KESTREL HILL
You carried her up the hill. You found the man on the radio. He only wants Theo.
Searchlights sweep the trees: blood on the road, they went up the hill. Two hours, one mile, all uphill. At dawn something in the mist hears Theo breathing, until a tone from the tower turns it away. Kestrel Hill Relay, U.S. Army Signal Corps. The gate speaker knows your name, and the silhouette in the doorway says: bring the boy inside. Only the boy.
The voice wants only Theo, and the soldiers are ten minutes away. What does Riley do?
What happened · AThe voice is furious but treats Lena, and the truth comes out in the radio room as the trucks reach the gate.
The road not taken · BThe soldiers reach the fence first, and Riley hears the truth over the intercom with a rifle at her back.
The road not taken · CThe voice follows them into the woods with a handheld radio, and his broadcast is the only thing holding the dead back.