It seemed like Kellen and I followed the wardens forever as they started and stopped in their search for students. Tired to begin with, my body screamed at me for my slow crouched crawl I could think of only one good thing as I forced myself forward.

The wardens had moved so far east of where everyone else was, simply because they didn't think us industrious enough to climb the cliff.

But even that good, would turn bad if they continued on their current trajectory. The cliff that Kellen and I crawled along would eventually end and they would realize they could just go around it to the rolling slope of dense forest behind it.

If that happened and they decided to go northward again, they might just find their way to our camp. Worse, they might see a scout or two, or come across the part of the river that we'd off-loaded our supplies at, and then we could well and truly be done for. I looked at my watch for the hundredth time that day and frowned.

There was another group of escapees, one much larger than ours had been, that would be traveling through the woods at this very moment. We didn't know which of our four routes they'd be taking, nor did we have a way to warn them.

Kellen's hand gripped mine suddenly, a gentle squeeze as he tugged me backwards. My eyes shot to him before looking below us to where the wardens had stopped.

"We haven't seen any sign of them. You think maybe we went the wrong way?"

"Maybe they did go up."

"Yeah sure, and my mother's the Queen of England." The derisive snort was followed by laughter, "Those brats? They might have broken nails if they had to climb. Besides, they're so drugged out they wouldn't be able to."

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right... Maybe we should have gone right instead of left?"

My breath caught in my throat; the group we'd been traveling with, would be long gone by now. They'd probably even reached the camp and notified those there that the wardens were out looking for us. But the next group would be slowly lumbering toward us and the wardens would no doubt cross paths with them if they turned back now.

Kellen squeezed my hand again, and mouthed, "Don't worry about them."

I wanted to argue with him, but my attention returned to the large man several feet below us.

"It's going to get dark soon. You think we should head back?"

"But it might be the best way to find them..."

"Yeah, we could surprise the little shits. There's only, what? 15 or so?"

So, they were only following Jackson's group. They had no idea about the rest of us. 

"If we find them in the dark, we'll be surprised too! There's a hell of a lot more of them than us. That's a disaster in the dark."

"Shit. You're right."

"But, we have guns." 

I knew they were armed, but hearing that they were so willing to use the guns on us made my stomach twist.

"Yeah, Kurtz, let's just start shooting in the dark. Maybe one of us will hit you, so we don't have to listen to the dumb shit that comes out of your mouth."

"Oh. Right."

As they grumbled about not having night gear, my gaze swerved to the right as something moved in the distance below us. Kellen startled at my tensing, as if he'd forgotten our fingers were still entwined. I nodded at the two heads bobbing through the underbrush toward the escarpment we were on; oblivious scouts, traveling ahead of their group.

My heart thumped wildly, the feeling resonating in my chest, my mouth, my hands and momentarily taking over my hearing. Their safety depended entirely on whatever choice the wardens made. We would have to do something.

From our vantage point, we saw them first, but it wouldn't be long before they, and those that followed them, would be visible to the wardens. 

"We have to stop them." Panic gripped me again as Kellen began inching away from me, with my pack. He signaled me to keep listening to the wardens and crept back the way we'd come. I wished I knew what he was planning. Then again, anything was better than the panicking I was doing.

Grabbing the pack he'd left me, I carefully slipped my hand into it, in search of something that could be of aid if I needed it. I smiled as I felt a Y-shaped piece of metal and pulled it from the bag.

"So what do you want to do?" a warden wondered below.

Please don't go back. Please don't go back. Please don't go back, I prayed silently, as I gathered a small pile of rocks in front of me. To my right, Kellen had caught the attention of the scouts and was unfurling the climbing rope that had been in my pack. Holy Shit for Brains, Kellen! What are you thinking? 

There were too many kids in that group, there was no way the 30 or more of them would make it. And if one was seen, then we were all screwed. I watched the group join the scouts and arrange themselves as they developed some sort of plan. Absently, I fiddled with a rock in my hand.

"I guess we'll go back that way and see if we can find anything in that direction."

Before they could even start turning back, there was a thump and shuffle some distance downwind of the wardens. As they ran in its direction, I registered that I was brandishing my recently fired hunting slingshot. Had I done that on instinct? 

I didn't look at Kellen or the others, just shook off my surprise and reloaded with another rock. If it was going to send them running away from us, I would keep shooting till everyone else was safe.

Aiming high, I released another rock into the air; if I kept shooting them into trees, perhaps they'd think there were students hiding there. Aiming a little further left, I let another rock go.

