I stumbled over the hunting path throughout the tangle of trees in the  woods. Matt had his and gripped around my wrist, dragging me along behind him the whole time, not stopping for even half a second. It seemed as if he already knew where he was going, and it was like he already had a working knowledge of the route ahead. He was quick, and moved without any hesitation whatsoever. I had never seen someone able to run that fast before.

      'He would make a great soldier one day.' I thought to myself silently.

        After about ten minutes my lungs were burning painfully, which made breathing difficult. Only to make those matters worse, the roar above didn’t seem to have an end. It was as if the Pendomite's Air Force had pinpointed our exact spot, which would have allowed them to continue following us for miles. At that point I had lost all hope for escape. I’d realized that it would only be minutes, until we were snached up for whatever those horrible people had in mind.

        We suddenly reached a point at which bushes and tree branches were too thick, and finding us from above would be impossible. Matt, completely oblivious to his surroundings continued running, but we had the perfect opportunity. I writhed away from Matt’s tight grip,  thus making him turn in confusion. I didn't explain, there wasn’t enough time. At once I pulled his arm, making him stumble along with my quick yet, hesitant movements. Ducking behind the tree’s, Matt followed suit. We were hidden between the bushes surrounding the tall oak trees. I may not have found Matt all that appealing then, but it wasn’t like I wanted the Pendomite’s finding the poor guy.

        Matt observed me silently, as if reading my thoughts. Then he crossed his arms leaning back trying to catch his breath. It didn't even take him five seconds to regain composure, yet here I was hunched over holding onto my burning chest,  breathing in and out heavily, still trying to bring oxygen back into my body. I really didn’t like this guy… Then it was back, that god forbidden, roar. I looked up past the thick leaves above us, I guess you could say we were hidden perfectly. I couldn't see the sky through the greenery of leaves above. Looking at our surroundings, we were hunched in between two different bushes. There was no way for them to see us here.

         I looked nervously at Matt, and he did the same exact thing. If this hiding area didn't work, and we were found, who knew what could've happened next? I leaned back, my heart pounding so loudly against my chest, I was sure Matt could hear. The piercing roar came above the trees, rattling the leaves above. Still, that wasn’t enough to expose us. My hands were tightly clenched into fist resting on my lap. Matt carefully laid a hand over my already shaking hands. Weirdly enough, it actually kind of helped.

It seemed like eternity before the sound completely passed over us, but it did. The tension faded and I let out a shaky breath of relief. I didn't stand up immediately though. Matt removed his hand from mine, which meant I just sat there staring at my cut up hands, shaking. Unlike me, Matt was standing, eyes searching the tree's and small bushes surrounding us. After a few more seconds passed, he took a long breath.

     "I've got to give you some credit, that was some damn quick thinking there." He paused, searching my face, I would not allow my gaze to meet his eyes. "Are you always that observant?"

        I looked up for a short second. "Observant? I’d actually call it conservative.” Pausing, I let my eyes drop on his confused expression. I never really had been all that talkative before, but for some reason Matt just seemed to keep words flowing. “In moments like those, you have to be more aware of basically anything, or you're gone just like that.” I snapped my thumb and index finger together. He didn't say anything, just nodded, which allowed me to look back to the ground.

       I heard his footsteps crunching against fallen leaves on the ground. Matt sat down beside me awkwardly patting my back, as if he didn’t know how I’d react if he continued. Slowly I looked up to him, with my arms crossed. I probably looked so small, and God knows I felt so little. At that point I had still been slightly shaking due to the adrenaline that hadn’t quite left my system. Matt locked eyes with me for maybe two seconds. "I'm sorry." He whispered, quickly turning his head away from me.

         My eyes widened at his apology, and I pushed the tight ringlet of curls out of my face. Before speaking I looked around awkwardly again. "It's okay." I whispered, then hesitantly looked up at him, meeting eye contact. "Do you know what happened before… Well you know." I stuttered not wanting to elaborate further, my eyes wandering back and forth between his. The memory I had left before the explosion was spotted in places.

        Matt looked at me, taking in a short breath before speaking. "Your brother was gaining a position in the army, general , I think, and your father..." he paused grinding his teeth together to hold back his raged anger. "Declared war against the Pendomite's."

