Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 853 - 855

Chapter 853: Chapter 855

That night, the three of them prepared. Weapons were cleaned, gear checked, maps memorized. Jude didn’t sleep. He watched the city from the rooftop, the skyline broken and beautiful in the stormlight. He thought of the children in those files. He thought of what he had once been. What they had tried to turn him into. He would not let it happen again.

When the morning came, they moved.

The hydroelectric plant was massive, flanked by concrete walls and towers. But underground, there was a hidden corridor, a tunnel used during construction decades ago. That was how they got in, through the past.

They fought their way down level after level, silenced guards, avoided tripwires, hacked doors. The facility was active. Scientists moved like ghosts, machines hummed, and the children... they were there. Locked in glass cells. Sleeping. Drugged. Hooked up to machines.

Jude broke the first lock with trembling hands. A small girl opened her eyes and stared at him. He lifted her gently.

"You’re going home," he whispered.

Mina and Elias freed the others. Alarms blared. Security forces flooded in. But the kids were already in the tunnel, moving fast.

Jude stayed behind, covering their exit, holding the line as bullets sparked around him. He didn’t care about the pain anymore. Only the promise.

When the last child was safe, he ran.

They made it out into the rain.

The facility was destroyed hours later in a fire no one could explain. The news called it a gas leak. A tragedy.

But in the shadows, Jude knew better.

He watched the children board a convoy that would take them far away, to new homes, new chances.

He stood there, soaked and exhausted, with Elias and Mina at his side.

For the first time in years, he allowed himself to breathe.

But the war was not over.

Lynx was still out there.

And she had just declared war on the last man who knew how to finish it.,

Jude hadn’t returned to the city after the destruction of the hydroelectric plant. He disappeared into the quieter regions on the outskirts of Libertia, where the whispers of the past didn’t echo as loudly and people’s eyes weren’t filled with recognition or suspicion. There was a cabin tucked near the edge of a forest, far beyond any surveillance line, built decades ago by someone who never intended to be found. Jude found it while wandering aimlessly after the convoy carrying the children disappeared into the dust. The silence of the place was comforting. The floorboards groaned like an old man with stories buried deep inside him, and the windows let in just enough light to remind him he wasn’t dead yet.

Elias had returned to the underground circuit to manage communications and ensure the children remained off-grid. Mina had gone dark again, refusing to explain where or why, leaving only a burner phone and a few encrypted files behind. Jude didn’t chase them. He needed time to think. The children had been saved, but the war had only become more dangerous. Clarissa Vale had vanished entirely after the incident, her name scrubbed clean by the people who protected her. Lynx no longer needed the spotlight. Now she worked from deeper shadows, building something quieter, far more dangerous than any public display of power.

Jude spent days fixing the place up, more out of necessity than habit. He cleaned the moss from the roof, patched the leaking walls, and repaired the broken stove. The work kept his mind occupied, the pain in his body distracted by the ache in his hands. But each night, when the wind howled through the trees and the moonlight carved patterns on the floor, his thoughts always returned to her, the girl with silver eyes who hadn’t spoken a word since he carried her from the lab.

Her name was Elen. She’d been the youngest of them all. Only seven. Her file had the highest compatibility rate. They’d planned to start the experiment on her first. Jude had found her clinging to a stuffed bear, eyes blank, pulse faint. She hadn’t cried or screamed or even asked where she was. She had just looked at him, as if she’d seen him before in a dream. And he hadn’t been able to forget her since.

A knock shattered the stillness of the cabin. Jude stood, one hand going to the pistol tucked behind his back. No one knew he was here. No one should’ve been able to find him. He moved to the door slowly, eyes sharp, body silent. He opened it.

A boy stood there. Maybe sixteen. Dirt on his face, eyes bloodshot, chest rising fast like he’d run for miles.

"You’re Jude, right?" he asked, voice shaky but firm.

Jude didn’t answer.

"I need help," the boy said. "Please. They took my sister."

Jude stepped aside and let him in. The boy collapsed into the nearest chair, clutching his side. Blood soaked through his hoodie.

"She’s nine. Her name’s Rhea. We were hiding in the outer blocks. Some people came in, said they were from the council, took all the kids. Anyone who resisted got shot."

"How did you escape?" Jude asked.

The boy’s eyes hardened. "I didn’t. I killed one of them and ran."

Jude studied him for a moment. There was fear in the boy’s face, but also something more dangerous. Resolve.

"What’s your name?"

"Tamir."

"Alright, Tamir. Start from the beginning. Everything you remember."

Tamir talked while Jude cleaned the wound, stitched it up, and gave him painkillers. It was the same story, told in a dozen different ways across the city. Disappearances. Cover-ups. New names for old crimes. This wasn’t just Lynx operating on her own anymore. She had partners. And they were expanding the program.

Jude packed his gear that night. Tamir refused to stay behind, and Jude didn’t argue. The boy had already seen too much. If he was going to fight, he’d learn how to do it right.

They reached the outskirts of Sector Nine by the next night, using old tunnels and abandoned metro lines. The compound wasn’t hidden, it didn’t have to be. It posed as a recovery center for displaced children, funded by an organization called Ascendia. The name was new. The intent was not.