"Please don't cry,"
he whispered as he looked into my eyes.
"We will make it, I promise we will."
Luke, my best friend, gripped my hands tightly as he spoke to me.
It was a still night. The woods had held in their breath, as if they knew what was coming in the morning. I pressed my lips together and another tear spilled. He held me closer.
"Shh, it's all right"
We were both lying down uncomfortably on my small creaky hammock. His was only a few feet away from mine. Luke had come to comfort me when he heard me making a ruckus as I had moved and repositioned myself every few minutes. I suddenly sniffed. Then I pulled him closer and whispered in his ear, "Let's go over the plan again."
He sighed. We had recited the plan since we were little.
"We trap. We run. We escape. We hide. We survive. We start new life."
That was it. Our wonderful plan. The Warren was the one who had held us hostage since they kidnapped us. The Warren lived in a very luxurious tent not far away from us. She had the food, the water, the control, and the power. Anything that we did that bothered her in the slightest bit, she would torture us. She was a terrible woman. At night, she could be heard complaining about us on her small two-way radio to her leader, Cam. Cam had only visited our campsite once, when Luke had stolen a knife from the Warren. Cam was nastier than the Warren. He had a five o' clock shadow and disgusting, messy hair. He was smoking a cigarette and had a pulsating vein on his neck when he came for Luke's crime. Luke had held on to his gleaming knife and shouted for me to stand behind him when he saw Cam approaching. I did as I was told quickly. He walked all the way up to Luke. I clenched my fists. Cam threw his cigarette butt on the ground and stepped on it. I remember smelling the disgusting scent of alcohol and smoke behind Luke; I gagged. Then without moving, Cam spoke in an amused tone.
"What are you doing, boy? Where do you think you're going?"
Luke quirked as he spoke through gritted teeth and looked at Cam up and down.
"The hell away from here."
Cam raised his eyebrows.
"You sound like your mother. A very uncooperative woman. A broke one too. Couldn't even pay a fourth of the fee for your release. That's really sad. That's too bad I shot her."
And with that, he spat on the ground, turned on his heels, and left Luke, still clutching the knife. I gasped. Luke's legs gave up on him and he shriveled to the ground. Then came his sobs. His angry, raged sobs. I had tried to comfort him as much as I could, but it was just no use. He hugged me, and we both cried for weeks. I never forgot that day. His mom was the only past he had. And Cam took that away from him too.


The sound of the forest birds woke me up. It was time. We had to move now. I clutched his hand hard, and he immediately woke up. After looking around, He gazed at me for a moment. Then he leaned in and softly and carefully kissed me. Butterflies overwhelmed my stomach, I had never been kissed in my life, and I surely never expected my first to come from Luke. After a moment, his eyes fluttered open, and he whispered, "Let's go."
My brain didn't work properly as we quietly rolled out of the hammock. After a few agonizing creaks and silence following them, I grabbed my handy sac from the tree.This tree was hollow, so we could stash our secret items inside them. I had a sharp rock and rope inside my sac. I could survive with both of them perfectly. Luke grabbed his sac too. We both had spent over a month digging a deep hole on the ground a few yards away from our campsite when the Warren was asleep inside her tent. I had weaved a blanket made out of leaves and branches to cover the hole. We just needed to make her mad about something now. Inside her tent, the Warren had a select refrigerator full of alcohol. She drank almost every day. Those were a gift from Cam, and she wont even talk to us about them. Luke found out while she was blabbering at night with Cam on the radio.
I nudged Luke. He looked at me and nodded curtly. He quietly and slyly made his way towards her tent. He carefully unziped it and stepped inside. I drew my breath in as minutes passed. Then suddenly, Luke's head popped out and he stepped out, holding the small fridge and a knife. He was smirking. I rolled my eyes at him as I went over to help him with it. But just as I grabbed it, the little door flew open and out fell a few of the twelve bottles. They crashed and broke into a million pieces. I screamed as I stumbled forwards because of the weight into the glass and liquor. Searing pain shot through my face and arms. Luke sprung over to help me and slipped over the spilled alcohol. It was a show.
I gathered all my might and stood up quickly when I heard the Warren's terrible low shierk.
"WHO'S THERE?!"
Luke looked at me and then at the remaining bottles.
"Quick! Grab those!" he shouted as he picked up the fridge.
I did what he told me and turned around. The Warren's face, contorted with fury, was inches close to mine. Screaming, I took my empty hand and punched her as hard as I could. I heard the thump as my hand met with her cheek. Suddenly, I got up and ran towards our trap. Luke followed me, but I saw that he was in trouble. The storming monster was catching up to him. I took one of my bottles and threw it hard towards her. I heard it shatter and a wail came forth. She spat curses at us as she kept on following. Then when we got to the hole, we both jumped over it but the Warren stepped on my blanket, screamed, and fell inside. Her yelling was a sign that she was still alive. I dropped in the remaining bottles of liquor and high-fived Luke. After all those years of torture. I grinned as we ran away together, laughing.

After a few hours of jumping, running, and climbing, I was exhausted. Luke stayed down as I climbed up high in a tree and spotted a small cave not far away. I decided to go and take shelter there. I knew that Cam's kidnappers would be too stupid to think to even look for us there. They aren't very intelligent, but they do know how to kill. They may get scared of the bears, but to me and Luke, they are pets. We grew up playing in the wild with them, the ones that the Warren didn't shoot.
Just as I was getting down from the high branch, I heard a gunshot and saw a cluster of birds fly out of the canopies of the trees.
My heart sank. "Cam knows"