BOOK OF MIA: 2081

Chapter 6: Waterfall

My lungs are on fire. My legs are trying to run away from my body, so I stop torturing them with this running nonsense. As sweat drips down past my brows and into my eyes, my vision blurs. I'm wheezy and breathless, like I'm dying — whoosh, whoosh. I may as well be holding a foghorn to signal my location. There is no way I am quiet. I am Forrest Gump — from that movie we had to watch in Language & Communication — running through these woods.

I'm not enjoying this. The bitter taste of the night lingers on me still. The distinct rust of the blood I'm covered in wafts up my nose, getting stronger and stronger. I try not to gag out of respect for those who will never see another sunrise.

Beside me, Nate looks as lithe as ever. An athlete barely breaking a sweat while I'm bathing in my filth. My t-shirt clings to me like a scared child to its mother's leg. I need a shower and a change of clothes, not to mention a pair of shoes. I lost my flip-flops a while back and my feet are bleeding from cuts, but I can't think of that right now. We need to get to the other side of the river, to safety. How and why is it safe? I don't know and I don't care. As long as no one's hunting us like we're game, I'm good.

We still dodge bullets intermittently as Sentries spot us dashing through the trees. As I run, I realise, more are being fired in my direction than at Nate, a whole other level of discrimination this is. I feel like every Sentry wants to turn me into a human sieve, but not Nate. I feel hurt by this, but then again, that's a tiny issue.

Relentless yells of Sentries still in pursuit pierces the air. I hear them flanking us like they did before. To my right. To our left. They seem to be faster than us, but then again, that is what they're built for — to hunt, protect, survive. Me? I'm new to being a prey and I'm doing the best I can. I should have paid attention in Politics & Warfare classes. The class I had no choice in taking because Dad insisted it would be handy when I work for the Hive. I wanted to do drama or sculpture instead, but I can barely disagree with him right now.

I glance at Nate, knowing his mind is an endless reservoir. Once he learns something, it's unlikely he'll ever forget. His brain imprints all data and saves it. Asshole! I bet even now, he is imprinting the path we took in case he ever has to escape Camp Sweep again. Camp Sweep. The name sounds ominous now and I can't help but mutter the name, not paying attention to my surroundings.

My foot catches on a root and I hurtle forward, ready to facepalm the ground.

"Watch it!" Nate scoops me up before I hit the ground, my saviour for the second time tonight. I'm aware of his arms around my waist as he pulls me back to my feet within a second. The motion is so fast I almost get whiplash.

Feeling a blush spread across my cheeks, I push him away as several gunshots ring around us again. They are close. We eye each other, knowing very well it was my yelp that alerted them to our location.

"Camp Sweep!" I say again, but Nate is not paying attention to my gibberish.

"Come on, we're close!" He looks through the trees as though he could see the river already. "I can hear the water."

So can I. The definite sound of a rushing river ahead of us. "I know why they call it Camp Sweep!" I grit my teeth as I break out into another run, chasing Nate's round little bottom. To distract myself, I ask, "Why did Gems say we'll be safe after the river?" I look behind us and suddenly feel vertigo set in as my sight zooms eerily to register ten higher heat signatures of Enhanced CodeTech Sentries. I turn to Nate. "Are you seeing this?"

I shake my head, but my vision does not go back to normal. "I have infrared?!" I muse to myself.

"There! I can see the river," Nate breaks my thought. He grabs my wrist and we run faster towards the river. "What were you saying about Camp Sweep?"

"Just that Camp Sweep is a sorting ground and a..." I cut myself off before I say 'disposal centre'. Instead, I stare at Nate, astonished. For once, I might have noticed something the genius didn't. But I hope I am wrong and this was a siege by enemy Sentries.

"Yeah, we know that! That's why we're here, to get sorted into best-suited career paths for our skills and abilities, so they can sharpen it with targeted coding." Nate ducks as a line of bullets mark the trees above his head.

I almost yell, 'No,' but stop myself as I hear the looming thunder of a waterfall coming up ahead. The thought of which makes me suck in air sharply as an uninvited, random memory thrusts itself into my mind.

