The distant sound of approaching vehicles caused my ears to prick.

  "Vehicles are coming," I said, clenching the fingers on my newly regrown right hand, "We've got to go."

  It wasn't just one vehicle, but several. One of the vehicles in particular sounded very heavy, its huge metallic wheels rolling hard on the graveled earth.

  Please be the construction site workers, I thought, please not the Peepers.

  Azad made an effort to get up on his own. He managed to reach a sitting position, but that in itself appeared to take everything he had to accomplish. I gently gripped his left arm in an effort to hoist him to his feet.

  I managed it, but Azad winced and gritted his teeth, going red in the face from the effort not to scream from the pain.

  Fractured bones, torn muscles and ligaments, the power told me, though it was obvious enough with my own eyes just how sorry a state Azad was in. Hair had fallen out at patches at the back of his head, showing raw scalp beneath.

  He really pushed himself to the brink, I thought, both in awe at Azad's sheer tenacity, but also dumbfounded someone would even risk such a thing.

  "I'll help you," I said, "Just do your best."

  Azad tried for a nod and regretted it. I could see the muscles in his neck clenching hard.

  The chatter of people not too far off, speaking at a regular volume, reached my heightened ears.

  It was chatter relating to work on the construction site.

  This came as a great relief, but not by much. They weren't Peepers, but that didn't mean they wouldn't call the police as soon as they saw us.

  I turned back to face the skin-cocoon. It was bulging from within, and trembling; dust, like the vapors from a humidifier, poured out from the crack opening in the cocoon.

  "Xandra we've got to go now," I said.

  "Go," said Xandra, her voice sounding that little bit off again, "I'll be right behind you."

  I didn't have it in me to argue. The combination of exhaustion, and having experienced so much in the last few hours, on top of a month of on-going turmoil, had rendered me feeling like a gray, hollowed-out version of myself. The brief sleep had done wonders for me, but it wasn't nearly enough to make up for the deep tiredness set deep in my mind and body.

  Can't go on like this, I thought to myself.

  I let my body take charge of where to go. With Azad limping and leaning against me, needing more support than a one-hundred-and-ten-year-old senior, we made our way out of the tunnel.

  The construction team entering onto the site was far closer than I expected. A huge yellow excavator was grinding its way along the same flat path Azad had taken to get the three of us to the tunnel entrance.

  The driver was so close I could see where his eyes were looking; they were trained on the flat dirt path winding round to my right up ahead. But it would take less than ten seconds before the excavator would be aimed in our direction, following the set curve of the path, and even then all he had to do was look off to his right to spot us out in the open.

  I didn't dare call out to Xandra to hurry up again. Instead, with Azad held close, I walked him over a large heap of gravel and onto the other side.

  There was the possibility for us to stop. If we laid down behind the heap of gravel then we wouldn't be in view of the excavator's driver. But I decided against it. We needed to get away. Hiding so close wasn't going to be enough.

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  Azad's breathing worsened until he was rasping worse than an asthmatic without an inhaler.

  "I'm sorry," I mumbled, "We're almost there."

  There was the treeline up ahead. It was a quarter of a football pitch's distance away, with more huge heaps of gravel in the way.

  Azad managed several more steps before collapsing. He gasped for air, sounding as if there was no moisture at all left in his body.

  No time, I thought.

  I picked him up, which took a great deal of effort. I had no strength to coil up, even standing up myself made me feel as if I were pushing my body harder than I ever had before.

  With each moment I expected to collapse just like Azad had. Sweat broke on my forehead. I dug my hands (the one with fingers, and the one without) under Azad's arms and drug him across the ground.

  My Achilles tendons were threatening to snap; I could feel as much on my own, but the power told me exactly which part of my leg was the most fragile.

  My body had healed a great deal, but moving as I was, on top of carrying Azad, revealed to me just how much more time I needed to fix all of the injuries throughout my body.

  At last I brought Azad and myself past the treeline. My body gave out as soon as we were behind a large bush. The sound of my hampered breathing mixed with Azad's much more ragged gasps.

  I wished my hearing were more precise, because I couldn't make out much beyond the sound of the excavator grumbling nearby.

  The other workers in their smaller vehicles entered onto the site. The work day was getting underway.

  There wasn't time to take it easy. Soon the construction workers would see the mass of dust in the tunnel and they would know something strange was going on. It wouldn't take them long to think to make a call to the Pied Pipers just to be safe. That was assuming they didn't spot Xandra on her way out. Had she exited the tunnel yet? What if she was stuck inside the skin-cocoon?

  Having caught my breath, my body feeling like a series of painful knots, I sat upright. For a brief instant, despite the current dread of being found out, I couldn't help but notice what a nice day it was. The sky was bright blue, with the thick clouds which had brought about heavy rain having moved off to the distant horizon. Light shone beautifully through the forest canopy above, creating tiny diamonds of light. The gravel on the way over to the treeline had been uncomfortable against my bare feet, but the soil at the treeline was much softer, and cool against the sore soles of my feet.

  Somewhere in nature, I thought.

  The delirious lapse in concentration on my part, brought about by the sheer exhaustion which gripped me, passed as quick as it had come about.

  Further off, at the tunnel entrance Azad and I had just departed from, a sudden rush of dust burst from the opening. It drew the attention of several of the construction workers, who hurried over to the tunnel entrance.

  The plume of dust settled like fake snow in a globe, revealing the broken remains of the skin-cocoon on the ground.

  Was Xandra still inside the tunnel? The construction workers gathered round the dust outside of the tunnel entrance, and two of the half dozen workers moved over to the entrance and looked inside.

  My stomach clenched.

  Heal yourself idiot, a part of me thought, whatever happens you're no use if you can't move.

  I nodded, agreeing with myself. I drew my attention away from the tunnel and the construction workers and saw to willing the power to heal me faster.

  A dizziness took hold of me, as if I had stood up too fast. I stopped willing the power to heal me, and the dizziness passed.

  Crap, I thought, I'm just too exhausted right now.

  And then it clicked for me.

  I need to eat, I thought, my body is fighting too many internal battles at once. It might not need as much nutrients as before, but it needs it beyond the bare minimum.

  I didn't want to think about how I would get something to eat. That was a problem I would need to grapple with soon, but not yet.

  TOK-TOK!

  My ears pricked again. A new sound had caught my attention. It was small, and changing, and growing closer. I found myself looking up towards the forest canopy to my right. Leaves were falling from the trees, forming a falling trail which was drawing closer.

  The sound I had heard before increased.

  TOK-TOK!

  I had heard it often enough to know what it was. It was the sound of feet striking off against a hard surface.

  I saw the shadow cast across the soil an instant before the figure the shadow belonged to landed several paces away from Azad and me.

  It was Xandra. Of course it was Xandra.

  At first she didn't seem to be any different, though she had newly regrown her legs. Her denim jeans which had been blasted away were cut off just below the knees.

  All of Xandra's wounds were gone. No burns. No cuts.

  Xandra stood with her hands at her hips with a look which was both excited, but also wary.

  What was it about her that seemed off? I wondered.

  "C'mon," she said, "We should get away from here."

  "Okay," I mumbled, not putting up any opposition.

  Xandra hurried over to Azad and, surprisingly, seemed to manage holding the full weight of his body with surprising ease.

  Was she coiling?

  Azad let out a pained rasp which was loud enough to make us fearful the construction workers nearby might have heard.

  Without waiting another moment, Xandra set off into a sprint. She moved fast, starting with small steps but quickly building momentum.

  Feebly, I walked at a brisk pace, the best speed I could manage in my condition.