The ARC 02: Talented Read online

  ‘I know you’re still in here,’ he warns. Hunter grabs a hold of me, bringing me closer. Silently we shuffle backwards until our bodies are up against the wall.

  ‘You’re not the only ones who are talented. I can smell you in here...’ He stops sniffing and looks directly at me.

  My breath catches in my throat and I hold as still as possible, not daring to make a sound. Still, he stares. I know he can’t see me, but I swear he’s looking right into my eyes. I continue to hold my breath and pray he looks away.

  His eyes slowly move on towards Lara.

  ‘Come out, come out, wherever you are,’ he sniggers, as though he’s enjoying the hunt. I take an involuntary step forward, as he nears Lara. She looks like she can barely stand.

  He inches closer to Lara and reaches his hand out towards her. His fingertips just scrape past her hair and his lips curve in a demented sneer.

  ‘Got ya!’ His hands claw towards her face and just as he grabs a handful of hair his body slackens and his outstretched arm falls limply at his side. He abruptly stands up straight and turns away from us, looking thoroughly confused.

  ‘I could’ve sworn I’d seen people in here…’ He looks around the room curiously, before shrugging his shoulders and walking out, closing the door behind him.

  Hunter’s body slouches and I grab him so he doesn’t collapse. When he looks at me, I see beads of sweat on his forehead and his nose has begun to bleed.

  ‘Are you okay?’ I ask.

  ‘I’m fine.’

  ‘But your nose—’

  ‘I’m fine. Go check on Lara,’ he says, putting a hand out to lean against the wall.

  Lara is slouched over, her hands resting on her knees. ‘You don’t have to worry so much,’ she says, without looking up at me. ‘We’ll both be fine if you give us a moment to recover.’

  ‘We may not have a moment,’ I respond. ‘We need to leave now, before they come back.’

  Lara nods her head wearily and stands tall. As I move back to help Hunter, I hear a commotion out in the hallway. There’s the sound of yelling and footsteps slapping against the hard wooden floor. All of our heads turn to look at the door.

  ‘Elle, come here,’ Hunter says, firmly holding his arm out. I go to him and slide my arm under and around his body, helping support his weight.

  Once we’re steady, I look up and am surprised to see Lara still standing near the door. She looks exhausted, but her face is full of determination.

  ‘They know we’re here…’ Hunter says, his voice strained.

  ‘We don’t have the strength. Let me do this,’ she says. Hunter nods in response.

  ‘What are you talking about?’ My voice quivers with fear. ‘Lara…’

  She doesn’t respond, instead she turns towards the door.

  ‘Lara, what are you doing?’ I ask. Hunter pulls me into him and wraps his other arm around me.

  ‘You have to let her go,’ he whispers in my ear. What? I try to shake Hunter off me, but his arms hold me firmly.

  ‘Lara, no!’ My voice is muffled by Hunter’s shirt.

  ‘Elle, please, you have to be still,’ Hunter implores. I continue to try and shake him off, but it’s useless. Even in his exhausted state, he’s still so much stronger than me. I turn my head towards the door. Lara still stands there, just watching the doorway. What is she doing?

  ‘Lara…’

  I hear the beeping noise of a code being entered into the door’s keypad, and my body stops wriggling and freezes still. Someone else is coming in.

  The door slowly opens and a man’s shocked eyes come to rest on Lara standing in front of him.

  ‘There you are…’ He roughly grabs Lara by the arm and shakes her.

  ‘Thought you could break in and get away with it?’ he says. She looks at him calmly and allows him to shake her. He yanks her out of the room. No. I try to yell and scream, but the sound doesn’t come out of my mouth.

  The man’s eyes scan around the room, running straight by us, before shutting the door behind him as he takes Lara away.

  I listen to their footsteps slowly disappearing into the distance. Silent angry tears run down my face.

  Hunter slowly releases me, his body slumping against the wall.

  ‘How could you?’ I say with disgust. ‘How could you let her take the fall for us?’

