The journey was a blur of highway kilometers, rest-stop anonymity, and constant, agonizing fear. Ariel, Betty, and the two children traveled for three days, using the unmarked backroads and adhering to a ruthless schedule designed to evade any long-distance surveillance Henry’s residual Hounds might deploy. They drove Betty's reliable, anonymous sedan, traded SIM cards constantly, and paid for everything with the cash Ariel had meticulously saved.
Finally, the landscape changed. The lush greenery of the coastal region gave way to the sweeping, high-altitude desolation of Eastern Oregon. The air grew thin, dry, and cool. They turned off the final paved road onto a single, rutted dirt track that wound for miles through sagebrush and juniper before climbing toward the remote property known
