"So," I sigh, rubbing my eyes as I walk beside Spirit. "Phillip, right?"

"Yes, ma'am," he answers with a nod as he adjusts his rifle.

Dani glances down at me from atop Spirit with a raised eyebrow upon being called 'ma'am', but I ignore her as I continue. "You said Jessica was here with a roadblock for how long?"

"A few weeks, at least," Phillip answers again. "My party and I were sent out because this is part of a supply route, and our runners stopped coming through."

I grimace at the news; Jessica had been waiting for us as we waited out the winter it seems, and like a fool, I decided to stop to rest. I groan, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"Say," Phillip says, glancing at me and Dani. "How did you say you knew of that 'Jessica' character?"

Dani tenses on Spirit, but I play it off. "We've had a run-in with her a few times," I tell him. "A camp we were staying at for a while got overrun by her and her crew further up north, and we pissed her off when we escaped."

Phillip eyes us suspiciously and Dani looks almost like a statue, though I maintain eye contact with him. It's not entirely a lie, though he doesn't need to know that the crazy redhead with an itchy trigger finger is Dani's ex-fiance who is seeking to murder us for reasons unknown.

"I see," he says.

"You said you were part of a group," I say, changing the subject. "Is that why you and these guys have that symbol embroidered on your coats?"

Phillip looks sad at the mention of the bodies of the men we're dragging on makeshift sleds behind us, but he nods regardless. "Yes," he says. "We're part of a large group known as the Valkyrie, and we've been dealing with the bulk of the Widows in this area as best we can. I'm glad the two of you were clean, or I would have had to kill you." He laughs at that, and a nervous chuckle escapes my mouth. Dani, however, remains silent, watching Phillip as though he's about to sprout a second head and start eating people.

Dani and I had to remove our jackets so Phillip could check our arms, necks, and chests for the mark of the Widows, and he had even told us to pull up our pant legs to check as well. He was much more thorough than Dani and Josh were at Cottonwood, though only when he knew we were clear, did he agree to walk with us to some place he calls the 'outpost'.

"Right," I chuckle, trying to help keep the subject light while getting as much information as I can out of him. "Sorry about the knife, by the way. We've been on edge recently since we lost our group, and I thought you were with the people who took them."

Phillip smiles kindly, waving me off. "Aw, don't worry about it, kid! No autopsy, no foul as I always say! Now, if you're wanting to find your friends, I'm betting they're being taken to Atlanta right now."

"Why is that?"

He opens his mouth to answer, then pauses, taking us in with suspicious eyes once more. "We're not entirely sure," he says carefully. "We've plenty of theories, but they've been taking more prisoners lately, and it's been difficult to find them."

I nod along, soaking in the information. If Jessica has been searching for us, and the Widows have been taking more prisoners lately rather than outright killing survivors for their initiation and supplies, they must really want Josh and Dani.

But…

That's a lot of effort to go through for two people, even a scorned ex-fiance. Glancing at Dani, I notice the firm set in her jaw as she sits atop Spirit and the stiff way she shifts as Spirit walks. It's clear that talking about her is making Dani tense, especially given that Jessica had kidnapped our friends and family, though I have to wonder how Jessica would know to set up a roadblock on one of the main roads leading to our destination.

To my knowledge, no one has mentioned where we're headed out loud unless it was in the van or the farmhouse, and there hasn't been any sign of anyone else out there with us besides that Circe lady. My brows furrow as I remember her, though her face is a blur in my mind. I wasn't in my right mind when we met, but I remember that she had saved me. Surely she isn't working with the Widows, right? Even if she were, it's not like she knew where we were headed.

She just knew about the underground bunker beneath our feet…

Closing my eyes, I pinch the bridge of my nose, frustrated as the questions simply keep piling up. 'It doesn't matter, as long as we get everyone back and deliver the locket to Mom, everything will be fine,' I think to myself.

"It's disconcerting," I breathe at last as we approach a small gas station on the outskirts of Dawsonville. "Hopefully if they're taking prisoners, it means everyone is still alive."

Phillip nods along, looking grave. "I sure hope so," he says. "I've got a lot riding on that possibility. Here, this is the outpost we've been using to keep an eye on things. Come on in, I'll introduce you to some of the crew."

Dani subtly shakes her head at me, her stormy eyes imploring as they dart between Phillip, who disappears into the station itself from inside the mechanic's shop, to me, gently gesturing for us to follow him.

"I don't think this is a good idea," Dani whispers, watching the door Phillip had entered through.

"Why not?" I ask. "If they've got intel on the Widow base in Atlanta and where the others might be, this is our best chance to find them."

She gulps, her shoulders stiff as she watches the door. "Please, Cass, trust me on this. Something about this rubs me the wrong way."

"I do trust you, but we don't have very many options right now," I tell her, and gently grab her hand. "Trust me, okay? If these guys can help us find everyone, then we should at least hear them out." She gives me a skeptical look, and I raise an eyebrow at her, confused. "Is there something you know about them that would make them dangerous to us?"

