Free Evolution by Kyle West

was cruel, or perverse, then her fate would be much worse.
    I turned back. I wasn’t leaving her.
    “No, you don’t...” Makara said.
    “She’s alive. I know she is.”
    “We’ll come back for her!” Samuel said. “We can’t do that if we die here. Now come on, get your ass moving!”
    Telling myself Samuel was right, I kept running. All the training in Skyhome had done me good. I had no problem keeping up with Samuel and Makara. Such wouldn’t have been the case two months ago.
    Behind, our pursuers chased us into the forest. We entered the first of the trees, pushing our way past brambles and underbrush, putting as much distance between ourselves and our hunters. Fueled by shock, grief, and pain, I pushed myself on. For what, I didn’t know. I wanted to run the other direction and get to Anna.
    Why hadn’t I listened to Makara when we came upon her in the net? If we had done what she said and immediately had gone after Anna, we could have saved her. If Samuel and I had kept running, we might have gotten to her in time.
    I couldn’t blame myself for long, however. A bullet whizzed past my ear, hitting a nearby tree.
    “Keep moving,” Samuel said, between breaths.
    I could hear the men shouting from behind. They were on foot, now, having abandoned the horses.
    The land began sloping upward. Mixed in with the dense vegetation were rocks and boulders. As we hoofed it up the incline, the trees began to thin. My lungs were bursting for air. Behind, I could see shapes chasing after us. We couldn’t keep this up for long.
    “They’ll see us up here,” Makara said, pausing a moment. “We need a place to hide.”
    Samuel pointed. “There.”
    Against the side of the slope was an opening, deep and dark, moonlight reflecting off the rock surrounding it. The last thing I wanted to do was go underground. Not only did I have a lot of bad memories of things that had happened underground, it would take us further away from Anna. The more time that passed, the worse her chances got.
    “We need to go in there, Alex,” Samuel said. “It’s the only way.”
    “Fine,” I said. “But we’re going back to the town tomorrow.”
    Samuel said nothing as we headed for the cave’s opening. The men weren’t far behind – they would be in view of us in seconds.
    We climbed inside, sliding down a steep slope into the dark opening. The air was dank and moist. When the slope evened out, I scuttled up, glancing up at the cave’s opening. We had probably slid down fifty feet. Within the darkness, I heard an underground stream gurgling. I heard Samuel’s pockets rustle as he searched for a flashlight. From ahead, I could hear the trickling of the stream.
    Samuel’s flashlight clicked on, its pillar of light scanning the cave. The cavern was a huge, both tall and wide. I could see the stream before us. It flowed down and away. The water had probably filtered through the ground from the recent rain. The air was cool, with an earthy smell. Nothing smelled rotted or Blighted, which probably meant there were no virus-infected monsters down here. Or at least, that’s what I hoped.
    “We’ll follow the stream,” Samuel decided. “Once it’s safe, we’ll follow it back out.”
    “What if they follow us in here?” Makara asked.
    Samuel didn’t answer for a moment. “I doubt they have flashlights. It seems they don’t have as much technology as we do. But if they do, we’ll hear them coming.”
    Samuel walked ahead, splashing into the water. We followed him. I glanced back toward the cave entrance. No one was there. Hopefully, they hadn’t seen us come in.
    As I waded into the stream, its coldness chilled my skin and made my muscles go numb. As I stepped out onto the other side, I rushed up the stream’s bank to keep up with Samuel’s pool of light. Above, stalactites glittered with both minerals and condensation. It was eerily beautiful, but it had no impact on me. My mind was somewhere else, thinking about the girl I