Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Clandestine Saga: Kabanata 341 - Kabanata 350

Aaron had messaged Cadence after his hunt last night, and she had ignored him. She finally decided to go ahead and let him know she was alive around 10:00 as she was humming along down the highway at a pretty good pace. “Hey,” she said. “Sorry—I went to bed pretty early last night.”“That’s okay. How’s it going?”

“Where are you, exactly?” Dr. Cale Ryan asked over the IAC. Cadence could tell he was surprised the second she’d given him the news that she would be by to pay him a visit shortly, but she couldn’t tell if the secondary emotion was annoyance, irritation, or anxiety.“Well, exactly where I am, I’m not sure. But I’m probably fifteen miles outside of Elko,” she explained.

A shower and a nap later, and Cadence woke up feeling refreshed—and famished. She sent a message to Cale to ask if he would mind if she raided his refrigerator, and since he was well aware of how she could pack it away, she didn’t feel at all bad cleaning out most of his foodstuffs once he’d given his permission to do so.When she was done eating everything she could find that was reasonable to make or cook, she realized she’d left his kitchen a mess, so she did the dishes and changed out the trash bag, though she wasn’t willing to actually chance running into som

Monday evening, she headed out into the Forty Mile Desert and eventually found a place she liked. It was at the foot of a fairly tall plateau, and the shadow kept her in the shade as the sun was going down. She wasn’t sure how hot it might feel out here during the daytime, especially since her body didn’t react to temperatures quite the way it used to before she Transformed, but she was willing to give it a try. She’d brought plenty of water, some extra gasoline, and enough protein bars and other snacks to last until Thursday morning. She hoped she’d be out of there Wednesday night, but she didn’t know for sure if she’d feel like leaving if the portal didn’t open or Elliott didn’t decide to come through.

Cadence’s hands were shaking as she carefully unzipped the backpack. “It’s go time, my friend,” she said as she took the plastic bag out of the backpack and carefully set it on the ground. She was hopeful that the bag would be empty when she put it away, but she reminded herself that she promised she wouldn’t pressure him into anything.In the other compartment, she’d tucked away the container she’d selected, an empty bucket from one of Elliott’s favorite establishments—KFC. It had gotten a bit smooshed, but she reshaped it and took both it