If you haven't read Part 1 - 5, they are at the end of Evolution. This is a novella from Tom's point of view. Don't read it unless you are finished with Evolution and Selection.

THERE WILL ALSO BE SOME DEVIATION from the original story - as this is written based on the rewrite of Selection that would be self-published early 2017.

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The forest was a scary place.

Once again pursued by Legres, I looked up at the full moon and realised our mistake. We must hadve unwittingly entered the Lupa's territories when they were out, and now they were mad. I could feel the exhaustion seeping through my limbs, but I pushed myself onwards. It was flight or dead.

Abigail's rugged breaths started to become fainter behind me, alerting me to the fact that she was falling behind.

"Gail, pull yourself together!" I shouted, looking back to see her eyes glossing over and her hair sticking to her face. A large branch was right in front of her, and she only managed to narrowly miss tripping over it. My heart almost launched out of my throat and the near-miss. That girl was going to give me a heart attack.

"Go left!" Evanna shouted and I had long learn to trust her. Whatever mistrust or grudges we had before our venture into the wild had long been forgotten. I stole a glance at Bowen, who was running alongside me as we changed direction. I never thought a day would come when the two of us would be talking to each other without snapping, let alone call each other friends.

I tried not to let the howls of the Lupas get to me; we had come this far, we will prevail again.

"Gail, run!" Owen's voice drifted over and I whipped my head around. My heart almost stopped at the sight in front of me; he was going to hold off the Legres and let the girls escape.

It didn't surprise me to see that Abigail was trying to help. Exchanging a look with Bowen, we ushered the rest forward and started running back towards the trio. We couldn't afford to lose Evanna, and I couldn't just stand and watch Abigail try to get herself killed.

We got there just in time. Abigail fainted, and I managed to catch her just in time. Evanna managed to mutter a few words to Fred before slumping on the ground as well. Wasting no time, I created a firewall where her mind wall must have been and pulled her on my back. This should buy us some time.

Owen was smart, and he quickly caught up to us as we tried to gain as much distance from the Lupas as possible. The movement on my back told me that Abigail had regains consciousness and I smiled despite the situation; she was a tough one.

"Put me down, I am fine," she insisted, but I ignored her. There was no way I would let her get on her own feet and try to get herself killed.

A secession of howls reached us and I risked a glance back. Cursing under my breath, I mustered as much energy as I could spare at the moment and conjured up another firewall between us. However, I could tell that it was nowhere near enough to stop the Lupas. The lack of sleep and food was getting to me, however much I would like to deny that.

I could tell that Abigail and Bowen had been doing something to throw them off too, but the truth was we were no match for them, at least, not like this. The others had already disappeared into the treeline and I knew it was only minutes until we made it, too. But those were minutes that we might not have.

"You guys run," Owen said, gesturing for us to go on. "I will hold them off."

"No!" Abigail screamed. I winced a little at the proximity and volume. I shared a look with Bowen and we both shook our heads; leaving someone to fight off the enemies had never been okay with me.

"If you stay, we all die," Owen reasoned, and I was struck by the clarity and fearless in his eyes. "You guys are more important than I am. If you don't go, Evanna and Gail will die, too."

He might not be the most valuable member of the group, but I couldn't deny that he was the one that kept all of us up and together. If this was his decision, then I respected it. But I wouldn't have left if it wasn't for Abigail.

The girl in question screamed and kicked against me, and it was almost unbearable to hear her like this.

"Don't look," I whispered, knowing that she was throwing everything she could at the Lupas, trying to help Owen. She struggled harder against me, but I held on. The least I could do was to make sure she reach safety. I winced at the sound of roars and fighting, but they stopped as abruptly as the struggle from the girl on my back.

Making sure the path in front of me was clear, I quickly peeked back to see a slightly bloody Owen running towards us while the Lupas retreated.

Bemused, I slowed down so that he could catch up. Bowen didn't seem to notice any of these and carried on into the thicket. I checked on Abigail, whose head had slumped against my shoulder now, clearly passed out from exhaustion.

