Morning light filtered gray and thin through the firing ports Kane had cut in the blinds. The house smelled like cold candle wax and yesterday's beans, with the faint metallic bite of old blood still clinging to the floorboards near the front door. Kane stood at the kitchen table, a battered road map of Colorado spread out under the flashlight. He'd been up since before dawn, tracing the route west with a stub of pencil. One-eighty miles to the Pike-San Isabel backcountry, the old cache coordinates locked in his head. High ridge, water, defensible ground. Their only real shot now.
Liora sat on the edge of the table, legs swinging, eating the last handful of dry cereal straight from the box. Her hazel eyes kept flicking toward the couch where Raven and Willow were stirring awake under the shared blanket.
Raven sat up first, wincing as she touched the bandage on her side. Her long black hair with the silver streaks was tangled from sleep. "Um… good morning," she said, voice still husky and hesitant. "Did you sleep at all?"
Willow pushed herself up next, red curls a mess, glasses already sliding down her nose. She adjusted them and blinked at the map. "We heard the radio last night. Your ex… she's really coming after you?"
Kane didn't look up from the map right away. "She's trying. That means the city's not safe anymore. Not for any of us." He tapped the pencil on the route he'd marked—Interstate 70 west as far as it was clear, then back roads and trails into the national forest. "We're leaving. Today. Pack light, move fast, head for the mountains. I've got a place scoped out. High ground, supplies cached. It's our best bet."
Liora stopped chewing. "We're really going? Like in the book?"
"Yeah, kid. Like in the book. Only real." Kane rolled the map and slid it into a plastic sleeve. "Four of us now. That changes things. We move as a group. Stay tight, stay quiet. No noise unless I say so."
Raven stood up slowly. "We can help. Tell us what to do. We don't want to slow you down." Her voice was soft, breathy, full of that awkward need to be useful. "I can carry stuff. I'm stronger than I look."
Willow was already moving too, her petite frame showing quiet determination as she crossed to the bug-out bags. "I can organize the packs so they're balanced. I read once that even weight makes it easier to walk far. If… if that helps."
Kane nodded once. "It does. But we do it my way." He pulled the two big bug-out bags into the middle of the room and opened them. "Each of you gets a pack. Nothing more than you can carry for ten miles without stopping. Water, food, one change of clothes, medical stuff. No extras."
He showed them how to load the bags—tight, balanced, weight on the hips not the shoulders. Raven listened close, biting her lip, trying to get it right. When she lifted her packed bag to test it, the straps pulled across her chest. She adjusted the waist belt and gave a small, uncertain smile. "Like this? Um… it feels okay."
Willow copied him exactly, her movements quick and nervous. "It's not too heavy. I can walk like this for a while. I think."
Liora watched from the table, arms crossed tight over her chest. Her hazel eyes narrowed every time one of the girls asked Kane a question or brushed too close while adjusting straps. "Daddy, why do they get packs too? They're not even supposed to be here."
Kane crouched in front of her, voice low and steady. "Because they're with us now, kid. Four people move safer than two. They help carry supplies. That means we all make it farther."
Liora's lip pushed out. "But they don't know how to do any of this. They're just… extra."
Raven heard it. She looked down, cheeks flushing under the smudged eyeliner, and tightened her pack straps without saying anything. Willow fidgeted with her glasses, green eyes darting to the floor. "We'll learn fast," she said quietly. "We promise. We don't want to be dead weight."
Kane stood and slung his own chest rig on, the Mk18 already across his back. "Nobody's dead weight. We move together. I take point. Liora stays right behind me. Raven, you're behind her. Willow, you're rear guard for now. Eyes on the sides, not the ground. If I stop, you stop. If I say down, you get down. Simple."
He walked them through the basics in the living room—how to step quiet on the balls of the feet, how to scan rooftops and alleys without turning your whole head, how to keep the "gray man" look so nobody noticed them. Raven tried it first, moving awkward but trying hard. Willow followed, her tight athletic build making the movements smoother.
Liora glared the whole time, arms still crossed. Every time Raven or Willow asked Kane to correct their stance, her small jaw tightened. "You never showed me all this stuff before," she muttered once, loud enough for everyone to hear.
Kane put a hand on her shoulder. "You're nine, kid. You get the kid version. They're learning the grown-up version because they have to." He looked at the girls. "You're both doing fine. Keep it tight and we'll make it."
By the time the sun was fully up, the packs were loaded and lined up by the back door. Kane checked the street through the firing port one last time—still empty, but the bodies in the yard were starting to draw flies. The distant gunfire had picked up again, closer to the main roads.
Raven stood by her pack, breathing a little faster. "I'm ready. I think. Um… thank you for letting us come. We would've been lost without you."
Willow nodded beside her, glasses fogging slightly from nerves. "We'll follow exactly. Whatever you say."
Liora grabbed Kane's hand hard, hazel eyes locked on the two older girls like she was daring them to say anything else. "Daddy's in charge. Not you."
Kane squeezed her hand once. "Everybody knows that. Now we wait for full light, then we move. No stops until we're clear of the city."
He rolled the map again and tucked it away. The cache waited west—supplies, safety, a place to actually hold. Four people instead of two made the math harder, but it also made the load lighter in other ways. The girls were already looking at him like he was the only plan they had left. Liora was looking at them like they were the problem.
The house felt smaller than ever.
But the road west was calling.
Kane checked his watch, then the front window again.
"Eat whatever's left," he told them. "We leave in thirty minutes."