The side collision had caused the door on Josiah’s side to be dented inward. Thankfully, the passengers in the back seats seemed to be fine.
However, the impact was so powerful that Rachel almost fell off her seat. Winnie helped her up while asking Josiah, “Are you okay? Are you injured?”
Josiah had managed to stop the car, but his head had still slammed on the steering wheel.
“D*mn it! What on earth is going on?” he cursed under his breath, feeling the massive bump on his head.
Their situation was so chaotic that no one bothered to reply to Xavier.
Subsequently, Xavier panicked more when he did not know what was going on.
Soon, his anxious voice rang out again. “Talk to me! What happened to you guys? Did Harold’s men catch up to you?”
Still, no one responded to him.
Xavier felt he had been waiting for a response for ages when, in truth, everything happened in the blink of an eye.
Winnie and Josiah did not answer him because they, too, had the same concern as Xavier.
They feared the person who crashed into them was Harold. Thus, they had no time to answer his questions.
Josiah was ready to drive the car away, but the collision had caused the entire car to be stuck in between a row of trees and the other car.
On top of that, the right tire had fallen into a pit by the side of the road. It was impossible for him to drive it away, and that realization left him livid.
Meanwhile, Winnie was momentarily stunned when she looked out of the car windows. Immediately after that, she knitted her brows and called out urgently, “Josiah! Josiah, calm down!”
Without turning to look at her, Josiah snapped, “How am I supposed to calm down?”
Xavier, on the other hand, gave up on waiting for an answer. “I’m going back to look for you guys!”
Winnie hurriedly stopped him. “There’s no need for that! It’s Mason and Greta. It’s their car!”
Before Xavier could even react, Josiah had already lost his cool. “What? Why did they knock into our car? Have they lost their minds?”
With that, he lifted his head and looked out of the window.
Just then, Greta had already gotten out of the car.
She had never met Josiah before, nor did she know Winnie was in that car when the vehicles collided.
It was not until she walked over to the other car that she realized who was in it. She exclaimed, “Ms. Garland? Why are you here?”
Winnie stared at Greta, her frown deepening. “I was about to ask you the same. Why did you ram into us?”
Greta did not know how to respond. “We didn’t do it on purpose. We encountered Harold’s men outside the hospital, and our car got shot, which caused problems with our brakes. Then, we received an order from Mr. Fairchild telling us to take this road to Yeringham. We didn’t want to cause you guys any delay, so we sped all the way here. Who would’ve known your car would be here the moment we exited the junction? I swear, Mason really did hit the brakes, but we were speeding so fast that we didn’t manage to stop in time. We would’ve slowed down if we knew you were ahead of us. Man… This is such a huge misunderstanding. You won’t cut our pay, will you, Ms. Garland?”
Winnie rolled her eyes at Greta. “Well, you should consider yourself lucky for not killing me. Otherwise, you two won’t get a single cent.”
When she finished her sentence, she turned to the phone and said, “There you go, Xavier. You better not come over. We should hurry on. There’s no time to lose.”
“All right. Actually, I just wanted to tell you they’ve caught up to you. You guys should hurry up,” Xavier said grimly.
“Okay,” responded Winnie.
Josiah, too, promised, “Don’t worry. We won’t fall behind.”
He hung up as soon as he finished speaking because holding the device while driving was a hassle.
The moment he put away the phone, he heard Winnie opening the car door.
He quickly turned around to look at her. “What are you doing?”
As Winnie got out of the car, she said, “I’m going to have a word with them. Your forehead’s bleeding, by the way. You might want to clean it up.”
With that, she walked toward the other car.
Seeing Winnie getting out of the car, Greta quickly followed after her. “What’s wrong, Ms. Garland?”
“I’m going to check on my friend. Is he all right?” answered Winnie while striding forward.
“Yep! We’ve protected him well and made sure he’s not the slightest bit injured,” Greta said proudly.
Winnie nodded. “I’m going to have a word with him. Can you check on the rest to see if they need your help?”
Once Greta was dismissed, the window beside Christopher rolled down.
He stuck his head out of the window and asked, “Everything all right?”
“Yep.” Pausing briefly, Winnie frowned while gazing at him. “Are you coming back with us this time, or are you going to wait for the organization’s arrangements?”
Christopher paused momentarily before speaking. “That depends if there’s a space for me. From what I know, Xavier has arranged for a chopper. Will there be enough space for me, too?”
Winnie was relieved to hear that from Christopher. “Of course, there’s a spot for you.”
Christopher grinned. “That’s great.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Josiah urged, “Ms. Garland, we’re ready. Shall we leave?”
