𝑇𝑅𝐴𝑃𝑃𝐸𝐷 𝐼𝑁 𝐹𝑅𝐸𝐸𝐷𝑂𝑀

𝐹𝐼𝐹𝑇𝐸𝐸𝑁~ 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑

.
.
.

After my conversation with Callum, I felt more confident as I awoke with the rising sun. I think this confidence was a good thing, as it gave me energy even with my short amount of sleep during the night. As it was still fairly early, I decided to allow my friends to sleep for a little longer.

I sat up, crossing my legs, and brushed the dirt off my clothes. Man, was I ever excited to sleep in a real bed. I began to remove things from my backpack, taking an inventory of what we still had. Inside I found a pair of extra socks, my life savings, a half-full bag of crackers, a few stale rolls and two small packs of dried fruit we had scavenged from Leanne's bag, and my water bottle, which was empty. I hoped that the little amount of food would be enough for the rest of our journey. I knew that Callum had brought some food in his pack as well, but not much. I did not want to have to resort to eating Navy Cherries or having to hunt for animals. After the Night Bark and Navy Cherry incidents, I no longer trusted the beautiful plants of In-Between. It was too risky to have to resort to them for food.

I placed the items neatly back into my bag and sat on the ground for a while in silence. A few minutes later Sariah and Arlo awoke, followed by Nola and eventually Callum. Our fire had gone out during the night, and the morning air was cold. We decided not to build another one though, as we needed to get on the road soon.

We began going through the short morning routine that we had naturally begun doing while in In-Between. Sariah re-braided Nola's hair as well as her own. Arlo and I took everyones water bottles and filled them in the meadow (a highlight of my day), while Callum usually put out the remains of our fire. Today I had asked him to go through his backpack, as I had done earlier.

Once we had all finished with our duties, we sat together in a circle and ate a small breakfast. Then it was time to start walking.

As we went along I began to wonder how far we had actually travelled. With the interruptions of challenges and taking breaks to rest, we walked almost continuously. I was fairly sure that we must have been well over halfway to Sarosa...

...But what if we weren't? What if we were not even halfway yet? What if more and more challenges awaited us, making our odds of getting out of here even less? How long would it take? Months? Years? How much more of this could we take? How could we possibly all live to see freedom?

Enough. I attempted to silence my brain. I tried to regain the confidence that I had woken up with in the morning. The hopeless feeling would get us nowhere. The worrying would get us nowhere.

I was thankful when Callum spoke up, breaking the silence and tearing me away from my thoughts.

"Does anyone else hear that?" We all listened. None of us heard anything. "No one?" he asked. We all shook our heads.

"There is like- it sounds like a- like an engine or something," he told us. I strained my ears, trying to hear this sound. After a few moments, I too could make out the sound of an engine. But not only an engine, the propellers of a helicopter as well. By the looks on my friends' faces, they heard it too.

"Have we made it?" asked Nola, "is someone coming to rescue us?"

"I'm not sure, Nola," said Arlo. We looked behind us, in the direction the noise was coming from.

"I am!" exclaimed Callum, "To freedom!" he began sprinting towards the sound, yelling at us to "come on, guys!"

Sariah laughed, "Wait, Callum!" she called after him, he reluctantly stopped running and turned to face us. "What? Let's go!"

"Not that way," Sariah explained, "didn't you hear the helicopters, too? They won't see us in here. We should go into the meadow, where it's more open."

"Oh," replied Callum, "Good idea," he ran back to us, and we turned and headed into the meadow.

"Uh- maybe we should-" I faintly heard Arlo begin to speak as we made our way into the clearing. The sounds were getting much louder now. We continued to run further into the meadow.

"Wait!" Arlo said louder, "what if this-"

"OVER HERE!" Callum interrupted, flailing his arms around in the air. In the distance, I could now make out the shape of a helicopter, coming in our direction. Joy seeped into me.

"See it?" Callum asked in excitement, "DOWN HERE!"

"Stop!" Arlo exclaimed. To our surprise, his voice was filled with anxiousness. He picked up Nola hurriedly. "We need to get out of here," he said sternly, "now."

My feeling of glee evaporated, fear replacing it.

"What? Why?" Callum asked, "Then they won't see us!"

"There's no time to talk, they are almost here," Arlo had already begun to rush towards the forest. I glanced into the sky, the helicopters were advancing quickly. "Come on, Cal," I told my brother hastily, "trust Arlo."

I followed him, Sariah dragging Callum behind me. We entered the forest, closely behind Arlo. He glanced around quickly. "We need to hide," he said quietly.

"Over there," Sariah suggested, pointing towards a large berry bush just off the path. We made our way towards it and sat down, catching our breath.

"Why the hell-" Callum started angrily.

"Shhh!" Arlo hissed at him.

"But they're not gonna see us!" he said desperately.

"Callum, shut up!" I screeched, still out of breath from all the running.

"Why?!" he shouted at me, "Why are we hiding?"

The answer to his question appeared to all of us before I had a chance to reply to him.

A truck emerged on the road in front of us, and the 'why' to us hiding was on the side of it.

The dull gold "M" etched in the side of the truck answered his question. The crest of Mada.