“I know the road ahead. Get ready.” Gloria looked at both sides of the road: “Be careful, I’ll get off the main road from the right, then I’ll drive off the road. Then all we need to do is make it across some grass.”

“You’re sure? Where are you going?” Marcus checked on the positions of other cars. The other cars were still mostly behind them, not going to be able to come into effective shooting range of his pistol soon, but not far enough that they could relax. The light poles on both sides of the road lit up, providing some dim lighting for everyone, and making everything appear less dim and blurry.

“Yes. I’m sure. Then we’ll have some place to hide for the moment - hopefully.” Gloria checked on both sides of the jeep again, then spun the steering wheel to the right at full force. “It’s - it’s a newly developed area, okay? I’ll tell you when we get there!”

The jeep took a sharp right turn on the road, and sped into an exit fork despite the honks of several cars along the road. A few of the pursuing vehicles did not react fast enough and missed the fork and had to continue on the road. Three vehicles that were farther away

caught up and merged into the exit lane, one of which was the truck that was following them earlier.

Marcus checked his phone. The signal logo kept flashing between zero to one bar. He tried to call the emergency number and Kevin’s, it was the same as before. Without a choice, he moved to the passenger’s seat and changed the magazine on his pistol. The previous one had only one spare bullet in it, so he just put it in his jacket pocket.

“Ready? Hold on!” Gloria took a look at Marcus, who already buckled himself in and held the pistol firmly in his hand.

A turn appeared in the road before, with short bushes planted on the side of the road. But Gloria just floored the gas pedal again and let the jeep run off into the grassy plains on the right side of the road. Far ahead of them, rested a construction site, inside which were some relatively newly erected apartment buildings and a big temple under renovation.

“Bang!” Two pursuing vehicles not made for hard terrain ran into each other when heading into the off road. This blocked other vehicles behind them, including the truck that had been gaining on Marcus and Gloria’s jeep, as well as a couple of SUVs.

This grassy area had much even road than the plains before, and the jeep only lost a relatively insignificant amount of speed compared to on the road. 

The construction site was for a gated community of apartments. They finished the main structure of one of the buildings, which had around 15 floors. And the surrounding area was mostly enclosed by fences. Gloria kept the jeep on the left side of the fences, drove past a dirt road used by the construction trucks, then headed straight at the temple in renovation. Or rather, a small alley on the left side of the temple’s ground.

“They’re still behind us.” Marcus looked back, he could still see the dirt raised by the pursuing vehicles gunning at them.

“Don’t worry. ” Gloria spun the jeep and parked it at the entrance of the alley: “Off, now! We’ll go on foot from now on!”

Marcus hopped off the car, and followed Gloria’s lead into the small alley.

The walls on both sides of the alleyway were thin, freshly painted walls. Marcus ran this finger along the surface of the walls, paint was left on his fingertips, without his even trying.

“Don’t try, everything’s new.” Gloria said: “This is why I chose here. ”

“Why did you choose here?” Marcus did not understand what Gloria meant at first.

“This place is new, which means nothing is sealed and no one lives here. ” Gloria looked around, then pointed at a building on their left: “Here - the rooms here are more finished. Let’s go in. Then we’ll find another hiding spot when we need to.”

“Sounds good.” Marcus thought for a brief moment, there seemed to be no better idea right now.

The time was already late, yet there were some construction workers working on the exterior of the building. They evaded all attention and snuck inside without much trouble. In this building, the apartments were walled off, the floorings were done, the lights in the hallways were installed and the only things left were the doors and internal renovation of each apartment.

Marcus checked his phone again. He had some signal now. He immediately called Kevin. But, there was no answer.

Gloria called Sue at first, the call did not make it through. It appeared to be coming from Sue’s side. She tried Luoshan Zi, same problem.