Page 46 of Mayflower

There are still shots echoing behind us. Most of them come from Ayana guards and men dressed in military garb that doesn’t belong to Ayana. They are blasting Butcher’s thugs, diverting their attention from Shepherd’s team, which is retreating toward Port Mrei. Shepherd has Tsariuk’s satellite phone, so we can keep in touch in the future.

Guards surround Ali and me, and the women and kids, and usher us toward the side-by-sides waiting for us. The jungle is dark, the only lights coming from the guards’ headlamps. Some of them are still wearing night-vision. But I know we are in Ayana-controlled territory. The chaos is way behind us.

We made it. We fucking made it out of Port Mrei.

The guards sign and shout for us to keep moving.

“How many?” one asks us.

“Two men, five women, four children,” I reply.

“All here!” the guard shouts to someone. “Let’s move out!”

“Got them all,” another reports into the radio as Ali and I help the women and children onto the side-by-sides.

Safe-safe-safe, the thought pounds in my head, reeling in the excitement that we made it. We fucking made it to our territory and brought the kids with us.

We pile into the six-seater with Candy and another woman.

“We got the kids and the rest!” another guard shouts.

“Move!”

Wind is blasting in our faces as we follow several other vehicles loaded with armed guards in special operation gear.

Fuck, we are going home.

And that’s when it hits me. Ayana never felt like home. It was just a place. Until Maddy. Until Sonny. You don’t realize why you call a place home until it has the people you come back to, always come back to, at your worst and your best. The people you want to share your most profound moments with.

Ali grunts in the back seat. I see him hiding his shoulder. “Did you get hurt?”

He only grunts in response.

“Let me see,” the girl next to him says. The all-terrain vehicle shakes as it hits the bumps at full speed. But without listening to his objections, the girl turns to Ali and rips his shirt open at the shoulder.

“Yep, you got hit, my friend,” she announces. She rips his sleeve off, then, using her teeth, rips it into a strip and ties it above the wound. “You gonna make it, soldier?”

“Yeah, thanks,” Ali says.

He will. We all will—Candy and others from the club, the young girl from the headquarters, and four little girls.

It’s dark but already smells familiar, wet jungle and flowers, devoid of stench, as we approach the main Ayana entrance. A wave of relief washes over me so powerfully that I almost feel like passing out. My body suddenly feels slack from all the tension in the last twelve hours. More importantly, I can feel her, Maddy, almost in my arms. And now my mind is racing, my body burning with the anticipation and… nervousness.

The parking lot and garden in front of the Center are brightly lip up and crowded with guards and IT personnel.

Archer is the first person who runs up to us when our side-by-side comes to a stop.

“Hey, man,” he says as I get out, and before I can say anything, he pulls me into a hug. “I’m sorry,” he says, squeezing me so hard that my stab wound starts aching. “I’m sorry I was too late back then. Sorry, man. So fucking sorry,” he whispers.

I pull away and meet the look that I never encountered on Archer, maybe, except when he is with Kat—he is emotional, sort of amazed, studying my face and entire body. It’s awkward, really, so I pat him on the shoulder. “No worries, man. All good. Thanks for bringing us back.” I motion toward Ali. “He needs medical attention right now.”

“I’m on it.” Archer walks off, shouting to someone for medical aid.

Another person slams into me out of nowhere, his arms wrapping around me in a hug. “Thank fucking God, man. You’re back.”

It’s Kai.

I’m surprised and overwhelmed with all this attention. “Take care of Candy and the rest, yeah?” I say as I pull away. “She trusts you.”

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