Chapter 276

The whole team had rested a full day and night. Early the next morning, inside Lucy Horváth and Molly Robinson’s camper, Magnus Specter woke before dawn.

He reached out and lightly patted the two girls. They were supposed to move with him in the first wave today, head into Springvale City first, scout the road.

Magnus had wanted to go alone.

But Liana Jabbar, Charlotte Renard, and the others had shot that down hard.

This wasn’t the first red light anymore. With the Metal Crystal opened, he was close to unbeatable. Close. Not truly. Especially after running into that giant snake, nobody could say for sure he’d be safe going out alone.

“Leaving already? Let me sleep five more minutes. Just five.”

Molly protested in a sleepy mumble, burrowing her little head deeper into Magnus’s chest, twisting herself into a more comfortable spot.

On his other side, Lucy had also been woken by his patting. She hadn’t planned to laze around, but seeing Molly refuse to get up, she dropped back down too and laid her cheek on Magnus’s chest.

“Yeah... five more minutes...”

It was a small camper. No real living room, no separate bedroom, just one tight little space. A big bed, a mounted liquid-crystal screen, and a DVD set. The three of them had watched two films the night before.

Then came a burst of hurried knocking from outside.

All three were jolted awake.

Lucy and Molly both looked annoyed. Magnus sat up from the bed and started pulling on clothes. Lucy, naked, stepped down to open the door. The moment she opened it and saw Taylor Carroll, she looked surprised.

Taylor shoved past her at once and strode into the camper.

“Brother Liu— no, Magnus, this is bad. Teacher Ke’s gone!”

“What?”

Magnus yanked on his coat and jumped down from the vehicle, grabbing Taylor by the arm.

“What happened? Where did Emily Ward go?”

“I—I don’t know...” Taylor half-ran after him. “But Xiaoyue said Teacher Ke left a note in her room. Nobody knows what’s written on it yet.”

By the time they got back to the camper’s sitting area, Liana and the others were already there. The second Sarah Franklin saw Magnus, she ran up with red eyes and handed him a small slip of paper.

“Brother Xiaofan, it’s my fault. I didn’t keep watch on Teacher Ke last night. She...”

“I got it.”

Magnus snatched the note open and looked.

Only three words.

Don’t look for me.

“Fuck!”

He cursed and turned to Liana.

“How long has she been gone? Do you know?”

“She left last night. Seven, maybe eight hours by now.” Liana looked deeply troubled. “The girls on night watch saw her drive out alone in an off-road vehicle. She told them she was going to carry out a mission. I already sent people to look for her...”

“A mission my ass.”

Magnus was getting more and more agitated. Seeing Lucy and Molly run over as well, he knew there was no way he’d be taking them out on the mission today.

“Sister Liana, the convoy plan stays the same. Tonight at ten, soak in animal blood on schedule. Lucy, Molly, you go with the main convoy. Head to the timber mill first and wait for me there. I’m going to find Emily Ward.”

“It’s all open wasteland out there. Where are you even going to look?” Liana asked at once.

“The train station where Kevin Ward died.”

The answer came out of Magnus’s mouth before he even thought. Right after that, several more places flashed through his head.

“Sister Liana, if I’m not back before tonight, you move by the original plan. I’ll find Emily Ward. We’ll meet up with you at the timber mill.”

He grabbed an off-road vehicle at random. He didn’t let Harper Quinn come with him. Alone, with fire in his chest, Magnus drove out of the underground parking area.

The last time, Emily had kissed him first.

And with everything from his previous life piled on top of it, if he said he had no feelings for her at all, that would be a flat lie.

It was just that now he felt that no matter which woman he took, it would be unfair to her. And it would only make the team more tangled, more messy.

If there were still a safe place left for the whole group to settle down—like the underground grain depot, like that distant, dreamlike Queenstead City—then maybe he would have told Emily what he felt.

Maybe.

He didn’t know.

He only knew that deep down, somewhere he didn’t like touching, he had long since treated Emily as his woman.

Especially in this life.

He drove out from the underground grain depot and went straight to the train station. Starting from the meteor shell Kevin had once stayed in, he searched the whole station top to bottom.

No sign of Emily.

He searched for six hours.

By one in the afternoon, Magnus sat in the vehicle smoking one cigarette after another. The driver’s cabin was choked with haze, the smoke so thick it was starting to blur his sight, but he didn’t notice. Or maybe he did and just didn’t care. He kept lighting them, one after another.

From the last life to this one, nearly two years of memories rolled through his head.

Every time he had met Emily.

Every word she had said.

Every look.

She and Kevin—her family wasn’t from this province. Their hometown was in Beihe Province. Right now Magnus could only think of two places she might have gone.

One was her hometown in Beihe Province. But he couldn’t remember exactly which city. Seemed like some county outside the provincial capital.

The other was Springvale University.

Since graduating, Emily had come to Springvale University to work as the campus doctor. Her whole life circle had never really left that place.

That was where she had left the most memories after coming to Northreach Province.

And in this life, that was also where she had first met him.

At least, for Magnus, it was their first meeting in this life.

Going back to her old campus?

Then damn it, Springvale University it is.

He flicked away the cigarette butt, pushed open the door to air out the smoke for a moment, then slammed the accelerator to the floor. Skirting the passenger station beside the train station, he shot straight onto the highway.

Running a single vehicle, he could dodge anything he met. Worst case, he’d cut across farmland.

He drove like that for over an hour.

Then suddenly Magnus stomped the brake.

The off-road vehicle screeched to a stop in the middle of a fork in the road.

To the right was the way to the Deshan air-raid shelter.

He reversed at once and turned that way.

More than ten minutes later, he reached the entrance. He got out of the vehicle and stared in silence at the collapsed gate outside the shelter.

No Emily.

No off-road vehicle of hers.

He stood there a few moments, looking.

Then he turned back, got into the vehicle again, started the engine, and drove toward Springvale City once more.

The timber mill.

The base factory from his last life was now a wreck. The giant workshops and warehouses were full of gaping holes. Rats and bats slept everywhere inside.

Still no Emily.

“Damn it!”

Magnus smashed the steering wheel with one fist, threw the vehicle into reverse, then charged again toward Springvale City.

Cliff Baxter’s troops were in Springvale City right now.

Were you trying to die?

Motherfucker, if I catch you this time, I’ll make you pay for this. Fuck!

For that beast of a brother of yours, was it worth it? Fuck. I fucking—

The more he thought, the tighter his chest got.

If Emily had really gone to Springvale City, Magnus didn’t dare imagine what would happen if Cliff Baxter’s men caught her.

And right then, one sentence Liana had said when she came back that day suddenly rose in his head again—

Emily Ward didn’t want much.

She just needed one family member.