Hey hey,

Just a short excerpt to start our week off right 😉

Sigrid

Louise couldn’t help but smile while taking in the beauty surrounding her. The ocean lay before her, bright and blue with orange light glittering across it. The setting sun gave the wild bushes and trees around her a warm glow.

On her right, Louise could see the ruins of the Golden Gate Bridge. Parts of it still stood tall at both sides of the bay. Its legendary red paint was barely visible under the plants and dirt that had taken over the structure.

Louise followed a large seagull that was sliding through the air and making its way to the remainders of the bridge. She somehow felt more at home standing here. The coast at the other end was no longer Fireblue territory.

Not that anyone lived there. Everyone had been relocated to places with less extreme weather conditions. It was pretty much no man’s land. Tonight, it was hard to understand why, though. The bay was calm, the heat bearable enough and everything here was so damn beautiful.

“Thomas!” Hobbs’s voice cut through the peaceful moment.

Louise sighed and turned around, reluctantly turning her back on the view. The dull throb behind her temples was getting worse. She wouldn’t be able to ignore it much longer. “Yeah, coming,” she groaned.

Hobbs was entering coordinates into a computer that was about to transmit their first report to the teams back at the army base. A portable satellite was set up next to it.

“Nothing or no one in the neighborhood. If they’re trying to block the signal, it has to happen from inside the building,” Louise said.

Hobbs stepped away from the rugged terminal. “Let’s hope they’re not that stupid. I seem to have a full signal for now. But it’ll take a while to send. It’s a lot.”

Louise peered at the screen and nodded. “Let’s get started then. The sun’s about to set. I don’t want to be out here in the dark.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Hobbs agreed. He looked around, taking his time to make sure no one was coming.

“They’re still inside,” Louise said. “I saw them on our way out.”

“There have to be other people around somewhere. It’s been too quiet,” he replied.

Louise rubbed the back of her neck. She too had noticed they had encountered very few other people in the last 24 hours. Woodward and Lucas were doing an excellent job of keeping them hidden from view.

“I’m still surprised we haven’t seen anything to do with Biden’s death,” she said. It was so much easier to have a conversation now that there was less to hide.

Hobbs nodded. “Should be a big fuss.”

“Yeah,” Louise mumbled, “Maybe they’re just making sure we don’t see it.”

“Like I said, maybe there isn’t any,” Hobbs said.

She grimaced. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

See you back here on Wednesday !