Soulless The Girl in the Box - By Robert J. Crane Page 0,60

as we headed away from the fence. The rattling of the trees and force of the winds blowing past us was an absolute contradiction to the blue, sunny skies above us and the sweltering heat that pressed in as tightly as the countless turtleneck sweaters I’d worn since discovering my powers. It was almost otherworldly, being in the midst of a veritable hurricane in the middle of a hot summer’s day.

I could feel the sweat running down to the tip of my nose and rubbed it against my shoulder, trying to dry it. The heat was intense, the humidity drowning me. The beads of salty liquid were springing out on my forehead more from the weather than the exertion. The winds that Reed had stirred were hot, like the breath of hell itself was chasing us through the woods.

The smell of the greenery was carried on the wind. I could taste the salt from the sweat that was dripping onto my lips as we tore through the woods, three metas outpacing the humans that were pursuing us. I hoped that there weren’t any of our own kind hunting us; that would suck. A break in the trees ahead of me gave way to a view of a concrete wall. As we emerged from the trees, I saw that the wall was part of a sprawling building in front of us. It was two or three stories tall, though it was hard to tell because there were no windows. There was a loading dock to our left, pavement running all the way around it. To our right, a smooth, empty wall was unbroken by anything but a small, square vent cover.

“There,” I said, pointing to the vent cover. “Entry point.”

“So in we go?” Scott asked as the wind howled around us. “Maybe we should contact HQ and wait for reinforcements.”

“Whatever this Andromeda project is,” Reed said, “it’s sensitive. Omega will either evacuate it from here or destroy it by the time we get back. Hell, they may already have started to do so.” He wore the look of a man doing something he desperately didn’t want to. “This is it. We do it now or it’ll be gone.”

“I guess it’s now, then,” I said. “But we do this as a team and stick together, coordinating our attacks.”

Before they could respond, I heard the squeal of tires and a Jeep came to a halt about a hundred feet away from us, not far from the loading docks. I counted four guys that jumped out, every one of them carrying an AK-47 assault rifle. The winds around us started to whip harder and I looked over at Reed, who was deep in concentration. Rather than powerful, straight line winds, I watched the dust on the pavement begin to swirl in circles, gathering power as it made its way toward the Jeep.

The twisting currents of wind formed a funnel cloud just in front of the Jeep, catching it and swirling it around within. I watched the vehicle buck and twist, hitting two of the men taking cover behind it, hard. One pitched over, blood splattering on the ground next to him. The other went flying, landing on his neck. The other two seemed to be holding onto the sides of the Jeep as it spun into the air, higher and higher, cresting at almost a hundred and fifty feet before the tornado dissipated and the car came crashing to the ground with joint screams from the men holding onto it. I didn’t watch.

I looked back to where it had landed and saw red on the pavement, then turned away and started toward the vent. I heard tires squealing in the distance and hesitated.

“Go!” Reed gave me a gentle push. “We’re committed now, we can’t go back!”

“At some point we have to deal with all this security,” I said, my feet pounding against the asphalt. “They’re not just gonna assume we left, they’re gonna keep looking until they find us.”

“Or until we kill every single one of them,” Scott said, exchanging a look with Reed. “And it seems like you don’t have much problem with that option.”

“Omega’s at war with you guys,” Reed said as we came to a halt in front of the vent, which was a rectangular solid metal panel that fit into the wall flush. “They’ve been at war with Alpha for years, so I’ve learned not to show a lot of mercy, because they’re not renowned for showing it to us.”