𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 paranoia caused West to pace back and forth in his apartment. His hair was dishevelled from his constant tugging, as he anticipated a call from Angelo.

   The plan had worked. The Ascots got the ammo crates and successfully escaped, but Noah was still alive and he knew about it all. Their training sessions, their treachery, and their plans for the future of Everwinter when they finally got rid of him.

   Now with Mack locked up and soon to be potentially executed once Noah had recovered properly, West was now feeling a heavy burden. The same nauseating feeling that overtook him when he'd missed all of his shots to fatally end Monet at Goldcrest. What he was sensing was failure.

   He nibbled on his fingernails as he impatiently anticipated another phone call with Angelo. This time, he would have to do it himself, Mack was being watched like a hawk during the day and they wouldn't be able to have the conversation together. Regardless of keeping to their plan, West was struggling to keep his mind from diverting to Monet.

   He didn't like to say that he was afraid of her, but her threat was certain. He'd overheard Zara telling Sasha about Noah sharing his feelings towards Monet to her, so West knew that she was being fuelled by emotion—he was just hoping that that same emotion will get her killed this time, it seemed to spare her at Goldcrest. It meant that he just had to kill her first.

   The phone began ringing and West snatched it from the table, "You have some nerve taking your time to call, after you failed your end of the deal."

   "You and Mackenzie are really not fans of greetings, are you?" Angelo hummed contemptuously.

   "Shut the fuck up. Noah is still alive. He's figuring everything out and Mack and I essentially have bounties for our heads." West spat. "We basically gave you that ammo for free and I know for sure I am not letting that slide after everything I've had to do."

   "Well, killing a bunch of your own was your lousy decision, and frankly you deserve it for trying to pick a fight with my sister." Angelo contended, the anger fell from West's face. "Though, that mess could easily be blamed on Noah's 'terrible leadership skills', no? Does that not benefit you?"

   "That's not enough, Angelo." West exhaled, "Mack is being held in our dungeon and Noah is soon to kill him when he can get the chance. The least you could do for all the trouble we have gone through for you is to offer some fucking hospitality. You think we don't know that you're going to be using that ammo on Everwinter? I'd at least prefer to not be on the receiving end."

   "My plans are not the same as yours, if I wanted to rain bullets into Everwinter, I would've already." Angelo soon fell silent on the other end, considering whether telling them that Noah apologised was an intelligent idea, he could already sense the reaction that would unfold. Though, as he thought about it, he was beginning to want that truce wholeheartedly as well.

   "Can you fucking speak? Are you going to help us or not?" It was definitely better that he didn't, West's desperation was readable and certainly unstable.

   "Okay, help you how?" Angelo strained as he asked.

   "Get us out of here. Noah's going to kill Mack, and soon me, and you're not going to let that happen, are you?"

   "I couldn't care less, to be frank, but I'm sure that's not what you want to hear." Angelo scoffed.

   "No it's not. I'd prefer you offer a place for us to stay and help when we take down Noah properly." West gritted. Angelo almost laughed, hearing the fact that he had to continue on. Warning Noah would be hard at this point, considering their last interaction, and war seemed like the last resort for Mack and West.

   Angelo sighed heavily, "Okay." He knew it wasn't going to end well, for him, for Noah, for any of them? "If you can both get to the old meeting spot just off the border without getting caught, I'll have someone go get you. If you pull anything, I will kill you both on the spot."

   "You wouldn't dare, but whatever you say. We're leaving tomorrow." West stated firmly before he confidently cut off. He took a deep breath and felt a small sense of relief run through him as he pulled back his hair. Now he just needed a plan.

•

   After a lengthy period of silence, Noah had finally mustered the courage to speak to the parents of the children that were subjected to Mackenzie's traumatic plan, and the families of the guards that were slaughtered at the north lookouts. It was hard, considering the amount of ferocity that was thrown at him when he had no idea what had actually happened over the past months, but he took it on the chin—he was the leader of Everwinter, despite whatever Mack had told people when he was injured, and it was his duty to make his Everwinterians feel safe in this desolate world.

   He helped bury the young boy's body, watching it be lowered into a grave beside Murphy's. He tried his best to keep his eyes away from it, he had been so strong these last few months and didn't want to backtrack. Once the funeral service was completed, he was en route to a meeting with Sebastian, but was stopped by West who intentionally walked into him.

   "Oh, Noah, you're about. I wanted to know if you're feeling any better," he started. Noah gave him an unimpressed expression once their eyes met.

   "As good as I can be after getting stabbed." Noah shrugged.

   "Good, you've been through too much shit, bruv, we haven't even been able to chill like we used to," he awkwardly chuckled on his own. Frankly, Noah wasn't in the mood to talk to pretty much anyone about everything that has happened, Mack was locked up and soon to get what he deserved—he just had to figure out what that was—and Angelo should be as good as gone if he knew what was best for him. If Everwinter were to retaliate to his attempt at murder, his apology would've been for nothing, and he didn't want to portray that.

