9.3
Jelani, Echo, Yumi, and Sasha all stood together, beneath the hole in the ceiling of their little basement.
Their next moves were of critical importance.
Assuming they still had their lives, Jelani and Echo needed to arrive in the center of Portland immediately after twilight's passing to intercept Blake's group. They would have to win an impossible battle, and then somehow gather the strength to continue. There would be no period for rest.
As for Sasha and Yumi, they had no obligations. However, if they wanted to live to see another day, they had an obligation to keep themselves alive, which meant staying as close by Echo and Jelani's sides as possible.
All four of them would be making a dash for the city center together.
Echo was spent, so they couldn't rely on her strength to get them through this. Because they had nothing, the plan was simple: they would stand beneath that hole and guard it with their lives.
Sasha gripped his gun with shaking hands. He refused to let Yumi be the one to hold it.
This time, I'm going to protect you, he told himself, even though he knew how incredibly powerless he was.
But Yumi's injury had awakened something within him, and, no matter how afraid he felt, he was ready to face whatever terrible things were lying in wait.
Jelani gazed up at the brightening sky.
"We only have a few minutes, right, Echo?"
Echo nodded.
She hadn't spoken since her conversation with Jelani, and she swallowed both pain and fatigue, ready to give everything aside from her life away if it meant seeing her daughter's face again.
Jelani held his knuckle dusters loosely, urging his body to remain calm and mind to remain empty.
He would need uninterrupted focus and every ounce of strength his muscles could muster.
No, he would need more.
He knew it. He knew that what he had done to survive Portland's broad daylight when he went to retrieve those elements of healing wouldn't be enough.
It was survival of the fittest, and at his current level, he would be devoured without question.
But he'd already decided how this night would end, and the bounds of logic had nothing to do with it.
BANG
As if that eruption of sound was Portland's battle horn, twilight began.
For five minutes, holding the basement wasn't a challenge. Under Echo's protection, they were all invulnerable to bullets, and Jelani cut down the intruders.
But rogues gathered.
They piled on top of the basement's roof.
BOOOOM
In the midst of a massive explosion, it all fell down.
After stumbling to their feet beneath hundreds of pounds of splintered wood, they found themselves laid bare and alone beneath a dimly lit sky.
Sasha was instantly killed.
At least, he thought he was as he felt a bullet pierce his body, but he was now an owner of the authority of healing, so his life wouldn't leave so easily.
Echo restored a frail forcefield around the four soldiers, but it wouldn't hold against the onslaught.
What they saw was a mess.
Most of the creatures leaping around them were moving so fast that their shapes were no more than a dark blur. As for the ones that moved more slowly, the rebels had nowhere near enough time to identify the beasts' appearances.
The prey had emerged, so the predators converged.
When Jelani saw the pandemonium in front of him, he didn't consider fighting it with his hands for even a second.
In one frantic motion, he tore a tiny bush out of the ground at his feet and swung it.
In the same instant, he generated his simulation of the world.
It took 100% of his ability, but the bush became so massive that it was as if he was swinging a battering ram.
The wooden branches slammed into the rogues' sides, enough to briefly incapacitate them.
Thanks to Echo, Jelani hadn't received the many bullets that had been directed at his chest, but how many times could this process repeat itself?
He swung the thousand-pound bush like a madman, but, suddenly, he found his hands holding a handle of fire.
He flung the burning wood away, taking the lives of at least a few rogues with it.
Now, he needed a new solution. He needed to adapt–evolve, even–but how?
He wasn't afforded a moment of hesitation, so he made his decision instantly.
Stiffening his ankles, he exploded off the ground, eyes locked on the row of trees lining the street.
In one motion, he'd left Echo's safe zone and entered the world of the beasts.
Before he could even brace himself, a series of five bullets cut between his ribs.
He couldn't breathe, but he lunged for a tree and found its bark with his hand.
There was no plan–he hadn't had one to begin with–so when his fingers came into contact with the wooden pillar of life, he closed his eyes and entered his own simulation, betting everything on this one chance.
A thought entered his mind on instinct–perhaps the final remaining hope for the cornered animal he'd become.
life. life life life life life
Growth only worked on living organisms, so he searched through the cells of his surroundings, trying to find some living connection he could utilize.
But he should have known from the beginning that it was futile.
A tree was a tree.
It seemed that his powers would amount to nothing more than supersizing pieces of wood and swinging them around like a meathead.
He felt the bullets cutting into his body, and he knew that he should open his eyes.
That was the only logical thing to do–the only decision that would leave him with any chance of survival.
But death would be waiting for him eventually. By opening his eyes, he would simply be admitting defeat–accepting that neither him nor Echo nor Sasha nor Yumi would live through the end of twilight.
But he had such incredible powers at his fingertips… surely the possibilities extended beyond what he thought was possible.
At least, that was what he told himself.
He wanted to grit his teeth, but he didn't.
He remained calm to the very end.
life life life life…
Boom.
Like a spark of light in a dark cavern miles beneath the surface of the earth, it appeared.
Life, an unimaginable quantity of life, was connected directly to his own.
Down, beneath the ground, among the roots, he found the strands. A network of life, interconnecting the roots of every single plant, far beyond the edges of what his mind could imagine.