They drag me back in the direction of the fields where I was yesterday and Odette and Ayana in the complete opposite direction.

I watch them anxiously for as long as the guard doesn't smack my head around so I will face forward again.

Confused, I can only pray that what they are headed towards is no worse than the field work.

The sun takes no mercy on me as I am pushed, kicked, and dragged to the same work area where Ayana and I were taken earlier. My body aches already. I look around to see if I can spot anyone I know. I see the boy that was captured with us, and a young lady.

The man pushes me until we reach the lady and then throws me at her feet, barking an order. The lady bends down slowly so she can look me in the eye.

"You ok, boy?" she asks.

My eyes quickly rise from the ground, wide with surprise. She knows English!

The man barks at the lady some more and she shakes with fear. She takes a deep breath and looks at me again.

"I tell you what they want. Just try to do best you can, and they hit you less."

Still on all fours, I make a move to get up, but am kicked in the ribs out of nowhere, and end up on my back.

"I know it hurt, but please stand," the lady pleads apologetically.

I groan and get on my feet as fast as I possibly can.

This is going to be a long day.

<><><><><><>

I am hurled back into the hut like I'm a broken machine much later that night.

My face in the dirt, I moan, more sore than I've ever been on my life.

"Chris?" Odette's voice breaks as she says my name. I look up to see her cradling Ayana, tears streaming down both of their faces like Niagara Falls. Odette's hair has, by now, lost any sign of ever being the bright red it once was. It's so coated in dirt that you'd think she had sandy brown hair.

I stare at them wide eyed, needing to know what happened to them yet afraid to ask.

"Odette?" I croak. "Are you guys ok?"

Well, that was a stupid question, I think.

Odette swallows hard. Then, she peers down at Ayana's little face which seems to be a cue for the tears to start fresh.

"We have to get out of here," she whispers firmly. "And we have to get out of here tonight."

I crawl over to the two of them. Every muscle in me screams as u move, but I ignore that.

"What... What happened?" I whisper.

Odette just purses her lips and shakes her head.

"We have to get out now."

I know that's a very true statement. But the logical side of me shrieks that it's impossible, at least not tonight. We don't have any sort of plan.

Do we?

"But how?" I finally ask.

Odette swallows hard again and doesn't take her eyes off Ayana. "Wait until the bring us our bread and water. We'll have to eat that if we have any hope of not starving. Well, I can give half of mine to Ayana. I have fat reserves," she says, even now trying to add a bit of humor to this dark situation.

I don't smile though. I can't.

In a way that seem to cause her physical pain she rips her eyes away from Ayana and lets them rest on me.

"Are you ok? Could you run tonight?"

"Of course," I answer, praying that I won't collapse in pain and cause whatever plan she has to collapse instantly.

Odette turns back to Ayana. Gently, she begins to move towards me and gestures for me take Ayana from her. In the moment where she's passing between our two pairs of arms, Ayana shivers. As I take strong hold of her, she buries herself deep into my chest.

Odette moves herself to the back of the hut.

"Do you think the whole thing would collapse on us if we cut a hole in this wall?"

I furrow my eyebrows.

"Uhhhhh...."

"Whatever, anything's worth a try at this point, right?" she mumbles as she lies on her stomach and beings to feel the wall.

"Ok..." I say doubtfully. "But like... Hoooooowww?"

"These huts are built horribly. There are some spots of this wall that I literally may be able to dig out with my bare hands."

"Uh, yeah, Odette it will probably come tumbling down. if you touch it, in that case."

"Relax, this is when my Jenga skills becoming something necessary for life."

"What?"

She ignores my question, and we all nearly jump out of our skin and the sound of those all too familiar griff voices. The stone is rolled back, and our bread and water thrown at us.

Odette immediately rushed for her portion as the rocks is once again pushed over the entrance. She splits her bread in half and hands one half to Ayana, as well as her own full loaf.

"Dude, you need to eat, take half of mine."

"I have more fat reserves then you."

She shoves my loaf at me and commands, "Eat. And actually, saving s little might not be a bad idea."

<><><><><><>

The night wear on and it's getting harder and harder to see much of anything.

Odette has been carefully trying to push out clumps of mud and sticks to form a hole just big enough for us all to crawl out of.

