The Hijinks War

36. Badass Babe

It seemed like Kellen and I followed the wardens forever as they started and stopped in their search for students. Tired to begin with, my body screamed at me for my slow crouched crawl I could think of only one good thing as I forced myself forward.

The wardens had moved so far east of where everyone else was, simply because they didn't think us industrious enough to climb the cliff.

But even that good, would turn bad if they continued on their current trajectory. The cliff that Kellen and I crawled along would eventually end and they would realize they could just go around it to the rolling slope of dense forest behind it.

If that happened and they decided to go northward again, they might just find their way to our camp. Worse, they might see a scout or two, or come across the part of the river that we'd off-loaded our supplies at, and then we could well and truly be done for. I looked at my watch for the hundredth time that day and frowned.

There was another group of escapees, one much larger than ours had been, that would be traveling through the woods at this very moment. We didn't know which of our four routes they'd be taking, nor did we have a way to warn them.

Kellen's hand gripped mine suddenly, a gentle squeeze as he tugged me backwards. My eyes shot to him before looking below us to where the wardens had stopped.

"We haven't seen any sign of them. You think maybe we went the wrong way?"

"Maybe they did go up."

"Yeah sure, and my mother's the Queen of England." The derisive snort was followed by laughter, "Those brats? They might have broken nails if they had to climb. Besides, they're so drugged out they wouldn't be able to."

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right... Maybe we should have gone right instead of left?"

My breath caught in my throat; the group we'd been traveling with, would be long gone by now. They'd probably even reached the camp and notified those there that the wardens were out looking for us. But the next group would be slowly lumbering toward us and the wardens would no doubt cross paths with them if they turned back now.

Kellen squeezed my hand again, and mouthed, "Don't worry about them."

I wanted to argue with him, but my attention returned to the large man several feet below us.

"It's going to get dark soon. You think we should head back?"

"But it might be the best way to find them..."

"Yeah, we could surprise the little shits. There's only, what? 15 or so?"

So, they were only following Jackson's group. They had no idea about the rest of us. 

"If we find them in the dark, we'll be surprised too! There's a hell of a lot more of them than us. That's a disaster in the dark."

"Shit. You're right."

"But, we have guns." 

I knew they were armed, but hearing that they were so willing to use the guns on us made my stomach twist.

"Yeah, Kurtz, let's just start shooting in the dark. Maybe one of us will hit you, so we don't have to listen to the dumb shit that comes out of your mouth."

"Oh. Right."

As they grumbled about not having night gear, my gaze swerved to the right as something moved in the distance below us. Kellen startled at my tensing, as if he'd forgotten our fingers were still entwined. I nodded at the two heads bobbing through the underbrush toward the escarpment we were on; oblivious scouts, traveling ahead of their group.