I crouched down to sniff the still-faintly-damp wad of thread, and my lips pulled back from my teeth in a feral grin as I skipped out of the way of the incoming truck. It barreled past me, barely missing the place I had been standing. As it went by, I grabbed onto a handle on the side and swung myself into the back.

"We're catching up," I proclaimed with a growl in my voice. "It's less than an hour old."

"That's good news," Nina replied. "We've been driving for almost four hours, and even if they don't slow down or stop, we should be able to catch up in about another four hours."

"I'm expecting them to slow down or stop for a break soon," Daniel said. "They've been pushing hard, and their drivers will be getting sloppy. As it is, they've been hitting more potholes."

"Maybe fortune will shine upon us and one of their tires will blow," I said grimly, far too eager to envision such a mishap on their side. If we happened to round a corner and found all of them parked there, I'd be even happier.

"If they don't slow down, something will happen," Daniel replied. "From the tracks, one of them hit that large pothole back there. I'm not sure how the driver didn't see that one, but I'd be surprised if it didn't damage the tire in some fashion."

"If they're in some sort of military or SWAT vehicle, those vans are going to take a lot of abuse before they break down." Logan grimaced at his thoughts.

I bestowed a grimace of my own upon the man. "Those aren't exactly the kinds of things I want to hear right now."

He shrugged. "Better to be prepared for the truth than to be caught off-guard, but there is a glimmer of good news if you want to hear it."

He was baiting me, and we both knew it. "I'm listening."

"If Nicky is dropping all these clues, then she isn't bound. And before you mention how hard it is to tie her up, consider this," he paused to make sure I was listening. "She dropped hair. People in handcuffs or bound hands can't play with their hair without attracting a fair bit of attention, so at the very least, Nicky isn't tied up. And if she isn't, then Jess likely isn't either. From how often she's leaving these things, she's either being really sneaky – which is hard in that style of vehicle unless she's sitting near a peephole – or she isn't being closely supervised."

Now that was food for thought. I narrowed my eyes and tried to recall how many scents I had detected when we passed their bathroom spots. Eight, for sure. Maybe nine if two were siblings, assuming everyone had taken a leak at some point. We hadn't stopped at those places, so I wasn't sure how many people got into each vehicle. If they were evenly spaced out, there would be two or three men in each van.

That was enough people to keep Jess and Nicky from running away, but too few to keep an intense around-the-clock vigil on their two captives. So as long as Nicky laid low and didn't mouth-off or aggravate the guards, any major distraction might be enough for them to slip away.

But that also left several burning questions. Did they have guns? How were they restraining Jess and Nicky and ensuring their good behavior? How hard would it be to get those two away from them?

These questions and more chased themselves around my mind even more relentlessly than Nicky on a coffee high.

"Trinity, do you see that?" The worried note in Daniel's voice had me swiftly scanning the road, ditches, and trees ahead.

Nothing looked out of place at a glance, but I wasn't about to take the time to play guessing games. "See what?"

"Smoke on the horizon. I don't recall seeing it before, and it's getting darker, so the fire likely just started."

I stared at the cloudless sky for several long moments, only now understanding just how frustrating it must be for Daniel when I could smell things he couldn't.

"I don't see it," I reluctantly replied. Nor could I smell it.

"It's faint for me, so I wasn't sure you could," Daniel replied, "but I thought it was best to ask."

Paper rustled inside the cab as Nina asked, "Which direction?"

"Over there."

I crouched down to see where Daniel was pointing, then stood back up to examine the indicated patch of sky. I still didn't see anything, but that didn't stop me from glaring at the blue sky.

"The road we're on goes that way," Nina said, "so they probably passed by that spot, assuming they didn't turn off at either of the two major intersections between here and there, or any of the side roads."

"Given the distance and timing," Daniel replied, "I think it's safe to say we just drive straight and check for scents as we go through the intersections."

My instincts firmly agreed with him – the timing and distance were just too suspicious to be a coincidence. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, so there was no lightning to start a fire.

But that led to another question. Why start a fire so large that people could see it from miles away?

~

       I fidgeted impatiently as Daniel's hectic driving brought us closer to the dark plume that towered into the sky and shaded the sun.

"It doesn't seem to be spreading," Daniel said into the silence. "And there's way less smoke than before."

"Smells like burning wood with hints of oil," I said, although my eyes didn't leave the column of smoke that continued to rise into the air. Whatever it was, it had been burning for the entire forty-eight minutes since Daniel first spotted it.

"We should be able to see it when we go around this bend." Nina still hadn't put the map down, although I only knew that because of the occasional crinkling of paper and her comments.

The suspense was so intense even Logan shuffled closer on his knees and stood up behind Daniel, using a couple of the other handles to maintain his balance. As we began rounding the bend, I craned my neck to see the source of the still-burning fire.

Snarls from both Daniel and I split the air as we saw the charred remains of the wooden bridge, yet my instincts were so enraged they barely shifted at Daniel's snarl. The steel side rails and flaming wooden boards were jumbled together in a heap in the shallow water. My vision went completely red as my lip curled up.

