The Quiet Exit

The safehouse was silent.

Jessica stood at the window, watching the distant glow of smoke on the horizon. The wreckage of the facility was barely visible against the dim Patagonian night, but she could feel it burning in her chest. The air in the room was thick with exhaustion, tension, and something deeper, the weight of survival.

Behind her, the others sat in various states of shock. No one spoke.

Leanna sat hunched forward, elbows on her knees, staring at the floor like she was seeing the bodies all over again. Kevin hadn’t spoken since they arrived, the rifle still leaning forgotten against his chair. Olivia was hunched over her laptop, eyes scanning encrypted messages like they could somehow explain what had just happened.

"Feels like we should be celebrating," Hannah said quietly. "We burned the place to the ground." She didn’t sound like she believed it.

No one answered.They didn’t need to.

Jessica turned from the window, her arms crossed over her chest. "We didn’t win. We burned down a piece of it, but Vanguard isn’t dead. We just pissed them off."

Kevin exhaled sharply, rubbing the back of his head. "You’re saying we did all that for nothing?"

"No," Jessica said. "I’m saying we have to finish it."

The mood in the room shifted. Jessica wasn’t talking about running anymore. She was talking about hunting.

Leanna finally lifted her head. "Jess, we’re exhausted. We need to regroup, figure out our next steps."

"That’s what Vanguard is doing right now," Jessica shot back. "They’re already covering their tracks, moving resources, planning their next step. We don’t have time to wait."

Olivia sighed, shutting her laptop. "We don’t even know where to go next."

Jessica hesitated, remembering how, in the moments before the purge, her hand had darted to a nearby rack, grabbing a single physical folder from the stack of dead, unconnected files. Was it insurance or instinct? The answer didn’t really matter. She reached into her jacket and pulled out a single file folder and tossed it onto the table. Inside were the names of Vanguard’s remaining facilities.

"This isn’t over," Jessica said. "Not until every last one of these places is shut down for good."

******************************

That night, as the others succumbed to exhaustion, Jessica remained awake. She sat on the edge of her bed, staring at the names in the folder, tracing the ink with her fingers. She knew what she had to do.

She rose, moving silently, gathering only what she needed. A small bag. A sidearm. Enough supplies to make it out of the region alone.

Before she left, she paused in the doorway. She owed them more than silence. She found a scrap of paper, scribbled a note, and left it where she knew Leanna would find it.

I love you all. But I can’t risk your lives anymore. This is something I have to finish alone.

She slipped out into the night, her decision a quiet weight she didn’t dare set down. They deserved better than this. Better than her. But love was dangerous. And Jessica Sanchez had always been built for war, not home.

By the time the sun rose, Jessica was gone.

The war was still out there. And this time, she was coming for it.