Epilogue

As dawn broke, we pulled into a rest stop just off the highway.

Alex opened his door and got out. I followed after him, looking around at the half-dozen or so trucks parked around us. There was no RV with West Virginia plates amongst them.

It had been two days. Two days and two nights of not knowing. Two whole days and two whole nights running from the scene we’d left behind in Joshua Tree – from the people we’d left behind. I felt a horse-kick to my stomach every time I remembered Jack sprawled in the dirt bleeding, with Ryder lying dead beside him.

I screwed my eyes shut. When I opened them again the sun had started to stretch the shadows across the asphalt. I scanned the highway in both directions, sighing loudly. I didn’t want to be here. I wanted to be in Oceanside.

I glanced over at Alex. He had his sunglasses on so I couldn’t see the dark shadows or the look in his eyes, which I was grateful for. Alex, normally so impossible to read, was struggling to hide his worry. He kept reassuring me that Jack would be OK and I was trying hard to believe him but his eyes kept giving him away.

As though he sensed me studying him, Alex turned then walked around to my side of the car. He put his arms around me and I sank my head against his chest, feeling some of the anxiety immediately fade away. He lifted me up and rested me on the bonnet of the car and we stayed like that for a while, me cocooned in his arms with the sun slowly warming us.

‘Will they come, do you think?’ I asked eventually, my cheek still against Alex’s chest.

‘They’ll come,’ he answered, as though it wasn’t up for debate.

For forty-eight hours we had been zigzagging through California and Nevada, trying to shake the Unit off our tail. Alex was convinced that Demos, either through Nate or Suki, would find us eventually. I hadn’t voiced my fears – that they had been caught or that the Unit would find us before they did – because they didn’t need voicing. But now we were getting into our third day since the shoot-out and there was still no sign of Demos and my fears were starting to press against the dam of my chest, threatening to burst through it.

If it wasn’t for Alex’s arms around me, I thought I would give up and just wait for the Unit to find me. At least then I’d get to see Jack and my mum again. But even as I thought it I knew that I would never give up – I would never give in to the Unit, not after everything they had done to my family.

I lifted my head so I could watch the road, surreptitiously scanning the rest stop and the surrounding area for missiles I could launch if I needed to.

Eventually, when the sun was brushing the bottom branches of the trees around us, we heard the grind of gears and looked up. A dirty white RV was thundering down the highway. I gripped Alex’s arm. We watched as it pulled into the rest stop. It had a West Virginia number plate. I jumped down off the bonnet.

They had found us.

I spun around to Alex. A shadow of a grin passed across his face when he saw my expression. ‘Told you,’ he said.

I turned back and waved at the RV as it drew up in front of us. Demos and Harvey were first out, Suki and Nate stumbling down the steps behind them. The two of them looked shell-shocked. Suki’s face was streaked with black lines. Alicia and Bill followed last. There was no sign of either Amber or Thomas. Alicia looked fierce. Her eye was healing but I noticed the scowl she shot at Alex. Bill seemed uneasy, like he wanted to be away from all this.

‘Are you OK?’ Demos asked, striding straight towards me. He put a hand on my shoulder, his eyes boring into mine.

‘Yeah, I’m OK,’ I said, my voice husky. ‘Is Jack, though? Did you see him? Is he alive?’

‘They put him in one of the Humvees,’ Demos answered. ‘He’s alive but we didn’t see what happened to him.’

My face fell. What was the point of all this waiting, then? We should have just gone straight back to the base, followed after them and found out. I couldn’t wait any longer not knowing. I heard a familiar voice and looked up.

‘I saw what happened to him.’ Key was standing in front of me. It took me a few seconds to place him.

‘Wh-what are you doing here?’

Seriously, what was he doing here? My eyes flew from Key to Demos and then back to Key. Only a few days ago Key had been warning me about Demos. Now they were on the same side? It hit me only then. Of course they were on the same side. We all were now.

‘I was on the mountain, Lila,’ Key said, wiping the back of his mouth. ‘I heard you all talking – heard what Nate had to say, and then I followed you all to Joshua Tree. Saw that girl Rachel talking about your mother – figured you might need some help in getting her back.’

I stared at him, tears stinging my eyes. I couldn’t speak.

‘I caught up with these guys eventually but it took a while. Had to go back for my body,’ he said, shrugging and smiling at the same time. He glanced over at Nate and smiled. Nate grinned back at his dad.

