“We need to find shelter.” Amelia said, looking up at the greying sky and frowned. The air around us was growing more humid and I could see the tiredness in everyone’s eyes.

“And food.” Jeremy added with a timely growl of his stomach. A smile tugged at the corner of my lips but I was too tired to give way. I didn’t know how long I could keep this up; the whole fleeing from one place to another in the wild was taking its toll on me.

Closing my eyes I started to search the immediate area looking for any form of shelter. Preferably a cave, but sometimes it means we would have to fight the Legres that already inhabit it. My head was starting to feel a little light and I felt a pair of hands steadying me. Ignoring the protesting from my brain I continued my search until I found something useful.

“There is a big cave in the North about three kilometres, it seems empty for now.” I said, opening my eyes. Steven nodded at me, appreciation fleeting through his eyes and I returned it with a smile despite my tiredness.

“Do you want me to carry you?” Tom asked behind me, closer than I expected and my heart jumped up. I shook my head; I didn’t know how to describe our relationship anymore. Whatever we are now, we have definitely gone past the friends’ stage. I could keep lying to myself that it’s only because we are in a dire situation, but I think everyone knew that wasn’t true.

Struggling the rest of the way there, almost everyone collapsed onto the dry cave floor immediately, just as thunders echoed through the forest threatening horrendous downpour. Steven frowned and looked up at the sky; if it started raining, we were going to have trouble getting dinner.

“We will go and get food.” Jeremy said, standing up with Kailey. The two had grown close since the slaughtering; I knew that they both felt like a burden to the group with powers that were not helpful for the situation. I opened my mouth to protest but the look on their face stopped me; they needed this.

Amelia was lying on the ground next to me and the two of us gave each other a wry smile. No one had talked much in the past few days; our nerves were raw from dodging Legres and having minimum food to eat. I could kill for some hot food now; or a shower; or a comb. Argh.

Dragging myself back up to a sitting position I was quickly patted back down by Tom. “Rest.” He ruffled my hair affectionately, “You have done enough today.”

Emily rolled her eyes; she was the least affected out of us all, with the exception of Steven. Shaking her head she headed out of the cave with Tom, the two of them going to get some firewood for a fire.

Steven had disappeared off somewhere, doing a perimeter check. No matter how many times we told him that he should rest he wouldn’t listen. And so far he hasn’t collapsed yet, but it’s just a matter of time.

Sighing I wished that the rest of the gang was with us; John could create a mud wall to keep us safe or something. Evanna and Owen, who could tell us exactly where to go; Casey and Nate, who could protect and shield us; even Oscar, who would just be here and eat everything would be a valuable addition to our strength.

Moments later Emily and Tom were already back, with armful of firewood in their arms as well as some berries. With Emily’s power we could virtually eat off any vegetation, but that wasn’t going to keep our strength up.

Amelia opened her eyes beside me and sighed. That’s a no to nearby rivers than; she pulled over all the empty water bottle and started refilling them, her face growing paler and paler with each jet of water.

Closing my eyes for a second the next thing I knew there were smell of roast meat in the air. I must have fallen asleep! Opening my eyes in alarm I saw some of my friends chuckling at me; Steven was here now as well and he actually chuckled. Oh. My. God. This can’t get more embarrassing.

“Come on.” Emily called out, rolling her eyes at me. Groggily I got up and Emily shoved me a stick with a fist size meat attached to it. My mouth watered at the sight of it and bit a big piece off; some kind of poultry, how did they even catch it?

“We will rest here tomorrow as well.” Steven suddenly said and everyone turned to look at him, jaw dropped. I could see the tiredness in his eyes and I sighed inside; even machine needs rest, let alone a person.

