Chapter 4.9

Eventually, we came across a stream, and we followed parallel with it at a low but steady pace. We could still hear the Garlantians pursuing us, but it was distant.

"Do you think we lost them?" Theo asked.

I really wanted to say yes, but they were trained to be relentless, and they wouldn't give up easily. "We have to keep moving." I sighed. I wanted to stop, I was exhausted, cold, and having trouble breathing, but I knew we couldn't.

Theo nodded and took a few more steps before stopping mid-stride. "What's that noise?" she asked.

I was about to ask 'what noise?' when I started hearing barking in the distance. "Dogs. We slept with those blankets for hours, they probably have our scent on it."

"Well, that's not good. What do we do?"

I thought for a second "Give me your sock." I said, bending down to take mine off as well. "Shadow." He appeared at my side; his form even darker than the depths of the forest.

"Why are you taking my sock? Where are we?" Tommy slurred as Theo was taking his sock.

"Awake now sleeping beauty?" Theo rolled her eyes in the darkness and forcefully whipped his sock off his foot.

"We don't really have time to explain. But Garlantian soldiers are following us so we need to be quick." I threw his bag back to him and he staggered upright, trying to force his foot back into his shoe without undoing the laces. "Take these and go that way." I pointed to the opposite direct to the river. "When you think it's far enough, drop them and come back." I prayed that he understood what I meant. I was openly relieved when he started moving and disappeared into the depth of the woodland.

"Do you really think that's going to work?"

"I don't know." I admitted. I approached the riverbank, "How deep do you think it is?" I pondered, watching the inky black water rush past us.

"you're not thinking of-" she started but didn't get to finish before I leapt into the water. The cold hit me like a ton of bricks and I almost passed out from the shock.

I gave a sharp intake of breath and tried to steady my racing heart. It wasn't that deep, it came up to my waist, but the floor was muddy and uneven. my boots sunk a couple of inches. There was strong suction resistance as I took a few steps forward. "You're crazy." She stated.

"Come on!" I whispered.

She sighed at my stupidity, then jumped in after me. She gasped and held back a scream, then hissed "That's fucking cold! Warning next time please!"

"Tommy. Come on. It's not deep." I waved at him to follow us, though I wasn't sure he could see.

He fiddled with his bag, uncomfortable. "I can't swim." He admitted.

"It's ok, it's not that deep. And me a Theo are here if you need help." I assured him.

He nodded, although his expression wasn't convincing. He tried to carefully climb down the riverbank, but it was wet and uneven, and he slipped. Panic flashed across his expression as he slowly slid and lost balance, forcing him to jump anyway.

"It's cold." He grumbled, like I didn't already know.

I started moving, but it was awkward, and I didn't account for water resistance. I started to worry that I'd made a mistake and that it was slowing us down more than doing good, but the sounds of the dogs became more distant so I thought it might have helped somewhat. I read somewhere that dogs found it more difficult to tack in water and now there was another scent in the woods, I was hoping they would follow that one. Tommy's hands hovered nervously in grasping range and every so often would make a desperate grab for Theo or I, when he slipped on a rock or sunk a bit deeper than normal. When he did, he pulled at our clothes and almost pulled us over with him. By the end of it, I think my shirt with half a size bigger than it was, and sopping wet.

A few miles west, the river curved and joined up with another stream. A couple of metres down, a tunnel hollowed out underground, draining water into the stream from the north. I couldn't hear any dogs over the sound of running water, and it took every effort to keep one foot in front of the other. I headed for the tunnel, and without a word, the other two followed. Inside, the sound of the water echoed loudly, rushing past our knees and drowning out any other sound. Although it was loud, there was a certain calming element to it. Or it might have been that we were exhausted, cold, and soaking wet. Above, there was an old rusted mesh that lined the ceiling of the tunnel, I hooked my fingers through the mesh and leaned on the wall, which was wet and slimy, but I was almost too cold to notice and I was certainly too tired to care.