Final Truth

Chapter 53: Explanation

Adam's point of view:

Tracing Will's old phone calls to Henley with my sisters has yielded absolutely nothing in relation to Julia and Peter's location, and I'm beginning to lose hope.

We've been at it ever since Kyle's funeral three days ago, and we still don't even the slightest clue as to where they could be.

The only other option to finding them involves my friends and I scouring the woods beyond for who knows how long until somebody stumbles across the prison, but that's not really an option at all because it's impossible.

Any place it might be is a place it definitely wouldn't be, because Henley's clever like that and I hate it.

"Always one step ahead," I mumble when I leave my office that night, still reeling from the retched sent of alcohol that Will managed to leave behind when he took refuge there.

I'll need candles for sure if I hope to get anything done in there.

I sigh as I push open the front doors of the former headquarters building, stepping out into the warm night and taking a deep breath.

The sky rolls on in an endless sea of inky black and blue, and after spending so much time in that bunker, I come to the realization that I've missed being able to see something as simple as the sky overhead.

"Well hey there, Adam," a voice to my left rings out, and I have to fight back a scream before Cade emerges from the shadows, humor in his voice but seriousness in his eyes.

"What's wrong with you?!" I demand, putting a hand over my heart in a futile attempt at calming it.

"Oh lots of things, but that's not important. I needed to come and get you for something," he says.

"You're not gonna walk me home and then kiss me on my front porch, too, now are you? I don't think Cassia would be very pleased," I chide him, all in good humor as I still try to calm down.

"Haha, very funny," he says, sarcasm in his voice now. "Actually, there's a bunch of random people who just showed up at the front of the city looking for you."

I look at Cade as if he's just sprouted a second head, trying to decide whether to believe him or just admit my gullibility and go home.

But Cade's not joking, and when he opens his mouth to speak next, I can physically feel my stomach drop to the floor.

"There's a couple of them who say they know Julia."

Suddenly I'm sprinting with Cade trailing me to the front of the city, the part closest to the woods and not far from residencies.

We make it there quickly, and sure enough, there's a crowd of thirty or so people gathered closely underneath a street light, all dressed in grey prison uniforms and all in various forms of dishevelment.

Some have mud stains all over their clothes, some have scratches littering their bodies, and some have twigs and leaves knotted into their hair, but all have this same look of excitement and relief in their eyes before they've even seen me, as if they were happy to simply exist and breathe in a place far from wherever they came.

"E-Excuse me?" I call to them, and all eyes turn to me, all bright green eyes that practically glow in the darkness.

It's startling and painful, in some small way, to see them all with eyes exactly like Julia's, the color seemingly out of place on anyone else.