Her eyes flick to meet mine and her hold on my hand tightens ever-so-slightly as she watches me, her jaw clenching and unclenching as though she's fighting the urge to say something.

"Cass, I-"

The door to the station opens once more as Phillip pokes his head into the mechanic shop, looking confused until his eyes rest on us. Dani's hand slips out of mine impossibly fast as her mask of indifference slips on with ease, and the complete one-eighty of her demeanor leaves me gob-smacked.

"Hey girls," Phillip says, sounding a little worried. "You can come in any time now."

Taking a deep breath, I lead Dani inside after Phillip. The gas station is small, but there's a mechanic shop attached where we're able to herd Spirit into to keep her warm while we discuss our next steps. Inside the station itself, it's been repurposed and fortified rather heavily, with the windows boarded up with both plywood and sheet metal on the inside. There is a small handful of people already inside as well, all wearing the same long dark coats with the embroidered winged knife in their collars.

Upon entering the station, it takes no time at all for a dozen eyes to swivel our way, and I tense at the attention. Unlike the first time getting to Camp Cottonwood, these people seem ready to jump our bones if we so much as twitch our hands toward our weapons.

"Welcome to Outpost Six," Phillip says, gesturing to the men and women staring at us. "If you want help in getting your people back, then it's best we go talk to Valerie at HQ."

A woman with a platinum blonde pixie cut glares at us, looking unimpressed. With a sigh and a roll of her eyes, she says, "When you said you were saved by some other survivors, I was expecting someone a little less feral looking."

The brown eyes of the mousy-haired girl next to her widen, and she shoots a glare at the blonde. "That's not very nice, they rescued him!"

The blonde shrugs, stepping around the counter to approach us as Phillip opens his arms to her, and they hug, the mousy-haired girl quickly joining them.

"The rude blonde is my oldest, Skye," Phillip introduces once they part. "The one with manners is my youngest, Breanne."

Skye holds out a hand for me to shake, which I take, glad to be met with a handshake rather than a gun to my head. "Nice to meet ya," Skye says. "Thanks for saving my old man, I guess."

Neither of the girls look related. Where Skye is tall, lanky, and pale with narrow eyes, Breanne is short, stocky, and several shades darker with a face full of freckles and a pair of glasses that have seen better days. The only similarities they share besides their uniforms are their brown eyes and their Roman noses.

"Dad," Breanne says. "What happened to the rest of the patrol? Are Donny and Carter..?"

Phillip nods solemnly at her unfinished question, and Breanne's face falls. Next to her, Skye pats her shoulder, looking sympathetic.

"What happened out there?" Skye asks, eyeing Dani and me.

Phillip gestures to the back of the gas station through the employee doors. "Come on, I'll explain everything in the back."

He leads us with his daughters to the back office of the gas station, where he explains to them that while they were out on patrol, they were ambushed by the Widows in the area and questioned regarding my and Dani's whereabouts. 

When Phillip and his nephews were unable to answer their questions, Jessica had started executing the boys until a beat-up van full of our people careened into the street, nearly plowing into them before crashing into the side of a building. Phillip had used the distraction to get away, but when he heard Jessica mention something about having waited for this, his curiosity got the best of him and he had snuck back to see what the Widows were after.

According to Phillip, they had questioned Josh first about where Dani was, and when he had told Jessica that Dani was dead, Jessica seemed outraged, refusing to believe it. An argument led to a small scuffle between our group and hers, our people were eventually captured, knocked out, and dragged to a small caravan of trucks with the Widow symbol painted, and driven south towards Atlanta.

Skye and Breanne nod along as Phillip continues to explain, and I help him out as he gets to his rescue, being mindful to leave out me threatening their father. The sisters seem skeptical at my explanation regarding why Jessica seems to want us specifically, but when I tell them that it's likely because we royally fucked her camp by leading one of the mutated Feral's to her, they drop it.

"So," Skye says after a moment as she processes the information. "You're now trying to get your people back from the Widows, huh?"

I nod. "My brother and sister, our friend, and Dani's brother, yeah."

Skye and Breanne exchange sympathetic glances before Skye sighs, shaking her head. "Well, since you're not with the Widows, I suppose it would do well to help you out. Maybe this'll be the reason Valerie finally lets us take care of the Widow problem at last."

Phillip sighs. "We can bring them to HQ to talk with Valerie and see if she would be willing to lend a hand. We've been missing people too, so perhaps if she hears that it isn't just the Valkyrie who are being taken, it may spur her to action."

Their apprehension about their leader's willingness to help doesn't bode well for us, and Dani glances at me, her face neutral, though her eyes betray her fear. I incline my head, signaling to her that I understand, and turn to Phillip and his daughters.

"If it means we'll get help in finding where those psychos took our people, you have our support," I tell him.

Phillip flashes a small smile to us as his daughters exchange relieved glances. "Very well, then," Phillip says. "We best gather our supplies and see to Donny and Carter. We will have a proper burial and head out in the morning."