With huge eyes and a nearly silent scream, Barnes’ staggered right into the strange, incandescent wire like the one Cade had tripped earlier. The metal sliced through his neck, smoking as it cauterized the flesh and separated his head from the rest of his body.
Deidra wrinkled her nose as she ducked under the wire and nudged the severed head aside with her boot. “Oh, that’s not right.” Her left pant leg was soaked with blood from a gash on her thigh, but the wound appeared mostly healed already. “Can we please get the hell out of this death forest now?”
No one argued.
The gunfire finally came to a halt just as they began the final climb up the slope to the service road, and an orange haze illuminated the sky in the distance. Eventually, those flames would spread, engulfing everything in their path. Cade hoped to be long gone by the time that happened.
Webber met them at the base of the hill. He, too, appeared uninjured, and he seemed in good spirits as he helped some of the captives climb the embankment. Once they reached the top, Deke rushed forward to offer his assistance, leaving Cade free to jog ahead. He saw Roux, the doctor, and a few other captives, but he didn’t see the one person he was looking for.
“Where is she?” he demanded.
“Cade?” Jumping out of the back of the nearest van, Mackenna sprinted to him and jumped into his arms. “Are you okay?”
He clutched her close, burying his face in her hair and breathing in her scent. “I am now.” She was safe, right there in his arms, and nothing else mattered. “Let’s go home.”
She laughed as she snuggled into him. “Where is that exactly?”
“No idea.”
And he didn’t care. Whether it was the hospital, Olympus, or a cave up in the mountains, the location wasn’t important.
Wherever she was, that was his home.
Chapter Twenty
Olympus.
It had taken them four days and two stops, but they’d finally reached the safe haven located within the Olympic National Forest. Mackenna didn’t know what she had expected, but a lake resort with single cottages, shared cabins, and a big, elegant lodge certainly hadn’t been it.
Reaching out blindly, she patted around on the bench seat in the back of the SUV until she found Cade’s hand. “Everything is so green.”
Cade chuckled and squeezed her fingers.
Of the fourteen captives held at the Hunters’ compound, ten of them had survived. Bruised, battered, and traumatized, it would take time for them to heal, both physically and emotionally, but they were free. Unfortunately, most of them had been too weak to make the journey to Washington. They’d stayed behind with Dr. Lancaster at the hospital, at least until they were well enough to be moved.
Thea, Rhys, and Deidra had also volunteered to stay at the safe house, just in case the ARC came snooping around again. Mackenna would miss them, but it wasn’t as if she’d never see them again.
While she still had issues with the Coalition and their barbaric treatment of humans, she did owe them her gratitude. It had taken longer than she’d anticipate for them to put together a strike force, but they hadn’t hesitated to help her. Armed to the teeth, they’d charged into the Hunter compound, and they’d kicked some serious ass.
She’d only seen a little of the firefight before she’d slipped out of the back of one of the SUVs and disappeared into the forest. Witnessing the shock and fear on the Hunters’ faces, however, had been incredible, something she would never forget.
The only blight on her happiness was learning of the part she’d unwittingly played in almost getting everyone killed. When Cade had reluctantly told her about how Hunters had been luring Gemini to them, how she had simply been the latest bait, the guilt had been overwhelming.
Once she’d had time to think about it, however, she’d eventually accepted that it hadn’t been her fault. If anything, they’d dangled the wrong carrot this time. Clearly, they hadn’t expected their bait to bite back.
Roux twisted around to stare at her between the gap in the front seat. “It’s the first time I’m seeing it, too. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
She had never seen anything so beautiful, and she didn’t just mean the scenery. Deke drove them past a well-maintained playground filled with children. Even through her closed window, she could hear their laughter, and it made her smile. A couple of the little ones playing in the sandbox couldn’t have been more than two. She wondered if they had been born right there in the haven.
“It’s amazing. There are so many people.”
She’d heard the stories about Olympus for weeks. On the rare occasions when she’d let herself believe it was real, she’d always envisioned it as a primitive camp with a hundred or so residents. That couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Everywhere she looked, she saw Gemini and humans, young and old, families and friends. Couples held hands on the street. Mothers rocked their children on their porches. She even witnessed two people out walking their dogs.
“At last report,” Deke said from behind the wheel, “there were eight hundred and nineteen full-time residents.”
Following the winding road that led to the main lodge, they passed a general store, a diner, and even a small movie theater. It only had one screen, and the movie title on the marquee had been popular over a decade ago, but it was still pretty cool.
The morning sun peeked through the cloud cover, its rays glistening over the lake behind the lodge. Despite the cold, a number of boats could be seen on the water, as well as a dozen or so people fishing from the banks.
It was, in essence, paradise. The people there weren’t just surviving, they were
