Chapter 25

chapter

twenty-five

Puzzle charged forward,weaving enthusiastically through the trees as Ellie and the others followed. His tail wagged high and proud, an enthusiastic flag leading them deeper into the woods.

The trees stood like guards, their ancient trunks lined with moss, and the sun filtered through the canopy, splashing the foliage with hues of gold and green. The forest was alive with whispers - the rustle of branches swaying in the wind, distant bird calls, their own breaths coming out in quick bursts.

It was beautiful in a haunting sort of way.

"You got a good dog here," Jean-Luc said. He didn't even sound winded, while she was panting trying to keep up with Puzzle's break-neck speed. "Reminds me of the pup I grew up with. Beauregard. Now he was a loyal dog, but he couldn't sniff out a squirrel in a nut factory. Your boy there's got a good nose and the drive to use it."

Her boy.

She smiled at the dog as he crossed back and forth over the path, looking for the scent. He was a good boy. The best.

Suddenly, Puzzle stopped in his tracks, tail standing still.

His ears perked up, nose twitching in the cool morning air. Then he suddenly darted into a dense cluster of ferns.

"Find something, buddy?" Ellie called, brushing past a low-hanging branch to catch up.

She found him sitting at the thick base of a redwood. His head drooped and he gave a low, distressed whine.

Ellie's heart pounded as she approached him. There, at his feet, propped up against the tree, was a body.

"Cal." His name was a choked gasp as she dropped to her knees next to him…

Except it wasn't Cal.

Hopeful.

His long hair spilled around his shoulders in a sweaty mess, his mouth ajar in an O of surprise. One hand rested limply on his chest under the blossom of blood on his white robe. His body was cold and rigid. He'd been dead for a while.

Puzzle whined again, butting his head against her leg.

"Good boy," she muttered, running her fingers through his fur. She sat back on her heels as relief and horror warred inside her. "This doesn't make sense."

Zak crouched down beside her and studied the body. "No, it doesn't. Who shot him?"

Suddenly Puzzle bounded off into the underbrush, disappearing from their sight. Ellie scrambled to her feet and took off after him, branches slapping at her face and arms. Puzzle barked like crazy, his voice echoing off the trees, sending up a flock of birds. He had Cal's scent.

Finally, the underbrush opened up to a small clearing where Puzzle danced around in front of a house she recognized—the old house from the group picture she'd found online while looking for True. It looked like someone had renovated it since that photo. Now it boasted fresh gold paint and bright white trim. Flowers bloomed in the neatly kept yard.

Something about the place tugged at a long-forgotten memory…

A children's book with a pretty yellow house on the cover…

And an older sister who used to read that book over and over to her…

"I'm gonna have a house like this someday, Elle. A pretty little yellow cottage in the woods."

"Will it be magic like in the book?"

"I think it will be."

"Can I come visit?"

"You'd better," Hope had said as she lovingly twirled one of Ellie's ringlets around her finger. "You're always welcome in my house."

The memory crashed into Ellie like a wave, stealing the breath from her lungs. Before she knew what she was doing, she moved toward the house.

"Wait!"

She ignored Zak's warning and walked up the steps, tracing her hand along the railing. The door opened before she got to it and there stood Hope.

Her hair was just as wild and dark as Ellie remembered, her eyes the same piercing light blue, but that was where the similarities ended. Her skin was sallow, her body thin from years of malnourishment or drug use or both.

"Hope," she breathed. "You're alive."

The suspicion in Hope's eyes softened slightly. "Ellie?"

Her voice was more hoarse, more broken than Ellie remembered, but it held the familiar lilt of their shared childhood. She looked at Ellie with a gaze that held many long, harrowing years of pain and survival.

Ellie nodded, feeling a lump in her throat. "Yeah, Hope. It's me."

Hope's lips twitched in something like a smile. "Elle… you're all grown up."

Tears welled in Ellie's blue eyes, stinging and hot. "And you're… you're..." She swallowed hard against the lump that had lodged itself in her throat.

"I'm alive," Hope finished for her, stepping back and opening the door wider, inviting her in.

Ellie launched herself at Hope, arms wrapping tightly her waist. Hope stood stock-still for an instant in shock before she slowly raised her arms to pat Ellie's back awkwardly.

Puzzle barreled past them, his tail wagging furiously as he pranced around a teenage girl with dark curly hair and light blue-green eyes.

True.

A brief expression of panic flitted over her features, and she stared at Hope like she expected and explosion. When none came, she relaxed slightly and turned toward Ellie. Her eyes seemed to scream, "Help!"

True looked so much like Hope, it was almost eerie. The same soft curls, the same striking eyes. Except there was something different about her, something more innocent, less tarnished. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but she wanted to believe that this girl still had a chance to escape the life her mother had chosen.

She turned back to her sister. "Where's Cal?"

"He's around," she replied nonchalantly, as if they were asking about a misplaced pen and not a missing person. "He needed some time for... soul searching."

