In The End Box Set , Stevens, GJ [motivational novels .txt] 📗

didn’t let it delay my progress when out of their sight I rushed along the foliage with the blocky fort soon coming into view.

The plan was simple enough. I’d make myself known, let them take me. I would be safe; they didn’t stand a chance against me. I could break any bonds they’d care to tie and they’d take me straight to her. I’d play nice until I was ready to finish this once and for all.

I’d do it for myself. I’d do it for my crew, for Jordain, but most of all I’d do it for everyone they’d hurt in the future.

81

LOGAN

Turning back, I looked in the opposite direction for any sign of Jess, but with a rustle of the bushes just ahead, we each turned to the sound coming at a low level. For a moment I thought it would be Jess crawling out on her hands and knees, but instead, Shadow emerged, walking past us and heading along the line we’d been following.

“Shit,” Alex exclaimed and I pushed my arm out, grabbing at her jacket as she made to run along the bushes after her.

“Didn’t you see her go?” I asked in a hurried whisper.

“Jess,” Alex called out, but the sound was so quiet against the lapping of the waves the other side of the wall.

Spinning around, I followed Cassie’s look toward the distant line of soldiers, seeking any reaction. When we saw their dogged march along the road, Alex moved off and this time I didn’t try to hold her back.

Following behind, we hugged the foliage and Cassie sped past me. I glanced to the soldiers in the distance. With my eyes widening, I concentrated on the view, hoping our speed wouldn’t point us out, but they were out of sight, disappearing somewhere between us and the long row of static caravans.

Our speed picked up and ahead came the orange glow of streetlights. We slowed, forming up behind Alex as she stopped.

Leaning tight to the hedge, I realised Shadow was at my side and I stroked down his back, staring past Alex down the hill to the edge of the fort we’d seen at a distance from the boat.

Resembling a brick box designed by someone used to building utilitarian prisons, it looked nothing like the castle or medieval construction the name conjured. With small, arched windows stacked on top of each other, it sat right to the edge of the water, surrounded by a deserted concrete platform.

Cassie called our attention with a click from her lips. I followed her outstretched hand and she pointed to the right, up the rising hill and a collection of construction vehicles; JCBs and tippers parked amongst cargo containers with a mobile crane folded up at the edge of a fenced-off compound.

“That must be the construction site Thompson mentioned,” I said.

A muffled intake of air made me look back down to the fort and I saw movement, Jess, strolling to a door in the middle of the wall.

Alex stifled her call with her hand, watching the door open and a rifle point out.

I expected chaos to ensue, a bloodbath, but to the shouted commands, Jess turned her back to the door and let a soldier drag her through the opening.

“She’s given up.”

The words fell from my mouth and I turned to Alex, getting ready to grab her.

82

“We’re screwed,” I said, letting the words slip with too much volume.

“No,” Alex replied, standing tall whilst backing up closer to the hedge line.

“She’s sold us out.” It was Cassie’s flat voice which came next.

“No. Jess will have a plan. She’s not just going to walk in there and give herself up after all this time,” Alex said, peering around the hedge and clasping her hands under her chin.

I took a moment to calm my breath. Despite appearances, I also struggled to believe Jess could hand herself over, but I’d known her only a few days less than Cassie. “What good can she do locked inside? That’s where they wanted her in the first place,” I said, moving to stand beside Alex.

Shaking her head, her eyes narrowed as she spoke with the moon lighting her face. “You’ve seen what she’s capable of. Do you think they can hold her back?”

I had, and Alex was right; unless they had some very big guns, there was no chance of standing in her way. “I hope she destroys that place from the inside.”

“Ellie,” Cassie said with a gasp as she rapidly blinked.

I opened my arms in hope she’d let me comfort her, but Cassie walked past me, taking a wide step out of my path as she walked toward the construction compound.

“Cassie, wait,” I said, and she stopped, turning my way, glaring with such rage and anger as if about to explode at any moment.

I couldn’t help but think it was the moment the monster inside her would reveal itself and prove my worst fear.

But she turned and spoke, her voice soft. “That’s where we get in.”

Taking a deep breath, I pushed down my selfish thoughts and my need to comfort her and my want to take control so I could make everything okay again. She no longer asked for my opinion, so all I could do was be there and help any way I could.

Running up the grass, bending at the waist to keep low, I followed Cassie, then after a moment I looked over my shoulder, relieved to see Alex had followed. As I turned back, I couldn’t help the feeling that I’d seen something in the distance, right where we’d walked from.

I stopped, Alex running past me, asking if I was okay as I concentrated on the darkness.

“Fine,” I said and turned, having dismissed the movement as only in my imagination.

Shadow ran alongside Cassie and we rose