I hurled myself forward as fast as I could without crashing into the dense trees. Branches slashed at my skin, while tangled undergrowth threatened to trip me. The sensations felt eerily like clawing fingernails or hands reaching out to grab at my ankles.

After several minutes, I couldn't hear any boots stomping after me nor see the perilous glow of flashlights. I paused to give my lungs a break and allow my overloaded mind to catch up with this abrupt change of plans.

In the encompassing blackness, it felt like I was certainly being watched. As if the trees had eyes, or the stars above were really millions of twinkling cameras.

Just as my paranoia began to subside, I caught a real flicker of movement in the distance. My heart thudded erratically in my ears. I slid behind a tree, peering cautiously around it.

It was a pale figure stumbling around, carrying something heavy. Squinting in the moonlight, I recognized Zara's short amber hair, her body hanging limply over Shaun's shoulder. He struggled blindly through the thick foliage, arms outstretched.

I started toward them, but Shaun's head whipped toward my leaf-crunching footsteps. His eyes were wide and gleaming with panic. He geared up to run.

"Shaun, it's me!" I dared to speak in my loudest whisper.

He froze. "You nearly gave me a heart attack—"

"I hope I don't finish the job," said a vaguely familiar baritone.

Someone emerged from the trees between Shaun and I—then was immediately thrown to the ground by a larger figure from behind.

I took a few shocked steps backward, struggling to discern faces as the two shadows wrestled, rolling over and trying to pin one another to the ground. There were a few angry grunts and sharp breaths, but nothing to reveal who the fighters were.

"Tess, stop him," choked the same voice, triggering a distant pang of recognition in my brain. "He's going to kill—"

"It's a soldier," Kyle said in a low, threatening growl. "I'll hold him off while you two run—"

"It's me, Matt!"

There was a split second of silence as everything clicked into place. "Let him go," I insisted.

"Are you crazy?" Kyle seethed through his teeth. His hands were clenched around Matt's neck, knuckles white from the strain. His entire torso heaved with violent breaths.

I calmly approached the brawl. Matt looked up at me with pleading, bloodshot eyes as he gasped desperately for air. "We can trust him," I continued. "He was my best friend before all of this. He let me go free at the school after Jason's—"

"He'll call the entire squadron if we don't—"

"Kyle, he is the one who set you free when you were captured. You might not be here if not for him. Let him go."

"Don't you understand? He's a soldier—"

"So were you."

He looked up at me with unconcealed disbelief. When it sunk in that I wasn't backing down, his fingers slowly released Matt's neck, who coughed furiously as color rushed back into his bloodless cheeks. Kyle hovered closely over him, like a predator ready to strike the moment its prey let its guard down.

I knelt down at Matt's side. He struggled to speak, his words punctuated by wheezing breaths. "I...want to defect. I won't be a soldier...for this depraved city...any longer. I'll help you guys. I'll do whatever you ask."

"I don't trust a word of it," Kyle muttered, crossing his arms. He looked at me. "They probably figured out your connection to him and wanted to use it against us—to lure us into a trap."

"He's my friend," I said softly, shaking my head.

"He might have been, but anyone can be manipulated. Think about it, Tess. They could have done anything—threatened his family—to make him betray you. Nothing is beyond them, they've proven that."

"I'm not leaving him behind," I heard myself say.

There was short silence that felt hours long. An unfamiliar tension rippled between Kyle and me. His eyes found mine, his stare icy. It chilled me to the bone—made me want to shrink away from him.

He'd never looked at me that way before.

"You trust him? Unconditionally?" Kyle asked skeptically, eyebrows raised. "With not just your life, but also Shaun's, Zara's...and mine?"

I swallowed heavily, staring into Matt's blue eyes. The carefree, sun-soaked memories of childhood summers with him came flooding back to me. He smiled gently, and I saw only the boy I once knew in his freckled face.

"I do."

Kyle's jaw clenched. He said nothing.

"When you're done with the melodrama, we should really get back to escaping," Shaun said drily. Over my shoulder, I saw him helping an unsteady Zara to her feet. "You're welcome for keeping watch so that tense exchange could unfold uninterrupted. Now, back to regular programming: running for our lives."

Silently, I took Matt's hand and helped him off the ground. Kyle didn't wait, trudging into the black abyss of the forest. Matt and I jogged behind him, followed by Shaun and Zara.

"Is he always like that?" Matt whispered.

I thought for a moment. "Cold and serious, yes, but not like this."

He nodded, rubbing at his throat. "So, you and him...?"

"...Yes."

"I could tell." He grinned.

"How did you find us, anyway?"

Matt stared blankly ahead, like he always did when remembering something vividly. "I was on border patrol tonight, and I got a call on my radio about potential runaways. Then I spotted you and couldn't believe my eyes. I started missing my tranquilizer shots on purpose. Then I followed you through the darkness. It was easy." He paused, then added, "But I cheated. I have thermal vision goggles."

We walked on for a few minutes before my curiosity piqued again. "What made you decide to leave so quickly?"

"Ever since I saw you months ago, it's all I've thought about, Tess. I never knew the government had done such horrible things until you told me." He stared into space again. "And then a week ago, I was slated for a new position. Guard duty at the Medical Department." His face filled with disgust. "Naturally, I went poking around where I wasn't supposed to go—in the basement.

"They keep innocent human beings locked in cells." He shuddered at the memory. "The conditions are horrible. They do only the bare minimum to keep them alive, like life means nothing to them."

Kyle had stayed in sight ahead of us, glancing back periodically as we spoke. His expression, at least, had softened into something focused and urgent rather than outwardly hostile.

"You really can trust me, you know," Matt suddenly proclaimed. "I ditched everything they could track me with. And I told them not to send reinforcements—that you were just regular city kids messing around, looking for trouble. We'll have a head start until the next guard on patrol walks past your big friend...and they realize I went AWOL."

I closed my eyes, recalling the sound of Dorian's impact against the ground and flinching. It would be too risky to go back, I had to remind myself. And if he was injured, he wouldn't survive long in the unforgiving outdoors.

Soren had also been separated from us, but at least he was probably fine and could head back to the city, and maybe even meet up with the others who'd stayed behind.

As usual, I was utterly exhausted, physically and mentally. I felt like doing nothing but curling into a ball to sink into a deep sleep. But one thought lingered in my mind like a nagging itch: somehow, I needed to free the kids who had been trapped in cells for years—a fate I had only narrowly avoided—if it was the last thing I did.

__________

Speed writing time. Can't believe the year is halfway over!

I've been thinking I should use up the dedications for each chapter. So the first person to comment gets a dedication as thanks. :D And maybe I'll continue doing this for each chapter.