The muzzle flash brightened the entire room.
The sound was deafening.
Theresa thinking, We’re dead. She did it.
But she could still think.
She could still feel her son in her arms.
She braced for the pain to hit, but it didn’t come.
Someone was saying her name, and over the ringing in her ears, it sounded as if the shouts were coming from the bottom of a deep hole.
Something sparked, a point of light flaring in her field of vision, Theresa wondering, Is that the light at the end of the tunnel? Am I dead now, accelerating toward it? Is my son with me?
It sparked again, only this time the light didn’t die.
It grew brighter and brighter until a single flame ignited a tiny bundle of dried-out moss.
It was smoking now, and she could smell the smoke as she watched hands lift the burning tinder off the floor. The flames illuminated the dirtiest face she’d ever seen, engulfed by a shaggy beard that must have taken years to grow.
But those eyes . . .
Even in the diminishing firelight and through all the filth and the wildness in that face, she knew them. And not even the shock of almost dying could rival the shock of actually seeing them again.
The man said in a raspy voice, “Theresa! My love!”
Theresa released Ben and lunged forward.
As the light extinguished, she reached the bars and thrust her hands between them. She grabbed him, pulled him into the bars.
Adam Hassler reeked like a man who had been in the wilderness for years, and as her hands slid inside his duster and wrapped around his waist, she could feel that he was skin and bones.
“Adam?”
“It’s me, Theresa.”
“Oh my God!”
“I can’t believe I’m actually touching you.”
He kissed her through the bars.
As Ben climbed off the bed and approached, he said, “I thought you were dead.”
“I should be dead, little man. I should’ve died a thousand times over.”
ETHAN
He stood on the hood of Maggie’s Jeep, staring out at the hundred fifty faces that had gathered around him in the ark. It felt strange to look at this entire group, which for fourteen years had worked together to keep its fellow human beings, the residents of Wayward Pines, living in the dark.
Ethan said, “Last night, I made a difficult choice. I told the residents of Wayward Pines the truth. I told them what year it was. I showed them an abby.”
A voice in the midst of the crowd shouted, “You had no right!”
Ethan ignored this.
“I’m guessing none of you agree with that decision, and that’s not really much of a surprise to me. But let’s see if you agree with the decision David Pilcher made in response. He killed the power to the fence and opened the gate. At least five hundred abbies entered the valley in the middle of the night. More than half the town has been slaughtered. Those who managed to escape are stranded without food or water, and with no heat since Pilcher also cut off the power to the town.”
Disbelief spread quickly across the faces.
Someone yelled, “Liar!”
“There was a fête called for Kate and Harold Ballinger, but instead of executing them, the sheriff used the opportunity to lift the curtain.”
“Pope?”
“Pope’s dead, Adam.” Theresa hesitated. “A lot has happened since you’ve been gone. Ethan is the sheriff now.”
“Ethan’s here?”
“He was introduced into the town a month or so ago. He turned this place upside down. Nothing’s been the same since.”