They Took the Wrong Road in America — By Morning, the Entire Village Wanted Them Dead
Chapter 13
Three months later, Ethan and Maya were living in Seattle.
The government had officially announced that Bellweather was an abandoned criminal compound.
Twenty-seven arrests were made.
Hundreds of missing-person cases were reopened.
News networks called it one of the largest identity-forging conspiracies in American history.
But there was a problem.
Nobody could explain who had sent the final messages.
Sarah Collins disappeared before giving testimony.
The federal agency denied ever employing her.
The truck driver was never found.
And Bellweather itself?
Official satellite photographs showed nothing unusual.
Just an empty stretch of Montana forest.
Ethan spent every night developing the photographs from his father’s camera.
One image remained unexplained.
He finally enlarged it.
It showed Bellweather in 2009.
His father stood near the church.
Beside him was a little girl.
Maya.
But there was something else.
Behind them stood Ethan himself.
Older.
Wearing the same jacket he had worn when he entered Bellweather.
Ethan stared at the photograph.
Impossible.
Maya walked into the room.
“What is it?”
He couldn’t answer.
She looked at the image.
Her expression changed.
“That’s you.”
“I know.”
“But that’s impossible.”
Ethan turned the photograph over.
There was writing on the back.
His father’s handwriting.
If you are looking at this, Bellweather has found you again.
Maya whispered:
“What does that mean?”
Ethan looked toward the window.
Outside, a black SUV was parked across the street.
Someone sat inside.
Watching them.
The vehicle drove away.
Ethan stood.
Maya grabbed his hand.
“Don’t.”
He looked at her.
“What if this never ended?”
She stared at him.
“Then what do we do?”
Ethan picked up the camera.
“For the first time?”
He smiled faintly.
“We stop running.”
And somewhere hundreds of miles away, beneath the ruins of a forgotten Montana village, a telephone rang inside a locked underground room.
Someone answered.
“Yes.”
A voice spoke quietly.
“They survived.”
A pause.
“Good.”
The caller smiled.
“Then the next phase can begin.”