  He looks sad and guilty. ‘She found something on her dad…’ he says. ‘She’s been trying to get in contact with him for so long. She didn’t have time to explain, but she asked me to give her a chance to go…’

  ‘She wanted you to make sure I wouldn’t stop her?’ He nods, lowering his eyes to the ground. I can’t believe what’s just happened, but there’s no time to argue about it now.

  ‘She didn’t want to put you in any more danger,’ he says.

  ‘Me in danger? I’m the selfish one who put you both in danger.’

  ‘Elle, it was my idea. Lara and I both had our own reasons for coming here and Lara is capable of looking after herself. If anything, I put you in danger.’

  ‘That doesn’t matter now. We have to go help her. Where did she go?’

  ‘No, we’re not going after her. She doesn’t want that. C’mon, we have to go. I’m completely drained, and we need to get out of here before I can’t protect you anymore.’

  ‘Hunter, we can’t leave her behind,’ I plead.

  ‘She wanted this, and she’ll be fine. She did it so we could escape. Please don’t let what she’s done go to waste,’ he begs. I look at him. He’s right, he can barely stand, he’s completely exhausted and he looks like he could collapse. Even if we find Lara, Hunter is in no state to be able to do anything.

  ‘Okay,’ I concede, the word tasting foul in my mouth. This whole situation feels wrong. I can’t believe we are abandoning her, leaving her in the hands of that guard.

  I move to the door and put my ear against the wood, listening for movement in the hallway. It’s completely silent out there, so I open the door a crack. Then, when I still don’t hear anyone, I open it wide and take a hesitant step out of the room. The coast is clear.

  I help Hunter up and, ever so quietly, we hurry back to the stairwell we’d used to get up here earlier. We try to move quickly down the stairs, but Hunter is struggling to walk. Each laboured step gets heavier and our pace continually slows. We’re almost at the ground floor when the voice of a man echoes above. We both look up at the sound. The man’s feet scuff along the concrete steps of the stairway just above us.

  ‘Run!’ Hunter whispers.

  Half running, half dragging Hunter, we burst out onto the ground floor. The guard has heard us and is shouting from behind. Hunter is stumbling badly as he attempts to run. His movements are sluggish and he leans on me heavily.

  ‘C’mon,’ I cry, tugging him to move faster. The security guard is behind us now, shouting into his cuff. My legs burn as I try to move quicker, struggling as I help support Hunter.

  We sprint towards one of the doors and barrel through it to the hallway filled with portraits. As we tear around the corner we finally find the door to the exit before us.

  ‘Hunter, we’re almost there.’ I feel giddy with anticipation. We can do this! We can make it.

  A guard steps out in front of the doorway, and my stomach plummets as all my hopes are dashed. We’re completely boxed in.

  I start to slow down and stop, to try and figure a way around the man, but then he completely surprises me by turning towards the door to push it open for us. In the doorway stands the guard from earlier, who stares at the man like he’s grown a third eye. We rush past him. Hunter looks even weaker, if that’s possible. His face is dazed and his eyes are distant as he continues to try and control the guard.

  ‘Let him go Hunter, you need your strength,’ I beg, when we’re halfway down the alleyway and far enough away that we should be able to escape.

  I hear one guard yelling at the other for letting us get away, and feel slight relief Hunter’s not using a
ny more energy. I worry he’s gone too far though, his face is drained of colour and he looks positively white.

  We race across the empty street and into one of the side alleys. I can’t hear anyone behind us and, glancing over my shoulder, I see there’s no one pursuing us down the alleyway. In the silent night our quick, rough breathing and our pounding footsteps against the pavement are all that fill the air. There’s a flood of adrenaline passing through me right now, but I know it won’t sustain me for long.

  For ages we twist and turn down a maze of streets and alleys. When my legs start seizing up, and my body comes close to collapse, I know I can run no further. I take a look behind us. There’s no one in the long stretch of alley we’ve just run down and I feel pretty certain we’ve been able to get away.

  As I turn back around, I notice Hunter’s knees shuddering. His feet are tripping over themselves and he’s practically crumbling as he attempts to keep up. I’m amazed he’s made it this far.

