Several more screeches cut through the leaves all around me, leaving me disoriented. I turned in a full circle, assessing my options. Up at the ridgeline where Patrick and Alex had crashed the truck, trees nodded furiously, then dropped from view. Another Drone team must have moved ahead of the vanguard to pursue them. That left me a course to the west.

I ran.

Pine needles whipped across my body. My boots slid through mud, and several times I went down. I ran until my breath fired through my lungs, until my legs almost gave out. Eventually the sounds of crashing trees receded, but I could still hear the Drones among the trees, pursuing me. Several times I thought I’d gotten clear of them only to have a screech fly out of the foliage right beside me, nearly stopping my heart.

I braced myself for the sound of a gunshot signaling Patrick’s or Alex’s death but heard none. They might have been cornered and taken their own lives already. The screeches would easily have drowned out the noise of a bullet or two.

Somehow I got out of the valley.

Running blindly, I kept to the woods. I didn’t stop, didn’t slow. Trunks flickered past me, the landscape strobing by. I made it to the fork in the road, barreling into that ring of Rocky Mountain Douglas firs where we’d camped so many nights ago. Leaning over, I vomited twice, then dry-heaved more times than I could count.

I couldn’t catch my breath.

I didn’t have time.

Wiping my mouth, I kept on, winding my way down toward the cabin. Just before nightfall I saw the straight line of the roof appear through the brush. It took everything I had not to collapse with relief.

Dead on my feet, I staggered through the front door.

“Patrick? Alex?”

A sweeping glance told me that no one was there.

Were they dead? Captured?

I remembered the Rebel’s words: You have one job: Stay alive.

We’d thought it was a one-way mission, but there was so much more at stake now. I closed the door behind me, then drew all the blinds.

I drank down three glasses of water, then kicked off my boots, sat on the bed, and stared blankly at my toes. I stayed that way for a long time, fighting back tears. Patrick could be dead. Alex could be dead.

I could do nothing but wait and wait some more.

Alex had kissed me right here in this very spot. I remembered how she’d leaned in. The softness of her lips.

I wondered how I’d feel if she came back without Patrick.

Or if he did without her.

What if they didn’t come tomorrow? Or the next day? How long would I wait before heading back to Creek’s Cause?