"Are you okay?" I asked, not missing the wince on Owen's face as he caught up beside me.

"I'm good," he answered. But I could see blood pouring from several wounds on his body. He needed to be patched up, but we got to find a river.

"What happened?" I asked. The two of us finally reached the safety of the forest. Everyone had descended from the trees, which had always proofed to be relatively safe providing that we didn't go to high.

"Owen!" Casey, always dramatic, launched forward and engulfed him in a hug. I could see him wince; that blunt girl probably just made his wounds worse.

"Let me have a look." Natalie came forward. Despite not saying much, relief was clear on her face as she tended to Owen. "Fred just told us that you might be—"

Trailing off, I could see the palpable tension from everyone at the thought of what nearly happened. We had been lucky in the past month. Even though we had been through hell, to not faced a situation like this. But we all knew our luck wouldn't last forever. This was a close call.

"Let's find somewhere to set camp. We need to clean up Owen's wounds too," Natalie said as she finished inspecting Owen's forearm. I could see a particularly deep wound there, a result of a claw mark. All of us looked to Evanna, who, unfortunately, was still out cold.

"I can feel a heavy concentration of water that way," Bowen offered up, pointing to our right. We had all made progress with our powers, pushed by our environment to adapt and survive. It would be great if we have a healer among us, but at least I was there to start a fire.

I declined Nate's offer to help carry Abigail, not wanting to move her. She could do with whatever rest she could get. Everyone was silent, wrapped up in their own thoughts as we headed towards what hopeful was a water source. I replayed what had happened in my mind. The Lupas, the way Abigail fainted just as they retreat. It was almost like Capture the Flag again.

Whether she did it consciously or not, I had a feeling that Abigail was the one who caused the Lupas to retreat.

The sound of trickling water after another ten minute's walk rejuvenated us and we all sped up towards it. A small stream, shallow and clear, greeted us. This was great news; no powerful Legres would live in the fast flowing water. On the other hand, we had to be careful of Land Legres coming here for a drink and running into us.

I placed Abigail on the floor gently, brushing a strand of hair off her face when I was sure that no one was watching. Her brows were lightly furrowed together, and without the fierceness in her eyes, she looked oddly vulnerable.

"Let's get your cleaned up." Natalie gestured for Owen to follow her. The two of them headed towards the stream with Bowen close behind. He never let anyone be alone with Natalie for more than a second. It was strange to see that he could be capable of caring about someone so much.

"Tom, can you come and help us set up the perimeter?" Holly asked. "Nate will stay here with Gail."

Since Nate's power was force field, he had always been nominated to stay at a base. I nodded, knowing that we needed to gather some firewood as well as scout for some food and potential game as well. At first, the girls cringed at the idea of hunting small animals, but they relented in the end. There weren't many edible plants around and those got monotonous after a while.

Normally, Natalie and Owen would be the one to secure the perimeter. Without their super sensory or mind sensory, we had to do this the old fashioned way.

"Let's just put some insect repellent herbs down first," Casey suggested. She dropped a bundle of herbs on the ground and stepped on it, smashing them. I resisted the urge to yawn and looked around the densely vegetated forest. There didn't seem to be anything aside from the buzz of insects nearby, and the darkness of the night combined with the thick foliages made it hard to see anything.

The truth was that it didn't matter whether or not we spotted a Legre. At our current energy level, we would all be dead if any Legres find us.

So after a half-hearted surveillance, we returned to Nate and Abigail to drop off the firewood before looking for food closer to the base. Owen was cleaned up now, and even Evanna had woken up. We all sat together and ate a quick meal before Natalie urged everyone to rest.

"I'll take the first watch," Bowen offered and everyone was too tired to argue. While most of them stayed on the ground, I climbed on a tree and made myself comfortable on the branch. I stared into the night, my body too wind up despite my exhaustion to fall asleep just yet.

I was woken up by the sound of birds chirping with no memory of when and how I fell asleep. Alarmed by this, I swung out of the tree and landed on the ground with a soft thud. Nate was the one keeping watch, and he mimiced eating gestures to let me know the missing ones had gone to look for food.

