Page 123 of Chaos

He turns back and shakes his head at Jacquetta.

Nothing.

No Gray Caps in the woods. No impending ambush.

Jacquetta lifts her comm unit, opens the connection with a beep. “Come in, base. Base? Come in.”

It beeps when she disconnects, and no response comes back.

“Where the hell is Rey?” She tries again.

The second the medic finishes his taping, I stand up, relinquishing the saturated cloth to him.

I need to go.

Lavinia Hope came here for one purpose.

Me.

The medic shouts out, a couple of guys jog over, and we carry her to the back of one of the trucks, then we all climb back in.

Jacquetta tries calling Thornewood again. Nothing.

“Divide up,” I tell Jacquetta. “Come in east and west.” It’s miles on the roads, but a straight shot through the woods as the crow flies.

She makes the kind of face people make when you’re telling them something they already know.

“If I … if anything happens, tell Frankie I’m sorry.”

“What?”

I keep my handgun, but set the rifle on the seat.

Jacquetta’s lips part.

I turn away before she can speak, jog across the road, jump the drainage ditch, skirt a fallen tree, and disappear into the treeline.

Branches slap my face, the cold air opening up my lungs, breath clouding behind me.

Frankie will have gotten to Auden and Shane. They’ll be at a safe place away from the gate, probably in the basement, hiding away from any gunfire.

And I’ll stop this war before it begins.

I’ll keep them safe.

Frankie gave herself up to Ben. Wendell took a bullet. Shane lost the use of his hand. Shasta lost her vision. Ruby lost her life. So did Carl. Kelly is dying. Rey will lose a lover. Other soldiers lost their lives in conflicts with the Gray Caps.

It’s my turn.

And it feels clear. Perfectly clear.

But all my clarity of focus goes out the window at the top of the first rise when I get my first open view across the valley.

Smoke is billowing from Thornewood’s clocktower, thick and swirling black.

And gunfire rattles up, echoing and distorting as the sound bounces off trees and carries.

Barely breathing, I sprint up the final rise, stopping a few yards back at the top, leaving me with a filtered view through the trees.

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