"The creek isn't that big," Daniel growled. "How fast do you think the two of us can fill in a section with trees? I can't carry the truck across – I'd damage the truck's frame – I've tried it before. It doesn't work."

My eyes narrowed as I examined the shallow creek. Daniel was right – the water wasn't that deep. If the banks hadn't been shoulder-high, we probably could have driven the truck right through the water.

"One way to find out."

Daniel slowed down and drove into the long grass beside the road to get closer to the trees.

"There's a big rock on your right," I warned him.

He swerved to the left to avoid the danger my vantage point allowed me to see. As he neared the forest, I jumped out and raced over to the largest one, launching myself at it with enough force to bring down the fifty-foot-tall spruce tree.

Daniel darted past me – moving far faster than I could – and quickly snapped the trunk into eight sections. He dragged four of the biggest ones away. Following his lead, I grabbed branches on two sections and pulled them behind me. A branch broke free, and I growled under my breath.

Refusing to waste more time on the uncooperative wood, I grabbed the trunk with both hands and spun around, flinging the section into the air, only for it to land along the edge of the creek in front of Daniel. He glanced back, and now that he was keeping an eye out for flying trees, I flung the second piece as well and didn't bother watching where it landed.

I ran back and dragged the other two sections close enough to toss across the distance. While I did that, Daniel knocked another large tree down and dragged it back without breaking it into pieces first. He must have decided that including me in the transportation process was too hazardous.

Picking out another large tree, I charged forward, trying to build enough speed to break the trunk. I crashed into it, and the splintering from below told me I'd succeeded. I skipped back and dropped to the ground as the tree slowly leaned to the side.

Its own weight pushed through the branches of its neighbors, and the snapping and crackling of branches sounded like a clock ticking to my impatient ears. Tick tock. Tick tock. Every second we were forced to build this bloody bridge was one more second we were delayed, and two more seconds for us to catch up.

It was too hard to wait for the tree to fall, so I darted forward and grabbed the base. My muscles strained to pull it while the top continued to fall between the branches. I was breathing hard by the time I dragged it over to where Daniel was. His hands were a blur as he delimbed the trees we brought over earlier.

"Help me rip off these branches so we can stack the logs easier."

Dropping my current tree, I started shredding branches off the fairly straight trunks he had already broken down to size. Smoke from the burning bridge wafted over and clung to the back of my throat as I worked.

Daniel jumped down into the creek, balancing on the rocks sticking out. "Can you pass me the shorter sections? Let's leave the longer ones for last. They should be able to reach across the creek."

It was like a delayed lightbulb moment as I dragged the requested pieces over. I originally thought he meant to pack the entire creek bank with wooden debris, but he quickly counter-stacked the trunk sections to form a large rectangular support in the middle of the gap. It let the creek flow underneath and reduced the amount of wood we'd need.

I dragged the full-sized trunks over to where Daniel could reach them without climbing out of the creek. He wasted no time stacking them on top of the support. As he had planned, they spanned the entire width of the creek.

It was definitely not the most stable or reliable bridge I'd ever seen, but if it got us across, that was all I cared about. Nina and Logan busily collected the torn-off branches and laid them sideways on top of the trunks to cover any gaps.

I went back to the forest and brought back four saplings. Dropping into the creek – thoroughly soaking my shoes in the process – I jammed the splintery bases into the rocky soil and braced the upper portion against the decking to give it support on the sides.

By the time I had all four trees in place, two on each side, Daniel was putting the last branches on top of the logs. Nina and Logan had already retreated to the truck, knowing they were the slowest half of our party.

It looked like a children's wooden block-stacking game. And just as stable.

I jumped out of the water and waited on the far side while Daniel began driving the truck across our rag-tag creation. It was the slowest he'd driven since we had left Ironwind.

Our precarious structure creaked, but it barely even shifted under the weight of the truck. Smaller branches snapped under the tires but continued to straddle the trunks and form a fairly level surface across the gaps.

Then he was across.

The moment his back tires cleared the branches, the engine rumbled. Once more relying on my Nightstalker speed, I vaulted into the back of the truck whose tires were kicking up dirt and grass from the acceleration.

Logan held onto the sides of the truck in his usual corner, which left me the entire area behind the cab.

"Sharp right!" I urgently told Daniel. "There's a trench!"

The tires slid across the grass as he braked hard and turned right. The rear end of the truck skidded sideways on the grass, and as soon as the front of the truck pointed directly at the road, he hit the gas pedal, completing his ninety-degree turn. He headed straight to the highway instead of trying to cut across at an angle.

Once Daniel was back on the highway, I breathed a sigh of relief, which turned into a grumble as Daniel expertly zigzagged around two potholes, a car bumper, a tire, two regular zombies, and an upside-down truck. For being a security guard, he sure drove like the driver of a getaway car.

"How long did that take us?" I dreaded the answer, but I needed to ask.

"Thirty-one minutes," Nina reluctantly answered.

I closed my eyes to keep my anger contained. We'd lost half of the progress we'd made. The smell of another one of Nicky's clues lingered in the air as we passed by it, then it was gone.