         My jaw tightened, and my hands clenched together forming fists. I didn't mind the cuts that were stinging painfully as I did this. Anyone could've seen it coming from miles away, but now my whole family was missing. "Military Dictatorship." I laughed rawly. "It would've worked, it has worked for centuries." My father just had to be the man in charge, he had to be the one to call all the cuts. I was his daughter though, shouldn't he have warned me? Shouldn't he have warned any of us? Seriously what had been going through his head when he decided war was the best option for everyone? Did he think it was going to end well? Did he want us all to get separated?

           We sat in silence for what seemed to be eternity. I let the feeling of betrayal linger inside for a moment longer. I surely didn’t hate Matt anymore, but I also wasn't sure I trusted him either, knowing even family would go behind my back. I didn't allow anyone inside my circle all that often, I was confined. I was careful about everything I said, or anything I did, especially since most people would take off, and ignore me from the moment my name was mentioned. Everyone seemed to be afraid of me, and the power my father had against the Oddity Nation. If they were not afraid of me, than odds were that they wanted to use me to get to my dad, with their ‘brilliant’ ideas. My father's influence alone, could ruin the types of tactic our army forces use, meaning we could lose thousands upon thousands in action. Don't get me wrong, I loved my father, I really did. Although sometimes I was just as scared of him.

 I was brought back into reality when I felt a hand land against my shoulder. I was startled at first, but that was before I realized it was only Matt staring down on me. "It's going to start getting dark soon." He whispered.

I nodded in response, "Yeah we should set up camp, shouldn't we?" I pulled my jacket closer to my skin, as I scrambled to my feet. He pushed his lips together forming a tight line.

"It's going to get cold, but we can't risk a campfire tonight." He noted. "The smoke could easily give us away." He looked to the floor as if observing the soil, not even bothered by the idea of sleeping in the cold night. I watched him wide eyed, Matt seemed to be fine for the night. He was wearing an oversized hoodie, but here I was wearing a thin layered coat. My mother had forced me to wear a tanned light jacket for the occasion of my father's ‘Important Town Hall Meeting’. I can see why she called it important now, or why my dad had told her it was. I looked down after a couple of seconds trying not to let my mind give into the memories of my family.

“Yea I guess you’re right.” I mumbled.

        Sliding the tan jacket off of my arms, I quietly folded it in my hands and looked around silently.Where we were seemed to be a safe campsite at first glimpse, but looking more deeply around our surroundings, I noticed that we did not have a good flat surface anywhere but behind us. There wasn't much room between the tree trunks and bushes surrounding the area either. I also wasn’t wanting to be huddle so close to a person I hardly knew at the time. I was accustomed to the idea of having enough space between us that I’d have to yell for him to hear me. I already knew that wasn’t going to happen though.

        "Follow me." Matt instructed, turning in my direction to explain things a bit father. "I've been down this area a few times for camping trips with my, er, uh, my dad." He stammered at the last couple words and looked down silently.

        I bit my lip, almost drawing blood as I followed behind him. It did make more sense that he had been out in this area before. It was like he already knew this place from the back of his head. Something was wrong though, it was like I could hear his heart shattering when he spoke of his father. I didn't say anything about it though, I myself didn't want to talk about my own family. Of Course Matt hadn't pressed me about it either, so why wouldn’t I do the same for him?

       We took twists and turned around tree's that only seemed to be an un-mapped maze for me. Matt had already known the area though, so wherever we were going, I knew I could trust him, even if it just seemed like a hopeless maze. Trees were tall, and some had vines swinging down from them in a messy nature style. It had been absolutely beautiful, the scenery that is. Dead, yet colorful autumn leaves had fallen onto the ground hiding the dry dirt below. I guess you could say ten minutes of walking in silence passed by when Matt turned his face towards me. Barely able to acknowledge the movement from the corner of my eyes I faced him, of course startled at first. "You don't talk that much do you?" He stated.

