River.

Chapter 81: Plan B

Mathias's P.O.V.

The sound of the cars got closer.

There was no way we were gonna be able to outrun them.

I saw a tunnel coming up and I had an idea.

"Everyone stop!" I yelled.

They all slowed down and turned their attention towards me.

"River, here." I tossed him my extra rifle. "Max are you still any good with guns?"

"Fairly decent." He replied.

Stone took off his extra one and threw it to him.

"Legend, Ryan, Daniel, and Elliott, lead the kids through the tunnel and don't stop running until you're at the other side of the woods." I said. "River, Max, Blue, Caesar, Tommy, and Stone, we're all gonna climb a tree and hide out. Aim for the front tires of the cars. When they get out, fire at will. Try not to kill em though. We're not murderers. Go for their legs. Everyone go...now!"

Legend and the others ran for the tunnel while the rest of us climbed separate trees.

We were all at the top of them within 15 seconds.

Tommy and River were in the trees furthest away from us because they were the best at distance shots.

"Whenever you're ready Mat." He said.

I got into position and aimed.

"Just a bit closer...." I mumbled.

When the cars were finally in sight I aimed for the tire of the first one.

"Fire!" I yelled.

Everyone shot off at the same time then continued shooting until every car had blown out tires.

The guards jumped out in confusion standing literally just 10 feet away from the base of the tree that Blue was in.

There were about 35-40 if I had to guess. We were definitely outnumbered. If we were to shoot at them they would know where we were hiding and would take us out in a heartbeat.

"River and I can distract them. You guys just get out of here." Tommy mouthed across to me.

"What? No. We're not leaving you two. We'll think of something else." I insisted.

"Just go." He responded. "We'll be fine. River and I are fast and agile. We can outrun them."

I didn't like the idea of us splitting up but at that point we didn't have a choice.

I passed the message over to Caesar who passed it to Stone and then Blue.

The plan was that at the count of 3, River and Tommy would jump out of the tree and take off running back towards Blairwood then circle around it and head back to the opposite end of the woods, giving us time to escape and catch up with Legend and the others.

My only concern was that River wasnt in the best shape to be running that much. He already looked like he was on the verge of death.

There was a branch nearly connecting the tree that I was in with the tree Blue was in.

He jumped down onto the branch and crept over to me.

"What?" I asked.

"The plans not gonna work." He whispered.

"Why not?"

"Because, Caesar saw something."
He pointed towards Blairwood which was off into the distance.