Chapter 19
Finding those pictures was a bit harder than we had originally anticipated. Nonetheless we found them, and as we were looking through them I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful and kind she looked. A soft smile graced her delicate features in almost every picture Jackson had of her. It’s shocking to think that this was the same girl that was out there drugging people in order to exact some deranged form of revenge.
“You said she was your childhood friend right? Do you have any idea where she would have run off to when she left originally?” Christian asked suddenly as we were putting away all the stuff we drug out in our search.
“Nowhere that I didn’t already check back then.” He responded after thinking for a moment.
“Wait a minute.” I signed. “If she has gone through all this because of you, then maybe she came back to one of those places.”
Both the boys looked at me like I grew two heads.
“Think about it, she revealed who she was, but she tailored it in order to make sure that Jackson was the one to make the connection. So it would stand to reason that she would set up her base in a place that only Jackson would figure out.” I explained my logic.
“That actually makes sense.” Christian said.
“Why do you sound surprised!?” I exclaimed smacking his arm in retaliation.
“Okay, okay, I yield. Enough with the violence. We have more pressing issues at hand.”
My only response was to stick my tongue out at him.
“Okay I know it’s been who knows how long but we need you to dive into the deepest corners of your brain and dig up all the memories you have with Jillian.”
And that’s why we are currently in the Alpha’s office discussing our next move with as many willing and able members as we can.
“So you think she’s hiding in some cave system just outside our borders?” one of the pack warriors asked.
“Most likely. She found them back when we were kids and afterwards we always went there when we needed to think.” Jackson said nodding.
“They are very spacious and she can easily navigate them while staying hidden since not many people know about them.”
“So what’s our next move?” Christian asked, looking around the room while everyone waited for orders.
After a few moments of silence the Alpha finally spoke up gathering the attention of the entire room.
“We will first focus on healing our injured, we are low on numbers and we can’t defeat her without our entire pack in fighting form. We will then find a way to either confirm or deny the fact that the caves are her base of operations.”
“And if they are?” I ask.
“Then we plan a stealth mission and send some members to go and see what exactly we are up against.”
“But wouldn’t we find that out when we figure out if she’s staying there?”
“Not necessarily. Finding out if she’s there is a surface mission with little danger involved. We can send a drone and just do a fly over, but seeing how evenly matched we are requires going inside the cave itself. There are tons of different passage ways and that means tons of places to hide not only weapons and supplies but also your army.” Jackson explained.
“You need to know your way around the tunnels so that you don’t get lost. Jackson, do you think you could draw up a map?” His dad asked.
“I could try, I haven’t been to the cave in years, plus we don’t know how long she’s been here so she may have added to it.”
“Having any semblance of an idea will give us a great advantage.” I signed looking around the room with worried eyes.
We were just attacked, we don’t know when Jillian will make her next move or what that move will be. We have an unknown amount of time to prepare so every moment is precious time needed to insure as many people's survival as possible.
We are racing against the clock but we can’t see the time.