Chapter 794: The Rescue Team Arrives

I pulled Rachel gently into my arms and drifted off to sleep with her warmth against me.

When I woke the next morning, the space beside me was empty. Sunlight was already filtering through the gaps in the bamboo walls, warm and bright. I sat up, rubbed the sleep from my eyes, and stepped outside into the clearing.

Rachel, Maya, and Victoria were sitting together near the remains of the previous night’s fire, talking in low voices. The moment Maya noticed me, a faint but unmistakable blush rose to her cheeks.

She quickly looked away, though not before I caught the flicker of residual embarrassment and something softer in her eyes — the memory of everything that had happened under the trees the night before still clearly fresh.

Rachel turned at the sound of my footsteps and smiled, the tension in her shoulders easing the moment she saw I was awake.

"Dexter, you’re finally up. Let’s go — I want to go to the tree house today. The view from up there is the best, and we still haven’t properly explored the higher parts of the island."

I nodded and started to move toward her, but Maya’s voice cut in before I could take more than a step.

"Dexter, wait. Rachel... there’s something I need to talk about first."

She then turned to Victoria, her expression growing more serious, the earlier blush fading into genuine worry.

"Teacher... once we go back, those people from the SHADOW organization... I’m afraid of what they might do. They already forced the company’s sale. If they find out we survived the crash, they might not leave us alone."

Victoria’s voice remained calm and steady, though her eyes sharpened at the mention of the name.

"Don’t worry. Dexter will take care of it. You don’t have to concern yourself with them any longer. We’ve already made our move."

Maya immediately shook her head, rejecting the idea without hesitation. Her hands tightened in her lap.

"No, Teacher. We can’t let Dexter be placed in any danger. Those people... they’re ruthless. They don’t leave loose ends. If they think any of us are a threat, they won’t hesitate to—"

She cut herself off, glancing at me with clear anxiety. The fear in her voice was real. Whatever history she had with SHADOW, it ran deep enough that even the thought of me confronting them made her pale.

Rachel frowned slightly, looking between the three of us.

"SHADOW...? Is that the group you mentioned before? The ones who are behind-the-scenes manipulators?"

Victoria gave a short nod but didn’t elaborate. Before the conversation could go any further, a low, distant thumping sound reached us — rhythmic, mechanical, growing steadily louder.

All four of us froze.

The sound resolved into the unmistakable rotor wash of a helicopter. Within moments, the chopper itself appeared over the treeline, banking toward the open beach where we had built the HELP sign days earlier.

Sand and leaves whipped into the air as it descended. The moment the skids touched ground, the side door slid open and uniformed rescue personnel jumped out, scanning the clearing.

Rachel was the first to react. A bright, almost disbelieving smile broke across her face. She spun toward me, eyes shining, and before I could say anything, she threw her arms around my neck and kissed me — hard, quick, and full of pure relief and excitement.

The kiss landed squarely on my lips, warm and impulsive, lasting only a second before she pulled back, laughing breathlessly.

"They’re here! Dexter, they’re actually here! We’re getting off this island!"

Maya stood more slowly. Relief flickered across her face as well, but it was immediately tangled with something sharper — panic. Her eyes stayed fixed on the helicopter and the approaching rescuers, and her fingers twisted together at her waist. Through my Mind Reading ability, her thoughts came in a rapid, anxious stream.

[We’re being found... That’s good... but once we’re back, SHADOW will know we survived. What if they come after Teacher? What if they come after Dexter? I can’t let that happen...]

Victoria placed a steadying hand on Maya’s shoulder.

"It’s all right. Stay calm. Let them take us."

The rescue team reached us quickly. They checked for injuries, offered water and emergency blankets, and began guiding us toward the helicopter.

Rachel kept close to my side the entire time, still smiling, occasionally squeezing my hand as if to confirm the rescue was real. Maya walked a half-step behind Victoria, her expression carefully controlled, but the tension in her posture never fully eased.

Every time one of the rescuers spoke into a radio, her eyes flicked toward the device, as if she expected SHADOW’s name to come through the speaker.

We were loaded aboard. The helicopter lifted off in a roar of wind and engine noise, the island shrinking rapidly below us. Rachel leaned against the window, watching the coastline disappear, still unable to stop smiling.

Maya sat across from us, hands folded tightly in her lap, her gaze distant. Victoria remained quiet and composed, though I caught the way she occasionally glanced at Maya with quiet understanding.

The flight was long. We transferred to a larger aircraft at a coastal staging point, then continued onward. By the time we finally touched down, the sun had shifted, and the air had changed. We were no longer in Southeast Asia.

The medical team waiting on the tarmac confirmed what the flight crew had already told us: we were being taken to a private hospital facility in the United States for full evaluation and recovery.

The hospital was quiet, modern, and heavily secured. Each of us was given a private room for observation and rest. IV lines, clean clothes, warm food, and thorough check-ups followed in quick succession.

Rachel, even though her ankle was fine.. but since Maya and my mom were there.. she still asked for her ankle to be re-examined and wrapped properly.

Maya was checked for any lingering effects from the earlier snakebite and the general strain of the days on the island. Victoria and I were cleared with only minor notes about dehydration and fatigue.

Even after the doctors left and the rooms fell quiet, the undercurrent of tension remained.

Rachel sat on the edge of my hospital bed for a while, still visibly buoyant from the rescue, occasionally leaning over to kiss my cheek or the corner of my mouth in lingering excitement.

Maya, when she came to the doorway of my room later that evening, looked both relieved to see everyone safe and quietly haunted by the same fear she had voiced on the island.

"They’ll know we survived," she said softly, almost to herself. "SHADOW doesn’t forget. And they don’t forgive."

Victoria, standing behind her, answered in the same calm tone she had used that morning.

"Then we’ll be ready. Dexter isn’t alone in this. None of us are."

Maya didn’t argue further, but the worry never fully left her eyes. Outside the hospital windows, the American night settled in, far from the island, far from the crash site — yet the shadow of the organization that had forced them all into this situation still stretched long and dark behind them.