CHAPTER 5: Target

Kalev’s POV

I stared at her through the camera. I’d damn near leapt out of my seat when that stupid bitch stabbed her. Without thinking, I’d ordered a med-canister.

Now though, I regretted my choice.

The med-canister was stupid. I knew it was stupid the moment I keyed the drop. A Moren crest on the Island was like a target on her back. But she was bleeding and in pain.

Orrin had been pacing the inside of my ribs like a cage, his larger silver frame pressing up against me. He’d howled. And my hand had been on the release before the Architect part of my brain caught up.

"Oh, Kalev," Viktor said from the doorway. He put his finger to his lips. I didn't hear him come in. "A Moren-stamped drop on day two? So much for subtly."

"She took a knife for a participant who turned on her. The audience likes a survivor." It came out smoothly. "It's a good narrative."

"It's adorable." He crossed to the console, leaned over my shoulder, and watched Senna limp downslope toward the canister with her bow up like she expected it to explode. "Look at her. Doesn't trust it for a second and she's going anyway. I suppose you’re right. That's good viewing." He straightened and smiled. "Let me help."

"Viktor…" I tried to stop him but he was already at his own console.

What he did next took maybe forty seconds. House Singe's sponsorship account was deep enough to drown in. He emptied a tenth of it onto the western ridge in one keystroke. Not one canister, no. Nine.

Food, water, an armor plate, a second bow, a lighter. It was a king's ransom in red chutes. I watched, stunned, as the packets drifting down through the canopy, settling in a loose ring around Senna’s position.

Every participant on the Island was going to see those chutes. And now, every single participant knew exactly where she was. If I had made Senna a target, Viktor had just made her a sitting duck.

"There," Viktor said, his tone warm and pleased. "Now it's REALLY a narrative."

I didn’t hit him, even though everything in me wanted to. Orrin growled menacingly.

My stomach sank. Viktor settled down in his seat.

“I must say, Kalev,” he said, a grin on his face. “I’m very excited to see how this plays out.”

Senna’s POV

Before I’d even fixed my leg, the sky started raining red.

"Move," Thor said. We do, Kulos between us, me dragging my bad leg. I held the med-canister clamped under my arm because I would be damned if I was going to bleed out and leave it behind.

My heart raced. Surely, wolves were already on the prowl, alerted to our location thanks to the nine red canisters streaming from the sky.

Trying to stay calm, we left the ridge. But we only made it maybe two hundred yards before the first one found us.

He came out of the brush low and already shifted. He was a large wolf, with sandy brown fur and a lot of girth. He growled, his eyes gleaming in the sun. On his hunches, he was ready to attack.

We stopped.

The wolf pounced right at Kulos, because he was the smallest and most vulnerable. I grabbed Kulos’ shirt and yanked, just as the wolf's teeth closed on air where Kulos’s throat had been.

I needed my bow. But I couldn’t get it one-handed. And I couldn’t let go of Thistle. The wolf gathered itself for a second pass and…

Thwack.

Thor’s hatchet swung through the air. He the wolf from the side.

It wasn’t a fight. It was three seconds. The hatchet swung twice, and the wolf let out a sound that would haunt me in my sleep. Thor stood over the wolf, on its side, completely split open, it’s insides spilling out, blood pooling around it.

Thor looked at the wolf, then at his hand.

Then at me, his eyes wide with shock.

"First kill?" I asked. My voice was quiet.

"Yeah," Thor said. It was clear from his tone that Thor had never expected to kill anyone in his lifetime. This was very hard for him.

"Okay." I swallowed hard. The air was quiet between us for a moment. "Okay,” I repeated. Then I nodded. “We have to go. Now. There'll be more."

We made it to the rocks at the base of the ridge. By then though, there were three of them. They hovered in the tree line, shifted, their eyes locked on us. Reaching for my bow, I told Thor and Kulos to stand behind me.

The first wolf lunged.

I let go of the arrow. It whistled through the air and landed in the wolf’s throat. Thor lunged at the second wolf, swinging his hatchet like a wild man.

The third one was on me before I could get another arrow. It’s jaw clamped down on me. I screamed out, red hot pain ripping through me. The wolf released and flung me backwards. My back slammed into the rocks, knocking the breath out of me.  On my back, I looked up as the wolf approached.

Something inside of me tore right open.

Not flesh, something deeper. Deeper than my leg, deeper than bone. It was like a seam I didn't know I had, ripping open along its whole length. My eyes flooded with green.

And then a strange calmness washed over me.

The rocks cracked. Roots sprung up between the cracks. Turning my head to the side, I saw them sprout, the roots the width of my arm. They punched up through solid stone, blocking me from the wolf.  

The roots burst forth with briars, climbing high and tall.

“What’s happening?” Thor asked. His voice sounded far away and tinny. I was vaguely aware of him and Kulos, standing beside me, on the same side of the briars. On the other side, the wolf snapped its jaw and whined.

On my back, I looked up at the sky. Somewhere in the green haze that had washed over me, was a voice. Not full words, but something else. A vast and gentle presence.

“Hello,” it says. “There you are.”

Kalev’s POV

I was watching the impossible on the screen, the wall of briars growing from nothing, when Orrin came up off the floor of me so hard I bit right through my lip.

It wasn’t a thought. There was no ‘Kalev’ in it at all. It was the wolf, every inch of him, slamming against the inside of my skin toward the screen like he could somehow go through it.

I grabbed the edge of the console and held on.

‘Mine,’ Orrin said, his voice a low growl.

Glancing back at the screen, I saw Senna. She was still on her back, bleeding, a stunned look on her face.

The realization slammed into me.

Flora. Senna was a flora wolf. But that couldn’t be. There hadn’t been a flora wolf in…

“Mine,” Orrin said again, more firmly this time.

Behind me, very quietly, Viktor clicked his tongue:

"Well. Look at the narrative we have now."