Ellie swallowed down her fear. She wasn't sure she wanted the answer to her next question, but she had to ask it. "Is he alive?"

"For now." Hope's gaze slid toward the mercenaries standing in her yard with their guns raised. She smiled. "But it doesn't matter. None of us will be for much longer. The Great Renewal has started and if you're smart, you'll save yourself the horror to come like my family did."

"I'm your family."

Hope laughed at that, a bitter, pained sound. "No, Ellie. Not anymore. We haven't been family since your mother kicked me out." She looked at her daughter. "The woman who birthed me is selfish and evil. She will rot in hell when the end times come."

Terror lanced through her. The look in Hope's eyes... it was fanatic, unhinged.

"Mom's not evil," she protested. "Yes, she can be selfish sometimes, but she loves us and she's only human. She's not meant to be perfect. None of us are."

"True is. She's the embodiment of purity and light. She's here to lead us to salvation."

The conviction in those words made Ellie's blood run cold. Then realization struck her like a thunderbolt. "You're Mother God, aren't you?"

"No." She nodded toward her daughter. "She is. I am merely her harbinger. The bringer of her destiny."

Ellie's gaze flicked to True. The girl was trembling, tears silently trailing down her cheeks. "You ordered those people to kill themselves. It wasn't Hopeful."

Hope gave a serene smile. "Before something better can begin, everything else has to end."

"Did you kill Hopeful, too?"

"I set him free. I set them all free."

This was not the fun, careful sister she remembered, the sister who had promised her a magical yellow cottage in the woods. This was a woman twisted and broken by beliefs that were hurting everyone around her.

A noise from the edge of the clearing caught Ellie's attention. Zak, Donovan, and the mercenaries were inching closer, their guns pointed at Hope. But Hope seemed blissfully unaware, or maybe she just didn't care. She continued speaking, this time addressing True.

"And you, my angel... you will lead them into the new age."

True was shaking her head, tears streaming down her face. "No... I don't want to. Mom, this is wrong. I can't..."

"This is your destiny," Hope snapped.

"No, it isn't!" True's voice was like a sharp snap of a twig. "You're wrong. This isn't normal, Mom. This isn't how things are supposed to be." With that, she bolted past her mother, past Ellie, out into the yard. She held her hands high over her head. "Don't shoot. I want to leave!"

Zak and the team moved in and surrounded her, tucking her away to safety behind the shield of their bodies.

"No!" Hope wailed. "No, she's my salvation! You can't take her from me!" She lunged out the door, but the mercenaries were faster. They closed in on her, their guns raised.

"Hands on your head," one of the mercenaries ordered. Followed by another shouting, "Face down on the ground! Now!"

Hope didn't move for a solid five seconds, and the tension was a palpable thing, thrumming through the air like an electrical charge. Puzzle whined beside Ellie, his tail tucked between his legs, and she reached down to pat his side reassuringly, even as her own hands trembled.

"Hope, please," she called, her voice breaking. "Please, just… stop. You've lost control. You've lost yourself. You need help."

Hope glanced over her shoulder, smiling that deranged smile. "You're wrong. I've found myself."

In that moment, Ellie saw it— the mania, the delusion. Hope was submerged in her own reality, her judgment drowned in the flood of conviction, and no amount of talking was going to change her mind.

Then, she launched at the nearest mercenary. He didn't blink, didn't hesitate, and pulled the trigger.

The gunshot echoed like a thunderclap, bouncing off the trees and seeming to shake the very ground itself. Puzzle howled, a terrible, mournful sound that sent spikes of ice through Ellie's chest. She was frozen in horror as Hope crumbled to the ground, a bloom of dark red spreading across her stomach.

"Hope!" She darted toward her sister even as one of the mercenaries moved to intercept her. But she was too quick, too desperate. She slid on her knees through the damp grass until she was at Hope's side, pressing her hands over the wound to stop the blood.

Hope's eyes fluttered up to meet hers. "Elle..." she gasped, her breath hitching in pain. Her fingers clawed weakly at Ellie's arm. "They'll... they'll all be saved..."

"Mom!" True screamed, breaking free from Zak's protective grasp and rushing toward her mother.

"Someone hold her," Lanie shouted as Jesse landed hard on his knees at Hope's side. He pulled his pack off his back and dug through it for a roll of gauze.

"Ellie," he said gently. "I'm a medic. Let me see the wound."

Numb, she sat back and watched Jesse apply pressure to the wound, efficiently working to stem the blood flow.

Hope gasped in pain, her hand reaching out blindly. Ellie grasped it tightly, squeezing to let her know she wasn't alone.

True was beside them now, sobbing as she clung to Hope's free hand. "Mom… please don't leave me. This isn't what I meant to happen. I just wanted out. I just wanted to be normal."

Hope's eyes fluttered open. "My angel," she wheezed. Her teeth were stained with blood. "Don't… listen to them. You know… your destiny."