“I will take the first watch tonight.” Tom said, and Jeremy immediately volunteered for the second half. They were the only boys in this group, which was quite unusual but that’s only because John and Vladimir had saved Amelia and stayed behind to help Ho. If things went well for them, they should be on their way to meet us…

Despite the fact that I was tired enough to sleep for a week, my mind would not let me rest easily the night. The dry cave floor was a relief after days of sleeping atop the damp forest floor but the hardness also made it less comfortable. I twist and turned around, trying to get my mind off thinking about people that we had to leave behind.

When early morning came, I sat up and sighed; there was no hope of getting more sleep. Instinctively I extended my mind to check for any dangers around us, my mind drifting past Jeremy who was half-asleep at the entrance. I shook my head at that and kept going and stopped.

“Wake up!” I screamed, scurrying to my feet and ran over the shake Tom awake and moving onto Steven. “There is a pack of Ursidae coming!”

If my previous scream didn’t wake them up, the word Ursidae did. They are bear Legres that evolved to have extreme strength and impossibly hard skin; basically the kind that are impossible to fight.

“Pack everything and run.” Steven commanded and everyone scooped up the few things that we owned and rushed to the entrance of the cave. Forming a rough formation I pointed towards the opposite direction of the incoming Ursidae and everyone began to run that way.

I hadn’t seen everyone ran this fast since the day we ran away from our ambush. Leaping over a fallen log I was relieved to sense that we were getting further and further away from the invincible Legres. Until I felt one of them looked towards our direction and the pack began to move in towards us.

“They are coming after us!” I shouted and several people swore loudly. “They seemed to sense me…” I added and even Steven cussed. The leader of the pack must be a high grade Legre to be able to be aware of another’s thought. The fact that it pin pointed us was making my stomach churn. If they caught up with us it would be a one-side slaughter.

“Maybe they just caught our scent?” Kailey suggested through her breaths, as we navigated through the tough terrain. I could sense they were getting closer to us bit by bit and I tried to find an escape route that they can’t past through.

“Henrie.” Steven shouted and Tom turned around and fire shot out of his hands hitting several places creating a line of fire behind us that began consuming all the vegetation. Aiming several more on the both ends and the fire began spreading all on its own and everyone felt more relaxed. That should stop the Legres for a while.

Inspired, Jeremy fumbled around and held out the cube of poisons that we made prior to the ambush and threw them into the fire. Green smoke started emitting from them slowly as they burn away.

Emily waved her hands and a net of twisted branches form behind us, a fair distance away from the fire so the poison wouldn’t affect it. Feeling less endangered we all turned back and continued running.

Keeping my mind open I was not disappointed. The Ursidae stopped in front of the wall of fire and one of the bigger one tried to cross and the poison catalysed by the heat burned its hand.

Due to my concentration on the Ursidae I nearly stumbled into a tree if it wasn’t for Kailey and Amelia pulling me away just in time. I heard someone sigh behind me and the next thing I knew I was thrown over someone’s shoulder, someone that I recognised and I felt heat rushing to my face.

“Tom, put me down!” I whisper-shouted but the French boy ignored me, running just as fast as everyone even with me weighting him down. In the haste no one seemed to be paying us much attention.

“Just let us know the situation with the Legres.” Tom replied coolly and I complied with his request. And what I saw nearly shocked me into slipping off Tom’s shoulder.

The leader of the pack had somehow managed to raise an earthen wall in front of them putting out the fire wide enough for them to past through. They were trying to find a way past the poisonous screen though. My heart sank even further; an element wielding Legre means it’s at least a Class B, a class that’s far above our capability to handle. This also means its pack is at least a Class D, if not Class C.

Shivers ran down the length of my spine and I retreated from the Ursidae and started to scan the area before us to see if there is somewhere we could run to. My face paled when I realised we were running into the territory of a pack of Felixia blanc. Talk about bad luck.

Hollering for everyone to stop I hopped off Tom before anyone could see us. Straightening my jacket I rallied the information to them. “The only way out of this is to try and lure the Ursidae into the Felixia’s territory and hope they fight each other instead of us. And we can try and slip away.” I added; this wasn’t much of a plan but a high risk mission to be honest. But desperate time calls for desperate measures.