        I smiled slightly keeping his gaze. "It depends." I answered simply. Obviously confused, he scrunched his eyebrows together quizzically wanting more of an explanation. "Well, for example, I don’t know you all to well yet, I mean we barely met each other a couple of hours ago." Taking a breath, I looked down trying not to meet his eyes. "I've never really found it in myself to try and trust people that I don’t know all that well. Especially when they’re just going to leave at some point. If you don’t make friends, there’s no one to hurt you but yourself, and your family of course. " I admitted.

       Matt was silent after that, so I wordlessly continued to follow him through the tussle of trees tangling my direction. I didn’t know the difference between north, south, east or west at that point. As time passed by, It started to get colder with night approaching us. I threw on my tanned sweater, and crossed my arms trying to bring in as much warmth as possible for the night ahead. Silently I held my hands close to my face, trying to bring some type feeling back to my cold hands as I breathed hot air on them. It felt awkward just leaving our conversation the way I had, so awkwardly, I coughed before speaking once again. "I didn’t mean it like-"

Matt then cut me off. "No, I get it." He smiled, coming to an abrupt stop. "Well here we are, this is where my father and I usually camp out for the night." Matt sat down almost immediately making himself home as he leaned against a tree trunk behind him. Closing his eyes for a couple of seconds, he just smiled and looked so deep in thought, probably the memory he had or this place running through his mind. I didn't move, it felt awkward to be here, but now the sun was completely down. Creeping forward I sat down beside Matt as quietly as possible. We weren’t too close, but still sitting so close to him for some reason made me feel a bit unnerving inside.

           I was shivering against the cold air that the night had drug in. The only thing that had been on my mind was, 'Good thinking Mom, let me wear this sweater so that I can freeze to death in the wilderness after the Town Hall explodes.’ I don’t know what I’d been thinking. I knew that it wasn't like my mom had been planning on anything this drastic happening. It just happened… It wasn’t her fault, and I felt horrible for even thinking of my mother that way. Mentally I cursed myself, feeling guilty I let my eyes land on the ground below, and I curled my knees up to my chest. Matt's hand landed against my shoulder lightly.

       "Even with that thing on you’re obviously freezing." He pointed out. "Here, we’ll just share my hoodie, it should be big enough for the both of us." Matt whispered, not even waiting for my response. I didn’t have much time to protest, he was already pulling the hem of his jacket up.

        "No Matt, really that’s nice of you and all but, you don't have to-" He cut me off, scooting closer by my side, the jacket dangling off his hand infront of us.

        "Destiny, my goal isn't having you freeze to death out here." He calmly responded, tossing the jacket over the both of us, which wasn’t that comfortable so close to him with my burning face. We were barely two inches apart now, and if I’d try to get away the jacket would just push me right back into him. That was a little too close for my comfort, but the wool of his jacket did bring the extra warmth I had needed, so I relaxed somewhat. I then leaned against the tree behind us, closing my eyes to relax after the long day... Fear wasn't allowing sleep inside of my thoughts though. I couldn’t keep my mind off of the day I’d had. I kept thinking I’d hear some type of helicopter flying over the tree’s once again, and we’d either be caught or running for our lives.

       "Hey Matt?" I whispered with a hint of skepticism, silently praying he hadn’t fallen asleep already. I really didn’t want to be the one waking him up after the day we’d had. I knew that he needed sleep just about as much as I did, even if I knew wasn’t going to sleep that night. I guess we both couldn’t the first cold, dark night, because when he turned, his eyes glew a exhausted sapphire blue. It seemed like he was trying to do anything, but sleep at that point.

"Yeah?" He mumbled, the fatigue in his voice barely readable.

"Why do you think that helicopter was following us? Didn't it seem kind of, weird?" I questioned, letting the events from earlier rush back into my mind with a blur. It all had happened so quickly. I was barely even able to acknowledge the details of how it all had started in the first place.

"I know, it was crazy, like somehow they knew our exact position at all possible moments." He reminded.

I felt a knot of fear choking my throat. Even though I knew what I was about to say had been crazy, and probably impossible. For some reason or another, it was ruining me from the inside out. It was like a part inside of me actually believed it. I mean, you couldn’t blame me, in moments like that, nothing ever makes any sense. "Well, what if... they did?"