Page 20 of Rage

Owen shakes his head with a grimace. He looks tired. Dark circles hang low under his eyes, but staying up all night will do that to a person.

“It’s an abandoned port,” he says. “The satellite images are blurred out, which is weird, and all the roads leading to this place are suspiciously absent.”

I frown. “What’s that mean?”

Kingston tears his eyes away from the paper map in front of him to look up at me. If I thought Owen looked tired,Kingston looks utterly exhausted. The dark purple circles under his sunken icy blue eyes, and tight press of his mouth all speak to his ragged state. It’s all emphasized by his pale white skin. When we were kids, he used to always have a tan. Long days out in the sun would golden his skin and made it glow. But ever since Daisy broke him out of that mental hospital, a place where he’d been forced to survive thanks to his father, his skin has been white as a sheet, as though it refuses to, or can’t, soak in color after a stint in hell.

“It means someone with money and power tried to erase this place off the map,” Kingston signs, his fingers moving fluidly in the air as he shoots me a dark look.

I scowl as I ask, “You mean someone like… your dad?”

Kingston Winslow’s father had been the leader of the cult that hid within our hometown of Briar Glen. He’s dead now. Has been for years. Mr. Winslow’s reign of terror had been the catalyst to every horrible thing that ever happened to the five of us. His power and influence over the people in the town made covering up his crimes easy. If there’s someone else like that where we’re headed, we may be in over our heads.

At Kingston’s nod, I shudder.

“Great, that’s just fucking great.” My sarcasm isn’t lost on the others, it’s simply ignored. “If we can’t see where we’re going or the layout of the land, what do we do?”

“We piece together what we can of the old maps that I’ve found online until we have the general idea of where we’re going,” Owen says without looking up. “Right now, we’re missing about fifteen miles between the newest map and where the satellite images begin to blur.”

My brows rise as I stare at him in alarm. “Fifteenmiles? Jesus, if we end up going the wrong way or end up at some dead end, we won’t have time to double back and try again!”

“Gee, what a great observation, Wyatt. Quite helpful, thanks for that input,” Owen mutters as his fingers fly over his keyboard.

He misses it when I smile. “You’re welcome.”

“We’ll figure this out. Failure isn’t an option here. We’regoingto save them, and if we don’t get them free here, we’ll track them down,” Daisy declares, not looking up from the map.

A heavy silence follows her declaration. It’s filled with a solemnity that always comes before one of these self-imposed missions. Daisy’s been like this ever since we left Briar Glen. Her need to save people from the same fate that had befallen her will eventually take her to the grave. We all know this. We all had it pretty bad in the ten years we spent apart, but Daisy had it the worst by far. Her need to purge the world of evil comes from having lived in its grasp for far too long. I have this feeling, deep down inside of me, that she truly believes we can wipe out the worst of the worst. That there will be a time when this is over, and we can sit back and relax.

But me? I know better. There will never be a sense of closure or satisfaction after a mission great enough to ease the knowledge that we’ll be doing this all over again soon enough. I hate this, the feeling of inevitability that we’ll never win. We’ll never be able to wipe out evil.

“Of course, Daisy,” I pacify her easily, a habit I’ve picked up to keep her even keeled.

Kingston’s gaze flickers up to me. An understanding passes between us, letting me know we’re on the same page when it comes to caring for Daisy’s mental health.

“Fuck,” Drake says from up front. “Looks like you’re going to get your way sooner than expected, Wyatt. We got to stop for gas.”

I grin, eager to be doingsomethingother than just sitting around twiddling my thumbs. “Great! Maybe we can get some snacks, too.”

Daisy’s hands fist on the table before she slides them off and tucks them into her lap. “We need to make this stop quick.”

“It’ll be super-fast,” I assure her. “I promise.”

“Alright, we’re good to go!” Drake calls, shutting the gas cap.

I’m already jogging up the steps into the RV with four plastic bags filled with food in my hands. I dump them onto the table next to Owen and glance toward the bunks when I don’t immediately spot Daisy or Kingston.

“I think I figured out the lay of the land!” Owen declares, though there’s a little doubt in his voice.

There’s a flushing of a toilet, and Kingston steps out of the bathroom. He comes over to us and peeks into the bags I’ve brought. I step around him and head to the back, where the only real bedroom is. We’ve designated this space as Daisy’s room, but she keeps the door open for us to join her whenever we want.

I push open the door to find the queen size bed empty, the sheet made. My eyes land on the only nightstand in the room. On top of it, her knife sheath lies there, empty. Unease pools in my gut and my back stiffens. Daisyalwayskeeps her knife with her. If it’s gone, then she’s gone. If she’s not here, there’s only one thing she could be up to.

“Ah, guys, does anyone have eyes on Daisy?” I ask, turning to return to the others just as Drake enters the RV.

The three of them freeze before everyone’s head turns in different directions, as if I might’ve missed her in the tight space of the RV in my initial search.

“Did she go into the convenience store?” Drake asks, looking behind him through the open door.

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