It's cold.

My limbs are locked in place, the damp forest floor chill seeps into my muscles from below. Broken twigs and the zippers on the coat press indents into my skin. That side of my body is asleep. If I stay here forever, it wouldn't be so bad. I could go to sleep and never wake up. The bugs could eat my flesh. Roots and grass could grow over my skeleton. I would be a nameless, faceless, pile of bones at the side of the road. Just out of sight for the rest of time. Surrounded by ghosts.

A twig snaps.

The ice melts from my joints. Sitting up, I try to will the forest to stop spinning. Bile rises in the back of my throat, stomach clenching. I press my hand to my belly like that will appease it while I squint at the trees.

Glasses.

They're on the ground, a little scratched and beaded with dew. I wipe them on my pant leg and slip them on my face. A bush sways in the not-so-distance. It could be a wild animal but I'm afraid it's a Redcoat. How far are they willing to go to hunt us down? These woods could be crawling with them.

"Trick."

Something touches my shoulder. Like a spark to my system. I grab it and crush it. The thing I now recognize as a hand crunches, there's an ugly, hollow pop, and Sky screams. He twists, smashing my neck hard with his free hand, temporarily robbing my ability to breathe. Black floods my vision and I'm forced to drop his hand. His next blow lands square against my chest, knocking me into a tree with a thump.

"Sky?" I croak, staring in disbelief at his pale, hunched form. What the hell is he doing here?

His hand is contorted, the bones are buckled and when he tries to straighten his fingers a pained, weak cry escapes him. Hearing that, watching his lips shake and the pain flash in his eyes, puts hot coals in my stomach.

Shit.

"Damn, Trick" he shudders.

"Sorry," I say, "I'm so sorry, Sky, I thought you were—"

The tree between us shatters. Wood shards and splinters spray everything in a ten-foot radius. They burn like streaks of fire when they burrow under my skin. A shard clips my glasses off, barely missing taking out my eyes. Sky flings curses. He's a smear among the smears of trees, but he looks too close to have escaped the shards. I shove the glasses on right, ignoring the sting and the fresh new cracks in the corner of a lens.

Sky is too close, bleeding and yanking on the ground.

"Run, bunnies, run," A chilling voice crows. Dieter, swaying between the slender tree trunks I rock to my feet, keeping low, tracking his movements.

Watch his arms, those are the only reliable way to gauge his actions.

"Sky, can you get up?" I whisper.

"I'm working on it," he hisses back, yanking harder on the thing on the ground. "King has me."

I spare a glance at the thing he's pulling on. It's his unbroken hand, encased to the wrist in rock. So King is here somewhere, too.

Dieter whistles off-key and unsteady. He wavers closer. His arms stay at his side, limp, marionette-like and moving on a different beat than the rest of him.

Keeping one eye on him, I creep closer to Sky.

"Hold still, I'm going to break you out."

"Wait, wait wait wait," his eyes go wide.

"What?"

"Can you do it without shattering my other hand? I kind of need it." Right, important detail. I hesitate, Sky grimaces. "Right, let's—"

Dieter moves suddenly, the magno-blast ripples through the undergrowth. I lurch away from Sky. The blast punches my right side and screeches through my leg.

Sun, moon, and stars.

My vision spikes white, bright bright bright. I come-to on the ground, leg on fire.

What the hell. What the hell is that?

I have to clutch my leg to make sure it's there and not in a million tiny shards all over the foliage.

"Trick!" Sky calls, panic sharpens his tone. I have to get him out of here. I roll to my hands and knees, crawl, favoring my leg. Lower down, the foliage is thicker. I catch glimpses of Dieter, but more importantly, I can watch the otherwise invisible magno-blasts tear a path through the brush.

"Come on out, bunnies," Dieter coos, "come on, pretend you have a chance."

"Ice it, Dieter." King's voice joins the chaos. He sounds groggy.

"I thought you were busy," Dieter sighs.

Taking advantage of their brief distraction, I sneak closer to Sky. He's vibrating, kicking at the rock.

"You could at least let me stand, King!" He shouts, silencing their bickering. "How many 'coats are there, huh? We could take them."

Summoned by Sky's heckling, King comes into full view. Veins stand out on his temples as he crouches in front of Sky. Taking in the bandages and newly useless hand—curtesy of me—he shakes his head.

"Not likely."

"Come on, mate, we could be free."

King wobbles, he presses a fist to his chest. The tremble is subtle but present nonetheless.

"We tried that," he reminds Sky, "look at where it got us."

"Yeah, but—" Sky's whole body snaps back. A spray of blood mists the air. He collapses, boneless, with a groan.

I scramble to my feet, ready to dive for Dieter. King beats me to it the punch, his heel driving hard into the dirt. A pillar erupts from the earth and closes around Dieter's hands. The instant the rock traps him, Dieter flips a switch. Shrieks, thrashes. His head whipping harder than Sky's.

I wince, biting back the childish urge to cover my ears.

Never mind him, I limp towards Sky. A muffled boom threatens the pillar.

"Dieter, enough!" King stomps another layer over the pillar, rising from his crouch. He makes it halfway up, flushes, hits the dirt. Now is the perfect chance. I lunge for Sky. I'll have to risk breaking his other hand, the idea heaps more coals into my stomach, but it's the only way to get him out fast enough.

The pillar rumbles and cracks as my hand closes around Sky's wrist. I wind back to smash the stone, already silently pleading forgiveness when the blast strikes me square in the chest.

Cracked bones.

Weightlessness.

A tree cuts my plane impression short. Sandpaper bark. Dirt in my face. Glasses knocked loose. I claw for breath, my already broken ribs scream with renewed agony. I grip the tree I hit, put it between me and Dieter.

Okay, I think, what is he? A distance fighter.

I peek around the tree, only to stall out at the flashes of red uniform fast getting closer.

Sky is rolling groggily to his stomach, coated in his own blood. Beside him, King clutches at his chest, shoulders curved inwards. And Dieter... Dieter is cowering. In mere moments the Redcoats are on them. I can only watch in horror as a Redcoat taps a watch on his wrist and electrocutes King until he drags his foot weakly over the ground. A second 'coat hauls Sky upright, a third slaps shockers on his wrists. I shrink behind the tree, hiding from their hawkish eyes. Cowardly, I think, even as I stay rooted to the spot by fear.

Sky casts a glance back in the direction Dieter threw me, blue eyes full of panic even from this far away. Looking for me. I grind my fingers into the dirt. It's over, I can't win that fight. The Redcoats alone, maybe. But not the 'coats and Dieter and King and Sky, and the 'coats will make them fight me.

The Redcoats shove Sky, marching him, and King, and Dieter, back the direction they came from.

I watch until Sky disappears in the foliage, and then I crumble against the tree, panic seizing every muscle until my body is not mine.

It should have been me.

Sky was here for me.

And now the Compound has him.