  ‘Stop,’ I wheeze, taking hold of Hunter’s arm and pulling him to a stand still. We both crouch over, resting our hands against our knees, as we attempt to regain our breath.

  ‘We should keep walking,’ Hunter says, between his gasps for air. He appears disorientated and doesn’t look like he’s in any state to continue, but he’s right. We’re too obvious standing out here in this deserted part of town.

  I sling his arm over my shoulder and try to support him as we walk. Now we’ve slowed, I take more notice of my surroundings. Not that it’s much help. I’m completely disorientated and can’t find my bearings. I can’t even use my GPS to find my way home.

  Hunter weighs heavily down on me and already I struggle to keep him upright. There’s no way, in this state, we’ll be able to make it across the city tonight.

  When we reach the end of the alley, I spot a park across the other side of the road and guide us towards it. It’s nothing like the one near the Mason’s. The trees and bushes are overgrown and wild. There are no manicured rose gardens or maintained grass lawns here. It’s perfect for what we need though—just a few hours resting and we should be able to make it back home.

  I begin looking for a sheltered spot, where we won’t be found, and eventually come across a patch of grass surrounded by bushes. We should be able to recover here, safely hidden from anyone who may be searching for us.

  I ease Hunter down onto the ground and sit next to him.

  ‘Thanks Elle,’ he mumbles, barely able to form the words.

  ‘That’s okay.’ I’ve barely responded when he collapses back on the grass, asleep. With him lying there, safely recovering, I notice for the first time I’m shaking. My head pounds like crazy and I feel nauseous.

  I stand up and walk to the other side of the bushes to keep an eye out, desperately hoping the waves of sickness stop now we’ve found somewhere to hide for the night. Unfortunately my body has other ideas and, without warning, I throw up.

  If I felt terrible before, I feel a whole lot worse now. Exhaustion sweeps over me as I make my way back to Hunter. All the adrenaline that had been coursing through me just moments ago has fled.

  I collapse on the ground next to him. I want to stay awake, to keep watch in case we’ve been followed. However, my head keeps nodding forward, waking me up as I fall in and out of fleeting moments of sleep. I can’t remember ever feeling quite so tired…

  My neck twitches and my eyes fly open. I’m lying down, curled in a ball on the ground. Damn it! I can’t believe I fell asleep.

  I look up to see the stars twinkling against the night sky and I feel a rush of relief. It’s still night and I didn’t sleep until morning.

  I try to sit up, but I become acutely aware of something heavy across my waist. I peer down to find Hunter’s arm slung over it. His deep, heavy breaths steadily come from behind me, so I can tell he’s still sleeping.

  I take hold of his arm, lifting it up, so I can roll out from underneath it. I place it back on the ground and sit up.

  He looks so innocent when he sleeps. None of his usual cocky, arrogance is evident on his face. It feels weird to watch him sleeping, but I feel so drawn in by how peaceful he looks. I could never stare at him this way when he’s awake.

  ‘Was it as good for you as it was for me?’ he murmurs. I gasp and grab my hand to my chest.

  ‘I thought you were sleeping!’ He laughs drowsily and opens his eyes. With one long yawn he then stretches out on the grass.

  ‘Now how could I sleep when I’m lying next to someone who snores as loudly as you?’

  I raise one eyebrow at him and punch his arm playfully. I turn away and look around at the bushes that surround us. It’s so cold and damp out here, and now that I’m not huddled next to Hunter my body starts to shiver. I hug my arms around my legs and pull them into my chest.

  A twig snaps nearby and my head whips around to look in the direction the sound came from. My heart beats faster and my breath is caught in my throat. Have they found us?

  ‘It’s just a bird,’ Hunter says, sitting up next to me. ‘No need to freak out.’

  My body slouches with relief, but my mind is still alert. ‘We’ve been here too long. It’s not safe…’

  ‘We’re okay. There’s no one close by,’ Hunter says. ‘Besides, I’m sure they’ve given up the search by now.’

  I look around uncertainly. I want to be reassured by his words and to feel safe we won’t be found; but it doesn’t matter how safe we are when Lara’s not here with us. We should’ve stuck together.

  ‘Lara didn’t tell me she was still looking for a way to contact her dad,’ I say.

