Firebomb (The Jewel Project #2)

13.1|| Pueblo

Chapter Thirteen

Pueblo

They had been walking for hours. Shortly after they'd set off the first time, William regained his senses and drew them a map. This was their second day following William, who'd awakened with his memory back, but the labs were nowhere in sight.

Discouraged and tired, the group was silent, William included. He hadn't said a word and showed no signs of recognizing neither Kyle nor Angie. He hadn't actually exchanged a word with Kyle since their last conversation about Kay when William had called Kyle a 'dreadful boy whom Kay was not supposed to be seeing'.

As the sun set, Sam checked his map to make sure William wasn't going rampant through the woods, but to his surprise, he kept to the route. But then, why hadn't they reached the labs?

"What's going on? We should've been there by now." Kyle pushed past Sam and caught up with William. "I don't want to find we've been following the idiot William around all day, because I'll get really pissed off, and we'd be in a lot of shit."

"Kyle, watch your mouth," Jerry said, but sounded too tired to really care.

"Oh, give me a break, Jerry! The sun is setting and we're nowhere near the labs," Kyle replied exasperated.

Sam hurried to catch up to William and walked beside him. "William, you said we'll be there in half a day. It's nearly nightfall and we're still not there."

William turned to him and his eyes widened in surprise. "Where you being? I looking for you everywhere!"

Sam stopped, his breath hitching, his heart pounding in his throat. No, this couldn't be.

"We were right behind you all along. What the hell are you on about?" Kyle burst furiously from behind him.

Sam swallowed, trying to fight the panic. "Don't frighten him, Kyle. Maybe he's been leading us the right way unconsciously. He's right on the route." He pulled out the map and showed it to Kyle.

Kyle threw it an uninterested glance, then frowned and snatched it out of Sam's hands. "This route has been tempered with. It's not the one you and William drew. It's been erased, and this is another route that is supposed to lead us...where?" Kyle said handing the map back to Sam.

"We're almost out of the forest," Jimmy said studying the area through his binoculars. "And I see lights high on the canyon wall."

"That's pretty weird," Jerry said. "But at least we know where we are."

"Yeah, a lot of good that does." Sam huffed and fought the need to strangle something, blame someone for this. "We've lost a couple of days with this detour."

"Who did this and what was the point?" Jerry asked.

"Oh, I don't know. Delay us. Lead us into a trap," Jimmy said calmly.

Sam turned to him, ready to argue that his suppositions were stupid, but stopped. A dark man with long hair had a shotgun pointed at Jimmy's head. More men, all of them carrying weapons, were coming out of the bushes and surrounded the group.

They weren't Snitch Gravel's men, that much was obvious. All of them looked like Natives, from their long black hair to their weatherworn faces. The captors didn't speak, just nodded in the direction of the lights, and the group complied.

They walked for what seemed like a half an hour until they reached the canyon wall. Once there, they climbed up a rickety wooden ladder to a rock platform filled with stone houses. The men nudged them forward towards one of the houses which had bars at the windows. No other soul stirred outside.