As the wardens crashed through the brush, I felt a body plop down beside me. Another shot was released, but not from my weapon. Thrown, I looked to find Thomas Weber at my side, a similar high powered slingshot braced on his arm.

Just beyond him, people were scrambling up the rock face on four separate ropes. They'd chosen to climb instead of hide!

A wave of nausea hit me; my distraction couldn't afford to backfire now.

"Keep shooting!" Thomas hissed, startling me from my stupor and I did as he said.

"Dear God! Are those guns?" another voice squeaked beside me.

"Yes." I wondered how the speaker hadn't noticed when we were still at the academy.

It felt like I'd been shooting into the trees for hours, and by this point I was doing it numbly. My mind had taken over, cycling through possible ways to end this. Because I was sure, if we stopped shooting altogether, the wardens would stand around stumped for a little while, before they would potentially realize it had been a distraction. Frankly, I was surprised they hadn't already.

Either that or they would simply turn around and return to their task of seeking us out. And those still climbing would be there, plainly visible to them. With their guns drawn, it would be easy for them to pick us off without needing to catch up to us. Not to mention we'd be showing them exactly which way to go to find the others. 

"How's it looking with the others?" I whispered, unwilling to take my eyes off the wardens for a moment.

"Almost done, pulling up ropes now."

"Good. Give me a second, keep shooting," I mumbled the command and dug into my pack again. My fingers curled around a cold metal object, and I loaded it into my slingshot. To our right, the last of the group was disappearing into the trees, and Kellen was belly crawling toward us like a bullet train.

"Stop shooting." I told the others. 

They did, but not without giving me incredulous looks first. Thomas loaded another stone into his sling, taking aim as if I'd said nothing. "We can't stop!"

"Stop shooting. Retreat."

"If we run now, they'll see us!" He protested.

My hand trembled as I held my slingshot loaded and ready to release, my eyes remaining glued to the wardens. They had slowed down, and had begun to realize there was no more movement in the trees. I tracked their movements carefully. I needed to be fully concentrated, not arguing with my peers.

"Go now." I said as the wardens began to look around; I didn't want them to notice any movement up where we were. "Stay low. Don't look back. Stay. Low."

While most of them retreated, Thomas' voice sounded again, "Why?"

"Just do it," Kellen commanded as he reached us; Thomas finally shuffled away.

"We should go, too, Cole."

"They're going to realize it was a distraction and that they're close..."

As Kellen muttered a curse that I was right, I narrowed my eyes and pulled back on my sling, aiming the metal object it held carefully low; one of the men was turning. As I released it, something whizzed past me and into the trees to the left of the wardens. I twisted to see Thomas standing at the tree line with his slingshot in hand. I could have yelled at him, but as the wardens bolted towards the tree he'd hit, an explosion rocked the ground and sent dirt and underbrush flying.

"Holy Shit, Cole!" Kellen threw himself on me, pressing me face down into the dirt as a spattering of gunshots sounded. I prayed the boys had listened to me and were on the ground. When the initial shock of noise subsided, I could hear wailing and cursing, and general panic from the wardens.

"What did you do, Nicole?"

"I don't know. I don't want to look up. I don't want to move in case, you know, they see us."

Kellen's weight eased off me. "I don't think they're worried about that now. There's a fuck-ton of blood down there." 

He looked queasy, but instead of following his gaze, I looked behind us to the trees to make sure none of the students had been hurt. Satisfied that I saw no one and no blood there, I looked at him again. "I just wanted to scare them with one of Katie's explosives, so they wouldn't come back this way. So they would think we booby trapped this whole place with landmines."

"Shit, Cole..."

I flushed feeling royally stupid.

"You're kind of badass! Crazy, but badass."

Smiling weakly, I looked to see the wardens trying to figure out what to do with the very injured one who'd unfortunately come in contact with the explosive device. 

For my plan to have worked properly, he had to come in contact with it, or think he had. How else would a landmine go off? But I clearly had not thought through the consequences well enough; I could have killed him!

"Oh God!" I muttered pressing the back of my fist into my mouth and swallowed back the bile that rose; forgive me!

As the nausea passed, I glanced at Kellen, and his expression of concern. Offering him a wry smile, I said, "It's not like they were going to shoot us with marshmallows, so who cares if they get hurt, too?" 

"You're seriously badass, Babe."  

I'm finishing up uploading the new edited version over the next couple of days, so this chapter will likely overlap the next. It'll be fixed soon. -B