Page 44 of Lyon

We picked up our pace, jogging in the opposite direction of the army. The path was busy enough, but leaving it wasn’t an option. In a jungle this dense, stepping off the trail could mean the difference between making it out alive or vanishing forever.

“Anyone know what day it is?”Raven asked, wiping sweat from his forehead. “I swear I’ve lost all sense of time.”

I shrugged.

Raven sighed. “It’s my dad’s birthday next month, on the twenty-seventh. We better be back by then. Hopefully, we’ll find Tag in the next four days.”

We chuckled. Raven was close with his family—most of whom he’dfoundthrough DNA testing. His dad, apparently, had been quite the ladies' man in his youth. That’s how Raven discovered his sister, Laney, and her daughter, Haley. A DNA test had confirmed they were all connected.

“It’s the tenth,” I told him. “You’ll have plenty of time to get back for his birthday.”

We stopped dead in our tracks when the sharp crack of gunfire echoed through the jungle.

“Move!” I hissed.

We ran. Fast.

The sun had started dippingbeneath the horizon when we stumbled upon a shocking sight.

The jungle… was gone.

Trees that had stood for centuries had been ripped from the earth, leaving behind a vast, empty stretch of destruction. It looked like a giant had reached down andtornthe rainforest apart.

We stared in disbelief.

“Holy shit,” Raven breathed.

“This is why people are protesting,” I muttered. “This… this isinsane.”

Further ahead, a crudely built shed stood alone in the wasteland.

“Maybe we can stay there for the night,” I suggested.

River eyed it warily. “One of us will have to keep watch. We can sit on the roof.”

Before we could check it out, the shed door creaked open.

We all jumped back.

The shed was filled withsnakes.

We slammed the door shut and backed away.

“Nope,” Raven muttered. “Absolutely not.”

With no other choice, we moved on, crossing the demolished land until we found a safer place to camp.

Three weeks.

Threeweeksof trekking through the jungle, asking locals if they’d seen Tag.

Nothing.

We described him: tall, gray-eyed, brooding as hell. Added that he had a right to be cranky—after all, he’d spent two years in a wheelchair, convinced he’d never walk again.

Still, blank stares. No one had seen him.

Then, finally, we found a village withStarlinkinternet.

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