Winnie quickly turned around and replied with “coming” before turning back to look at Christopher, uttering, “I’ll get going, then.”
Christopher nodded. “See you later.”
Right then, Greta walked over while dusting off the dirt on her hands, saying to Winnie, “I’ve placed some rocks under your car tire. It should be able to move later.”
Winnie patted Greta on the shoulder. “Thank you so much. Tell Mason to drive carefully. Safety first.”
“Don’t worry, Ms. Garland. Here. Let me open the door for you.”
Winnie stopped Greta. “It’s okay. You guys should get going. Let’s not waste any time.”
Hearing that, Greta quickly got into the passenger seat without any further ado.
In the meantime, Winnie watched their car leave before getting into hers.
Josiah, who had been waiting by the door for her, helped her to close the door.
After getting into the driver’s seat, he could not help but complain, “This car is horrible on unpaved roads. See. They’re almost out of our sight.”
“Just make do with it. We’re already lucky that this car isn’t broken even after that collision,” replied Winnie.
As she said that, Josiah’s phone suddenly rang.
He took it out and answered it as soon as he saw Xavier’s name on the screen.
Once the call was connected, Xavier’s voice came through. “I found a GPS tracker in my car. I’ve gotten rid of it. Do you have one in yours? You should quickly get rid of it.”
“Huh?” Josiah scanned the interior and asked with a frown, “Yours is a wired tracker, right? Was it placed in an obvious spot? I see nothing in this car except for a few decorations. I can’t find it without help from any equipment.”
If there’s really a tracker in the car, that means Harold has access to our whereabouts at any time. This is bad.
“Okay.” Winnie took the phone from him.
The screen lit up automatically when the phone was lifted from Josiah’s hand, revealing his wallpaper.
Winnie could not help but chortle when she saw it.
“What’s wrong?” asked Josiah.
With a smile, she said, “Your wallpaper. It’s the group photo of the three of us and the octopus at the dock. Why did you pick this picture as your wallpaper?”
Adjusting his glasses, Josiah said, “Why not? It’s a picture of us after avoiding a disaster. Isn’t it meaningful? Look at the blue sky, the white clouds, the vast sea, and the ruins. Doesn’t it look like we’re filming a movie?”
“It does!” Winnie’s smile widened. She would never forget the way the three of them smiled and helped each other up in the midst of the ruins.
She could not help but stare a little longer at the picture. However, she did not forget about her task—to call Xavier.
“Your phone’s still locked. What’s your passcode?”
“It’s nine, five, zero, seven, zero, seven.”
“Huh?” Upon hearing the string of numbers, Winnie could not help but glance at Josiah.
Confused, Josiah asked, “What?”
“Nothing.” Winnie quickly unlocked the phone and commented, “Your passcode is your birthday, isn’t it? Won’t it be easy for others to guess a password like that?”
“I’m used to it.”
“All right, then.” Winnie said nothing else and dialed Xavier’s number.
This time, however, Xavier did not pick up right away. It took several rings before the call was connected.
Xavier asked immediately, “Where are you guys? Why aren’t you here yet? I’m already in the elevator.”
Winnie was shocked. “So fast? You guys were in front of us just now. How did you reach so soon?”
Josiah piped up with a chuckle, “What do you mean, just now? It was about eight minutes since we last saw their car. It makes sense for them to have arrived.”
Xavier grunted in acknowledgment. “We’ll wait for you two at the roof, then. We’ve got to carry Granny and Professor White up since their legs are injured.”
Winnie reminded, “Got it. Stay safe! We’ll be there soon. Where’s Christopher, by the way? Has he arrived?”
“Yes. You three are the only ones left, but don’t rush as the road ahead is under maintenance. Drive slowly and be safe.”
Josiah answered, “Got it. Since when did Mr. Fairchild become so long-winded?”
Winnie chimed in, “All right, then. I’m going to hang up now. Josiah’s phone is running out of battery.”
After ending the call, Josiah drove forward a little. As expected, there were a few barricades placed on the road, but they did not stop the flow of traffic.
To their surprise, just as they were slowing down, three cars approached and surrounded their vehicle.
Winnie and Josiah were perplexed.
Josiah knitted his brows and turned around to glance at Winnie. “I’m tired of asking this, but what on earth is going on?”
Saying nothing, Winnie squinted while eyeing the person who was stepping out of the car. She was instantly filled with disbelief when she saw who it was.
Meanwhile, Josiah followed her gaze and fell speechless at what he saw. “Why is he here? Am I dreaming?”
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