Paige Summers quickly prepared all the arrows, then left the car again.

Claire Chapman returned not long after.

He shook his head with a bitter smile.

"No luck?"

"Yeah, the people in charge said there aren’t many vehicles, and the ones that can carry people are already full. There’s no space to spare. But they heard the Beast Tide is coming soon and got scared stiff, so they ordered the column to speed up..."

Paige Summers’s forehead twitched.

’The vehicles are the only things that can speed up,’ she thought. ’Many of these people on foot are exhausted. They’ll be lucky to make it to nightfall.’

She let out a breath. "Forget it. Let’s just follow along for now."

Claire Chapman didn’t say a word, grimly returning to his post as a lookout.

There were some things Paige Summers didn’t know, but he was well aware of them. Most of the people who got to ride in the vehicles were officials, Superpower Users, and their cronies. If they had really been willing to squeeze in, there would have been room. But they simply refused to sit with ordinary people, claiming that riots could happen even inside the base, let alone out here...

He was helpless in the face of this situation.

’I did my best,’ he could only console himself.

When he’d decided to leave Glimmerlake Base, he hadn’t thought about any of this.

But now, he realized that the thought of watching all these people die was an agonizing one.

As the column moved forward, the situation quickly began to change.

The vehicles that were originally bringing up the rear all accelerated, overtaking those on foot to get to the front of the column. Paige Summers recognized one of them—it was the vehicle belonging to Samuel Hughes and his guards.

Her lips twisted into a mocking sneer.

’He deliberately hid the news before, acting as if he’d live and die with the base, but now he’s running scared.’

When the people from the base noticed this, they vaguely sensed something was wrong and also picked up their pace. Some even took the risk of trying to climb onto the vehicles to get a ride. But the vehicles sped on without any regard for them, and they were quickly thrown off. They could only drag their aching bodies back into the crowd, cursing in frustration.

Panic gradually began to ripple through the crowd. Many of the younger people started to run forward frantically, not caring if they knocked others over.

The scene was spiraling out of control...

Not far away, Claire Chapman saw a mother and her child fall to the ground, about to be trampled by the people behind them. He leaped from the roof of their escort vehicle, rolled twice as he landed, and agilely pulled the two of them out of the swirling Vortex of the crowd.

Seeing this, Paige Summers gritted her teeth, vaulted off the roof, and in a dangerous maneuver, yanked open the driver’s-side door. She squeezed in and shoved the guard who was driving into the passenger seat.

"What do you think you’re doing?!" the guard roared.

There was already someone else in that seat, and the sight of two grown men squeezed together was comical.

But Paige Summers just growled, "Shut up!" She wrenched the steering wheel around, pulling the vehicle up in front of Claire Chapman and the mother and child.

Once the three of them were aboard, she and Claire Chapman exchanged a look. In that instant, they both knew what they had to do.

This vehicle was a panel van, and the back had been modified; it was completely empty. Besides the people already inside, they could squeeze in plenty more!

The two began working in tandem, pulling every child they could see from the column into the van. Guards who were willing to help were great, but any who complained or objected were thrown out by Claire Chapman without a second thought. Of course, any adults without children who tried to climb aboard were thrown off as well. After all, their stamina would last longer than the children’s!

Once that vehicle was full, Claire Chapman found a Superpower User he knew to drive it, and then they commandeered another escort vehicle in the same fashion.

By the time they caught up to the main convoy, the two vehicles were packed full with over thirty children of all ages and their family members.

Both were severely overloaded! 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Fortunately, the Superpower User drivers were skilled and managed to keep the vehicles driving steadily.

To avoid adding to the load, the two of them quickly moved to the roof of another vehicle.

Sitting there, they looked at each other and simultaneously broke into laughter.

"That felt amazing!"

"Yeah! I never would have guessed you were so fast. And you’re incredibly strong, too!" Paige Summers exclaimed in admiration.

Claire Chapman let out a breath, his smile slowly fading. "Of course. My dad trained me since I was a kid. The things he put me through..."

"If it weren’t for that, you’d be the one crying right now."

"Yeah... What about you? As a Speed Superpower User, your speed seems unusually fast, doesn’t it?" Claire Chapman asked in return.

Paige Summers just smiled and changed the subject. "Are there any more children in the column? Should we keep going?"

Knowing this was her way of refusing to answer, Claire Chapman grunted, but still replied, "There probably aren’t any left. The birth and survival rates for children are extremely low these days."

"...I guess this is the most we can do." Two vehicles wouldn’t cause a commotion up front, but any more than that would be pushing their luck.