Preface - Kaeden
She fell.
Each second gaining speed. As if propelled by an unknown force, more unforgiving than gravity.
The arena held its collective breath with him as Kaeden’s entire world came closer, and closer to the ground. No one moved to help, disbelief written on every face as they watched the cord snap.
They say that when you’re about to die your whole life flashes before your eyes. But watching Kallista’s flailing body become claimed by the laws of nature? He saw everything he’d ever envisioned for the future disappear.
She desperately tried to rotate herself and prepare for the impact, as they’d all been trained to do. But the pushers around him knew that she had been too high, their murmured whispers echoing what he already knew. She had been too high, it was part of what made the helix so dangerous to perform.
She knew it too.
Kaeden watched her stop struggling, her eyes instead searching for his. In the moment before she hit the mat their eyes connected one last time, and then the world shook.
It was as if an ancient cannon had blasted into the room with the impact. Screams reverberated off of the walls, and everyone started moving at once. Spectators on their palmers who had forgotten they had been recording, now tried to shout what they had just witnessed in a cacophony of chaos to their viewers.
“No one could have survived that fall!”
The words jarred Kaeden back into reality and into motion. He leapt over the divider of the athlete’s stand and he took off towards the mat.
There’s no way, it’s not possible. His thoughts became more, and more frantic as he hurtled over rows of seating, and shoved his way through devastated onlookers from the stands.
She can survive this!
He could see the arena’s medical team swarming onto the mat below, reaching Kallista’s unmoving body and waving their scanners over her skin.
Kaeden finally reached the bottom of the aisle and launched himself over the wall that kept the field separated from the stands. He felt the familiar pressure of the barrier against his skin as the genetic restrictors checked his credentials. His ears popped as it allowed him through.
The sounds of panic were left behind in the stands, and in its place settled a heavy silence that cut deeper than the frenzied chaos. It made him falter, and he stumbled as the weight of what happened hit him a second time.
Time itself seemed to slow as his eyes locked onto Kallista’s body, frozen and bleeding on the mat. She laid there like a sculpture. Even the position of her arms and legs looked intentionally placed, like she was being photographed underwater. Through the moving figures he could catch glimpses of her hair sprawled around her soft face like a halo. The auburn hue that’d he’d come to love years ago was far too sanguine to be right, making her skin look sickly and pale.
Firm hands landed on each shoulder, and Kaeden found himself being stopped by two of their security. “Sir, you can’t be here.”
“Like hell I can’t be.” Kaeden roared, twisting out of their reach. Adrenaline spiking through his veins like a war cry.
The younger of the two immediately let go, and realization that Kaeden wasn’t just a spectator, but another pusher himself, had him backing away. They all knew that if he wanted through, he was going to get through. Pushers were medically altered into peak physical strength. The lifestyle alone requiring years of surgeries and recoveries. Without their own modifications, there would be nothing that the security team could do to stop him.
The older man’s eyes turned sympathetic. “You know we can’t let you through, you’ll interfere with her care.”
“Then you’re going to have to stop me.” Kaeden took a step forward only for the older guard place a firm hand against his chest. “I would reconsider.” Kaeden snarled, giving the man a chance to remove his hand before he broke it.
Just beyond them, the medics had slipped small lifters under Kallista’s broken form. Her head shifted in a controlled lull as she rose to hover about waist height off of the ground. A small trickle of blood had crusted at her nostrils and dripped from her ears.
Unlike palmers which projected their information from the palm, the med scanners did not share the information they collected. Instead, their devices transmitted the data directly into the iris of its dedicated user, allowing the team to work cohesively as they began to move.
Kaeden grabbed the hand that held him still. “Move, before I make you.”
The guard’s eyes hardened. “Don’t make things worse than they already are.”
As if sensing the impending fight, one of the medics broke off from the team and jogged over. “we’re going to do everything we can to save her, but her vitals are dropping.” The medic looked from the security guards back to Kaeden. “There’s no room for you in the van, and you’d just get in the way if you were.”
