Chapter 80
The first glow of sunrise peeked over the mountains. Melisse had kept watch all night while the students, Charlotte, and Lionel slept in a relatively secluded and secure culvert. Melisse guarded the group’s south flank and Quade the north.
Anxiety and a sense of hopelessness gripped her. The night before, as the group hiked, they heard the sound of high-powered rifle fire in the distance. They assumed the mercenaries found Jake and Michael. She prayed the two located the cave with weapons before that happened. But when the men didn’t return by nightfall, dread became despair.
The small group pushed on. They had managed to hide from both the mercenaries and the villagers for a day, but she doubted their luck would hold out much longer.
Something moved not far from her.
She c
