Joe had brought the charter bus right into the basement, and when Petra restored the power, it was much easier to get the girls down to the bus. None of the neighbors had ever called 911, so the police had never been summoned. It turned out that the entire building was very well soundproofed to keep the screams of the girls from being noticed. Not that there would be any more of that since nobody was left in the building. There was so much blood on the second floor that when I was done, it was seeping under the doorway into the stairwell, so I was glad we had the elevator working now.

"Joe, what happened with the guards here in the garage?" The girls and I were going to get dropped off at our car while he was on the way to the hospital before he faded into the night. When we were all clear of the area, he would call 911 and report the shootings at the club.

He sighed, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck in embarrassment. "They bolted with 4 vehicles when they heard the gunfire. They have some girls with them, 1 per car, but they're not the same as the ones you rescued. They weren't with the general population, they had their own rooms here near the garage, and they all looked conscious. Some of them were struggling to get away as they got into the cars. Petra is looking through everything, but it appears that they may have been political prisoners. She's confirming it, but her preliminary research shows that their parents are all working for the government in some capacity, and none would be friendly to this type of facility." He got into the bus, sitting in the driver's seat while the girls and I sat in the front row.

Bella and Lexie were both silent, as many of the girls had to be carried down, and they realized how close they'd been to this happening to them. Willow was all over the place, making sure the girls that were a little awake got water, and trying to make sure they were okay. The two girls from the boat helped too and were over the moon happy now that they knew they were close to freedom. I guess they hadn't been given any drugs like the ones in the rooms had, so they were in better shape, though only slightly. We'd ended up putting mattresses on the floor and dragging them like little sleds to the elevator to keep them comfortable, but I really wasn't sure what they would need for a recovery time. I knew Petra would make sure it happened though.

"Where are they?" They 4 other cars had a good hour's worth of a head start, and I wanted to go get them.

"Heading East on Interstate 90 so far. I don't know the destination though. Petra got the vehicle IDs from the license plates since they were on the security feed, and we plugged them into your GPS, so you can track them. We didn't want to involve the police, since we already knew that some of these guys had connections to the state troopers. They may be taking them to another location that needs to be hit, so if you're up to it, then follow them and see what you can do."

I'd already taken off the body armor, partially because it was heavy over time, and partially because all the girls were noticing the marks where bullets had hit it. I had felt the one on the head, but it turned out there were 2 there, and 4 on the torso. This armor was good, I'd never felt them with all my adrenaline. Normally it would have felt like getting punched. But now I knew I'd need it again, just not when.

"Are you up for a drive to save the other girls?" I asked Willow, Lexie, and Bella.

"You know we can't say no to that," Lexie replied quickly. "This is what they did to Lessa, what they would have done to us."

"I'm in." Willow was nodding along with Lexie's answer.

"Me too," whispered Bella as she tried not to cry. "I hope you kill every single one of them."

I nodded but looked away. I felt conflicted because I wanted that. I wanted to kill them all, and then I'd feel horrible afterwards. But I knew it needed to be done. "That's my plan."

Joe got the bus on the road, driving slowly in the total darkness. It was a fast drive to the parking lot where our new vehicle was, and then we were off. "Be safe," Joe reminded us. "I'll get the girls to the hospital, and then we'll be in touch. You all did great."

"Thanks Joe, maybe we can meet under better circumstances next time."

"And say goodbye to Petra for us!" Lexie added.

Joe smiled with a little salute, then closed the door and pulled away. We'd done it. Well, most of it anyway. 4 more girls were out there, probably scared to death, and they were going to get freed next. I made a pile of my gear in the back of the Audi SQ8 RS that would be much better to make this trek in. We'd have more room to stretch in, and better storage too. Willow quickly slid behind the wheel, just like the last time we tracked someone, and Lexie sat up with her. I slid into the back seat next to Bella, and opened up the GPS that showed the vehicles with the other girls on it.

"Just keep following that, switch out driving as needed, since we have no idea where they're going," I told them, while handing up my phone. "Don't push yourself, we have a lot of drivers."

"We'll take care of it," Lexie assured me. "You sleep."

It was just after 1am by this time, and it wasn't hard for me to sleep at all. I rested my head against the window, and I was asleep before we got on the highway.

I woke up with the sun shining, and Bella draped over me. We'd somehow tipped over into the middle of the back seat, and my head was on her lap while her body was draped across my back. For a change, I didn't have any bad dreams, so I guess I'd have to thank her when she was up. I moved a little, worming out from under her, and then pulled her head onto my lap instead, before I looked around. Lexie was driving now, with Willow asleep in the passenger seat, but I couldn't tell where we were.

"Hey Lexie, how are you holding up?" I hoped she got a little sleep too.

"I'm okay, I slept a little while Willow drove, so now It's my turn."

"I can take over if you need." I glanced at the clock on the dashboard and realized it was after 9am. 8 hours of sleep was way more than my normal! "Where are we?"

"Nah, I'm good. If we stop for food, then we can switch. And we just passed Rochester, New York, still heading east. We've stopped for gas a couple of times, and so have they. They must all be going to the same place, I half expected them to split up," she stated.

"They must have another club of some sort, or at least some backers. Sooner or later, we'll find out their destination and get those girls back. How long has Willow been sleeping? Should we get some food?" I was pretty hungry at this point, and I'd want energy for whatever happened later.

"She's been out for about 3 hours. I bet we could all eat for sure."

"Okay, pull over the next time you see a place for us to grab some food."

I just sat back and thought for a bit. We'd made up some time, which made sense because they didn't have as many drivers per vehicle as we did, so they were having to go slower as they got more tired. I just hoped that they would stop at a hotel at some point, and we'd be able to make a move. I really wanted to talk to Joe to see if there were any updates, too. Did the other girls get to the hospital? Did they alert the cops about the club?

At the next exit, Lexie pulled us off the highway as we'd seen a sign for a McDonalds, and we knew that would be fast. We woke up Bella and Willow, and parked the car so we could hit the bathroom and load up on some food. Thankfully, it was still time for the breakfast menu, because I couldn't bear anything but their fries otherwise. Hell, I had two nurses with me already talking about the bad stuff we were about to put into our bodies too. But hey, Bella was excited.

"Oh, I need like 5 of those hashbrowns!" she moaned excitedly. I shared a smile with Willow and Lexie at her attitude. She'd been very quiet when we left Indiana, I think we all were, but the prospect of food got her back to somewhat normal.

I recalled Petra's offer of a therapist, and I was thinking we'd all need one at this rate. There had been too much that we'd all seen and done. And as much as I was still terrified to talk to Willow and Lexie about our future living and family relationship, would I ever be able to leave them alone again? Would I trust my fellow humans to not do them harm? Could I give them the babies that they want, and not stay near them to protect that new life? Could I rescue Bella, grow close to her like she's my sister, and then leave her too?

No.

I'd have to find a way to make it work.

No matter what happened after we found those new girls, my life was going to get a lot more interesting. But was that good or bad?