If I’m going to die, I want to be wherever she’s going.
Chapter 30:
Cayden
It’s been four weeks, almost a whole fucking month Darlia has been missing, and there is not a single sign of her.
We’ve checked every database, every government warehouse, everywhere for a clue of where she’s being held, anything. Darlia just vanished without a single fucking trace, and I can’t have that. She needs to come home, I need to find her.
All my contacts in the new order have no idea about the re-education sites, so it’s been even harder to find her. Usually, all of the new order locations are on their internal servers for the guards to see and protect.
The re-education site is on none of them, not a single fucking map. We spent hours checking over every single mark on the map for their locations, and none of them are wherever Darlia has been sent to.
I will find her, I have to find her. Even if she hates me, hits me, burns down my fucking house, I don’t care. Darlia can do whatever she wants, as long as she’s home. At least she will be here, with me, with Bella.
“I think I have a hit,” Marcus says, running over with his computer. The screen burns my eyes from the brightness, the lack of sleep we’ve all been going through finally catching up to us as he pulls up one of our own databases.
We have several hidden sites, all of them flooded with details from the new order and their experiments. It’s the easiest way for us to manage all the details on a single server rather than have it all on paper somewhere.
Marcus opens one of the old map systems—the type of map the new order made a contraband after they took over—and types in coordinates.
My heart stops, feeling like it physically drops in my chest when I see the location. Just behind the hill on the elites side of the zones, is a town from before. All the old houses, shops, hospitals still sit there abandoned and out of use. The pin Marcus sets drops on the hospital.
Fifteen minutes.
Darlia has been fifteen fucking minutes away this entire time at the abandoned hospital.
My fists clench, knuckles turning white at the realisation. I can almost hear The Academy laughing at me for not finding her sooner. By the third week when we couldn’t find her, we started looking for other provinces. It made the most sense for them to take her to the southern province, where I have no way into their systems.
But all this time she’s been fifteen fucking minutes away.
“Gear up, I want every fucking man ready to go in five. Bella?” My voice comes out harsher than intended, but the anger inside me right now is unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. Guilt is seeping through my veins. Everything Darlia has gone through, and she’s been just over the hill.
Bella looks up at me with a hopeful glint in her eyes. She’s missed Darlia as much as me, probably more. There’s no way she’s not coming on this rescue mission, good luck to Marcus if he tries to stop her.
“Downstairs in the kitchen hallway there’s a closet. Grab whatever weapon you want, and if it’s a gun, make sure it has ammo.” Her eyes light up and she instantly runs off to get whatever weapon she chooses. I don’t miss the way Marcus’s eyes follow Bella, making sure she’s okay before he turns to me.
Reaching under my desk for my emergency Beretta M9, I put the barrel in the waistband of my pants before grabbing my M8 military knife, tucking it into my boot before finally slinging my AK-47 over my shoulder.
“Marcus, grab whatever you want and let’s go.” I don’t wait for him, almost tripping from how fast I run down the stairs. Marcus knows this house as well as I do, considering we’ve both lived here for fifteen years. He doesn’t need to be told where to find a gun.
Walking out the door, I see all my men there waiting. Three of the boys are the boys from The Academy; we escaped together and have been inseparable since. The other four are boys I found wandering around the towns from before, and gave a home to them before the new order could find any use for them.
Darlia might not have any idea who I am, but every other person here does, including Bella now. Marcus told me he filled her in after she started asking too many questions, and I couldn’t blame him. It was only a matter of time before she started digging to find out.
“If you’re not willing to die, walk away now. There’s no shame in saving yourself.” No one moves, I knew they wouldn’t. My men are loyal because I don’t force them to fight battles they don’t want to, I never have. Unlike The Academy, I’ll never force anyone to fight for me, they all have a choice.
Fear doesn’t create loyalty, respect does.
Bella finally runs out the doors until she’s stood beside me, changed into her Academy training uniform with two pistols on both sides of her hips and an army knife attached to a sheath on her leg, no doubt because Darlia inspired her to do that.
“Darlia is in the Old West Hospital. Your job is to kill anyone who moves while Bella and I get Darlia.”
Only Luke and Marcus have met Darlia in person, though she didn’t know Luke at the time, he knew her. And the bastard exposed us by almost saying her real name instead of the fake one she gave us in the subway.
Darcie.
Bella lifts her chin confidently while the others nod at the plan. I can see why Darlia likes Bella; she’s strong and confident, and also not afraid to get her hands dirty, unlike Lauren. If they weren’t forced into their impossible situation, they might’ve been normal friends, as well.
