CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Night fell, and the trees grew larger, and Ilse's heart seemed to shrink in her chest. Occasionally, she heard the squawk of Sawyer's radio in his belt as the arriving search parties notified them of their locations. Sawyer, though, only answered enough to give curt instructions to the new arrivals. Hundreds of square miles, only twenty or so searchers.
They had their work cut out for them.
Ilse was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She hated to admit it, but she wasn't nearly as over her own trauma as she wanted to think. Trauma didn't control her, didn't dominate her life. She refused to let it. But when it did show up, it whispered lies in her ears. I'm all you are. You'll never be free.
This, she knew rationally, wasn't true. The trauma grew less, her strengt
