I looked between the two advancing forces and considered our options. I glanced over the fallen form of a fellow cadet, and indecision gripped my head like an eagle making off with a wounded rabbit.

"This way," Melody pulled my arm and yelled. After a second, I nodded to her and followed.

We began fleeing toward the cliff face Melody and I had been to previously. We reached a barely visible fork in the path, and instead of turning left to go up the mountain, we went to the right- in the direction of the draw. While at a sprint, it quickly became apparent that Melody and her brother weren't in as good of shape as me, which was a benefit of military living.

Although Victor wasn't slow because he was out of shape, it was primarily because of his size and age. Without stopping, I picked him up into a fireman's carry and continued to run with him. With the extra load, I quickly started falling behind the unencumbered Melody. I heard gunshots and yelling behind me as we ran on the thin trail between trees. Our path was relatively flat, but each side of the trail kept increasing the angle of its slope.

I didn't have the time or energy to question Melody's path. I focused on my breathing and not tripping as she slowly pulled ahead. I could only trust that she knew where she was going. As the mountains on either side continued to grow closer, we passed through a small break in some rocks. A metal sliver sparked off the stone next to my head as I reached the rocks.

I stumbled away, startled by the impact. I caught myself before falling, but I was forced to put Victor on the ground. I spun to see how far away my attackers were, and I was relieved to find they were a good way back. They must have been hoping to get lucky with the throw, and they almost were.

I moved close to the rock outcropping to close the breach. Melody pulled on my arm as I placed my hands on the stone, spinning me back around.

"There isn't anything you can do to that stone," she said, but she didn't let me answer. "Come on, we're almost there." Once again, she didn't let me get a word in; she just turned and continued running down the trail.

I should have told her about my power, and then we might not have been in that position. I could slow our pursuers if she would wait, but she still thought I was a Carpenter. She was again running ahead and almost to a bend in the trail. Victor was only a few feet behind her. I wondered what she meant by saying that we were almost there, but I couldn't find out since she was gone.

I didn't wait any longer. I took off after Melody and her brother. I had already made significant progress catching up to the siblings when I passed a bend in the trail. I also noticed a small creek meandered up the path after the turn.

As I caught up to them, I took a moment to absorb my surroundings. The area we ran through was beautiful, with large trees growing off the steep mountainsides. A muddy and wet grass smell to the area drowned out the pine that had previously endured.

When I reached Victor, I picked him up again so we could increase the pace. Melody and I ran for another minute with nothing but the sound of our labored breathing. Mainly my heavy breathing, but I felt that I was still doing well considering the circumstances.

Just like at the rock pass, another chunk of metal flew near my head to sink into a tree. I looked back and saw that the cadets pursuing us were significantly closer.

"They're catching up," I panted.

"It's just a little further," Melody wheezed.

We turned another slight bend, and Melody abruptly stopped. I skidded up next to her, barely able to stop my momentum. Melody held out her arm to help me brake. It was a good thing she did because we stopped at a cliff.

At the bottom of the cliff was a pool of water the size of a small pond. It wasn't too far down to the lake's surface, perhaps twenty feet. A few yards past the shore, at the other end of the lake, was a dense line of trees that appeared to be an entrance to a darker, less-traveled part of the forest.

"Let's go," Melody yelled while jumping off the cliff.

When I stopped, I put Victor down to rest. A second after his sister jumped, Victor was leaping off the edge toward the water. I took a couple of steps back so I could build up momentum. I ran forward and leaped as high as possible, managing to land as close to the middle of the pond and avoid any shallow areas.

I plunged through the surface and was quickly swallowed by the frigid water. I felt like I had been in a daze until the water hit my skin. The intensely boreal water made my brain's synapses fire rapidly. My sole, unerring focus was to exit the lake. I quickly swam to the surface, and as I breached, I took a huge gulp of air and searched for the shortest path toward my exit.

Apparently, Melody and Victor had been to the cliff and jumped into the pond before. Not only did they jump in without hesitation, but they were swimming toward the shore when I surfaced. I started swimming toward them as best I could, and as soon as they were out of the water, they started running to the wood line. They were hidden in the trees when I reached a place I could stand.

I trudged through the water and didn't waste time but moved as swiftly as possible. My calf exploded in pain right before I entered the woods, and I fell to the ground. I screamed in pain, but I also unsuccessfully tried to stifle it. Melody and Victor must have heard me yell because I could see Melody's silhouette emerging from the darkness.

"Run! Don't worry about me," I yelled.

The sound of deep splashes in the pool behind, quickly followed by our pursuers surfacing, let me know how truly close they were. I needed to run, but my leg throbbed again. I looked down, and I nearly swooned with what I saw.

A thin shard of steel was protruding all the way through my leg. It pierced my calf muscle and protruded through my shinbone. I had no idea how I was still conscious, but I knew it would take time with my power to fix the injury.

I turned to the woods to make sure Melody and her brother couldn't be seen and was glad that I didn't find any trace of them. One of the cadets emerged from the water and immediately started running into the woods after them. I flopped back to try to grab his leg. I missed, and pain shot through my body, seizing me up.

The other cadet walked casually up to my position. As my eyes unclenched from agony coursing through my body, I could see his mask begin melting away. It appeared that not every Welder needed to touch the metal with their hands to manipulate it. Jace's face was revealed to be the one underneath it, and it made sense. Jace was always the best Welder out of the group, and it appeared that he was better than everyone thought.

Jace had a smug and self-righteous smirk plastered across his mug. He looked over to the woods as he bent down over me. Water, still dripping from his head, started falling on my face. I moved away, and in a true jerk move, he adjusted so that it continued to drip on me.

"Hey, twig," he said, finally looking my way. "Why don't you do us a favor and call your friends back?"

"Just let them go, and you can have me," I appealed.

"Oh, we already have you, traitor," he snarled. "We're going to get your friends too. If they don't cause us too much trouble, maybe they won't die like all the others."

"You're full of shit, Jace," I said. From what I saw of the liberation group, they wouldn't have been wiped out easily. I was sure they didn't all get killed, and Jace was just trying to get a rise out of me.

"Come on, if you help me out, I can put in a good word for you," he said with saccharine sweetness. He had more sides than a broken Rubik's cube. "Maybe the colonel will be lenient even though you're a traitor and deserter."

"Better a traitor and deserter than a liar and a weakling," I growled.

"Maybe I'll just kill you right now then." Jace's hand wrapped around my throat. His fingers squeezed, cutting off my air and blood flow.

I attempted to spit in his face, but my saliva raspberried out of my mouth and dribbled on his hand. I took that as a win and smiled.

Jace ripped the spike out of my leg, and I fainted.