Abigail was still on the floor, and I hoped that whatever she had done didn't drain her so much that she was still suffering from the aftermath of it. Everyone was starting to stir, so I joined them in the stream to freshen up. Not that it would make much difference.

"Guys! She's awake," Nate's voice drifted over. I quickly wiped the water off my face and turned around. Casey and Holly, who had just started making their way down, turned and rushed back. I followed them swiftly.

"Is she okay?" I asked Nate, my eyes focused on Abigail. She was looking extremely confused and crossed, glaring at me as though I was somehow responsible.

"Don't talk to me like I'm not here," she demanded, but I ignored her. Riling her up was one of the only joy I had in a situation like this.

"So, what happened?" she asked tentatively. It occurred to me that she had no idea whether Owen was safe or not. McQueen was resting, and I wasn't sure if I should be the one to tell her he was fine.

"A pack of Lupa found us, broke into our camp—" Nate started, going back all the way to the beginning. He was quickly interrupted.

"I know," Abigail looked like she was about to explode. "What I meant was what happened after I passed out."

"Oh, right. We met up again in the forest and found a water source."

That definitely wasn't what she was asking about. I stifled a laugh at her expression. Just as I thought she was about to go off, Owen emerged from his tent. This noise would be enough to wake up half the forest. She screamed and tried to get up; fortunately, Holly and Casey had the sense to keep her down.

As Owen himself explained what happened, I kept an eye for Abigail's expressions. It didn't seem as though she knew what had happened after her black out, even though she could very well have saved McQueen's life.

During breakfast, I contemplated our options. We hoped to reach a Citybase, however, it was like searching for a person you never met before - easier said than done.

However, we had no option.

"What are we going to do now?" Holly suddenly asked. She was voicing the question everyone had on their mind and I commended her for it.

"Carry on? We're bound to reach a Citybase soon," Bowen suggested. And even though it was a valid option, I rolled my eyes at his lack of thoughtfulness. No matter what, the two of us seemed to grate on each other's nerve easier than the rest of the world.

"In case you haven't noticed, Citybases aren't exactly common around here. We could have past one without realising. The forest is too big," I retorted. It was a fear that had been badgering me for the past few months. We didn't have any idea where we were; it wouldn't be surprising to learn that we had skirted past a Citybase.

We began to argue back and forth, but it was going nowhere. I regretted my outburst at Bowen, because lack of thoughts or not, his suggestion was indeed our only option. Soon, it turned into a full blown argument with everyone throwing suggestions into the mix.

"You know what; we'll just have to take it one step at a time," I stood up and said. "We definitely can't stay in one place for too long. Where there are herds, there might be mercenaries. So we follow them and we'll find people. Heading northwest in hopes of finding a Citybase isn't a good enough plan on its own."

We had run into some herds now and then, although we never hunted any because we were raw from exhaustion and couldn't take up more challenge. If I were to guess where we were, I would say somewhere subtropical and given the abundant resources, I would bet my life that there were mercenaries around. Friendly or not, they were our only hope. At least they were mobile, with a pattern of behaviour.

Everyone looked towards Evanna, who blinked innocently at us. "I can't see anything until we decide," she emphasised. I looked back to the others and sighed inside; we would never reach a consensus if we just sit around.

"Let's do a vote," Abigail spoke up, and I knew that she was buying my idea. She wouldn't say that otherwise. Without further ado, everyone agreed and I smiled. We had been stuck in this limbo for too long, it's time to get out of this forsaken forest through whatever means necessary.

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Hey ho, I know that this is long awaited! Tom's story will pick up paallel to the time line of Gail's story, but of course, there will come to a point when he would head off as Gail was taken to the de Silver secret base. We'll get to that!

I am not sure how much I can update this after the 12 days of Christmas, but I'll try. But Tom will probably get his own self-published novella at some point since I feel like there would be enough material when I finish with his POV in Revolution!

As always - votes and comments super appreciated. And how many of you are reading the Dark Ages? If you haven't, get on it!