Cassidy, Finn and Evie ran down streets clogged with cars for what must have been miles until they were sure they had gotten far enough from the ruins.
Breathing heavily, Evie gasped, "Where should we sleep? Finn already looks dead."
She glanced over at the small boy whom laid slumped over Cassidy's shoulder, red-eyed and yawning. They were worried about the others, but Evie feared that they may not have made it. How would the three of them be able to fight and defeat Callahan Agencies without their whole group. Lielle was their advantage over the Agents, but now she was missing and possibly dead along with the others. Hot tears wet her cheeks and she turned away to hide them.
Cassidy set Finn down and held her close. "They're strong. I'm sure they're all fine. Plus, I doubt they would kill Lielle anyway."
She sniffled and wiped her face on her sleeve, nodding.
They continued until they found a wide grassy area. They walked until they were sure they could not be spotted in any direction. Cassidy offered to take first watch, so Evie laid down next to Finn, listening to his calm and even breathing. He looked so peaceful in his sleeping state. His hair that normally stopped near the bottom of his neck was now spread across his face, his mouth was slightly open and his breaths, slow and heavy.
Air from his mouth hit her nose repeatedly until she drifted off, matching her breathing to the child's.
She dreamed that all nine of them were together in a nice open field without a worry in the world. How nice that would be, nothing to worry about except their grades, all of them living close to each other and playing and talking as best friends tend to do.
* * * * *
Cassidy shook her awake at two AM to take her turn on lookout. A fire now burned in front of her face, leaving red light in her eyes whenever she blinked. Rubbing the sleep from them, she sat up lazily and scooted over to the fire, Cassidy handing her a gun on the way.
The gun dug into her leg while she sat, still waking up by the fire. The fire made her want to curl up into a ball and sleep until the day where she would have no more problems.
Nothing happened for a while, so Evie sat cross legged on the short, neat grass. She stared unfocused at the fire, but her ears were alert. Every gust of wind caused her to look around, nothing was ever there.
A few hours later she heard heavy steps somewhere to her right. She picked up her gun and aimed in the direction of the noise. A wolf emerged from the dark and snarled at her. After a moment of staring with its odd gold eyes, it walked away and left Evie with nothing to do once more.
* * * * *
The sun peeked over the horizon and the fire had long since burned out, but the air supplied her with warmth. Finn stirred next to her and walked over to her.
"Where's Callie?" he moaned.
Evie handed him a breakfast bar and pulled him into her lap. "She's with Connor and the others. We're going to find them today, so don't worry. I'm here for you until then."
He shakily smiled a little and took a bite off the corner of his breakfast bar. They talked until Cassidy finally arose almost an hour later.
Evie handed her a bar as she asked, "Where to?"
"Well, first we should find out where we are." She clicked on her watch and went to the GPS. A blinking red dot showed their location only about a mile away from the Charles River, and across it, Harvard. Evie set course for the school where she had once spoken. The headmaster there knew her and would help them.
She then spotted a blinking purple dot and an orange one near it, and they slowly inched closer to theirs. Evie took them to mean enemies were approaching from one and their friends from the other. They just had to hope that the right dot got to them first.
After they crossed the river, the landscape began to look familiar. She smiled when the main building of Harvard University came into view.
"So, what's the plan again?" Cassidy asked.
"We go to the headmaster, his name's John Black, and ask him to help us. He knows me because I once spoke at his school when I was six or so. He enjoyed listening to what he called, 'a young soul with great potential and good intentions with even better brains.'"
"Wow. Okay."
Finn nodded in agreement and then sat down on a curb. Evie picked him up out of respect to his family and they continued until their dot laid upon the entrance to Harvard. Past security, Evie led them toward the nearest one of the large buildings. They made it in without any difficulty and the woman at the front desk booked them an appointment with Mr. Black for five minutes on the dot. She checked the tracker again and saw that only the purple dot remained. They could only hope that it was the right one.
"Evelin Hallman, come along. Mr. Black is excited to see you again."
They strode down a long corridor and through a large room before finally reaching their destination. The secretary pushed open a door and waved them inside, then left without a moment's hesitation.
A man in a suit with a trimmed black beard raised his eyes and stood up from his desk. "Ms. Hallman, what a pleasant surprise. Why don't you introduce your escorts?"
"Thank you, Mr. Black," she smiled. "This is Ms. Cassidy Allen, and her brother, Mr. Finn Allen."
He studied the young boy who stood nervously tapping his foot, then moved onto Cassidy. He scanned her strong frame, making his way up to her super serious face.
He nodded and grinned. "Well what brings you back, Ms. Hallman? Or did you just happen to be in town?"
"I was wondering if you could help us? We got separated from our...party. We may know where they are, but we need to check. Is there a way to do that?"
He pulled out a laptop and asked for an exact location and how big their party was. They explained their dilemma with a slightly truthful story to go along with it, then he pulled up cameras from nearby stores and streetlights and scowled. He turned around the laptop and pointed at the blurry image of a head covered in light brown hair.
"Who is that?" he asked skeptically.
"Lielle," she muttered with tear-filled eyes. "One of my new escorts," she added hastily, but it was too late.
His eyes searched her neck until he found the still darkening tattoo etched onto it. He popped out of his seat and aimed a well-placed punch at Cassidy's jaw. She staggered backward, groaning, while Evie threw her leg out and spun, not knocking Black off his feet, but throwing him off balance. While he staggered to regain his balance, she turned and reached for Finn, but the child was gone. She spun around to face Black again, but found Finn gripping him around the throat. She threw her pointy elbow at his mouth and split the skin. Blood stained her arm, but it gave Cassidy time to recoordinate herself.
The struggling man glared at her and dizzily tossed his leg at her stomach. She stared wide-eyed at his leg as it hit her, but did not feel any pain. He gaped at her and spat, "Dirty blooded freak," before he finally collapsed, purple faced and wheezing.
Cassidy ran over and pulled Finn off of the man whom now laid on the floor, gasping and bleeding, but Evie ran to the desk and pressed a shaky finger on it. It remained solid and she felt the cool wood under her. She grabbed the papers that the headmaster had been looking through before they came and ran to Finn who immediately brought them to the edge of campus. They stumbled right into a group of people, but they did not run away screaming as others would in that situation.
"God, guys, what happened?" said a firm voice from in front of her.
She launched herself at Connor and wrapped her arms around him, squeezing until he finally pried her fingers off. Cassidy and Evie took turns explaining until a troubled Callie asked, "Where's Jean?"
Lielle and Connor shared an uneasy glance, but averted their eyes before saying, "She's not coming."
Everyone hung their heads while Connor turned to Lielle and buried his face in her shoulder. A twinge of jealousy made Evie wince, but the timing was not right. After a moment of silence, she showed them the papers she had taken. The serpent symbol was printed at the top of each confidential file. The first paper had coordinates with neatly typed information indicating that the first set of coordinates was the most direct entrance to "The Pit" and the second, a newer entrance to a control room. A map of a large area was printed onto the next pages, most likely of The Pit, used for the one with this information to navigate and keep an eye on things. She did think it sloppy for him to have left these in plain sight of anyone in his office, but no one else seemed to question it and she did not want to ruin their moment of victory after their moment of loss. This could be the only lead they would find to where they could sneak in to thwart them. This had to be right.
Lielle typed in both sets of coordinates and frowned. "The first is where we sent Bri in and the second is in Tuckahoe, New York."
"Well if we plan on getting there, we should get to those train tracks we crossed a mile back. They go in the right direction," Connor reasoned.
"Well, then, jumping on a train it is."