‘And Jack? You said you saw what happened to him.’ I clutched for his hand.

He looked back at me and the smile vanished. ‘They took him back to the base. He’s in the military hospital there. The Unit are all over him.’ He paused. ‘He’s not in a good way, Lila.’

I felt my breathing start to hike. The ground started to shimmer and move beneath my feet. I felt Alex’s hand come around my waist, rest on my hip, stilling me.

Key took a breath and I caught the wary look he flashed at Alex. ‘He was hurt bad. The bullet missed all the vital organs but it’s lodged near his spine. They operated. He’s OK but he’s in a coma. They won’t know what the damage is until he wakes up.’

Alex’s grip on my waist tightened and I leant into him, closing my eyes, taking in Key’s words.

‘He’s alive,’ Alex whispered into my hair.

Relief belatedly rushed through me. I straightened up, pulling away from Alex. Jack was alive. So now we needed to get him back.

I turned to Alex. ‘How do we get into a military hospital?’

He hesitated. ‘Not that easily,’ he said finally.

I stared at him, wanting a better answer than that, but I just found myself looking at my reflection in his sunglasses. I had my hands on my hips, my hair tumbling over my shoulders, my eyes burning. I turned away, kicking the gravel with my shoe.

‘And Rachel?’ I heard Alex say.

I spun around.

‘She’s inside,’ Demos answered.

‘We stuck a gag in her mouth,’ Suki added. ‘She can really talk and Demos can’t spend all day whiting her out.’

Demos gave a faint shrug.

‘What are you going to do with her?’ Alex asked.

Demos studied Alex hard, his gaze inscrutable. ‘We’ll use her. Somehow. She must have some information. Suki and Alicia are both trying to read her but she’s blocking them somehow. We’ll find a way in, though, or we’ll use her as collateral.’

Alex frowned a little but just nodded.

‘You need to get Lila out of here,’ Demos said, tipping his head towards me.

‘No!’ I yelled, moving to stand between them. ‘I need to go back. We need to get Jack. We need to get my mum.’

‘We will.’ Demos turned to me, his voice low. He put a hand on my arm. ‘Just not now.’

Why not now?

‘We’ll get them back, Lila, I promise. But first we need to regroup. Ryder’s gone.’

I stopped short, my protest dissolving. Ryder was dead. Demos’s head was hanging down, his eyes hooded. I looked over at Suki, tears streaming down her cheeks. Nate was wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. Alicia was still glaring at Alex and Bill was just looking at the ground. This was their family. They had lost one of their own. And so had I.

‘I’m sorry,’ I choked out.

Demos nodded at me, his lips pressed tightly together. He looked over his shoulder at the door to the RV.

‘Is everyone else OK?’ I asked.

‘Yeah.’ Demos looked at the ground. ‘No one else got hurt,’ he said, under his breath.

There was a moment of stillness. Only the shudder of traffic from the road.

‘You go,’ Demos finally said to Alex. ‘Take Lila and head south. Over the border. Keep going until you hit Mexico City. We’ll find you there.’

‘What are you going to do?’ Alex asked.

‘We’re going to try to draw the Unit away from the two of you, we’ll go north.’

‘OK,’ Alex said and started to pull open the car door. ‘We’ll see you in Mexico.’ His eyes flashed suddenly to me. ‘Then we’ll take it from there.’

I considered him for a moment, considered myself in his glasses. Then I opened the door of the car.

‘Wait.’

I turned around. Demos had hold of my arm. He pulled me towards him and squashed me into a massive hug. ‘Stay out of trouble,’ he murmured before letting me go.

I stumbled back out of his arms and stared after him as he marched back to the van. Suki held up a hand in farewell. Nate tugged her backwards and nodded a sad goodbye. I watched them go, feeling a familiar snap and ping as something inside me started to stretch.

Then I turned to Alex. His eyes were fixed straight on me, filled with anxiety and something else. Something I now recognised. Because I knew the feeling well – had known it since the day I broke my leg twelve years ago.

I smiled a weak smile. ‘Come on, let’s go.’

An echo of a smile turned the corner of his mouth up. He pulled me by the arm until I was tight against him and then bent to kiss me on the lips. ‘We’ll find your mum and Jack, I promise,’ he said.

And I believed him.