I'm a woman struggling against the currents of a torrential river. A small toddler, with her jet black hair, clings to my throat, or the woman's throat, almost strangling. I'm trying hard to swim away from the inevitable, to grab onto something, to move to the shore, but the child and I are being swept away, helpless, towards a waterfall. Its lung-crushing crescendo deafening her. And me. I don't know whose memories these are, but they are not mine. Fudge Gems! His taser did a number on my system and now my nanites are going haywire. It's probably an image from a film or something I watched some time ago triggered by the sound of the waterfall we are approaching.

"Twelve o'clock." A voice carries to us faintly from behind as I try to come out of the fog of memories.

"I see them!" Another yells as Nate and I come to a stop at the edge of a murderous waterfall.

My heart leaps to my throat in a lump. The sound is akin to concrete crashing. "It's a sorting camp for the weak!" I yell, grabbing Nate's arm as he attempts to lean over to look at the white foaming water.

"What are you talking about?" He shakes his head, more at the fall than me. He glances around the jagged, rocky bank. "There is no other way around it!" he yells, pulling me to hide us behind a thick, tall shrub. "We're going to have to jump!"

"What?" I yell, unable to hear my voice. I look at the expanse of the river. It's wide. The other side looks more than a hundred meters away. There is no way we can swim across it without being pulled by the waterfall, just like the odd, glitching memory pulling me. More disjointed images — highly pixelated — fleet through my mind's eyes.

A dense forest. A camp just like Sweep, with not much in the name of giant fencing. Crowds of teens not dissimilar to us. I don't recognise some of the school logos. The uniforms are slightly odd, discoloured even, but perhaps that's because of the quality of images. I see Sentries too, eerily similar to the ones chasing us, walk into the grounds under the cover of night. The siren at midnight. The gathering at the hall. A second of pitch-black, then flashes of carnage not dissimilar to the one we escaped. Except, I don't recognise any of them. One body wears a school jacket, lying face down. I glimpse the Graduating year. 2061. Twenty years ago? I try to hold on to that image a moment, but it vanishes —

"Jump, Mia!" Nate's voice sounds a mile away. I feel a tug on my arm.

I hear myself say, "That can't be right!"

"Mia! Jump!" Nate's face looms before me. I take a moment to register him. His eyes are wild. Urgency and anger laces his voice. He's struggling to pull me towards the waterfall, and I do not know why. If he wanted, he could take me out with one sweep, yet his expression says he is straining.

"Mia!" his scream drowns out, losing his footing on the edge. A look of terror on his face, his arm still reaching out for me as he falls, disappearing into the white thundering wall of water.

I snap back to the present and stare down at the water. The sight of the mother and child falling over a similar fall flash in my mind again, adds to Nate disappearing in the churn and a strange fear grips me.

"There she is. Grab her!"

I glance back at the treeline. Sentries emerge from the shadows like demons in my nightmares. Their weapons trained on me. Red dot after red dot targets my chest, right where my heart is.

"Mia. Jump. Now." The woman's voice breaks in my head gently . I'd almost forgotten I have a guardian angel tonight, watching over me. "They will kill you, or worse. Jump."

What could be worse? I stare at the line of men stepping closer to me by the second. Despite being armed, they look cautious in their approach. Why?

I glance back at the waterfall, my heart pounding against my ribs — trying to find a way out. I remember seeing a bright crimson spot blooming on Nate's shirt as he'd fallen. Was he shot? Did they shoot Nate?

"Step away from the edge, Miss Love!" one of them yells, a good distance away from me.

I swallow the lump in my throat and take a leap of faith. If I am going to die, I fancy a swim rather than a riddled chest.

The line of the waterfall and the horizon floats above me as I fall down. Cold water sprays my face and limbs. The Sentries train their weapons at me again and unleash a flurry as the water swallows me whole.

Icy cold. Crushing.

I hope Nate made it at least. What a thought to end life with. And I close my eyes as a sharp pain rips through my chest and I can no longer breathe.