17 Downtime

"Good morning Elena."Martha greets as I enter the kitchen with Darius, Luke and Phine already inside drinking coffee. Luke seemed to be leading the conversation with his jokes.

"Morning where is Nana?"I ask as Martha sets the breakfast on the table and I take my seat in between Phine and Darius.

"She's helping Natasha with Landon," she says and I nod. I avoid talking to Darius as my heart was still sore from yesterday's conversation with him, and I only greet Phine and Luke. I hear the sound of construction and people talking outside and turn to see the back being dug by backhoe loaders.

"What's going on ?"

"They're building a pool, your Dad's idea"Luke replies and I just nod.

"Since the yard is compromised for today, I think the perfect time for me to take Elena to the mountains for training, it would take up approximately four hours instead of two to get back," Phine says to Darius. My eyes widen as I turn to Darius to see his reaction. He simply continues sipping his coffee until he eventually says, "Alright, Luke and I's training would be pushed back by two hours but I see it good to do it today too."

"Ok, Ok guys I swear this one is good, Elena do you want to play?"Luke says excitedly while giving his empty plate to Martha as Phine and Darius groan in annoyance and Martha simply smiled and edged him on.

"Yeah sure, "I say while eating my bacon eggs and toast.

"You see a boat filled with people. It has not sunk, but when you look again you don't see a single person on the boat. Why?"He asks, Phine just continues drinking his coffee and scrolling his phone while Darius just lazily stares at him, I look up at him in thought. He looks at us, sighs and says, "All the people were married!" he exclaims and I just smile, Luke is so vibrant, he makes the lazy uneventful days more fun.

"Enough of your games, it's almost 8 am we got things to do, "Darius says as he gets up and walks out, "Oh come on you have to admit that was funny!" Luke says following behind Darius. I just chuckle and get up and walk to the sink to wash my plate and glass. I then walk to the sliding door and open it to step outside, the sun beamed upon my face, my gaze was locked onto the cloudless sky, a shining blue that could allow me to feed off of its beauty and live forever or not. It could rain today like it rained last night but I am really hoping it doesn't rain today.

"It's a good day isn't it"I hear Phine say behind me and I smile.

"Yes"

"Are you ready?"

"No, let me just go put on the appropriate attire for mountain climbing"

I go upstairs to put on some good pair of tekkies, shorts and a tank top. After five minutes I meet Phine at the front of the house and we run to the gate. My excitement grows as I am finally going outside, once we pass the gate we keep running down a gravel road path in between more trees for around five minutes till I finally see another gate entrance being guarded by two men, one is in the small women house close to the gate at the other is walking around patrolling.

I didn't know they had more guards up ahead, Good thing I didn't think about escaping alone-that would have definitely failed.

The guard opens the gate for us and Phine just raises his hand in acknowledgement. Past the gate was finally a tar road and we turn right and continue running for around 10 more minutes until Phine turns to this small path leading in the forest and I follow.

The light was fading, creating new shadows and dark patches around me. Eyes glimmered from tree hollows. The wind wailed between distorted trunks, carrying the sickly stink of wood rot. I moved faster, ignoring the briars that caught at my shorts, the damp leaves that grimed my skin.

I lifted my face, letting the light and shadow dance across my skin. Bees hummed in and out of the pennyroyal. I inhaled its minty smell and continued on, delighting in the sound of my feet sliding through the leaves. I lifted my face, letting the light and shadow dance across my skin. Bees hummed in and out of the pennyroyal. I inhaled its minty smell and continued on, delighting in the sound of my feet sliding through the leaves.

We continue on past the trees until I see him stop in front of a large object covered in a camouflage material that blends in with the surrounding quite well. It blended in so well that if I was here by myself passing I would not have realised it at first glance. The car was in between two trees that were close together, as the leaves that surrounded it was helping disguise it more.

He pulls the material away to reveal a small black Volkwagon.

"How are we going to get this car out of here and to the road."

"Same way I got it in"Is all he says." he opens the trunk a takes out a pair of black clothes and passes them to me.

"Put these on," he says and I stand behind a tree to change.