Escape (Part 3)

So what now? I have always longed to get out of this hell of a place, but that seemed so far away then. If Trin was here, she would say, "Your face is crumpled up again, Alex. What's so bad about having no plans?" With that cute smile. Like whatever life throws at her she'll be fine.

I looked for a tree to climb while I stayed guard for the night.

What would be the best for myself?

Staying with the group?

Should I separate now and try to live on my own?

Moving as a group would give me more sense of security, there are probably more attackers and monsters in the forest. Having Sun here is already a good insurance for my safety, but if I move alone I'll be able to easily dodge enemies if I maneuver around them.

As I slowly climb up the tree I chose as a vantage point. Joan called out "Alex, wait up!"

When I turned around I saw Joan jogging to catch up to me.

"What's up?"

"I never had the chance to thank you fully." says Joan as she looks towards our camp

I notice the dry tear marks on her cheek.

When she looked back at me, I saw her still red eyes.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure Achilles would do the same if our positions were swapped.", I chuckled as I started to climb the tree.

"You know she always talked about you", she smiled at me. ". She always said you're very kind and sweet behind your stoic face."

"She?"

"Trin, she was my roommate back at the Institute."

Her words stopped me in my tracks. I quietly climbed until I reached a branch where I have a vantage point of our camp.

She also started to climb up the tree next to mine.

"She often told me to befriend you, but we weren't in the same classes."

She sat there across from me, she then looked me in the eyes.

"Before she was taken away, she already knew it was gonna happen. Her Talent never awakened in her 2 years in the Institute. There's a rumor that the kids that never awakened were used by the Institute"

"To be used as a lab rat", I finished her sentence as I sigh

"She told me to talk to you if I ever had a chance and to tell you to not look for her"

She tossed something onto me.

"And to continue living." Joan started to wipe the sides of her eyes.

I caught it, it felt cold in my hand, it glistened with the moonlight as I turned my hand towards me. It was Trin's necklace, I could recognize this anywhere.

"She gave it to me, the day she got called by the instructors and never came back," Joan added.

Trin, how can I not look for you. Something swelled up inside me, I wanted to just burst.

"I'll leave you alone for now." She looked at me softly and slowly went down the tree she was on.

I looked at the necklace, it was a gold laurel wreath with wings.

"What does the symbol of laurel wreath with wings symbolize?" It was the first thing I asked her when I noticed her necklace.

"I already had this for as long as I could remember, but my father told me it was the symbol of our family. The laurel wreath represents royalty and triumph, he always said that we came from nothing and his father, my grandfather, worked hard to reach where our family was."

Apparently their family is very influential in the Southern Alliance, but I couldn't bring myself to ask her what she was doing in the Institute.

"The wings symbolizes freedom" She smiled faintly.

She lost her freedom when she came to the Institute.

Thinking back, she came from the Southern Alliance and after seeing the corpse of the soldier earlier Sun was sure that we're near the Eastern Alliance. How did and why was she here?

As I was deep in thought, I noticed that it was already dawn. I watched as the sun slowly rose up.

I started to go down the tree I was posted up. I suddenly heard bushes rustle, and I noticed multiple figures slowly walking towards our camp.

I jumped down the tree and stopped Joan on her tracks.

"What are you doing?" She said after removing my hand from her mouth.

"Can you send a signal to others? Maybe a whistle or a loud clap. Just something to alert them, I think we're gonna get ambushed by another pack of direwolves."

"I think I can do that although the direwolves would also be alerted by this since my talent will not be able to distinguish friends from foes" Joan answered back at me.

"Do it before we're too late, after giving the signal run towards our camp and gather with everyone. I'm sure Sun will have a plan for this kind of situation. I'll try to hold off the wolves as much as I can."

"Are you out of your mind?! That's suicide!" She exclaimed as she grabbed my arm. "Trin was right! You are an idiot, but I won't be able to stop you, right? You guys are so similar.." I noticed the corner of her eyes start to tear up.

"Go" She let go of my arm.

I started to run towards the tree in between our camp and the wolves. I looked back at Joan as she composed herself and looked back at me, I nod at her.

Joan whistled so loud that I felt the sound travel through me.

As soon as Joan whistled I pushed my energy from my core towards my limbs. I tightened my grip on my dagger, and started dashing faster towards the tree.

I arrived in front of the tree, stopped as I swung my dagger with the momentum I had as I hit the tree I could feel my hands about to break as I forced my dagger through the trunk.

I finished my swing but I looked at the dagger in my hands and it's broken. I looked back at the tree and my swing was deep but not enough to bring it down.

I started to move back away from the tree again after a few meters I lowered my stance, I used a small amount of the energy from my core and pushed it towards my shoulder.

With all my might I pushed the ground and started running towards the half cut tree. As soon as I was a few meters away from the tree I jumped forward with all my momentum and tackled the tree. Slowly I stood back up as I saw the tree fall onto 2 of the dire wolves. The biggest one was able to dodge on time as it was ahead of the others.