Sky and Angel were standing in front of Rock and dropped 4 extra large and overstuffed backpacks in front of him. Rock looked at them, then at the girls. “Surely you don’t expect me to carry those 4 backpacks along with the one I already have,” he said, “I mean, that is asking a bit much.” “Oh, we don’t expect that at all,” they said together.

“Whenever any of you girls talk at the same time like that,” he said, “it means trouble.” “Not this time,” said Angel, “you, Bear, Oskar and Burk can each carry one for now.” “Until we need the contents later,” said Sky, “then we just leave the backpacks behind somewhere.” “So, we each carry our regular backpack, plus one of these,” said Rock, “plus carry the girls on the stretchers.”

“That’s right,” they said together, “we’re glad you understand. Now, go tell the other 3.” Then they walked off to talk with Jennifer and Carine about the new plans. “Where did Kat go?” asked Celeste. “She’s looking around,” said Carine, “to make sure no one is following us. Or something.” “You know, I have noticed some odd things around here,” said Celeste again, “like, how come I never see Angel and the lion at the same time?”

“Well, that could just be coincidence,” replied Carine, “I have seen them together several times lately.” She then smiled. “I think there is something you’re not telling me,” said Celeste. “Really Celeste, would I do something like that?” asked Carine. Right then Sky called her over to where she and Jennifer were talking. “Sounds exciting,” said Carine and Jennifer, “and a little bit dangerous too.”

“Well, if we do things right, we should make it out of this country alive,” said Sky, “we just have to wait for Aari and his team to get ready on their end, since it will take them longer than us. This is where we need to meet them.” She then pointed to the town on the map. Now they had a meeting with the whole team, explaining the new plans to everyone, including the rescued girls.

Sky thought they might be the most scared of all of them, but it turned out they were actually quite excited by it all. But after all that those 3 girls have been through, this escape isn’t really so scary. It was actually Hannah that first gave us this idea for getting out safely, after the jet was out of the picture. Then Jazzy gave us some more ideas that we quickly implemented into the new plan.

This part was done without me however, since I was still in my “trapped” state. The girls that were with me woke up from their sleep without any problems at all. So Carolyn said I must have been given some other drug after they took us out of the house. She had taken some blood samples and sure enough, Raven had given me another drug from South America, where he lives.

She said that mixed with the sleeping gas it would have killed me in another few hours if Kat had not arrived when she did. The biggest problem still was the possibility of some brain damage. She only told Kat about this so no one else would be worried. Now, back to our rescue team. They still had a long ways to go to reach the town they wanted which had a train station.

So, they needed to find some reliable transportation, walking was just not an option, the authorities were too close behind them. So they are trying to head in a slightly different direction than what they want, to try and get their pursuers going off that direction also. Then they can sort of double back on themselves and find some way to drive.

They were now walking along a highway, after they had doubled back, but still staying among the trees. “A large truck is coming,” said Angel, so everyone stopped and listened, but heard nothing. “Are you sure Angel?” asked Rock. She looked at him. “Right, crazy question,” he said. Soon they could see the truck coming far down the highway.

The highway was quite straight and flat through that area. Soon that truck was close to them and slowing down, coming to a stop just past a lone woman standing on the side of the road. A man pushed open the passenger side door and Sapphire climbed up and inside, but didn’t close the door. Suddenly she jumped out and waved to the team to come over to the truck.

The driver had gotten out and opened the back of the large transport truck. Everyone climbed over boxes and furniture up to the front, removed a small wood panel which revealed a secret compartment and they all squeezed inside, except Rock who was just too big to fit in. But the man had an extra large jacket in the truck and Rock put that on, though it barely fit him.

Sapphire listened to the man’s instructions and translated for Rock. Rock was to pretend he could not speak at all, and hopefully he would not have to write anything. They drove through the remainder of the day, stopping only once to get fuel and something to eat. Rock was happy with getting a good meal finally, though the others in the back had to be satisfied with the food they had with them.

The man already knew he was to let them off before that one time that Sapphire had told him. So, close to daybreak he stopped the truck alongside the highway and everyone got off, rather sore from being so cramped, but happy they did not have to walk that long distance. They offered to pay the man, but he said no, he was just happy he could help those poor girls.

Then they asked if he was even more brave than he had already shown himself to be. He shrugged his shoulders and they told him what they wanted. He laughed and told the team they were playing with fire, but that he would take them to the train station. At least, the ones that were going. Some stayed behind and ran off the highway to the trees.

Jennifer and Carine went with the guys, all except Burk, he stayed behind with the remaining girls. Rock, Bear, Jennifer, Sapphire and Nakedra were dressed as FSB in proper uniform and ID. Oskar was a “prisoner”, handcuffed to Bear, Celeste was handcuffed to Jennifer, Valeska was handcuffed to Nakedra and Carine was handcuffed to Rock.

Sapphire had to be used as the senior officer since none of the guys could speak Russian. They had made Celeste and Valeska look very different with masks and changed their hair color slightly to blond and light brown. The trucker left them off at the train station which kind of surprised the people waiting there.

Sapphire explained that their van had broken down so they got a ride in the truck so they could make the train connection. The rest of the girls, along with the other rescued girl Natasha, and Burk, waited impatiently along the highway. “Helicopters are coming,” said Angel. They all got ready for a hasty boarding of the helicopters, so they could leave as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, the choppers could not pick up the whole team, which is why they split up like this. Soon the helicopters came over the trees and landed on the highway. The team ran out and onto the helicopters and they all flew off in a hurry. Two were painted like FSB helicopters, one was just an unmarked helicopter. Burk had taken over flying the unmarked chopper.

Unfortunately, what they were fearing happened, two jets were coming in fast and Burk’s helicopter pulled away from the other two…

To Be Continued.

©2025 Steve McLeod.