John's lungs burned, but the fire in his chest was nothing compared to the worry driving his muscles.
He followed the path that he had traversed once before with Nikolas and the rest of the class, back when they were celebrating their team victory during their first year. It was a distant memory, but right now, it felt so vivid that he could recall even the tiniest detail out of it.
The academy sat on a sprawling plateau just a few miles away from a massive, bustling metropolis. Under normal circumstances, a student would call for a high-speed flying taxi or wait for a mag-lev shuttle.
John didn't have the patience for waiting. He ran. Every stride was fueled by a desperate need to reach the city, his thoughts spiralling around the image of Ricky walking into an ambush.
'I need to know where you are, buddy,' John thought, his eyes scanning the horizon where the glow of the city began to eat into the twilight sky. He used the travel time to dissect every word Mark said.
