Oliver had never been a runner or an athletic person. He wasn't the type of guy that played sports since he was a tyke. Although he had a physique that could rival any athlete, he strayed away from gyms and fitness classes. This was his home, the great outdoors. The burning sun, cicadas humming, and musky aroma wafting in the sticky humid air was his place of refuge. He felt a little out of place being born in the modern age. Even though he loved his Camaro almost as much as he loved his girl but he was a walker—ready to stroll into any hinterland disappearing away from the restrictions of Wi-Fi.

Unfortunately, he wasn't allowed the pleasure to enjoy a leisure stroll in the woods that he loved. He performed his least favorite act; running, not being allowed to play the guessing game with the mockingbird or pluck a daffodil. Ricocheting bullets skittered off trees filtered through the scenery, frightening every creature that called Tranquility Woods home.

Oliver and Emily caught up to Chris by some miraculous feat. Emily outran both of them, barefooted and all. Chris, stepping in her footfalls no longer cared about getting his new Jordan's dirty, mucking through moist dirt. Oliver kept a steady pace bobbing and weaving as bullets whizzed by his face. The hunters' aim was on point only missing them by mere millimeters.

"We need to stop running!" Oliver huffed out.

"And do what?" Chris asked, without turning around. "Get shot!"

Oliver dashed around the tree before the bullet blasted him in the back, "If we keep this up we'll get shot!" He placed his back against the tree, heaving as he hid.

"I'm not—" Emily yelled before being yanked in the air like a flag. She hung from the tree, flapping like a fish out of water.

Oliver clung to the tree's bark watching Emily squirm. The intricate fabric that wove his being instructed him not to move. Be still in the midst of danger. Back at the road was the time to fight but now it was time to hide. Now, they didn't know where they were and clearly, those woods were booby-trapped.

 The wire wrapped tighter and tighter as Chris pulled on her leg. Blood started trickling from her ankle. Emily tried to pull herself up and grab at the wire but her abdominal muscles weren't up for the task. Oliver was lost in the silence that washed through the woods, now void of gunfire. He didn't even hear Chris and Emily wail his name until they shouted the moniker coined by Denver many moons back.

"Ollie Black!! Ollie Black!!" They frantically called like children searching for their father.

Oliver looked at them eager for his help. The booming throb in his heart that deeply cared for Emily ripped him out of the intent to stay hid. He darted for the tree Emily was suspended from. "There's no way to get you down." He informed holding her head up to prevent her blood from further descending.

"There's gotta be a way!" Chris declared pulling at the wire grunting.

Emily cried once more as the wire dug deeper into her flesh.

"Stop!" Oliver pushed Chris away from her. "The only way we're going to get her down is with wire cutters." His arm muscles burned as he tried to get push her head up a little higher. "Do you have that in your pockets? Or do you think they'll let you go to Home Depot and get some?"

"Then what are we suppose to do?" Chris held out the palms of his serrated hands.

"You're not leaving me!" Emily clutched onto the collar of Oliver's shirt. "You can't leave me!" Her screams turned into irate sobs.

Chris looked mortified. "Are you really—"

"Going to what..." Oliver spoke up. "Survive." The disgust that inundated Chris' eyes almost had Oliver believing he was wrong until he heard the click of metal pop in the distance. His head whipped around eager to see the men pacing towards them but his eyes were only greeted with foliage. His stomach began to twist and his nerves shook like a baby's rattle. Something was wrong. His body told him to run. His heart yelled for him to stay but his hands fell off Emily. "I'm sorry." He looked into her bloodstained eyes. "They're coming!" Oliver pulled away from her. She held firmly to his shirt, her lifeline. "Let Go!" He ripped at her hands trying to tear them off his shirt. "I told you to fight."

"You can't leave me to die!" She screamed as her frantic movements did little to move the stout tree branch.

Oliver's peripheral picked up the men ducking from behind the row of trees, guns aimed high and bullets ready to merge with its target. "You're already dead." Oliver slipped his body out the flimsy t-shirt.

Chris had done it again, disappeared in the wake of danger. Oliver stumbled trying to take off before the first bullet was fired. He regained his footing just as the first round had been released. Emily's earth-shattering screams pulverized his heart and the silence of her voice crippled his soul. He couldn't stop the tears from brimming in his eyes even if they were obstructing his vision. The sunlight that broke through the trees called to him. He pumped his legs harder, pounded his fight faster. He inhaled and exhaled in measured bursts whipping through the woods like a well-oiled train. His nose widened at the sniff of something he'd never smelt before, clean and refreshing. Once out of the umbrella of trees, the sunlight blasted him in the face eradicating his vision. Through the slits of his eyes, he saw a hand shoot out towards him.

"Cliff!!" Chris yelled.

Before Oliver's mind comprehended what Chris said his feet were dancing on nothingness as his arms flailed in the air. It was his heart that fell first, and then his body followed free falling through the atmosphere.

Do you think Oliver was right for leaving Emily?

Does Oliver make it?