I just keep praying the whole thing doesn't cave in because if it does, we are literally dead.

"Ha!" Odette cheers quietly. "I think that's enough."

I scoot over, Ayana never having left my arms and examine Odette's handiwork with wide eyes.

"How on earth-"

"Less talk, more move."

I nod. Odette gingerly takes Ayana out of my arms with the same motherly care she always shows the youngest girls.

Then she carefully puts Ayana feet out the hole. Her eyes go wide as if she's afraid Odette is giving her up to the monsters out there but Odette gives her a calm look and patiently waits for Ayana to get herself all the way out. The two of us carefully exit and all three then proceed to press our backs against the hut.

Odette and I listen for any sign of the men. I also am just waiting for Odette's command.

"Ok," she starts, her voice hardly more than a whisper. "We have to run straight away from the huts until we're out of sight."

I nod. She said run, but we simply begin to slink our way back, afraid running would be louder somehow. Ayana clings to Odette's hand and I try to stop imaging all the worst case scenarios.

It doesn't take terribly long to be just far enough away that no guards will notice us. So Odette directs us to run parallel to where we were being kept.

My legs and lungs burn, my heart is pounding out of my chest but I know I have to press on.

So we run. And I mean run. We run as fast as we all could in each of our conditions.

Not much time later, we stop. Odette peers back towards where we had run from, Ayana still by her side.

"We have to head back that way."

She turns to face me, Ayana does the same.

"Her mother is back there, along with another woman I promised I'd help," she pants frantically.

A horrible part of me thinks we should keep going and not risk begging caught for the others. But looking at Ayana, I know I was supposed to help her get her mother back.

So I nod toward Odette and say, "Ok. Should we all go?"

Odette glances at the sky, thinking.

"Yeah, let's all go. We need to stick together."

She turns to Ayana and signs something to her before pointing towards the hut. Ayana's eyes light up with hope and she's eager to creep towards the hut with us.

As we get closer, we are more cautious of our every move. There are no voices to be heard which is both a good thing and unsettling.

After what feels like eternity, we're at the back of the hut. Odette knocks in a little better and I think I hear shuffling from inside.

A rock is pushed out and lands on the ground with a small thump. I hold my breath, afraid someone may have heard it.

"Odette!" a voice whispers sounding pained and seemed to the the same voice of the woman I met earlier today.

"Ebele! You alright? Come on, we've come to get you out of here. Can you help the other woman? We have her daughter?" Odette urges.

"The daughter?" Ebele cries, a lump caught in her throat. "I... I can't, it pains me but I can't."

"What? Why?" Odette demands.

Ebele's voice cracks as she delivers news that makes my heart sink.

"She gone, Odette. I tried to help but there nothing I could do," she cries mournfully.

"What're you saying?" Odette whispers, her voice heavy with non-belief.

"She... Took her last breath..." Ebele cries.

Everyone goes silent for a moment. The urgency of the night is forgotten, and I feel my heart just drop.

I look at Ayana, and I feel my heart shatter into a billion pieces. She didn't know. The hope is still burning in her eyes- She wasn't able to hear what had happened.

Odette struggles to speak and finally managed to push out, "Ok. It's not your fa-fault just... Come on...." She breathes in shakily before admitting there dreaded truth. "We have to go." There's no time to mourn.

Ebele slowly and cautiously climbs out, her heavy heart almost tangible.

Ayana slowly seems to realize that something's off.

But she doesn't get much of a chance to think about it-before a guard appears and grabs her and me from behind.

He begins screaming for what I can only assume is backup and Odette and Ebele go nuts.

"Go!" I hiss.

"If you think I'm leaving you here you're crazy," she snaps back.

"Odette, go! Maybe you can find the camp and come back with more people."

Odette seems to consider this, even though the tears have begun to break through again.

"You have to go before someone comes to shoot you down or-"

A large man walks up behind Ebele and Odette, washing away any sort of train of thought. There's something different about him. In the dark, it's hard to see his face exactly right.

He starts yelling at the other guard and keeps gesturing to... Something or... Someone... I study the way he's acting a bit more before I realize, the way he looks at Ayana... And the way Ayana looks at him...

It's the same man that came looking for Ayana that fateful day at the schoolhouse.