened earlier by the way, against the rest of the world. We have enough going against us as it is already."

I was looking around as he was speaking, and spied a shadowed corner of the park. Brambles stuck out from the roots of trees, and crevices in the underbrush provided ample protection. "Over there," I pointed, "Help me drag him over there and then we can leave him."

Muttering incoherently, Clark grabbed Travis and I, and in a flash, we were under the knotted canopy of the forest. I looked over at Clark, and his face was pale and drawn. "No more for you today." I grit out. "I only asked you to help me drag him."

"I-I am fine." He stuttered out. "Leave it be, and let us leave."

I nodded, looking over at Travis, whose mouth was parted by soft breaths. I brushed a lock of his hair out of his face before I even knew what I was doing. Jerking my hand away as if it was burnt, I whispered, "Okay. Let's go then."