A Touch of Truth by Bella Forrest
“Okay?” he asked, a touch of amusement in his eyes.
“Yeah.”
We traveled across three streets in this manner before I spotted something in the sky, worryingly close. A helicopter. I could tell instantly from the build and shade of it that it was an IBSI helicopter. I had seen enough of them by now. It was the exact same type as the ones that had been sent to harass us in The Shade when we’d still had Lawrence in our midst.
“You see that, guys?” I asked the siblings nervously, pointing to it. They glanced up, then shrugged and proceeded to glide to the next building. I had no choice but to follow them once Orlando had chucked his belt my way. I held my tongue, refraining from mentioning the helicopter again until it turned in the sky and began heading our way.
“Guys,” I couldn’t help but say again. “Are you sure that helicopter isn’t something we should be worrying about?” I couldn’t help but feel that the IBSI wouldn’t just let me get away so easily after discovering that I had found out about the existence of FOEBA. But I did not want to let on to Maura and Orlando that I feared the hunters might be after me. It’d been difficult enough to get them to come with me on this mission in the first place. If they suspected that I was a prime target of the hunters, it would only increase their tensions—maybe not so much Orlando’s, but definitely Maura’s. I detected that even now she was coming only because her brother believed so strongly that they should. If it had been up to her, they wouldn’t have budged from their loft.
“I think we all ought to be more concerned about what’s on the ground than in the air,” Maura said irritably. “Let’s keep moving. We’ve got a lot more ground to cover.”
With that, she swung herself to the next building. Before Orlando could follow her, I caught his arm and pulled him back. “Orlando,” I said in a low voice. “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
He turned on me. “What do you mean?”
“That’s an IBSI helicopter. The IBSI is bad news all around. Both for me and for you.”
“We’ve seen them around before and they haven’t bothered us. What, exactly, are you worried about?” he asked, narrowing his eyes on me. He’d already clearly suspected that I was holding something back from him.
“Well, I did tell you before that I escaped from them. I’m not entirely sure that they would send an actual search party out for me… but they might.”
Orlando swore beneath his breath. “This is the last thing we need.”
“I know,” I said, wincing. “But I think maybe we should try to stay a bit more inconspicuous. We’re so easy to spot on these roofs.”
“Maura isn’t going to like this,” he murmured before pushing himself off the ledge. By the time he’d thrown the belt back and I’d reached the other side, he had already broached the subject with his sister. Her expression was sour as she looked at me.
“You never mentioned that they might care about you enough to follow you,” she said sharply. “You just said that you escaped from them.”
“Well, I’m not necessarily saying that they do care that much. It’s just a guess,” I said, glancing once again up at the helicopter, which was drawing ever closer.
Quelling an argument before it could start, Orlando gripped his sister’s arm and then my own. He pulled us both toward the peeling shelter covering the door that led down to the inside of the skyscraper we were perched on.
The door did not open easily, though thankfully, it wasn’t locked. The three of us kicked against it and spilled inside, slamming the stiff door shut behind us.
“I really don’t like this,” Maura said, not making the slightest attempt to hide the discomfort in her tone. “This is not a good start to things.”
“I agree that it’s not,” I said, gritting my teeth. “But I hope that I will be able to provide you both with a pretty good end to things.”
Orlando made the blade-wheel fly beneath, and in front of, us as we descended the staircase, deeper into the building. We reached the bottom of the first flight of stairs, and found ourselves in a hallway. “I’m pretty sure there are Bloodless in this building,” Orlando said. “So keep a sharp eye and ear.”
I reached into my backpack and pulled out a lighter, my thumb resting on the flint wheel, at the ready.
We traveled further along the corridor and then took to another staircase.
“So if we’re not going to take the quickest route over the roofs, which route will we take?” Maura asked her brother. At least she sounded resigned and less resentful this time.
“We’ll have to wind our way through the streets for a bit,” her brother replied, his eyes fixed firmly in front of us. “At least until the chopper has gone away.”
Somehow, I doubted there would only be one.
Let’s just hope that they do go away, I prayed in my mind. They need to think that I died in that river.
I also had to hope that we really would be safer on the ground than up there. That there wouldn’t be swarms of hunters searching the streets. Because we’d be faced with enough obstacles down below—namely the Bloodless and the bloodthirsty gangs of convicts—without having to fear every corner we turned that we would bump into a crowd of IBSI members.
As my mind began to spiral into thinking about all the awful things that might happen on ground level, I very quickly realized that if I wanted to stand any chance of escaping this place with my sanity intact, I could not think of anything but the present. I had to become like an animal—go on my raw instincts at every turn, and be alert at all times.
“I knew it,” Orlando said suddenly, raising a hand. My eyes shot toward where he was pointing. We had just emerged on the twelfth floor of the building—according to a helpful sign. At the end of the hallway we were standing on was a lanky pale body crouched over another lanky, pale body. Two Bloodless on top of each other.
