Reid runs for a while, trying to get his bearings. He knows the compound was pretty much due West but is on the far side of where he saw the interstate his first night.
Then he shakes himself. The town. The sign. Of course. There has to be an off ramp around here somewhere. Reid stops long enough to figure out where the town would be from his location while his mind taunts him. The sign could have been faked. Maybe there’s nothing out here but miles and miles of wilderness. But Reid won’t let himself go there, not yet.
As he orients himself, he listens at the same time. He’s so used to being in the forest by now he can easily filter out the regular nighttime noises and pay attention to the unusual ones. He can hear commotion behind him, knows the soldiers are searching for him. He ignores them. Off to his left, however, he hears something else.
Tires on pavement. His acute senses pick up the hum of rubber on asphalt and Reid’s heart leaps.
He runs, struggling for control over his vision, worried as he goes about falling and hurting himself. That would be perfect, really. Gain his freedom then bust a leg or get a concussion right when he’s about to be rescued.
Reid refuses to let his friends down like that.
His sharper vision finally snaps into place and stays with him by sheer force of will. Now that he has it, it’s easier to maintain. Reid feels around inside himself as he pours on the speed now that he can see. But from what he can tell he has no desire to kill and eat anyone, no homicidal tendencies aside from his need to kick Marcus’s ass and maybe the soldiers who did this to him. And the hunters. Them he will gladly kill given the chance.
But those feelings seem normal to him, revenge normal. He winces at what’s become so commonplace in his life and tries to focus on just getting help, not ready to examine the state of his soul.
Reid knows that this time something has permanently changed inside him. The black, gaping hole is wider and more alluring. Even his body feels different, as though he’s reordered how he’s put together somehow. And even though the super-strength he experienced has faded, now that he knows how to access and control his hyper senses he realizes that control and ability isn’t going away.
It’s then he has an epiphany. If he is really experiencing what it’s like to be a hunter, and he’s sure it’s only a fraction of what they can do, he knows now how futile the kid’s efforts to run and hide really were. Not to mention fighting back. And it makes Reid wonder how they managed to kill any of the hunters at all.
With no way to uncover any answers, he shoves the understanding aside and goes back to his first goal.
Finding help.
When Reid spots lights ahead he slows, rejoicing in the sound of vehicles hurtling by on the road ahead. He eases to the edge of the trees, eyes feasting on the two big trucks that roar past. He’s made it. But he’s not safe yet. This is just a side road, two narrow lanes with barely a shoulder to them, winding through the trees. He spots a shining sign ahead, considers it, trying to keep his cool while he rejoices.
The interstate. He’s going the right way after all. Reid wonders if this road goes all the way around the enclosure and realizes he doesn’t have that kind of time if it’s true. He has to get help now, not two days from now. His friends could all be dead by then.
Reid is about to emerge when he sees an Army truck thunder by. Of course they’ll be watching the road. He needs to be careful, kicking himself for his impulsiveness. They will be desperate to catch him and contain him.
Reid waits until they pass to scoot out to the edge of the road. He plants himself, belly to the ground and waits. The stretch of asphalt is quiet, the night deep. When no other cars or trucks pass, Reid rises and runs on.
The interstate must be close. The sign didn’t display a distance, which means the on-ramp has to be near by. He’s sure of it. Reid is so focused on getting there he doesn’t notice lights coming up behind him until it’s almost too late. He glances back over his shoulder and dives for the trees. The car slams on the brakes as he tears into the forest, kicking himself for being an idiot.
Until he hears a familiar voice call out. “Reid!”
It can’t be. He freezes in his tracks, spins back. Hovers, fearful to believe but knowing what he heard.
Again she calls to him. “Reid!”
He returns to the edge of the trees and looks out. And catches his breath. She stands there, hugging herself, her car door open, light spilling out onto the ground, the warning bell calling to her to close it. Her long blonde hair hangs over her shoulders and into her face. He can see her clearly, so lovely, just like their mother.
“Please, Reid.” It’s a whisper, but Reid hears her and can’t resist.
He could never deny his sister anything.
Reid staggers out onto the shoulder toward her, so overwhelmed he chokes on his rising emotions. “Lucy.”
She sobs once, runs to him, her arms going around him, pulling him to her. She squeezes him so hard it hurts but he doesn’t care, doesn’t, just hugs her back and feels his tears trickle down his face and into her soft, soft hair.
She jerks free and drags him forward, unresisting. “We have to go.”
Lucy climbs in the driver’s seat, slamming her door. He stares at her as her window hisses down, so shocked he is unable to act.
“Reid, get in. Reid!”
A pair of approaching headlights makes up his mind for him. He scrambles around the engine bonnet, jerking the door open, throwing himself inside. The lights pass their car by as he hunches down, out of sight.
Lucy doesn’t even wait for him to sit up before tromping on the gas pedal. Her tires squeal and smoke before catching on the pavement and hurtling them down the road.