The south service door opened to the street, and an ambulance sped into the arena, stopping at the edge of the mat. Its doors were immediately thrown open to reveal wires, syringes, and more emergency workers.
Kaeden only half heard the medic’s assurances as he watched the ever growing cluster of people who now completely blocked Kallista’s body from view. He let go of the hand at his chest, nearly shaking from the flood of chemicals that compelled him to fight his way to her.
“You don’t understand,” Kaeden said quietly. “She needs me. I promised—”
“If you want to save her, then you need to trust us to do our jobs.” The medic interrupted firmly, as if he’d had to argue this point many times before. “We’re the best chance she has, and every second counts.” The man shook his head. “Pusher’s are unpredictable, I can’t have you endangering my team because you can’t stomach what might need to be done.”
Kaeden’s teeth audibly clenched. The medic was right. The modifications came with floods of hormones and unexpected triggers. As much as he hated to hear it, he was a liability. He had to forcibly relax his jaw just to answer.
“Fine.”
It was as much of a surrender as they were going to get out of him, and it was enough for all three of the men to visibly relax. The security guards gave him space, moving back towards the wall while the medic rejoined the rest of his team. Two more ambulances sped into the arena, meeting the first on the field as more men and women spilled out to try and stabilize the athlete.
Somewhere in that body, is she screaming? Does she know what happened? Kaeden stared in Kallista’s direction, he couldn’t even see her through the waves of medical personnel.
Kaeden dared a glance at the ends of the cable above. It had all been because of that cable. He had gone not even ten minutes before her. He had easily performed the helix and hadn’t felt it budge, or even hint at fraying. But looking at where the other end lay on the ground twisted and frayed, how could he not have noticed? He should have felt something.
The engines roared to life, and Kaeden snapped his attention back to the arena. Kallista’s lifters had loaded her into the last of the emergency vehicles, the doors slamming shut before all three silently took off through the maintenance exit. Their departure was haunting, with no sirens to accompany them. They were mostly for pedestrians anyway. Any vehicles within their radius would automatically pull off to the side, while every light would change to assist their route to the hospital.
“I’m sorry.” Damon came up beside him with an expression of pity and pain. “I know she meant a lot to you.”
Kaeden didn’t turn to face his rival, his friend. “I, I just don’t understand…” He glanced back at the cable, lying on the ground. “It should’ve held.”
“These things happen. They’re rare, but they happen.” Damon said firmly, gripping Kaeden by the arm.
With the emergency past, and the remainder of the event cancelled, barrier was deactivated, and the silence with it. The roar of the crowd immediately swept in as sports commentators turned reporters made their way through the deactivated genetic restrictors and onto the field.
Damon saw them before Kaeden did, releasing his grip and jogging towards them to try and slow them down. It was less of a mercy to give Kaeden another few seconds of peace, and more to give Kaeden the chance to regulate his raging emotions.
As he was now, Kaeden was just as likely to throw a camera as he was to answer any questions. Still, he refused to turn away from the road as he watched the vans speed out of sight.
“People are already commenting that you may be responsible for the fall. That you loosened the cable, how do you respond, Kaeden?”
Kaeden tensed, refusing to look away from the vans.
Another shoved forward, a petite woman from what he could tell. “Are you happy that your main rival will be out for the rest of the season if she recovers?”
If she recovers.
“Back off will you? He’s in shock. God you’re all insensitive.” Damon snapped, but there was no helping the onslaught of questions.
His pulse ticked at his temple as the ambulances reached the fork at the end of the way. They began to turn and Kaeden swung on the first speaker. Damon rushed in to restrain him, shouting to Seth to help him hold Kaeden back.
Fighting against their arms, Kaeden missed the one detail that would have had him sprinting out of the arena. The hospital was to the right, but the last van turned left.