"Mom, please…"

Hope's eyes glazed over, and she exhaled one last time, a rattle deep in her throat.

Jesse swore softly under his breath and attempted CPR. Somewhere in the distance, she heard Zak's voice calling for a medivac.

Minutes passed.

Finally, he sat back and looked at Ellie for a regret-filled heartbeat, then at True. "I'm sorry. She's gone."

For a moment, everything went still. The world seemed to halt in its tracks, the air turned brittle, shattering at the mere thought of breathing. Cold dread filled Ellie's veins.

"No." True's shattered whisper cut through the deadly silence. "No! You're lying!"

She lunged at Jesse, but Zak stepped in, catching her mid-air. She fought wildly, her fists pounding on his chest. But Zak held onto her, wrapping his arms around her and murmuring soft comforts until the fight drained away and she went limp.

Ellie couldn't tear her eyes off Hope's lifeless face. The deranged smile was gone now, replaced by a vacant tranquility. It was the same expression on all of the cult members' faces.

A hand landed on her shoulder. Donovan stood behind her, his eyes haunted. "I'm sorry, Ellie," he muttered, his voice choked with emotion. "I had to."

Only then did she realize that it had not been one of the mercenaries who had taken the shot but him.

"It's okay, Van. This is what she wanted. She didn't give you a choice." Her voice sounded hollow even to her own ears, and she shook her head, slowly climbing to her feet. "We need to find Cal."

True inhaled sharply and gazed up with a tear-stained face. "I know where he is."

The temperature in the shipping container was becoming stifling, the air thick, stalling in Cal's lungs with every breath. He was dripping sweat and thirsty, and his head felt like it was splitting open. There was a metallic taste in his mouth— blood or fear, either one fit. Cal eyed the tray of food on the floor beside him. There was a cup of tea on it. He could drink that and?—

No. True had said not to eat or drink anything.

He kicked out, knocking the tray out of his reach and removing the temptation. The clatter of it skidding across the floor seemed as loud as a gunshot, and he jumped in surprise.

Or… was that actually a gunshot?

He strained his ears but heard nothing but the thud-thud-thud of his heart pounding. He glanced over at Pierce, still slumped unconscious in that chair, and grimaced. The guy's face was ashen, his lips tinged with blue.

With a grunt, Cal pushed himself up to a sitting position. Everything spun for a moment before settling back into place.

"Pierce," he rasped, voice hoarse from disuse and dehydration. "Pierce, come on, man. Wake up."

No response.

Just like all the other times he'd tried.

That was the worst part—the brutal silence broken only by Pierce's uneven breathing, which seemed to grow shallower with each passing minute.

Cal closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the metal wall, trying to keep the panic at bay. He took one steadying breath, then another.

There had to be a way to get out of this.

Suddenly, there was a noise. Distant at first but growing louder. It sounded like… barking?

He held his breath and listened, praying it wasn't just desperation playing tricks on his senses.

There it was again.

A distinct bark, followed by the sound of voices.

The container doors creaked open, daylight streaming in like a knife through the oppressive darkness.

"Cal!"

The relief that hit him was immediate, the tears that followed unexpected. Ellie stood illuminated in the doorway, her blond curls an untamed halo around her head. She had never been a more welcome sight.

"Elle," he croaked, his throat raw.

She hurried to his side, her gaze flickering briefly to Pierce's motionless form. "We need help in here," she called to someone over her shoulder.

More figures moved into the tight space—men he didn't recognize dressed in camo and face paint. They freed Pierce from the chair and gently carried him out.

"Who…?" He couldn't finish the question—his mouth was too dry—but she understood anyway.

"They're Zak's friends. He called them in to help find you."

As if conjured by his name, Zak appeared in the doorway with a pair of bolt cutters. "Hey, Cal. How are you doing?"

"Been… better."

"Yeah, we're getting you out of here." As he positioned the cutter on the chain, he added, "Medivac is five minutes out."

Cal winced as the chain fell off.

"Thanks," Cal managed, rubbing the raw skin around his wrists. He was helped to his feet by Zak and Ellie, a wave of dizziness hitting him as he stood.

Ellie was at his side instantly, her arm sliding around his waist to hold him steady. "Cal, are you okay?"

He wasn't. He felt like shit. He was overheated, hungry, thirsty, and the world around him kept spinning in a dizzying dance of light and shadow. But he looked into those clear blue eyes behind her smudged glasses, and, somehow, he felt better. "I am now."

There was a moment between them, a brief flicker of something that was over too quickly, shattered by Zak's gruff voice. "All right, lovebirds, stop making googly eyes at each other. We need to get moving."

"What about Pierce?"

Zak grimaced and slung the bolt cutters up onto his shoulder. "The medic's working on him."

"Is he any good?"

"The best in the business." Something dark moved through Zak's eyes. "These guys saved me, brought me home from Afghanistan. If anyone can save Pierce, it's them."