CHAPTER 490: A FAULTY PLAN

Kellen had tied everyone to Bree. It had taken some time for him to do it, and had probably cost them time that they didn’t have, but Kellen didn’t care. There was no way he was going to be able to move the way that he needed to with anyone on him. It wouldn’t even be that long. Just 10 minutes, maybe 15 minutes at most. Bree had admitted that she wouldn’t last long like this, knowing even in her current state that she had hard limits and Kellen knew that he had a limited window to do what he needed to do.

Kellen had taken his backpack back, a weight that wouldn’t be okay for Bree to take. Kellen felt like he was tons lighter without the two bodies he’d been carrying. The bag felt like nothing. He had his bag back, his items, his weapons available, while Bree had all of their injured friends, and a gun.

A just in case measure.

Kellen’s plan was simple. He planned to distract the creature, get it some distance away from the exit so that Bree could get out first. After he had made sure that she was gone, he had to somehow convince it that Kellen had jumped the stream. This was to make sure that Kellen had more than enough time to run back and leave through the exit after Bree had.

It was going to be a long shot, and if he even got it half of the way through that plan it would be enough distance between the creature and the gate that Kellen felt he would probably be safe. Probably.

He just didn’t know how far those damn vines went, he just knew that it had a lot of control over them. And that they could crush things with its vines.

Bree was waiting in a safe spot that would only take her a few steps to get to the exit. It should have been easy for them to sneak past the creature, but while they had been waiting, and Kellen had been humming and hawing over his decision, the creature had walked backwards towards the gate. It had bumped against it, the exit had rippled causing it to draw attention to the gate and since it was unable to exit, it had lashed out.

The lash out had lasted 5 full minutes, full of screeches, whipping vines, powerful smacks that had shaken the ground around them. Bree had been even more pale after witnessing that kind of violence, and it had made Kellen’s decision for him. Kellen knew that he had no choice but to distract it.

So, Kellen made sure that he had everything that he needed. Guns, weapons, and large stones. Kellen also had a flare. He was going to light it if he had to, not because he wanted to. They were great distractions, but it would reveal where he was for a split second. He really didn’t want to do that.

The lash out at the gate exit had reminded him how fast their limbs were even if the main body walked slowly and like it was stumbling everywhere. Kellen was working at probably a quarter of his normal reaction time and speed. It was a guess, and his senses were dulled so he couldn’t even be sure about that. He just knew that this was a very dangerous gamble, but one he had no choice but to take.

What he was sure of was that as soon as Bree came out alive, with three people strapped to her, there was a high probability that others would rush the gate. That could also cause problems. He didn’t want anyone to get killed immediately upon trying to save him and anyone else on the other side of the gate. Kellen came up with a solution for that.

Kellen made sure to have Bree repeat back to him what he wanted her to say as soon as she left the gate.

"There is a vine monster on the other side of the gate. Guide Woods is distracting it. Be careful." He had her repeat it over and over until he knew that they didn’t have much more time. Daytime was coming, the forest would wake up more, and this option would become more dangerous.

So, Kellen stepped away from Bree, set himself up for success by making sure his pockets were loaded with stones and other things to throw, gave her a nod of encouragement, and turned his back on her, heading away from them.

It started small. He threw a few rocks, a few rustling noises, things that were slowly drawing the attention of the creature. It was slow moving, as if hesitant. Kellen wondered if someone else had used this method to distract it. It was too weary otherwise.

He prayed that someone else had done this to escape. That would make his heart soar to hear that the other members had escaped without his help.

Then, he threw a bigger stone further away and waited. This was all hinging on the fact that the creature had low intelligence. If it was smart, there was a chance it wouldn’t follow the sounds.

Kellen watched with his breath held, his heart racing in his chest, sure that Bree was also in the same state that he was as the creature slowly, ever so slowly, moved away from the gate exit. Bree was instructed not to leave immediately, since that would only make her a target. She needed to wait till it left the little clearing and then book it.

The creature was slow, slamming its vine arms down on the ground. Warning taps. Threats. Kellen didn’t care.

He tossed another rock, turning its attention in the direction of the stream. It was slow work, too damn slow. The sun was rising, the sky changing shades and Kellen could hear other vines awakening around them. It wasn’t going as planned, but it wasn’t completely out of control yet.

Kellen kept drawing it away, throwing rocks in time with his own steps, masking them as the creature kept following him. They were swinging in the direction of the stones, growing frustrated as it slammed its vines down and wasn’t hitting anything like it expected. The trees around them were collateral. Swept out by their roots, trunks crushed. Another sign that while they worked together in this gate, they were not friends.