   "Uh, I just got to get something from home and then we should link, get some of the guys and—" he smiled at his old-timely friend.

   "What do you want?" Noah abruptly spoke up.

   "What?" West breathlessly questioned. The chilly wind picked up, causing him to shiver, Noah barely moved, upholding his stare also.

   "Mack made it pretty clear that he wants me dead, and he's using Angelo to do that. But what do you want?" Noah crossed his arms. "Your loyalty to Mack, your plan for the children and the fact that you lot hid it, the Ascots stealing ammo and the massacre that you were in the middle of. You were the first one at the east armoury, weren't you? What do you want so badly, West?"

   He stuttered, failing to put the right words together, before he blabbered to keep up his lie, "To say that I'm sorry, you know, we should've told you about that," he answered, avoiding the other points he made. "We haven't been good friends to you at all, and I'm sorry."

   Noah's eyebrow rose, he'd kept in mind what Monet had said about him, that whether or not West wanted to kill him, he was in his way. He occasionally wondered what it would've been like if he'd never shown up at the gates almost two years ago, would so much have been avoided?

   The two men had been very close friends since ages sixteen and seventeen, during college. Noah was like an older brother to him, always being able to help him when he was in a predicament. It meant that he commonly gave him the benefit of the doubt, a sliver of hope that he could be trusted.

   Though, little did Noah know, West had just left the dungeon while Ray, the trustworthy guard that would have no problem crushing anyone in his strong grip, was napping during his shift. It was a tremendous flaw that made it easy for West to steal the cell key that he was going to use to get Mackenzie out at night.

   West sheepishly smiled, as he squeezed the jangly keys in his jacket pocket. "So, are we gonna hang out?"

   "I have stuff I need to do today," he sighed. West nodded, relieved even though his face didn't show it.

   "That's cool. Another time then," he lied, knowing this might be the last time he might ever see him alive, and frankly, he was glad. Everwinter being his was soon arriving, no matter what he had to do to get it. Noah nodded sceptically, feeling a strange sense of unease as he accepted how West was in the middle of it all with Mack.

   He was Monet's brother, he couldn't kill him. She was demanding for him to see where she was coming from, but ultimately he couldn't. After losing his own sibling, he didn't want Monet to do something she would soon regret.

   Peace was the only thing he searched for, since animosity wasn't doing very much for him. All he wanted to do was focus on sorting out plans for this passing Winter, and killing Mackenzie. He continued walking, not taking a look back at West who was grinning at how much of a fool he'd made out of him.

•

   The plan was decided and set up, as dusk soon fell over Everwinter. West had packed a bag with essentials and weapons, secured a secluded escape route and left a means of communication to Noah once they'd reached Valta. All he needed to do was get Mackenzie out of that cell.

   Following the nightly routine, Ray would leave at night. He never needed to be there since the doors to the dungeon would simply be locked. No one had ever attempted to break out of their cell, so there seemed to be no need for a guard to watch by, which just made this a whole lot easier for West.

   He approached the shackled door and took bolt cutters to it. The lock fell to the ground. He snuck in with a battery-powered torch and closed the door behind him. He panned through the cells, finding Mack in the one furthest from the entrance.

   "Oi, get the fuck up, we're getting out of here." he whispered loudly once he softly knocked on the bars. Mack looked towards the torch light, squinting his one good eye. He'd been done in the dungeon for just under two weeks, and Noah was at least decent enough to let him be treated for. His eyes was wrapped and bandaged, allowing him to only just avoid infection.

   "Thought he would've killed you by now," Mackenzie scoffed, swinging his legs off the bed.

   "You're pretty lucky yourself." West commented, focused on trying to unlock the door. "Get up, Angelo is getting us some place safe."

   "By that you mean?" Mack walked over to the door.

   "Stop asking questions and let's go, we don't have much time. We need to get to the meeting spot by the border." West pushed open the door and Mack strut out confidently. Handing him a silenced gun from the armoury and a few knives, the two snuck out.

   It was pretty easy, in West's opinion. Noah was too comfortable with his stupid journey to "peace and no worries", always letting things so blatant slip right beneath his nose. The streets were empty and no guards circulated the area, they were home-free.

   Their best escape route was through the Stratford International DLR station near the west wall that was still unused in the community and was essentially abandoned—Noah's plan was to change it into a training area for the children, but still hadn't found the chance to expand for it. The station was quite big, making it easy to climb. The structure of the entrance was tall enough to reach the wall, the drop onto the other side was hefty but they didn't have many options to be complaining—even though Mackenzie was still able to manage it with his one eye.

  They landed roughly into the bushes on the outside of the wall, but remained marginally unscathed. Keeping low, they moved further into Central London and avoided as many streets they could that they knew to have lookouts.

   By dawn, they'd reached the border, turning off to Tudor Street where they had last visited Angelo. They found two men waiting for them parked in a rover that was tucked into a side road. Fatigued but triumphant, they'd made it.