At first I thought… well, probably what most people would think if they saw two naked bodies pressed against one another. But I soon realized that was definitely not the case. The Bloodless on top looked like it was eating the other. Biting into its neck, creating a sickening squelching sound. It appeared to be so consumed with what it was doing that it had not even noticed us yet. Orlando grabbed my hand and Maura’s and quickly pulled us back into the stairwell, where we rushed to continue our journey down the building.
It must have sensed us—I knew how sharp Bloodless’ senses were—but simply found us less interesting in that moment. How could that be? It was a shocking sight to behold. I’d never thought that Bloodless preyed on their own kind.
My throat was hoarse as I asked, “Why was it doing that?”
Maura and Orlando, although their breathing had quickened as we hurried down the stairs, hardly seemed surprised by it at all.
“Most likely the one on the bottom had recently preyed on someone,” Orlando replied in between pants. “The one on top detected blood in it and managed to bring it down. As I said, this city is a place of desperation. Sometimes Bloodless who are particularly vicious and starved will attack their own kind and rip at them, attempting to suck out any blood they might have consumed in a recent meal.”
My God.
Screeching echoed down the stairwell.
Maura groaned. “Great. It’s had second thoughts.”
My instinct was to immediately increase my speed, but the first thing that Maura and Orlando did was stop completely. “There is no point whatsoever in running now,” Orlando said, a steely expression in his gaze as he looked up the stairs.
And he was right. We didn’t stand a chance in hell of getting far with this creature. It was leaping ten steps at a time and reached us within a matter of seconds—just in time for me to fumble with my lighter and spark up a flame.
I sent a blast shooting in the monster’s direction. It screeched again and staggered back, at which point Orlando set the blade-wheel hurtling toward it at full speed. As the sharp knives made contact with the Bloodless’ body, it practically explod
My stomach clenched as Orlando’s blade-wheel completed its task. The Bloodless’ body had been mangled as though it had been put through a grinder and spread all over the staircase.
I sure hope I don’t piss off Orlando one of these days…
Taking in the nauseating sight, I gained a whole new appreciation for the clunky gas mask that I was wearing.
“If there are two in this building, there will be more,” Maura said.
Her words proved to be true within less than a minute. Whatever Bloodless were present in this building appeared to have been summoned by the commotion—and we heard the sound of clattering on the levels both above and beneath us. Then terrifyingly fast footsteps on the metal stairs. Two crowds of the murderous creatures came into view, both above and beneath us on the staircase.
No! I couldn’t believe this was happening. I had expected us to get a little bit further into our journey before having to deal with this level of crap. We had only just left the loft and already we were surrounded by dozens of Bloodless. I feared that the siblings’ blade might not be able to handle them all.
Maura, who had pulled out two guns from her backpack, began firing at both groups. She appeared to be aiming primarily at the Bloodless’ skulls, but also smattering bullets into their chests and necks. I already knew that bullets weren’t an effective way to deal with Bloodless—they had to be completely dismembered or burnt to ashes in order to end them. Her bullets were clearly a painful annoyance to them, however, and it helped distract them. But the real work had to be done by me and Orlando.
Orlando revved the rotor blades and sent them soaring to the Bloodless above us. I pressed down hard on my lighter’s flint wheel, coaxing the fire into my palm. I made it blaze up into a deadly billow and scorched the staircase, surprising some Bloodless so much they jolted back. Others willingly dove down the stairwell to escape my heat. But the more tenacious among them kept trying to get at us, even despite the flames. They backed up a bit before relaunching an attack, hoping to catch me off guard.
I couldn’t tell how many I managed to burn, since it was hard to see by now. It was dark as it was, and the smoke was beginning to impair my vision. But soon, the screeching lessened on my side, giving me confidence to relinquish my flames just a little and turn to my right to check on how Maura and Orlando were doing. There appeared to be a lot more attacking from their side, since they were still tackling the crowd.
“Orlando,” I yelled, “watch out!” One of the Bloodless had taken to the ceiling to dodge the blades. He was crawling above Orlando and looked like he was on the verge of pouncing.
Orlando’s reflexes were slower than mine on this occasion. I launched myself at him, shoving him out of the way, before engulfing the offending Bloodless with my flames.
Catching fire, it dropped from the ceiling and rolled down the stairs, attempting to put itself out.
More Bloodless attempted to pull off the same ceiling trick, but Orlando was more alert now. And so was I. I kept my fire directed at the ceiling while Orlando made the blade hover up and down in a constant whizzing motion to slash the Bloodless both ducking and leaping on the stairs… until Bloodless stopped approaching. We had fought them off… for now.
By now, we found ourselves standing in puddles of Bloodless stew. And the walls were completely coated with their juices.
Orlando caught my eye. His chest was heaving, his breathing coming in dry pants.
“Thanks,” he croaked.
I nodded, stoic. “I owed you one.”
Grace
“Are we still honestly going to keep heading down to the ground?” Maura queried disbelievingly. “We’re only, like, halfway down the building and look what we’ve just met with.”
Orlando heaved a sigh. And I felt guilty. It was only because of me that we were forced to head downstairs. The IBSI weren’t a big threat to the siblings, or so they believed.