The vine monster was a colleague of sorts to this gate, not a friend.

Kellen kept it going, watching as Bree began to move, dragging her careful cargo towards the gate. Kellen held his breath, throwing a larger stone as Bree got closer to the gate.

And then, she was through. Safe.

Gwen was safe, Bree was safe, and so were the other two members of the group that had been sucked in.

Kellen, feeling relief fill him, threw another large stone further away before he began to move. They had made some distance from the gate exit, probably about a 3 minute walk. He’d worked so hard for every damn inch of that walk, and now he had to go back quickly. He was trying to be quiet, but he needed to get the fuck out of there. He wanted to see Rhys, wanted to see the others.

But, he’d made too loud of a crunch and he felt the creature turn. The creature knew something was up almost immediately and Kellen knew better than to panic and freeze up. Thankfully, he hadn’t stepped out of the foliage, was still mostly hidden, but he was kicking himself. He was barely holding himself together, and he crouched down, knowing that it was probably going to swipe at the trees, eliminating most hiding spots.

Kellen was right, and he felt the wind ’whoosh!’ over his head as it let out a screech. Kellen remained still, the clock counting down now that Bree was out. He was fucked.

He was so fucked, and he had no one to turn to. He knew that Rhys had said he would be there, that he would be waiting, but honestly Kellen wasn’t sure if the others would prioritize waking him up.

Rhys had always been on the cusp of surging before meeting Kellen, a man, an S Class who was always using his powers. Unlike Sergei who only used his powers when needed, Rhys was different. Sergei had gone to sleep as a man who didn’t use his powers often, and he was still unwell. Still on the cusp of surging. No one wanted to wake him up because they didn’t know what would push him over. Cause him to surge. That was about a man who didn’t use his powers almost every waking minute.

Who in their right mind would want to wake Rhys up when it wasn’t certain that Kellen was alive? Not that he didn’t think that Hill would race in to help him if she knew he was in danger, but she had other things to manage.

Kellen did matter to her, but not as much as everyone else.

Kellen remained crouched down, the creature throwing a tantrum, and Kellen knew that he needed a distraction. The flare was burning a hole in his pocket. He knew, if he had more of his senses about him, he wouldn’t have jumped to this conclusion so quickly. He would have been able to scramble and make a better decision, but Kellen’s thoughts were compromised.

He knew it.

He also knew that this was a technique taught to the students in normal Field Guide school. Something he had been taught, and hadn’t actually used that often because other Field Guides had warned him off of it for the very reason he was so hesitant.

The split second where the monsters knew where you were before they were distracted by the flame.

So, Kellen had his gun in one hand, the flare in the other, and he was holding the gun in his good hand.

Kellen gulped, before he activated the flare. It lit up, bright red in this blue, pink, purple world and he watched as the monster turned its eyes towards him. Kellen was pretty sure he was hallucinating the eyes, since he couldn’t remember it having any when he’d first seen one, but he could feel the weight of its gaze even then. It felt like it was locking onto a target that Kellen had just painted on his back.

Then, Kellen fired his gun at it, listened to it scream as he threw the flare away from him and the creature.

Kellen moved quickly, running, giving up all pretense since he could feel the weight of the vines slamming down on the ground behind him. He then felt a warning to his left and dodged, a vine sliding past his head, knocking off his mask as it sliced through not only the strap holding it onto his face, but his face itself. Kellen let out a hiss as blood splattered into his eye. Limiting his vision to only his right eye.

What was up with this fucking gate and targeting the left side? Did they hate that side for some reason? It was feeling very personal at this point.

Kellen could see the clearing, see the gate getting closer, and could feel the force of the vines behind him. The monster knew it was losing him, and knew that Kellen was almost out. Kellen was weaving back and forth. Using up more of his energy because he had to to survive.

He was afraid he was going to get shish kebabbed by this vine creature. So just as he was about to come out of the gate, he turned and fired some more shots at it.

Its screams followed Kellen out of the gate as he fell, landing on his backpack as he slid through the viscous gate.

Kellen almost couldn’t believe that he’d made it out. There was too much silence, too much quiet. Had it been a lie? Had he actually not led them out of the gate and had instead led them into a maw of some kind of giant creature? Where was Bree? Where was Gwen and the others?

Then Kellen saw the sky. How it was dark, slowly turning to blue and Kellen felt like he could cry.

He couldn’t get up, his body frozen in relief and then the noise hit him.

Kellen had been wrong. It wasn’t quiet, he just was in shock.