Dawns Break *Slow Updates*

Chapter 5: Casey

"This uncle of yours," Casey began, after a long while of riding in silence. "What makes you think he'll know where to find these bastards?"

Making eye contact with the blue-eyed easterner through his rearview mirror, Casey added, " If he doesn't, then we've wasted time, and are farther away from the girls than before."

The tightening of Jasper's jaw didn't go unnoticed as he answered, "He may know, he may not. Regardless, you don't have a clue where they are, so how about you just trust me for a second and stop questioning every move I make?"

The hostility was as evident as the sky was blue, or the grass was green. Jasper did not like Casey, and Casey did not like him.

"Trust you?! Right now, you want us to gamble lives," Casey snapped in response. "Sydney, Brooke, Carli, and all the other women those eastern pigs have taken from us—they could be dying while we're riding off into the horizon!"

"They're not, and they won't," Jasper insisted, but Casey heard the soft, barely audible whisper he mumbled afterwards. "They can't."

They can't...but, what if they do?

The thought of failing to saving every last one of them weighed heavily on Casey's mind, planting seeds of fear and doubt inside. He'd had a moment like this before, back in Shadows Peak. Bobby and Lacey had just fallen into the spear trap, and he didn't believe he could lead his people the rest of the way. He thought failure was certain as long as he was involved, but someone snapped him out of it and pushed him to believe in himself. She didn't tolerate his breakdown then, and if she was here now, he knew she wouldn't approve of his pessimistic thoughts.

Yet, they still came.

They have her, and they could kill her at any moment...just like they killed my father.

"You better be right about this, because if anything happens to her—"

"Nothing is going to happen to her!" Jasper shouted, banging his hand on the steering wheel.

"Oh, for the love of God, would the both of you just shut up already?!" Baron groaned.

At his outburst, a stewing silence began to simmer in the vehicle, making the tension unbearable. Regardless of how many times someone tried to speak positivity, it was undoubtedly clear that all of them struggled to maintain that mindset.

"Uh...in the west, when one of us got lost in the woods, we'd start a fire to send up a smoke signal," Reid began to ramble, trying to kill the uneasiness. "Imagine how much easier this would be if they could do that," he chuckled, his anxiety showing through the forced laughs. "If only Brooke could just..."

Then, his words trailed off into a heavy sigh as his gaze drifted out of the car window, somberly.

If only.

The torment of not knowing exactly where Sydney was taken reminded Casey of a time, three years ago, when someone else very dear to him had been abducted by the mercenaries.

That loved one hadn't survived the ordeal—this one had to.

"Well, we aren't in the west," Baron shrugged boredly, seeming tired of their company. "Our best bet is to get some kind of useful information from Jasper's uncle and keep an eye out for any tracks that could be theirs." Flippantly, he added, "If we're lucky, Rabbit's been leaving a trail for us to pick up on."

Scrunching his face up at the dark-skinned male's overly-optimistic hopes, Casey's eyes darted to the back of Jasper's head when he shouted out in excitement.

"That's it!"

"What's it?" Casey questioned, his puzzlement mirrored on the faces of Reid and Baron. He was certain that Charlie and Evan would be just as confused, if they could hear their conversation.