I tripped over a fallen tree and I fell to the rainforest floor. She stops and turns back, unsheathing her machete. She cuts the vine holding my leg in place and I get up, just to dive to the ground once more as machine gun fire erupts from behind us, sending splinters of wet bark and wood in every direction. A felled bird falls in front of me, blood oozing from the bullet wounds. I grimace and get up and we both start running, faster than before, fueled by pure adrenaline. Come on, quick! I hear her urging me on inside my head through our emphatic link. I tread faster, dodging trees and boulders as we race through the forest. Distant yells and gunfire can be heard, and flocks of birds migrate from trees. Okay, stop.
We run towards a meeting spot, a place behind an enormous boulder covered in moss. She hurtles towards me, throwing her arms around me. I return the embrace. We need to keep moving, I tell her in a gentle thought. She pulls away and wipes a tear away from her dirt-stricken face. She nods defiantly and heads off into the wilderness. I follow closely behind. And as soon as our flight ended it stopped. Oh no. Oh no. We screwed up. We're gonna die. I hear her before I can see what she's talking about and when I see it I just take a seat on the uncomfortable ground, next to her, where she leans against me crying. A gorge. We've run about 32 miles nonstop as my GPS tells me, and we've come across a fifty foot gorge with no way across that seems to stretch on forever. I sigh deeply as shouts and footsteps can be heard.
"GET UP! NOW!" The man screaming at us is obviously exhausted and holds an assault rifle, pointed directly at us. He's the only one we can see. Let's finish this. This profound thought shocks me. I nod anyways. I grab her hand and clench it tightly. With one swift motion we stand up and turn around to face the man. He smiles.
"I've got you now." We look at each other and smile a melancholy smile. Three, two, one. And suddenly, we're falling, falling, to a place where our sorrows can be forgotten, our crimes forgiven, and our hatred understood.
