Chapter 193: The Descent

Anya's POV

As we fell, the world became a blur of forest and sky, the vehicle tumbled through space in slow motion that was actually milliseconds. I was weightless, terrified and conscious of every detail at once.

The front windshield shattered as we hit a tree l, the impact throwing me against the door.

The vehicle cartwheeled, metal screaming, and I was thrown from my seat. I collided with Marcus, and we both went through the broken window.

I was falling through air, branches tearing at my skin, my body rolling uncontrollably. I couldn't tell up from down anymore, I couldn't breathe, then I hit something solid. Water.

The river below the cliff had saved us, I stayed under for a few seconds that felt like hours, then I surfaced gasping, my lungs burning, and my entire body screaming with pain. The current was strong, pulling me downstream, I tried to fight it, but I was too exhausted and broken.

"Marcus!" I screamed, looking around for him.

I found him clinging to a rock formation about twenty meters downstream. He was bleeding, his arm hung at an awkward angle, but he was alive.

I let the current carry me to him, and he grabbed my arm, pulling me onto the rocks.

We lay there gasping, unable to move, and unable to process what had just happened.

Above us, the cliff face rose like a wall of stone. Helson was gone, but the consciousness transfer chamber's energy had consumed him completely as he fell. What remained had hit the water below in pieces, dissolving into nothing more than electrical discharge and screams.

"He's dead," Marcus said finally. "He's really dead."

"I know," I replied.

But I was thinking about the moment before he jumped. The way his voice had split between Helson and Victor and the way he'd begged me to help him. The way he'd chosen death rather than let Victor continue to use his body.

I was thinking about Helson's sacrifice, and I was crying even though I thought I'd run out of tears hours ago.

Suddenly, my phone buzzed, it was another message from the Darklord.

Heading to secondary location. Meet me at coordinates—

But the message cut off there, and no coordinates appeared.

"Something's wrong," I said to Marcus. "The message didn't complete."

Marcus pulled out his own communication device. He tried to reach Lara at the stronghold, but the signal kept cutting in and out.

"Facility interference," he said. "Victor's consciousness transfer chamber might still be broadcasting. It could be jamming our communications."

"Or something else took it over," I said quietly.

We dragged ourselves to our feet and began moving along the riverbank, looking for a way up and out of the ravine. My ribs were definitely bruised, maybe cracked, my left ankle was swelling, and my entire body felt like it had been put through a blender, but I was alive, and that was more than I could say for Helson.

We climbed for hours, navigating through dense forest, following the river until it led us to a break in the cliff face. A way up. By the time we reached the top, the sun was setting. We were in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by forest that stretched for kilometers in every direction.

"We need to find shelter," Marcus said. "And we need to get word to the stronghold about what happened."

"How?" I asked. "Communications are down."

"There might be a repeater station," Marcus replied. "Victor maintained communication infrastructure across the region. If we can find one, we might be able to get a signal through."

We walked for another two hours, the sun disappearing below the horizon, darkness consuming the forest. My pain was becoming unbearable, but I pushed forward because stopping meant accepting that we were lost.

That's when we heard the sound of vehicle engines, multiple vehicles.

"Hide," Marcus commanded, pulling me into the trees.

We crouched in the underbrush as several black vehicles came into view, moving slowly down the forest road

"They are searching for something or someone," Marcus whispered.

The vehicles stopped about fifty meters from our position. Soldiers emerged, enhanced soldiers, the kind Victor created. They were moving methodically, searching the forest.

"They're hunting us," I realized.

"Not us," Marcus said, his voice hard.

One of the soldiers was holding what looked like a tracking device. He raised it, and it began to glow.

"Contact," he said into his comm. "We have a signal, moving northeast."

The soldiers began moving in our direction.

"Run," Marcus said, pushing me away from our hiding spot.

We ran through the forest, branches tearing at us, our feet slipping on fallen logs. Behind us, I could hear the soldiers pursuing, moving with an efficiency that suggested they'd been trained for exactly this kind of hunt.

We burst out of the forest onto a clearing, and I saw the repeater station, it was a small and isolated building.

"There," I gasped.

We ran for it, and Marcus keyed in an access code that somehow worked. The door opened, and we threw ourselves inside, slamming it shut behind us, the soldiers were forty meters away, closing in fast.

"Lock it," Marcus said. "Everything. Now."

I engaged the locks while Marcus moved toward the communications console. He was typing frantically, trying to get a message out.

"Come on come on come on," he muttered.

The first soldier hit the door, thankfully, the door held, but the second impact cracked the frame.

"I've got a message through," Marcus gasped. "They know we're alive. They know—"

The window shattered, and a gun barrel appeared. I threw myself to the ground as gunfire erupted through the interior of the small building.

Marcus was hit twice. He collapsed against the communication console, black blood spreading across his shirt.

"No," I said, moving toward him.

"Go," he gasped. "Get out of here through the back door, it's behind

I helped him to his feet, and we stumbled toward the rear of the building. Bullets tore through the walls around us. The soldiers were everywhere now, surrounding the building, cutting off every exit.

The back door opened into an alley formed by the building and a rocky outcropping, it was a dead end.

"I'm sorry," Marcus said. "I'm sorry I couldn't get you to safety."

"You saved my life," I replied. "You got me out of that facility. You—"

Soldiers emerged from both sides of the alley with their weapons raised, blocking our path forward. We were trapped.

"Anya," a voice said from behind us. I turned, and my heart stopped.