The sight was breathtaking, and for a few long moments Paola simply stood there, contemplating the magnificence of it in silent awe. As she was doing this, a sudden notion popped into her mind. She reached into her jeans pockets and pulled out the letter she had written. She had been planning to covertly slip it into the hands of some gas station clerk or truck stop waitress in the hope that they would be willing to help her, but she realised that the beastwalkers would never give her the opportunity to do such a thing. She had to do it, though; she couldn’t bear the thought of her family thinking that she was a terrorist and a school shooter, and whatever happened to her, she was desperate for them to know the truth. Feeling a sudden spurt of paranoia, she glanced over her shoulder to make sure that she was alone. When she was sure she was, she unfolded the letter and skimmed over it hastily.
Whoever finds this letter, please copy this message and text it to 212 3911363. You can do it anonymously if you want, or call and leave a message. Please, just DO IT somehow!!! Thank you so much, you will literally be saving my life. XXX
Dear Mama and Papa
It’s me, P. To prove this is really me, just think of what happened at Disney World with me and Mateo on my 8th birthday after lunch! LOL! I just want you to know that I’m alive and well, and that I’m with some good people who are keeping me safe. I also want you to know that everything they’re saying about me and my friends on the news is lies. It’s all made up, it’s fake news! We’ve been framed, and they just made up all that “evidence”, it’s all 100% lies. Anyway, I’m okay and safe. I miss you both so much, and I miss Mateo, Nicolás and little Jimena too. I can’t see you guys now, even though I miss you all so much. I hope and pray that things get worked out sometime soon, so I can see you all again and clear my name.
I love you all so much.
P
She glanced once more over her shoulder, and then poured the last of the water out of her glass bottle. She shook the bottle as vigorously as she could to try to get as much liquid out of it as possible, and then rolled the note up, popped it into the bottle, and screwed the cap on tight.
‘Here goes nothin’,’ she whispered, and then she flung the bottle out into the centre of the huge pool below.
It hurtled through the air for a few drawn-out moments and then landed with a splash, disappearing for a moment below the surface of the choppy water, but after a second or two it emerged, bobbing cheerfully, and it was borne downstream by the surging current. Paola watched it go until it vanished from sight, whispering a silent prayer that somehow, against all odds, her message would fall into sympathetic hands. Once it was gone, she turned and headed back up the trail, and thereafter thought no more of the message in the bottle.
33
ESCAPE PART I
7th October
‘The time has come to tell us what you’ve chosen to do,’ Zakaria said to the teenagers. He, the other beastwalkers and the teens were all gathered on the cabin porch. The morning air was bracingly crisp with the lingering chill of the dead night, but the sky above was a clear, cloudless bowl of deep azure, and the rays of the rising sun were growing steadily warmer with each passing minute. ‘You’ve all been given a few days to think about it, and we cannot linger here any longer; we’re moving on at first light tomorrow. Where each of you ends up going will depend on the decision you make today. You’ve all done well with your training, and you’re as ready as you can be for whatever choice you make next.’
Since arriving at the mountain cabin, the beastwalkers had trained the teenagers daily in the basics of the arts of both armed an unarmed combat, survival skills, firearm handling and shooting, camouflage, and stealth. Despite being complete neophytes, the youngsters had all grasped the basics of the training, with some, like Daekwon, who was naturally athletically gifted, picking up these new skills with consummate ease, but also with others, like Chloe, who had always loathed sports, doing surprisingly well in many areas of training.
‘That,’ Zakaria continued, ‘gives you a whole day to think about what you want to do, but I must have a final answer from each of you by tonight. I just want to say again that no matter what each of you chooses to do, I will think of you as heroes. If you want to start a new life with a new identity on the other side of the world, and leave this business behind and try to live out the rest of your lives in peace, we will make that happen for you; it’s the least we can do, after everything you’ve been through.’
‘I wanna f-, fight for y’all,’ Daekwon declared, his jaw set and his eyes ablaze with determination. ‘I don’ need a’ th-, th-, think about it, I already made my mind up. I wanna s-, strike back at them assholes who tried to k-, kill y’all, an’ who tried to k-, kill us, an’ who made us four the most hated k-, kids in America. I d-, don’t just wanna clear my name, an’ my friends’ names … I wanna punish the assholes who d-, d-, did this shit to us.’
He slammed a rocky fist into the palm of his right hand and rumbled out a low growl.
‘I
