Keeper's Knowledge (Balancer's Soul cycle) (14 page)

Within a
bout two hours of running and
going over two mountains
,
Jack
called
“Stop.” a
nd it came out as an even tone.

Instantly everyone immediately stopped runnin
g.
B
oth Mark and Kara s
u
nk
down in the snow about three inches while
Sarah and her parents barely dropped an inch
.
Even Connor sunk now that he didn’t move. They
were running fast enough that
none
s
u
nk in the snow
, but since
they
stopped
gravity took over
.

Jillian
asked “What is it?”

Jack
turned to the rest of
the group
. Before he spoke
Sarah
glanced at everyone’s condition. Everyone was breathing normally like it was just a slow and
leisurely
trip. No one had even broken a sweat. By now a normal human would have collapsed
from utter exhaustion
or died outright
. “The first city is about a half mile ahead.”

From b
ehind
,
Connor said “
Keep going straight, just act human until we get out of sight again.”
Jack
nodded and resumed w
alking in the same direction.

They
stuck to the outskirts of the city and once cleared resumed
the
set
pace.

The entire group
did the same for the next town and last city.

Eventually they
finally made it to the Canadian border at
about four in the afternoon. They
exited the forest and before
them
sat
a snow covered road that goes parallel with the border.
Lucky for them
there wasn’t a fence like the one down boarding Mexico.
In the far distance Sarah
clearly
saw a small snow covered mountain and had one last look behind
her
.
She
saw
her
man smile and nod
for them
to continue
.

After crossing the border unnoticed Connor said to all of
them
“We need to find shelter before it gets dark.”

They
entered another forest as
they
continued running. About an hour later
Jack
used sonar and abruptly changed direction. Dumbfounded
for but a moment,
they
chased off after him.
D
ownhill
they ran
and
Sarah
had to carefully place
her
foot
ing
on the slick stones
. About fifteen seconds later
she saw her f
ather
staring at something
.
He said
“I found us some shelter for the night.”

Before them
looked
to be
a large
,
wooden
,
run-down shed that was
even
smaller than her
cottage. Its roof
held up a generous helping of
snow and
revealed
that it had a hole in the center of the roof. The ground was littered with snow and rocks. The shed
had been
made out
in the middle of nowhere, but they
didn’t care
at the moment
.
It is unoccupied and has been that way for many years.

Connor opened the door to check it all out and came back
saying it
will be
sufficient
for the night
. Sarah
entered the room
to find it
empty except for a single
, cracked
mason jar on a shelf and a small
charred
metal fireplace
in the corner of the shack
. The room was completely open
and clear of all furniture
and
it
could fit all of
them
if
they
played around with
the
sleeping arrangement.
The roof was only about three inches taller than both
her f
ather’s and Connor’s head; they even had to duck to enter the room.

Jillian
collected
all
the snow off the
wooden
floor with her command over Liquid and threw it all outside
without incident
.
Jack
and Connor left to go find some tender for the fire. Mark and Kara decided to close the opening in the roof with some evergreen limbs. It was a temporary
fix
, but
they
would all be gone by first light
anyway
.

By the time darkness took
over
the sky,
they
were all inside enjoying the company and laughing.
Each person consumed
half of
their
food supplies from
their
respective bags.
Jillian
used the outside snow to melt into clean drinkin
g water. Sarah
ate five of
the
freeze dried packages and saved the power bars
for later. At about midnight they
called it a night. Connor unraveled
the
sleeping bag and took the back
side
of the
cramped
room;
sleeping
together
in the sleeping bag for two.
Connor
proved himself
to
be to
o tall to sleep completely straight, but he bent his knees and became
reasonably
comfortable.
The other couples had the same idea. Mark and Kara slept by front of the door while
Sarah’s
parents slept between
them
.

