Chapter 14 - INTO THE WOODSThe cold night air burned our lungs as we scrambled up the steep, rugged dirt trail leading away from the house. Behind us, the shouts of the recovering tactical operatives echoed through the trees, mixed with the high-pitched, whirring hum of a thermal drone lifting off from our front lawn.
"Keep moving! Don't look back!" Leo directed, taking the lead. He moved through the pitch-black forest with effortless grace, as if he had memorized the terrain beforehand.
"Where are we going, Leo?" I panted, clutching Chloe tightly in my arms as we navigated a maze of slippery rocks and exposed roots. "There’s nothing up this trail except an old logging ridge!"
"There's an abandoned communication bunker cut into the bedrock two miles up," Leo answered over his shoulder, his breathing steady and controlled. "It's shielded against thermal scans and EMP pulses. It’s the only place they won’t find us."
We climbed higher, the sound of the crashing ocean fading behind us, replaced by the howling wind sweeping through the mountain pass.
Chloe buried her face in my shoulder, shivering uncontrollably. "Dad... I'm scared."
"I've got you, sweetheart. I'm not going to let anyone hurt you," I promised, pressing a kiss against her matted hair, summoning every ounce of strength I had left.
Suddenly, a brilliant red beam cut through the canopy above us.
A thermal drone hovered fifty feet overhead, its camera lens panning back and forth across the forest floor.
"Get under the brush! Now!" Leo hissed, diving beneath a dense canopy of low-hanging fern leaves and decaying logs.
We threw ourselves flat onto the damp earth, pressing our bodies as close to the ground as possible. I pulled Lily, Chloe, and Maya into a tight huddle beneath me, shielding them with my own body.
The high-pitched buzzing of the drone hovered directly above our heads for what felt like an eternity. The red scanning light swept across my back, warming the fabric of my jacket.
If it detected our body heat through the canopy...
Click.
The small scrambler device in my pocket gave a faint, electronic chirp.
Above us, the drone’s motor pitch suddenly shifted. The red scanning light flickered erratically, locked onto a false telemetry reading generated by the scrambler, and then veered off to the left, speeding away down the ridge toward an empty ravine.
We all let out a collective, shaky breath.
"It worked," Maya whispered, her eyes wide with adrenaline. "They lost our thermal signature."
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"For now," Leo said, standing up and brushing pine needles off his shoulders. "We have less than ten minutes before they realize the decoy. Move!"
We scrambled to our feet and pushed forward into the dark, punishing night, heading deeper into the unknown.
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