Chapter 27

The next morning came slowly, the first rays of sunlight creeping into the lodge like tentative intruders. We hadn’t slept much. Every creak, every gust of wind, every small noise set us on edge, convinced that something or someone was out there waiting to strike. But the night passed without further incident. The footsteps we had heard faded into the shadows, leaving us with nothing but uncertainty.

Jake stood by the window, his eyes scanning the treeline, much like he had done throughout the long hours of the night. Caleb and Marcus were seated at the small wooden table in the corner, silently eating the scraps we had managed to gather from the supplies. No one spoke, and the tension between us was thicker than ever.

I sat across from Caleb, picking at my own meager meal. My stomach churned, not from hunger, but from the gnawing feeling that something was about to go terribly wrong. Jake hadn’t told me more about what he knew, and I hadn’t pressed him yet. There was no trust left to spare among us, and that frightened me more than the unknown danger outside.

Finally, after what felt like hours of uncomfortable silence, Jake turned to face us. His expression was grim, his face lined with exhaustion.

“We need to make a decision,” he said, his voice rough but firm. “We can’t stay here any longer. We don’t know who’s out there or when they’ll come back. But we also can’t just run blindly. We need a plan.”

Caleb glanced at Marcus, who nodded in agreement. “Jake’s right. Whoever they are, they could have been watching us all night, waiting for us to slip up. We need to move before they act.”

“Where can we even go?” I asked, frustration bubbling to the surface. “We don’t even know who’s after us, let alone how to stay ahead of them.”

Jake’s gaze flicked to me, his eyes dark with the weight of responsibility. “That’s the part we need to figure out. But for now, we stick to the basics: we keep moving, stay together, and don’t trust anyone outside this group.”

Marcus folded his arms over his chest, his brow furrowed. “You still haven’t told us everything, Jake. Who do you think is out there? You seem to know more than you’re letting on.”

Jake hesitated, a flicker of unease passing over his face. He glanced out the window again before answering. “I don’t know for sure, but I have suspicions. This whole thing, from the attack back at the compound to now, doesn’t feel random. Someone is pulling the strings.”

“And you’re just now telling us this?” Caleb’s voice was sharp, his patience clearly wearing thin.

“I didn’t want to jump to conclusions without proof,” Jake said, his voice hard. “But I’ve been getting that feeling for a while now. There are people who don’t want us to succeed, people who would benefit if we fail.”

“Who?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

Jake locked eyes with me, and for the first time, I saw something in him that unsettled me: doubt. He wasn’t as certain as he wanted us to believe. “I don’t know,” he admitted, “but we need to stay sharp. Trust me, we’re not just dealing with some random group of mercenaries. There’s something bigger at play.”

The weight of his words settled over the room like a suffocating blanket. For a moment, no one spoke, the gravity of the situation sinking in. The idea that there was a larger conspiracy behind all of this, that someone was actively hunting us for reasons we didn’t understand, was terrifying.

“What’s the plan then?” Marcus finally asked, breaking the silence. “Where do we go from here?”

Jake ran a hand through his hair, his gaze turning inward as he thought. “We need to head east, toward the river. There’s a small town there, about a day’s hike from here. It’s off the main grid—no surveillance, no major roads. We can regroup there, maybe get some intel.”

Caleb looked skeptical. “You really think we can trust a random town? For all we know, they could be working for whoever’s after us.”

Jake’s eyes narrowed. “It’s a risk, but it’s our best shot right now. We can’t keep running in the wild forever. We need to find a place where we can blend in, disappear for a while.”

I bit my lip, feeling the tension pulling tighter with every passing second. “What if it’s a trap? What if they know we’re headed there?”

Jake’s expression darkened. “That’s a risk we’ll have to take. But sitting here waiting for them to find us isn’t an option either.”

Marcus stood up, pushing his chair back with a scrape. “Alright then. Let’s get ready. We move in an hour.”

The next hour was spent in a flurry of quiet activity. We packed up what little we had, making sure to leave nothing behind that could indicate our presence. Every now and then, Jake would stop and glance out the window, his body tense as if expecting an ambush at any moment.

As we were about to head out, Caleb approached me, his face serious. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

I nodded, stepping aside with him. “What’s up?”

“There’s something I’ve been thinking about,” he said, his voice low. “Something doesn’t sit right with me about Jake. I’ve known him for a long time, and I trust him, but… I don’t know, something feels off. I think he’s hiding more than just suspicions.”

I felt a cold knot of fear twist in my stomach. “What do you mean?”

Caleb glanced over his shoulder, making sure the others weren’t listening. “Back at the compound, Jake was the only one who knew the layout of that place. He was the one who led us out, remember? What if… what if he’s the one who led them to us in the first place?”

The blood drained from my face as the implications of his words hit me. “You think Jake betrayed us?”

“I don’t know,” Caleb said, his voice tight. “But I think we need to be careful. I’m not saying we abandon him, but we should keep our eyes open.”

I nodded slowly, the doubt creeping into my mind. It was a dangerous thought, and one I couldn’t afford to entertain lightly. But Caleb was right—something about Jake’s behavior had been off lately. And if he was hiding something, it could get all of us killed.

As we set out into the forest, the weight of that possibility hung over me like a shadow. We moved quickly and quietly, the dense trees closing in around us, the path ahead uncertain.

But one thing was clear: trust was a fragile thing, and out here, it could be the difference between life and death.