When I woke up, I found myself enveloped by the overwhelming blackness of night. Moonlight painted eerie shadows on the ground of the tangled mess of tree branches overhead. 

Without thinking, I crawled out of my hiding place. It seemed that the primal part of my brain that acted only on survival instincts had taken control, for which I was grateful. 

I began to circle the school, stepping with careful, controlled movements. I stayed concealed behind the dense treeline, though the intense darkness alone may have provided sufficient camouflage.

A flickering light came into view. I darted closer, peeking out from behind a large oak to get a better look. It was a campfire, surrounded by soldiers. The flashing orange-tinged glow made it hard for me to distinguish faces, but I thought one might have been Matt. I closed my eyes in an attempt to focus solely on the sounds of their barely audible voices. 

"It's treason. They're traitors, every single one of them."

"I recognized one of . . . Kyle, I think." My heart thudded desperately in my rib cage, and I strained harder to hear their words. "He was a soldier . . . really put up a fight." There were bits and pieces of their sentences that I couldn't make out, leaving holes in my comprehension.

"Tomorrow we're . . . What's the plan?"

Now it was definitely Matt who spoke. He was facing my direction, so the sound was much more crisp and loud. "Their doctor friend said there's a meetup point—a rendezvous. In case of a breech—" There were snickers all around. They were the breech. And they thought it was funny. "—everyone is to meet up the next day at a specific location, when the sun hits the highest point in the sky." Matt's tone was completely neutral. I could tell he was reading from some text. I hoped I could trust him, and he was only playing his role to ward off any suspicion. 

Another loud, commanding voice spoke up. "Thanks to good old Doc, we have that location." I could hear the smile in his voice—his tone was smug and arrogant. "Tomorrow, we will ambush and capture every last one of these criminals." 

Now there was an eager chorus of whoops and hollers. "They won't even see it coming!" one exclaimed.

I felt sick. I had a sudden urge to get far away from them, but my ears perked up again when I heard Matt say, "Hold on," and break into laughter. "Can't we play with any of them just a bit before we go to bed?"

"Yeah," another chimed in. "You said this Kyle was a soldier, huh? Come on, let's teach him a lesson about betrayal." They went on speaking, but the words no longer registered in my mind. I was fuming. I sagged against the tree, balling my hands into fists and reminding myself that it would be an idiotic move to try to face them alone. It took everything I had to stay hidden behind the treeline as they brought out a stumbling, restrained figure. Even with the limited firelight, his silhouette was unmistakable. They pushed Kyle into a kneel by the fire.

"Guys, did you hear that? I think there's someone in the woods," Matt said suddenly. I wasn't sure if he was really on my side, but it seemed like he was trying to divert their attention—unless he'd actually heard me. On that thought, a very risky idea hatched in my mind.

The soldiers went silent for a moment, listening—their eyes searching the treeline. I withdrew further into the darkness, still watching intently as Matt, standing right behind Kyle, appeared to stoop down slightly. Judging by the way Kyle's shoulders relaxed, he'd free his arms from whatever restraint they had been trapped in. Even from so far away, I could see Kyle's expression flash to shock for a split second, before he plastered on his impressive poker face. I smiled.

"I don't hear anything, Matt."

One of them chuckled. "Yeah, I think you're getting paranoid."

They ignored him, turning back to Kyle. 

I quietly gathered a few sticks from the ground and held them with both hands. When the group was quiet, I held my breath and snapped all of the sticks at once with a piercing crack that echoed through the forest. That got their attention. The last thing I saw was them scrambling for their weapons, seemingly forgetting entirely about Kyle. 

Immediately, I felt entirely exposed; I sprinted on my toes as a quietly as possible, disappearing deeper into the woods. A shiver coursed through my bones as I heard them thrashing through the treeline behind me. I was now a prey animal, unarmed and outnumbered. 

I feared that I was making too much noise by running—and anyway, I was running out of steam. I thought back to my mission with Kyle in the government complex, a day that now seemed so distant. Between then and the present, my life had seemingly been turned on its head—multiple times. But one lesson from that day had certainly stuck with me: if you can't run, hide.

I located a sturdy tree with a thick canopy, and, without hesitation, began to climb. The dim moon served as my only light source. With adrenaline pulsing through my veins, it took significant effort for me to force myself to be slow and careful. I used the ribbed tree bark as makeshift handholds until, with great relief, I lifted myself into a seated position where the largest branches forked out of the trunk. To be safe, I ascended even higher, above the coverage of the lowest leaves. 

I didn't have anything to secure myself with, so it looked like I wouldn't be able to get any sleep, lest I wanted to risk falling several meters to the ground. Yet I felt oddly restful as I gazed up at the glowing crescent moon, allowing my head to fall back against a branch. There was nothing I could do but sit in silence and hope that none of the soldiers whose footsteps wandered close decided to look up—and, of course, to pray that Kyle had safely escaped.

___________

Thanks so much for reading. If you want more, please let me know by voting and/or commenting.