“If we don’t get tore into shreds by the Felixia first.” Emily said, not unkindly for once. Everyone’s face darkened and I wondered morbidly how many of us would get out of this alive, then shook my head; I shouldn’t think this way.

“How far are we until their territory?” Steven asked and I checked their perimeter, we were only about a kilometre or two away from them and I could felt some of them had caught our scent and started moving this way.

“They smelled us.” I said, just as the Ursidae broke through the poison wall by building up an Earth mould to isolate the little crossing they put out. My guess is Emily’s plant wall would only delay them for a few minutes at the most; we had to act fast.

“Any bright ideas?” I asked, looking around and everyone seemed to be frozen, by fear or anticipation I didn’t know. “Let’s skirt around the perimeter westward, it will bring the Felixia closer to the Ursidae before they reach us.” I decided and everyone started running almost immediately; it was agitating to discuss it standing still knowing that a second not on the move is a second they gained on us.

“Do you think they will fall for it?” Tom asked me in a hushed tone, running next to me as we brought up the rear of the group. I shook my head and threw a concerned glance back even though I could tell what’s going on better with my mind.

“I hope the Felixia would.” I answered. Shuddering a little at the possibility that they would both end up chasing after us instead; but hopefully we look weak enough that they would fight each other before turning back on us.

My heart beat faster with every step we took; I could felt the Ursidae coming closer and closer to the Felixia’s territory with no sign of stopping at all. I prayed to every god in my heart that Felixia would take this as a high offense.

The moment they sensed each other both pack came to a halt, as if debating what to do. Their actions are so human in many ways that it made me shiver. It was like they were capable of thinking and deciding against their nature and instinct, the only thing that humans have over them for millennium.

Before I delved further into the matter in my mind the two packs began running towards each other and I sighed in relieve. Perhaps I was wrong, they were still following their animal instinct.

Moving the focus of my mind for a second so I could see which way was best to go, I told everyone to head right where a stream was running. When I went back to detect the Legres I realised they were not fighting as I thought; instead both pack were heading towards us.

“Hurry!” I shouted as Emily fell a nearby tree to use as a makeshift bridge. Everyone crossed quickly and I shoved the log off the bank and it floated downstream, just as the Ursidae and Felixia appeared in the horizon.

“Shit.” I cursed under my breath and we all began running again. With the Usidae there, the stream would only slow them down for a while. Secretly hoping the two would start fighting I turned around and was shocked to see the Urisdae leader seemed to be trying to communicate with the Felixia.

And I wasn’t the only one who saw that, since Tom swore very lightly in French beside me and I heard Emily gasping. Transfixed, I kept tilting my head back to see that they seemed to be reaching some kind of agreement and the Ursidae began to move the earth around them whilst the Felixia backed off.

Just fight. I thought feverently again and again; fight each other. I shouted in my mind, my head kept turning back to look at them completely forgetting about my mind-sensory power. And then one of the most amazing thing happened.

The alpha of the Ursidae stopped what it was doing and looked straight at me.

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Sorry for the pause in uploading again :) but just handed in my coursework and now it's christmas break for me whoooop!

I have got some comments about how this story is a copy of harry potter/hunger games/ x men and I do admit to draw some elements from each. But I have keep the overall plot original and it's inevitable that stories with super powers end up similar. I know most of you guys don't think that, sorry for venting!

I am starting to realised that I would probably end up writing a much longer book than Evolution - which means more content for you guys (yay!), which also makes me wonder if i should push it to a 4 book series? But I kind of like the titles i got for a triology :P

Anyway enough chit-chat. The plan I have is to finish Selection by Easter holidays and then get After death finish so it would be on when Selection is done. Depending on time I will either start the third book Revealation during Summer or as my NaNoWriMo ;)