“Oh my God, Reid, I can’t believe it, you’re alive, I was sure they killed you, I’m so sorry, this is all my fault.” She weeps as she rambles on, whole body shaking, hands locked on the steering wheel.
“Lucy.” He just smiles at her, like she’s some kind of apparition, an angel maybe. It makes him think of Cole.
“I found you, this is amazing, I never thought I would.” One of her hands unwinds from her death grip on the wheel and squeezes his knee. Her fake nails dig into his leg, almost painful. But he’s grateful for the contact. It makes her feel even more real.
“I thought you were dead,” he says. In fact, he was sure of it. The men who came that night to her apartment. Didn’t they take her too?
“I’ve been looking for you.” She glances his way, smiles, her perfect model’s face made up, flawless. Even her tears make her more beautiful.
“How did you find me?” He can’t wrap his head around it. He knows he’s nowhere near their home state of Arizona. Best guess the East Coast. How did she know where to look? “Where are we?” It’s important he know.
“Don’t worry,” she says. “Mr. Syracuse helped me.”
Syracuse. Reid tenses, all his anxiety and anger and fear roaring back as his own deductions fed by Ashley’s sobbing story tell Reid he needs to be careful. He is suddenly a trapped animal in the front seat of her car.
“We have to get out of here.” He hates the wobble in his voice. He’s been through too much to allow emotion to stop him now. Surely Lucy must know it was her boss who got Reid into this in the first place. How can she not know?
“We are,” she says. “I’m taking you somewhere safe. Oh Reid, I’m so sorry and I’m just glad you’re all right. It’s going to be okay.”
Her sincerity suddenly seems forced, her smile edged with untruth. There is a scent in the air, sharp and unpleasant. He realizes it’s the smell of her fear. She’s not clutching the wheel because she’s afraid they’ll be caught. She’s doing it because she’s afraid she will be.
By him. Caught in her lies. He can see it in her face, the falseness of her weeping. Like a veneer of concern, a mask of caring. Lucy was always a great actress and knew exactly what to do to get what she wanted. She’s playing Reid just like always. Only this time it’s not just his heart she’s risking. It’s his life and those of the kids he left behind.
Reid wants to trust his sister but he’s too far past his old life to let something like family ties keep him from what’s real.
“Your boss did this to me.” He tests the truth of it on her and sees her flinch, her eyes flicker to the side before returning to the road.
It’s a long time before she answers, her throat working as he watches her process lie after lie. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s life and death this time, that she is unable to come up with a falsehood to keep him from the truth. Whatever the reason, she discards them all and simply whispers, “Yes.”
Reid collapses in on himself, his heart breaking all over again. “And you knew.”
Again the internal dialogue ending in the softest, “Yes.”
“Lucy,” he says, ready to kill her if he has to, “we have to get help.”
She nods once. “I know,” she says. “That’s exactly what we’re doing.”
She manages that lie at least. And he knows she is lying, sees it clearly now, wonders if his sister has ever told the truth in her entire life. The car slows, Reid tenses, sees a truck stop sign ahead, lights, a low building. He could open the door, throw himself out, trust to his new power and the control over his body, but he can’t bring himself to do it. All of the fight is gone from him in the face of what he knows.
His own sister. His own flesh and blood. Lucy did this to him.
It’s enough to hold him still until she parks the car and turns off the ignition. She sits there for a long time in the quiet, hands fiddling with the keys, swallowing over and over again.
“We have to go,” she says, reaching for her door and he knows it wasn’t indecision that held her beside him but the fear that he would kill her for what she has done.
Reid doesn’t bother trying to stop her. And when his door is wrenched open and large hands grab him and lift him free of the car, he lets them. Looks into a pair of dark brown eyes and hears a familiar voice say, “Well, lookit here now. Guess luck was on your side, kiddo.”
One of the men, from the van. Big, bulky, solid. It’s the first time Reid’s seen him but his mind remembers.
“Next time I’ll kick your head in, asshole,” Reid says in his calmest voice.
The man flinches. Drops Reid on his feet and gives him a quick pat down. Finds the precious knife. Reid’s regret about losing it is deeper than his disappointment at his sister. Maybe in his heart he always knew. Or he’s just in shock. Either way, Reid wants the knife back, the memory of the mine maze tied tightly to it.
Retrieving his knife isn’t likely to happen. The big guard finishes his exploration of Reid’s clothes and gives him a shove. “Get moving, you.”
Reid abandons his humanity in that moment, disowning his sister at the same time. His hyper senses snap back into place as he looks around. The only thing he cares about is surviving, escaping again and freeing his friends. To do that he has to pay attention.
The place is pretty much abandoned, only a few cars out front. But the low building is lit up, a flashing neon sign welcoming him to “Angie’s Roadhouse.” Reid feels better the moment he realizes he can escape at any time. But there are things he wants to know and a man he hopes to meet inside.
Instead of fighting back, Reid follows the tall blonde woman he used to love into the bar, her boss’s bully trailing along behind him.
***