Outside, the trees had thinned to reveal a wide valley nestled between two heavily forested mountains. Clouds covered the sun, casting the day back into gloom, as if to make up for the shade they’d lost.

“Is that where we’re going?” Bryson asked. Releasing his seat belt, he scooted as close to Gerard as he could, gripping the headrest in front of him. “That place looks a thousand years old.”

“That’s gotta be it,” Nancy answered. “It doesn’t look like there’s anything else around.”

Michael stared. Down below them, scattered among the trees of the valley floor, were several long, low buildings that reminded him of battered shipping crates. They looked like military barracks, something you might see in one of those ancient war movies set in a jungle somewhere exotic. The roofs had holes torn in them—some were patched; most were gaping wide, though, and open to the elements. Kudzu and ivy crept everywhere, blanketing sections of the buildings so that certain parts resembled neglected topiaries in the garden of some forgotten giant.

“Man,” Bryson moaned. “I was kind of hoping for something more along the lines of a Marriott. At least the prison had working toilets.”

“Snakes,” Sarah whispered, as if in a trance. “I bet that place is full of snakes.”

Michael refused to let his newfound enthusiasm be dimmed. His curiosity more than made up for the dilapidated appearance of…whatever the place was. “So, you haven’t been here before, right?” he asked Gerard, then tried a new tack. “Where’d you meet Helga and the others? How’d you know where to find us, how to get here?”

Nancy turned to face him. “Not a lot to tell, I’m afraid. My guess is you three probably know more than we do. These…Tangents—that’s what they called themselves—barged into that horrible warehouse our kidnappers took us to, released us, gave us this car, gave us instructions. Everything happened in a whirlwind. We didn’t have much choice but to trust them. I mean, look, it meant getting to you kids and getting out of there.”

Michael could’ve responded in a lot of ways to that one. Trusting others was something he’d never find easy again. At the moment, it was just about staying alive, and he had to admit that this did seem to be their best option.

And there was Helga. He had to meet this Helga.

The road leveled out, cutting off their view, and suddenly they were pulling into the overgrown complex of barracks. What Michael had been unable to see earlier were the dozen or so cars parked under the shade of several big trees. The cars were beat up. They looked so old that, if it weren’t for the complete lack of kudzu on their surface, one would think they’d been there as long as the buildings themselves.