Efferent

Chapter 19

"Travis!" Amelia exclaimed as we stared at him standing in front of us. He just glowered at us, staring, as though he could burn us with his heated gaze. He did not seem like himself, or perhaps that was me, and only my perception of him. I did not understand why he would side with Katherine, especially after he seemed like he was against her, before.

He stood robotically, his head quirked to the side. He closed his eyes abruptly, and we leaned back with the impact. He inhaled for an extended period, letting it out in a short burst of air before cracking his neck and finally meeting our gaze, once again silent.

"What happened to him?" I whispered.

Blaise frowned. "I think he is... Afferent. I am pretty sure Katherine has something to do with this." He cursed. "We should run." Two large dead trees cracked and fell on both sides of us, simultaneously blocking our way. "The power to move inanimate objects." Blaise muttered.

"I thought you would have forgotten." Travis said, effortlessly moving larger rocks to barricade us in.

"Quick, Clark." I turned towards him, whispering. "Can you transport us out of here?" I asked. He nodded, meeting my eyes.

Then he hesitated. "But I can only do it two people with me at a time."

"I will stay, then." I volunteered. "When their army does come, maybe I can try controlling them. If I can do that, then they will be free of Katherine. I am pretty sure they would not try to attack us of their own free will... right?"

We fell silent, before Amelia grasped my hand.

She nodded. "I agree. Good luck, and stay safe, Ardyn." She stepped away towards Clark and Blaise, who disappeared fluidly, as though a curtain of air has descended around them, and when it dropped, they were gone, leaving me alone.

With him.

I grit my teeth and faced Travis who was standing on top of a boulder, arrogantly. I decided to get rid of him first.

"What are you going to do, little girl?" Travis cocked his head, and I snarled.

"I am not little." I stated, my anger building up. "Besides, if I was, how would you like to know that a little girl controlled you earlier? I had you on your knees." I said triumphantly.

His eyes flared violently. "But that was earlier. You have no power over me now." As soon as he said that, boots appeared at the edge of the clearing. "You have no control over us, now."

The Afferent children filed around me, closing in, and I cursed myself for wasting precious time arguing with Travis. His eyes now shone brightly, and I realized that was his plan all along.

An Afferent boy, eager for a fight, pounced on me, tackling and bringing me down to the soft forest floor. I clenched my fists and soon he grew immobile. I pushed him towards the side where he fell limply, and I ran. Approaching the obstacles Travis put in my way, I attempted to climb over them.

Grasping onto anything I could find, I pulled myself up. Wind suddenly swirled around me, and I tried to ignore it as it tossed my hair this way and that. "Ardyn!" Clark screamed, as he stood on top of the pile. "Ardyn, we have to go, Blaise and Amelia are in trouble!"

"I am coming." I shouted, gritting my teeth as my hands scrabbled for a hold on the sharp rocks. The pointy edges stabbed my body, but I ignored it, trying to get to the top. I had almost reached it until the rock I was holding onto fell back down, with Travis manipulating it.

"Ardyn, stretch your hand out." Clark called urgently reaching down towards me. Suddenly, my vision grew hazy. Spots swam in front of my eyes and the scene swirled at an alarming rate. "Ardyn," He called. "Ardyn?"

I panicked. "Make it stop, make it stop." Black figures clouded my vision as they loomed everywhere I turned.

Demons... It hissed. We are your demons. My mom's face loomed in view and I closed my eyes in attempt to block out the images. We will not disappear. A bunch of officers appeared, and the doctors as well as their words floated.

"Ardyn!" It was a distant sound, though, which I ignored. Figures swam in and out of view, and I felt some tugging sensation in my arm. Then everything grew black as everything disappeared.

I fell onto the ground and I coughed. Raising my head, three figures stared at me: Blaise looking disgusted, Amelia and Clark looking concerned. "What was that?" Blaise snapped. Amelia gave him a sharp look and elbowed him as Clark helped me stand up.

I shook slightly as I stood and wavered on my feet. "I... I-." I stuttered, lowering my head. The images of everything still swirled through my mind and rattling me to my core.

"Blaise..." Amelia said in a chiding voice.

"Whatever." He bit out, "We have to leave, now." I detected a note of fatigue in his voice. "We had to take care of the Afferent when you were... doing whatever you were doing." Blaise muttered, striding down on a path into the forest.

"It is okay." I said to try and persuade Clark and Amelia that I was fine and able to continue on. "It was their Afference, I suppose, if you put it that way. They have their own abilities, their own powers. And even though they are not as powerful as us, they are not exactly weak either."

Clark nodded. "So they are kind of in between?"

Amelia nodded, "In such a concentrated group, I am amazed that you escaped relatively unscathed, Ardyn."

"Yeah, you can say that again." I agreed. "And I think there is something wrong with Travis. He would not just do this, especially so suddenly. He helped us before, I just do not understand why he was helping Katherine."

Clark nodded again, putting his hand on his chin, lost in thought.

"But where did the Afference and Afferents come from?" Amelia cut in, staring at us. "Our abilities came from the serum. How did Katherine get them to become this way? Besides, if they used the exact serum we used, they should be as powerful as we were, if not more."

I frowned. "Maybe she tried to make her own. Maybe she did but it was not as potent as the formula Walter developed? Then she used it on Travis and the other Afferents."

"Enough talking, we have to move!" Blaise yelled. "The Afferents are surrounding us as we speak. I have projected a wall around us so they think that we are somewhere else. But I can not keep this up forever, and they can not be tricked forever."

I looked over to him, shocked.

"Blaise?" My eyes were wide, "You have being using you power all of this time? What if you-."

His eyes rolled back into his head, the whites showing briefly before they were shut. He slumped to the ground, seizing up. Amelia rushed towards him, cushioning his head in her lap.