Lahat ng Kabanata ng Leesa's Advent: Kabanata 501 - Kabanata 510

The road in front of me has disappeared, swallowed up by a giant landslide. Tons of rock, dirt and other debris have come crashing down from the steep hillside, completely covering the highway. Green, stringy weeds and small plants sprout up from the soil, telling me the slide occurred several years ago, at the least. It would take a team of bulldozers to clear the way, and there are no bulldozers anywhere in sight.This section of road is one that skirts the very edge of the cliffs, so there’s no going around the blockage on the ocean side. I’m either going to have to climb the ridge to my right to find a way past it, or pick my way over the remains of the landslide. Neither looks like a particularly appetizing alternative.The hill above the road is bare and almost vertical for the first twenty feet or so. Above that, the terrain is steep and seems to be more thickly wooded than any I’ve passed so far. Maybe that’s just because for the first time I’m seriously considering trying to

The sun is beginning to sink low in the sky. I’m guessing I’ve got maybe an hour of daylight left—enough time to cover two or three more miles before I’ll have to start looking for a safe place to spend the night. “Safe” being a very relative term out here in the wilds, of course.In one section of the western sky, the high clouds have been twisted by upper level winds into an angry-looking vortex of gray and white. At least I hope the clouds have been shaped by high winds. The alternative is a giant Anomaly about to open in the sky and spew forth dangerous monsters. While flying creatures are rare, they’re not unheard of. Rocs and wyverns have been seen by people I’ve talked to, and tales are told of fire-breathing dragons, though no one I know has ever encountered one of those.Speaking of monsters, the reptile creature has still not appeared at the bottom of the hill, for which I’m profoundly grateful. With luck,

My heart sinks. From where I stand, it looks like there’s no way across the gap in the bridge. I turn my gaze inland. The fold in the topography is deep and cuts far back into the hillside. Climbing down the sheer sides of the ravine and then back up would be much too dangerous, which means I’d have to go around it. I can’t tell for certain, but it looks like I’d have to travel a mile or more out of my way, through the woods and up and over the hill, before turning back down to the road on the other side.That’s a detour I’d prefer not to take. I decide to make a closer examination of the broken section of road first. Maybe there’s a way across the break that I can’t see from here.Once again, I carefully check my surroundings before exposing myself to view out on the bridge. I don’t see anything moving anywhere, and the only sound I hear is the faint crashing of the ocean upon the rocks far below me to my left.

Lieutenant Gregerson smiled. Not only had the cut disappeared completely, but he was no longer feeling dizzy. It was as if the injury had never happened.“Thank you,” he said.He looked toward the lifeboat, but the vessel was now out of sight over the edge of the ship. Four sailors still strained at the thick ropes that held the boat, so he knew it had not yet been lowered into the water. It had to be close, though.“C’mon,” he said to the Miracles. “I think our transportation is almost ready.”He led them across the deck. They reached the broken railing just in time to see the lifeboat land with a loud splash onto the surface of the ocean. The boat came dangerously close to capsizing when it hit the water, but it managed to stay afloat.Three of the sailors maintained their hold on the ropes, while the fourth draped a heavy net over the side of the ship and then used the netting to climb down into the life

As Lieutenant Gregerson led his squad at a rapid walk to the north, the highway soon began climbing, and groves of trees started to fill in the land on the east side of the road just as Colonel Gallway had predicted,. The incline was gradual, and not exclusive by any means. There were plenty of places where the highway descended, but never for as long as the inclines. The result was a steady rise in the height of the cliffs above the ocean, as well as a hillier, more wooded landscape on the other side.The lieutenant was in a bit of a quandary. The supremely fit Marines were capable of moving at a much more rapid pace than the one he had settled on. He knew that the faster he and his squad travelled, the more quickly they would overtake Leah if she was somewhere ahead of them. And the sooner they overtook her, the sooner they’d be able to protect her from any danger. But if they moved too rapidly, they risked missing any trace that Leah—or anyone else—might