“Well,” I said, wetting my lower lip. “Maybe we could just wait here a while until the chopper’s gone out of sight.”
Orlando exhaled in impatience. He shifted on his feet, looking left and right along the corridor we had emerged in after leaving the Bloodless-soaked stairwell.
“All right. We’ll hang around for a bit.”
We moved back up the building cautiously, hoping we wouldn’t come across more Bloodless. We needed to climb fairly high up so that we could get a good view of the sky without actually being on the roof. We found a small janitor’s room on the top floor that had a skylight. Orlando pushed a desk that lined one of the walls until it was directly beneath the glass. Being the tallest, he climbed on top of it and gazed out.
Maura and I waited tensely as he looked around.
“Nope,” he said. “There’s still one hovering near this area… Oh, wait, and there’s another one, too.”
Crap. I balled my sweating hands. Were they really going to go away anytime soon? I have to get out of this city. How long would it be before they started sweeping the buildings looking for me? Would they really go that far? Suddenly, staying put didn’t seem like a good idea at all.
“Okay, maybe we should just keep moving,” Orlando said. He returned to the floor and looked from me to his sister, who was scowling. “We got an unlucky start,” he said. “But I don’t think waiting is going to make any difference. For all we know, things could just get worse.”
Maura pursed her lips, making no attempt to hide her disdain, but said nothing.
So we left the janitor’s room. Thankfully, we didn’t come across any more Bloodless on our way down to the ground floor. I hoped we’d had our share of them for at least the next hour. My nerves were still quivering from the monsters.
We moved to the entrance of the building and stepped out into the wet street. Thankfully it appeared to be empty.
“So now which way?” I asked in a whisper.
“The river,” Orlando replied beneath his breath. “Traveling along the river is the best way to remain safe from Bloodless because they can’t stand whatever it’s been contaminated with.”
The river. “That runs so close to IBSI’s headquarters though,” I murmured.
“Part of it does,” Orlando said, “but that part isn’t where we keep our raft. So we won’t need to pass their base.”
Orlando took a right turn. Maura and I quickly followed behind him as he began heading down the street. All three of us gazed around, alert like animals for the presence of our numerous predators.
The slicing of helicopter blades in the sky was disconcertingly loud. The hunters were still close. We tried to keep out of view as much as we could, sticking close to the buildings and moving beneath ledges.
“How much longer until the river?” I couldn’t help but ask. It felt like we had been traveling for about an hour, though I doubted it had been more than ten minutes.
“We’re not far. Another five minutes or so,” Orlando replied.
“Oh, no,” Maura hissed, pointing up the street. “Bloodless.”
Indeed there were. I spotted a whole crowd of them, huddled in a circle and apparently piling on top of something. A meal, I assumed.
“We’ll have to take a detour now,” Orlando said, frustrated.
We tried to back away unnoticed, but that was a futile attempt. Some of the creatures had already noticed us. They tore away from whatever they were ravaging up the road and began loping toward us. I didn’t need to use my flames this time, though. Orlando was prepared enough. He sent the blade-wheel hurtling toward them, and it spliced them before they could reach within twelve feet of us.
We hurried onward before more Bloodless could decide to have a go at us. We slipped down a narrow, winding alleyway and reappeared on the other side, onto another wide street. This one clearly had once been posh. It was lined with expensive designer shops and restaurants with prestigious names. There was also an old hotel whose windows we
We raced to the end of this road and onto the road parallel to it. Here, to my relief, I spotted water. A dark, murky river. A barrier had been erected, lining the river’s edge. The three of us climbed over it and touched down in squelching mud.
Orlando pointed toward a wide, steel bridge, a little further up. “We left our raft just beneath that,” he explained.
We fought our way through the muddy, narrow bank until we reached the shelter of the bridge. As I eyed the contraption that was leaning against the bridge’s wall, I could very well see why Orlando had said that it would be generous to call it a boat. It was simply a raft, constructed from logs of wood and tied together with rope. It looked shaky and precarious. I felt nervous at the idea of riding on that, especially since the river was rough in this torrential weather. But at least this time, even if I fell in, my hands would not be tied and I would be able to swim.
The siblings tugged on the raft, placing it over the water, before the three of us climbed onto it. Orlando reached for a tall stick that had lain beside the raft on the bank. Dipping half of it into the water, he pushed us away from the edge and toward the center of the river. The current soon picked us up and began washing us away.
“So,” I said tensely, my voice echoing as we passed beneath the bridge, “is the IBSI’s base behind us?”
“Yes,” Maura replied. “Close behind us.”
“This river would lead us to Lake Michigan,” Orlando informed me, “if a barrier had not been erected. As I said, it’s impossible to pass through it by waterway, so once we get nearer, we’re going to have to head back to the bank and travel the rest of the way on foot… somehow. But this is the safest place to be for now. We’re away from the Bloodless, and it will be harder for gangs to give us trouble. Assuming we don’t bump into them on the river itself.”