"I'm beginning to hate wooden bridges," I muttered, wondering how hard it would be to transport some sort of metal beam with us – two of them – strong enough to hold the truck's weight and wide enough for the tires.

"I second that," Daniel grumbled. "At least the larger bridges are usually steel and asphalt."

"I'm not sure if it's along this road, but one bridge somewhere to the south had steel arches and thick wooden beams," Logan said.

"As long as the steel arches stay standing, we can wedge tree trunks through the slots," Daniel replied. "And I'm very glad the bridge over the Columbia River was paved. I don't think we could have built a bridge across that one."

"Maybe they'll slow down now," Logan suggested, although he didn't sound like he believed it either.

"Maybe," Daniel said doubtfully. "Although considering they haven't slowed down so far, I'm not sure how far they're going to drive before they feel safe enough to stop or choose a slower pace."

"We've driven almost halfway across Washington," Nina said. "I wish I knew where they were going."

"We're more or less south of Ironwind, right?" I asked.

"Yes, despite all the twists, turns, and detours we've taken, we're heading almost straight south. Otherwise, they seem to be keeping to the secondary roads and avoiding all the old towns and cities." She angled the side mirror so she could see me better.

"Are there any Strongholds where we seem to be headed?"

"Not really... There's nothing between the mountains and the coast since the larger cities like Seattle and Portland are swarming with thousands of zombies. There are a couple of Strongholds on the eastern side of the mountains, but unless several bridges are out and forcing them to use an alternate route, this isn't the best road to get there. Most Strongholds are farther east, in areas where fewer people used to live."

"There's no lab or research center in this direction, is there?" Logan asked.

"Just the one in Idaho, but that's more to the east," Nina replied, turning sideways in her seat to face the one she was speaking to now. "Their group drove up, but we never showed them the lab when they got their sample of the cure. They have copies of most of my research notes, and their lab is one of the larger ones, so they can replicate pretty much everything we do in Ironwind."

"Could we be dealing with an unknown location?" Logan inquired.

"It's possible, but if that's the case, they shouldn't have known so much about Ironwind." Nina fell silent, then quietly said, "I can only think of one person with that kind of knowledge who might wish us ill."

Logan sat up straighter, intent on this new tidbit of knowledge. "And that is...?"

"My old lab assistant, Louise."

I growled at the name, although this had already crossed my mind.

"I heard about her and what she did," Logan replied shortly. "Despicable."

In the side mirror, I could see Nina nod unhappily as she added, "That's probably why this group isn't slowing down – they're scared Daniel might be following. She fled south, and we found those vials and that mutant zombie to the south-"

"And this group is also fleeing south," Logan finished for her. His frown deepened. "If they did send a group to kidnap the brown-haired lady in the lab, then this might not have been the best trip for you to join."

"We can't exactly turn back now," Nina pointed out. "If-"

"She'll have to keep a low profile," Daniel interjected. "Maybe do something to hide her hair since that might be their only clue."

"We have no proof they were after me," Nina replied with a shrug. "We're going a slightly different direction than where we found those other zombies. Besides, Louise knows I usually meet Daniel at the barn when he goes to catch a Runner. They would have been waiting there, and Daniel said no tracks went that way, so they hadn't even checked."

A chill ran down my spine at those words. Louise may have been as dense as a brick and just about as smart, but after working with Nina for so long, she wouldn't forget a habit like that – especially when any researcher as eager as Nina would have been waiting at the trailer's destination.

"It didn't occur to me that they would have been after Jess," I mumbled. "I just assumed they mistook her for Nina since they're about the same height and both have brown hair."

"I thought Louise was under the impression you were going to leave Ironwind in a week or so?" Logan asked, perplexed. "And that your sister hadn't been located yet? If Louise helped plan this, why ignore the barn and enter the lab to take someone she couldn't have known was there?"

Silence emanated from within the cab.

Louise had seemed like an obvious answer to the puzzle. Her constant miscalculations – such as mistaking a trial drug for the cure – made it easy to assume she told someone about the brown-haired scientist, and they had grabbed Jess by accident. But if she had been part of the planning, they would have checked the barn after leaving two Runners to distract Daniel.

But she had no idea my sister had been found, let alone that she had traveled to Ironwind. Nor was there any indication they'd come prepared for a Nightstalker who, at that time, was spending the majority of the day inside the Stronghold. Daniel and I hadn't been on easy terms with one another back then, so Louise wouldn't have thought I'd go help him with two feral Runners, even if I had remained there.

Did this group even know they had my sister and friend-turned-sister? Or were they under the impression they'd managed to snag an accomplished scientist and her assistant? Was Louise part of this? If so, why hadn't they checked the barn? Who had they really been after? And why?

Something wasn't lining up, and I didn't like it.

Hang in there, Jess and Nicky. When I catch up, they're going to pay for so much as laying a finger on you. I don't give a shit if I have to spend another eight months of my life tracking you down – I will find you. Even if I need to enlist every research center, lab, and sane zombie I know, I'm coming for you two.

The faces of my current companions flashed through my mind. This time, I already seem to have backup.