in the middle of a forest, in Canada

possibly around 1200 hours.

January 5th

Ben POV

We dashed across the forest, in panic and pumping with adrenaline. Erica was running like a cheetah while I was running so slow. I knew Joshua and SPYDER would come for us. So I kept up with her. We dashed and ran along the forest.

Erica did some zig-zags to confuse the enemy, but like what she said to herself: "SPYDER is always a step ahead of us," I still couldn't believe SPYDER tricked us. And wondered where the others were.

They must have been kidnapped like Cyrus; I thought as I smacked my face on a branch. "this way!" Erica said. We turned left, and there were more trees than ever. It would provide us cover in case someone shot us, and also, not spot us.

We kept on going through the trees until the yelling of Murray and Ashley were silent. "what the heck was that?" I said, gasping for breath.

"SPYDER is gonna chase us, and kill us soon; we need to lie low," Erica said.  We crept close to the ground. We had been in the wild a lot of times, like about two years ago, when I went camping at spy school. And also the time when we plane crashed into Mexico. But this time it was different. This time it was only Erica and me. It was rather peaceful than frightening because I trusted her. But it was scary. And also, it was chilling.

While we were stranded in the middle of nowhere, Erica quickly took something out of her utility belt.

"What's that?" I said. Its an intractable beacon signal." she said. "We ought to get help on—" "oh crud, the beacon is broken."

"Oh no, now what are we gonna do?" "We need to survive," Erica said, matter-of-factly. I searched for my phone, but it wasn't there. SPYDER must have stolen it.

But Erica had her CIA untractable phone, so we used it as a GPS. I followed where she was going. We soon headed towards a stream.

We drank some from it, indicating that it was clean and drank more. We kept on walking until we came across a vast lake.

"We need to build a raft to go across," Erica explained. "Can you go get some logs?" She then handed me a mini Axe from her utility belt. I wondered how many things were even in there.

 "ok," I said, then headed towards some dead trees. I started to cut some down. It was taking a lot of effort for me just to cut one tree bark.

But in about half an hour, I did the job. I then headed towards Erica, who was making a fire and was fishing in the lake.

"lunch," she said, as she handed me a cooked fish. I started to eat it. It was delicious. I ate another one because we didn't have breakfast this morning.

Erica got some zip ties, and we started to put the logs together and tie it into place. While I was doing that, Erica looked at me. I looked back. There was an awkward silence. Then Erica said: "Ben, do you like me?"

I turned red. "um, yes, I do." "well, I like you too.  My face was heating embarrassing red.

"um, thanks." We continued the zipping and tieing until we finished the raft. "according to my phone," Erica said,  "It would take us about two days to reach Civilization. Let's get going" We were near Yukon, Canada, close to Alaska.

We pushed the raft into the lake, then went inside it. Erica also made two rowers for us to keep the boat going. We went across the lake; the first moments were lovely and peaceful. The next wasn't.

All of a sudden, we encountered a moose. The Moose seemed angry that we were near us. So it was about to charge right at us.

But since he was through water, the friction slowed it a lot. Still, the Moose was very dangerous. It was one of the top ways of getting killed in the wilderness. Erica started to move away from the Moose. She rowed away. The Moose seemed to calm down a bit, but it was still in a rage, as it had invaded its territory. He kept on charging at us. 

I tried to run, but then something sharp hit my back. I fell into the water and resurfaced to see Erica resurfacing as well. Now we were in trouble. We had no ground to stand on, and the Moose was coming for the kill.

Erica then took a gun out and shot it in the air; the Moose was startled. He looked at Erica, who was pointing her gun at him. I started to look at the Moose. He was a large male and was about 6 feet tall. He had beautiful but deadly horns, and there was a scar on his body. It was a circle. I think he was already shot once but was rescued.

The Moose saw the gun and practically ran. It must have evil thoughts about the gun.

"That moose had a scar," I said. "I'm pretty sure it got shot once," Erica seemed concerned. "Let's move on." 

We continued to cross the lake of what was left of the raft, then went to shore. We continued to walk. I wondered where the SPYDER agents were—then thought about Murray. 

After We defeated (not really) Ms. E and the other members of SPYDER, Murray had been a nice guy. But for some reason, when SPYDER was back on business, Ms. E blackmailed him to joining SPYDER even though he didn't want to.

I felt terrible for him.

We soon came across another stream. And drank some water from it. We walked again. 

TIME SKIP two hours later..

Instead of being hot, It was cold. Since we were close to the ice caps, North-west Canada seemed chillier than expected. Now it seemed that we were on a mountain. There was lots of snow. I was getting chilled to the bone.

We soon decided to stay for the night. We made a shelter called the Bees nest (I learned to make this with Woodchuck in last year's camp), And we made a fire.

We caught some fish from a nearby lake and cooked it. While it was cooking, I had some questions to ask Erica. "Why did you flee from Ashley?" I said, curious. Erica turned red in embarrassment. "She was a bit, you know, improving," I gaped in surprise.

"Ashley beat you?" I said, in awe. "I haven't had enough time to go to the firing range and other places, because of you."

I gaped in shock again. "what?" "Ben, to be honest, I like you" her face sort of turned red when she said that.

"But relationships can get tangled in a spy game," she continued. "So do not tell anyone about this," I replied. "But I'm pretty sure Zoe and Mike know this," I said. "Then don't tell anyone else," She said.

She then, for some reason, started to cry a little. Before I can even calm her, she put out a hand indicating that she was ok. I never saw Erica cry before.

"are you ok?" I said, before helping myself. "yes, It's just that, I still can't believe Joshua betrayed me, now my granddaddy has prohibited me from trusting or liking anyone, like you."

I stared at her in shock. She did like me. Before I can say anything, lightning struck. And the rain fell. I was chilling. Erica stopped crying and told me to get inside the shelter. So I did. It was pretty small, but two times bigger than a tent.

Erica came in 10 seconds later. Then there was an awkward silence. Erica then broke the silence. And talked about the mission.

"I think if SPYDER captured Cyrus and the rest, then there might be a chance that they're using them."

"Or," I replied. "I think SPYDER already used them and let them go in the wilderness because its been three weeks since they were there."

I could tell that because three weeks ago, Alexander didn't have muscular arms. Erica nodded in agreement," "I think so too. Now, let's go to sleep; we have a long journey to go ahead of."

I laid my head down on the nest tent. And I was thinking about the wild day we had. Were ambushed from the plane, had to jump from the plane, nearly got killed, and was attacked by a moose. I soon let go of those fears and thought about SPYDER. I even wondered why it was called that.

As I drifted off to sleep, I saw Erica. She then saw me. Later, Erica held my hands. I kept them tightly. "Its gonna be ok," She said.

Then I drifted off to sleep.