The journey
continued after packing up
their
things.
They
resumed
the same positions and
traveled at
the same pace
,
glided around trees and leapt across frozen streams
became second nature
.
Not even once did they
encounter any form of human habitation and it made things much clearer
to run at the pace
. At about one in the afternoon
they
had already crossed over fourteen small mountains and tree
s galore. On the positive side Sarah
felt that the bond was telling
them
that
they
are a li
ttle over halfway to their
destination.

On
the
way up a
nother
steep mountain
,
that
stood
covered in thick
evergreen
trees
Sarah thought she
heard Connor say
‘Stop.’
And a worry crept into his emotions
and entered her emotional climate
through their eternal link
.
Apparently it
became
a figment of her
imagination because no one stopped to listen.
She
could barely see twenty feet in front of
everyone
because
they
were surrounded by nothing but
thick
evergreen
forest
. If she
didn’t feel the
temporary
bond pulling
them
forward
she
w
ould be afraid of getting lost.

Then
, without imagination
,
she
heard
Connor
yell at the top of his lungs
“
EVERYONE
STOP
!!
!”
and his worried emotions flared
with danger
.

Sarah
spun around to look at him instantly and so did everyone else
,
a second later
.
If something gave him cause to halt everyone something was wrong.

Sarah was the first to stop and
her expression
grew
worried by
his
tone
and what she felt through their connection
. Then everyone else stopped as quickly as they could. The other stayed where they stopped and held their running positions. Sarah was about ten feet in front of
him
and
Kara
and Jillian took a cautious step forward to be on either side of Sarah. Everyone’s eyes were scanning the surrounding foliage
with cautious eyes
, but they didn’t know what is happening
. Both Mark and Kara were sniffing the air trying to smell
for
danger
and found it clear
. Jack and Mark held their positions in the front
,
also
defensively
standing shoulder to shoulder.

Connor’s
instinct
began informing him
that
great
danger
i
s rapidly approaching.
His
heart began racing and all of the hairs on the back of
his
neck were standing
as
straight
as pins
. Even in the pit of
his
stomach
the
worry bec
a
me all to
o
real. He scanned what he
could see with
only his
eyes
and could find nothing
, but the feeling had never failed him
.

“Connor, what’s the problem? Why did you yell like that?” Mark asked
evenly
while keeping his guard up
, knowing there was a good reason
.

“Something’s
horribly
wrong; I can feel it.”

His instincts gave him
the
sudden
urge to feel the ground. Connor
dropp
ed to one knee and buried
his
hand
deep
into the snow. When
his
hand settled in the snow everyone became quiet and
watched whatever he was doing
.
His
hand began to
faintly
shake, but not from
anything he did
.
Small tremors moved the snowy ground.
The ground
increasingly
shook
his
hand faster and harder.

As
Connor
abruptly stood he
fired off rap
id sonar pulses to see beyond the
immediat
e surroundings. When he
s
aw it all the blood
began to
drain from
his features
. Sarah demanded as she looked into
his
glowing eyes “Connor! What is it
!
?
”

He
didn’t have time to explain
so
he
shouted
. “Sarah! Take Kara and Jillian to the sky!”

As
he
summoned
his high reserves of
power so to
o
did she withou
t any hesitation. She grabbed his
sister’s left wrist in her right hand and her mother’s right wrist. Sar
ah held the two of them with an
unbreakable grasp and used Pressure to launch
the three of them
into the sky.
Connor
forced energy down into
his
l
egs and used his
abilities over Press
ure to rocket forward. Just as he
propelled forward Mark heard the rumbling
behind him and turned to
see where the noise came from. Connor
opened
his
arms wid
e and finally made it to them. He wrapped his
right arm around Jack’s torso and
the
other arm around Mark
’s back
. Just then the massive wall of white
crashed
in
to view
.
Ten feet high of mountain came forth. Connor
planted
his
feet directly down and poured even more energy
through
the soles of his
feet. Without a second to spare
,
he
shot the three of
them
above the trees.
Connor
eased the force of energy to
his
legs
once cleared
from
the danger, but
remain
ed
at this height.