Hide and Seek: The Mad Girl Sees All novel Chapter 59

Chapter 59

Chapter 59

Lyra turned to Lana and asked another question.

“Big Sis,” she said.

“Which number was this district when it got devoured?”

Lana pushed aside her shock at the Wraiths gazing out, and quickly ran through the case files in her mind.

“This was the sixth safe zone to be invaded,” she replied.

Lyra tapped her fingers on the railing twice.

“What about the other districts?” she asked.

“Do the creatures in those districts also peer out through the fog like this?”

Garrett lowered his high-powered binoculars, glanced at Commander Lawson, then turned to Lyra.

“We don’t know,” Garrett said, his voice dry.

“We can’t see a thing.”

“You’re the only one who can see what’s going on in the fog.”

“This is the first time we’ve ever heard about this.”

Lyra turned and leaned against the railing, facing Lana.

“I want to check out the last district that got devoured,” she said.

Lana looked up. “You want to see if the Wraiths there are the same as here?”

“Yeah.” Lyra nodded.

She shrugged. “Gotta compare, right?”

Lana pulled out her tablet, brought up the national map, and traced a few defense lines with her finger.

“The most recent area to be invaded is Southwell District,” she said.

“It’s about 750 miles from here.”

Lana turned her tablet toward Lyra. “We’ve got two ways to get there.”

“First, we can take a military chopper. It’s quick, just three hours and we’re there.”

“Or, we could drive.”

“Way slower, though-at least a day and a half just to get there.”

B

Lana tapped three red circles on the map. “But if we drive, we can pass by the borders of Westshade District, Springfield District, and Longreach District.”

“We can get out and check each one individually,” she added.

Lyra’s eyes lit up, and she shot her hand up without a second thought.

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Chapter 39

“Let’s drive!” she said.

“The more we check, the more accurate we’ll be!”

“Why don’t we just check out all of them?” Lyra asked, her eyes sparkling with excitement

“Let’s check out every invaded district we can drive to.”

Garrett’s brow furrowed. “No way!”

“Chief of Staff, this is way too risky!”

“If we circle the whole border and something goes wrong, the 7th Assault Squad doesn’t have enough people to keep us safe. We haven’t even got a contingency plan for this.”

Lana ignored Garrett’s objections.

“Garrett,” Lana called out.

“Take the data and head back to Command Center right away.”

“Keep working on those Vital Flame comparison tests.”

Garrett’s eyes widened. “What about you?”

“I’m going with Lyra,” Lana replied.

Garrett waved his hands frantically, pacing back and forth. “No way! This can’t happen!”

“If anything happens to you…”

“This is an order,” Lana cut him off.

Garrett gritted his teeth, straightened up, and said, “Yes, ma’am!”

The route was quickly mapped out, and the armored convoy reorganized its formation.

Commander Lawson stood at attention by the iron gate, saluting as Lyra leaned out the window and waved at him.

The convoy rolled out along the buffer zone highway, heading east.

By two in the afternoon, the convoy reached the first boundary line where the Wraiths had invaded.

Lyra hopped out of the vehicle and climbed up to the highest watchtower on the defense line. With her unique sight, she peered straight through the thick fog.

The fog was still alive, and those shadowy figures were pressed up against it, eyes locked on the defense line, not moving an inch. ‘Nothing’s changed-they’re still watching us, just like before, Lyra thought.

“How’s it look?” Lana asked, standing right next to her.

“Just the same,” Lyra said with a casual shrug. ‘Nothing new-still the same old creepy vibe, she thought.

The convoy kept rolling.

For the next week, the 7th Assault Squad’s armored vehicles tore down the highway.

Every time they reached a defense line swallowed by the fog, Lyra would jump out and climb up a new watchtower, peering down through the mist to see what was lurking below.

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Chapter 59

First one, third, seventh, tenth… one after another.

Every time, it was the same story.

No matter when these districts got invaded, things inside looked pretty much the same.

By the evening of the seventh day, the convoy finally rolled up to the last defense line-the newest district to fall.

The barricade here was thrown together in a hurry, sandbags stacked nearly six feet high, and the air was thick with the smell of dirt.

It was already dark, the sun had gone down.

Lyra stood on top of the sandbags, staring at the gray fog a few hundred yards away. Behind that wall of mist, everything looked just like before.

“Lyra?” Lana walked up beside her. “How’s it look?”

Lyra didn’t move. She just crouched down, resting her chin in her hands.

“Something’s off,” Lyra said, her brow furrowing into a knot.

“What’s wrong?” Lana asked, crouching down beside her.

Lyra pointed at the fog ahead. “I got something wrong before.”

She let out a sigh, looking a bit troubled.

“I used to think they were all crowding up against the edge of the fog, peering out, because they’d already devoured everything inside,” she said.

“They were so desperate for food, I thought they just wanted to break out and find something to eat.”

Lyra scratched her head. “But this place was just devoured-it hasn’t even been two weeks yet.”

“Even if there wasn’t much left inside, there’s no way they could’ve wiped it all out in just ten days, right?”

“That just doesn’t add up.”

Lana nodded. “Yeah, you might be right.”

Lyra turned to Lana, her eyes fixed on her.

Lana kept her gaze on the fog ahead. “Remember when the System announced the invasion zone? For us, that was a fifteen- minute evacuation warning.”

“As soon as the location was revealed, our people would scramble to get out as fast as they could.”

“By the time the Wraiths actually showed up, the whole district was already empty.”

Lana paused, her tone growing serious. “There was hardly anyone left alive inside.”

“So when the Wraiths showed up, they found the place totally deserted-no one left alive.”

“With nothing living inside, of course they’d just crowd up against the edge, staring out toward where the living are.”

To Lana, that made perfect sense.

Lyra’s eyes went wide as she stared at Lana, shaking her head, totally unconvinced.

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Chapter 59

“Lana, Lyra said.

“What’s up?” Lana asked.

Lyra frowned, her face full of confusion. “Who said the Wraiths only go after people?”

Lana froze, her mind short-circuiting as her usual assumptions crashed.

She stared at Lyra, her voice unconsciously rising.

“What?”

“If they’re not eating people, then what are they eating?”

“They eat something else?”

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