After an agonising hour of clinging to Jake while he drove the dirt bike through the woods at night, we finally reached the border, a measly chain link fence with barbed wire, as expected. Somehow, we had gotten there with only a few scratches. We were lucky to have had a full moon's light and a clear night to aid us.

We stopped over a hundred paces from the fence to take in the situation.

"It doesn't look electrified," Jake said after a moment.

"Wait, is that an actual concern?" I turned to him in disbelief. "You're bringing that up now!?"

"It's a joke," he teased with a smirk.

"A bad one," I rolled my eyes.

"Ok, I'll shoot those two cameras, then you cut the fence, large enough for the bike, ok?" he reminded me.

"Yeah," I took the bolt cutters from his backpack. "Ready when you are."

"Remember to hold it by the grips," he warned me. "In case it is electrified."

"Oh my God! Would you stop!?" I shoved him away.

He laughed, "But in all seriousness, once I shoot the cameras, the clock is on."

"Got it," I nodded. "No time to waste."

"MC," he paused. "I love you."

I blushed, "I love you too, Jake. I really wish you wouldn't say that like everything is about to go wrong."

"Sorry, I'll try to remember to say it other times as well," he spoke softly. "Are you ready?"

"I am," I shifted my attention back to the fence.

Jake readied his handgun and took aim at the first of the two cameras. He hit it with perfect accuracy, then lined up the second one and shot it in one go. I ran up to the fence and started cutting it with the bolt cutters. To my relief, the fence wasn't electrified. Also, the bolt cutters were near new, so they cut through with relative ease. Jake brought up the dirt bike while I worked on the fence. After the tenth link, my wrist started cramping, so Jake took over and cut a section of the links while I rubbed my wrist. He pushed the fence through to check to see if he had cut enough yet, then cut a few more links to be sure. I took over pushing the fence through and held it for him so he could get the bike through, then himself. Jake turned back and held the fence open while I snuck through with our bag. Jake climbed back onto the bike and turned it on again while I climbed on behind him. I held him tight, and he took off with even more urgency than before.

The first section of forest was quiet and serene. Now though I felt like every shadow was watching us, waiting to attack us. Every hair on my body was standing on end. Jake was definitely driving more aggressively, so he must have felt it too. I had to fight the urge to squeeze him as he navigated around the trees. Instead, I closed my eyes, hoping we'd soon be on the open road soon. The forest was just endless though.

Suddenly I heard it. Even over the sound of the dirt bike engine, there was no mistaking the distinct noise of the blades spinning at great speed approaching the area.

"Jake!" I exclaimed.

"I know, I hear it!" he yelled.

He accelerated, which cause the bike to bounce more roughly as we went over the uneven ground. After a couple of rough bounces, my back cried out in pain. I gritted my teeth and braced myself for the next impact. I swear I lost an inch after that night. Then finally, mercifully, the trees opened to an open field, which meant Jake could open the throttle. He turned the headlight off on the bike to reduce the risk of us being noticed, and drove by solely moonlight. I wanted to look back, to see if we had outrun the helicopter's search, but I was too afraid to look. Instead I looked over Jake's shoulder just in time to see a large drop ahead.

"Fuck!" Jake yelled at the top of his lungs. "Hold on!"

I gripped Jake tightly as we went airborne over a steep mound. Jake pushed us up to standing to dampen the impact when we landed on the other side. The bike squirrelled as he struggled to maintain control. I heard him screaming in pain as his ligaments were stretched to their limits to keep both of us on bike. From there he continued on at a much-reduced speed, not wanting to risk going airborne again.

In the distance, a large barn came into view. I pointed to it over Jake's shoulder. He nodded and changed course for it. As we got closer I noticed it was in complete disrepair. The roof had completely collapsed in one corner, the cladding slipping around the outside, and the barn doors were on their last hinges. Still, it would suffice as a shelter.

Jake slowed down beside the barn and hunched over the front of the bike in pain. I jumped off the back as the bike was stopping and ran to grab the handlebar before Jake lost his balance. He dropped his feet and turned the bike off in one move, then nearly fell over trying to get off. I caught him, letting the bike fall away from us.

"No, we need to get inside!" Jake pushed me away and leant over to pull the bike back up.

I ran around to the other side of the bike and helped him guide it into the barn cautiously past the old door that was ready to fall. As soon as we were in, Jake let go of the bike, which nearly fell on top of me. He tore off his helmet as fast as he could and cried out in pain while leaning over. I carefully leant the bike up against one of the half-rotten wood pillars, took my own helmet off, and went to check on Jake.

"What's wrong? Are you ok?" I asked in great despair.

"No! Everything fucking hurts!" he screamed at me, then immediately regretted it. "Sorry."

"Come on, rest over here," I gestured to an old pile of hay, which seemed to be the only dry spot in the entire barn.

I put my arm around Jake and helped him over to sit down on the ground. Just as he reached the ground, the helicopter did a sweep over us with its search light. I instinctively threw myself to the ground beside Jake even though we weren't directly visible to the helicopter as it went past us.

"Do they know we're here?" I whispered.

"You know they can't hear us, right?" he mocked me. I had to resist the urge to hit him. "If it comes back, then they do."

We sat in silence listening to our own heartbeats waiting for the helicopter to return. After a few minutes, Jake sighed with relief and fell backwards onto the hay. I took that to mean we were safe.

"Can we never do that again?" I said only half-jokingly.

"I think you already know my answer to that," he mused.

"I could've sworn you told me you had it and that I should trust you," I frowned at him.

"Did I let you fall?" he argued.

"Can you walk?" I countered.

"Give me some time," he groaned.

"Honestly, what if the helicopter does come back? What do we do? You can hardly move!" I stressed.

"I will protect you, no matter what it takes," he muttered.

"Jake..." I grumbled at him.

"You think you can stop me?" he lifted his head to look at me.

"You know I won't let you do anything stupid," I kicked his foot.

"You let me ride a dirt bike through a forest I had never seen before at night," he laughed. I kicked his foot again. "You'd kick a man when he's down?"

"When he's being an idiot," I glared.

I could just see in the dim ambient light that he was smiling at me, "Hey, we got across, ok? That's one painful obstacle down."

"Now we just have to somehow get to Duskwood from here," I sighed.

"Well, Colville. The hearing is at the prison. But I'll work it out," he dropped his head back down and held out his arm. "Mm, lie with me."

I rolled my eyes, then lowered myself beside Jake, resting my head on his chest gingerly. He put his arms around me and hugged me tight against him. The old, run down barn was eerily quiet, but the gentle sound of Jake's heart beating was so calming that even in that cold, damp barn, we drifted off to sleep together.