  ‘We all have our secrets,’ Hunter responds.

  ‘Yes, we do. What were you searching for in those cabinets?’

  Hunter hesitates before he responds. ‘I was trying to find out about my mum, but I should’ve realised there wouldn’t be a file on her.’

  ‘Why not?’

  Hunter shrugs. ‘I just should’ve,’ he mumbles, looking away from me like he doesn’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to push him to talk about her if he doesn’t want to.

  ‘We shouldn’t have gone there tonight,’ I say, almost as much to myself as to him.

  ‘You got the information you were after…’

  ‘But at what cost?’

  ‘Lara will be fine. I’m sure at worst she’ll get hours doing community service.’

  I shake my head. What we did was really bad and those guards were brutal. I don’t feel so certain she’ll just get a slap across the wrist.

  ‘Elle?’ I look up at Hunter. ‘She’ll be fine,’ he says, with complete certainty.

  I give a small nod. He’d have a better idea than I do and he seems so sure. ‘I just hope you’re right. I don’t know what I’ll do if she’s in real trouble.’

  Hunter leans over and takes one of my hands in his. ‘I promise, no matter what, we will make sure she’s okay and nothing bad happens to her.’

  I look into his eyes and I believe him. The way he’s looking at me, it’s clear how much he cares. As I stare at him, something changes in the way he looks at me, causing my heart to beat a little faster. I no longer feel like he’s thinking about Lara anymore.

  I quickly drop my eyes from his. ‘We should probably get going.’

  Hunter takes a moment before he stands and holds out his hands to help me up. ‘Come on Winters,’ he says, slinging his arm over my shoulders. ‘Let’s get you home.’

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Lara’s usual seat next to me in maths sits disturbingly empty. She should’ve been at school by now. Honestly, she should have been here hours ago.

  I rub my tired eyes and place my head down in my hands. Other than the short nap I had while I was hiding out with Hunter last night, I haven’t had a wink of sleep. Hunter and I only managed to get back to his apartment this morning and it was a rush to try and get to school for the day.

  The bell rings and I quickly gather my things. I make a fool of myself when I stu
mble over my feet in my rush to get out of the classroom. I should stop worrying. Lara will be fine.

  ‘Hey, Winters,’ Hunter says, as I walk out the door. He’s leaning against the doorframe, his messy hair dangling down over his eyes. Despite his casual stance, he looks worried and I’m only more convinced of this when he pulls me aside, allowing the other students to file out past us.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ I ask, my mind already jumping to bad, worst-case-scenario conclusions.

  He looks around at the other students and begins to pace away from them. ‘Lara didn’t turn up for class this morning,’ he says, when we’re safely out of earshot.

  ‘Yeah, she was meant to be in maths with me just now.’ I take a slow breath to calm myself, which doesn’t work. ‘What if they didn’t let her go?’

  ‘We shouldn’t jump to any conclusions.’ He takes a seat at one of the tables on the grass next to the cafeteria building. ‘She may have gotten home late and decided to sleep in…’ he says. I doubt he’s convinced himself with that line and he’s definitely failed to even slightly convince me.

  I sit across from him, dropping my bag down on the table. ‘We both know they took her last night. What if they’ve done something terrible to her?’ I ask, hushing my voice as other students walk past.

  ‘I read the guard’s mind. He was more concerned with his own skin than the law and didn’t want his boss to know some teenager got past him. I highly doubt he would’ve taken it further than a good talking to. I honestly think she’s just at home,’ he replies, with more certainty this time.

  ‘You were so exhausted though, how can you be sure?’

  ‘Elle,’ he says firmly.

  ‘And she hasn’t been answering my comms…’

  ‘Elle!’ he says louder. ‘Lara’s avoided detection for a long time. She can look after herself. I’m sure she’s fine.’

  ‘Okay,’ I mumble. He doesn’t know she’s fine. Maybe I should ditch my last class to go check on her?

  Hunter’s eyes cloud over and I can tell his mind is no longer focused on sitting here with me. I look down at my hands and clasp them together to stop them from fidgeting.