"You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it." 

- J.K. Rowling

THEY DIDN'T leave straight after Wrench had finished. In fact, they waited for all the lights to go off. Or rather, they waited about three hours after all the lights went off, just to be sure. None of them knew what the leaders would do if they caught them – but they guessed that they'd probably get the police involved. And nobody wanted to risk that. Not even if it meant getting out of there sooner. 

Iris shuddered. She'd managed to stay away from the police for as long as she could. If they found out what she'd done – what she did in her past – she'd be thrown in prison for the rest of her life.

The four juveniles waited in silence in the confines of Levi's tent, Wrench and Ember on Chase's bed (a bit strange, but nobody dared admit that), and Levi and Iris on the other. Iris watched as Wrench threaded his fingers with Ember's, giving her a nod as if to say, we're okay.

Ember smiled in reply, and then looked away awkwardly as her eyes met Iris's.

Even though Wrench and Ember were doing them a favour by helping out, Iris still found the whole situation kind of...weird. It wasn't even that long ago that Ember and Chase were kissing and hugging each other after a stupid argument, content in each other's arms. Now, there was a boy in Chase's place who spent forty minutes in the toilet earlier that night to do a poo.

Why did they have to be together? Couldn't they just be friends, or something?

Levi's warm breath tickled her ear as he whispered, "Stop overthinking."

Iris rolled her eyes and she turned around, so that her face was close to his. Levi was wearing a black shirt to 'blend in', and it complimented his figure nicer than she'd care to admit. "I am not overthinking."

"Yes you are." He smirked. "I can see you doing it. Stop it."

She scowled at him even though she knew he was right. She was overthinking – analysing Ember and Wrench's confusing relationship in fact, but that was because there was virtually nothing else to do. Silence was boring.

"I suppose we could leave now." Levi said after a while. "It's been long enough."

"Thank jesus." Wrench said, standing up. He had been complaining of pins and needles for the majority of the waiting process, making the occasional groan. He stretched out his long, spindly legs before yawning and helping Ember up herself.

Once they were all out of the tent, everything seemed to get a lot more real.

The air was humid with the cool condensation of the night, the sounds of the wind in the trees eerily shaking around them as they tiptoed in between the tents towards the main gates. Camp Juvy once again looked peaceful, without the sounds of the juveniles or the booming voices of the leaders; the tents still and untouched, the outlines of the greenery around them barely visible in the light. It was difficult to navigate without the security and guidance of the lights above, only the light from Hunter's phone stopped them from tripping over and falling in a heap. But it made Iris' heart beat. Her skin burned. Her eyes were open and awake.

Walking behind the main reception tent, Levi was the first to enter the line of sight from the cameras. They'd analysed the security system as best they could when they planned their escape, but there was no way of the cameras not seeing them leave. Besides, the camp leaders would find out eventually when they wouldn't show up to breakfast – the most important part was not letting any alarms go off, so they had enough time to disappear.

Wrench had spoken to his roommate Victor, who knew of a way to get past the alarms without setting them off. They would be spaced around the gates under the floor, and in the wiring of the fences. Any movement at all - any slight movement - would set them off. The Trick was to climb one of the trees furthest away from the gate, right to the top, and then to tie a rope between the tree inside to the tree outside.

"Are you sure you don't want me to do it?" Ember asked Iris as they stood and looked up at the chosen tree. It was so tall that they had to crane their necks all the way back to see it properly, its leaves at the top so distant and far away that it looked as if they weren't even connected to it.

Iris nodded. She wasn't scared, not in the slightest, but she was shivering with the thought of messing up. She loved heights – the thrill of seeing everything around her at another perspective was electrifying, and she was the smallest out of all of them, meaning she was the best person for the job.

"Be careful." Levi said, but he didn't look scared for her – mostly because they all knew she wouldn't fail. "Here's the knives." He added, passing two of them. Wrench had managed to sneak them into the camp; apparently, he'd hidden them by disguising them inside an umbrella handle – an invention that one of his gang members had made to get past airport security. Quite how it didn't show up on the scan footage Iris didn't know – there must've been something that stopped it from getting taken away. It obviously fooled the camp leaders, too, who checked the luggage of all new arrivals once they were settled in. But that wasn't as impressive: John had merely peered in Iris' bag gloomily before nodding in confirmation that everything was A-Okay.

Regardless of Wrench's decision to have two knives by his bed every night, ("you never know when you need to cut someone's balls off", as he had put it politely) it was lucky that he did, because Iris would be using them to climb up the tree. None of the trees in Camp Juvy had branches to cling onto as they had all been sawed off to avoid escapers, and they had been sanded down so that the smoothness of the bark was incredibly hard to cling onto. There was no other choice.

Iris closed her fingers around the handles of the knives and felt a feeling of satisfaction settle in her chest as she approached the tree. She was good with knives – in London everyone knew that was her speciality, so this would be a walk in the park. They were smaller than what she was used to, but it would be enough to hold her weight if she dug them into the trunk deep enough and moved quickly.

So that was exactly what she did.

With a stab of strength, she hit the knife into the first part of the tree, using it to help her position both feet on the trunk. Then, using her other hand, she stabbed again, beginning to move up the tree with each hit. As she moved faster, the others below her grew small, and she felt that she had moved into a rhythm of climbing – it was satisfying, each stab, the sound of metal inside wood, then the release as it tore free only to be plunged back in again. The fence ran alongside her as she climbed, but the harshness of the barbed wire at the top was no longer a threat.

Finally she reached the end of the fence, and she could see over it. But she wasn't high enough yet. She had to get so high that she could get to the branches at the top of the tree, and then use those to jump from one to the other. One of her feet slipped as she hesitated slightly, her eyes getting distracted by a movement from down below.

Relax, it's just a bird. She thought. Relax, relax relax. I can fucking do this.

She breathed in and continued, stabbing in and out, in and out, before her hand reached the first branch. She looked below her and the others were nothing but blobs below, the tops of the trees only just obscuring the distances around Camp Juvy itself. After pulling herself so she could perch without losing balance, she took a look at the tree on the other side, untying one of the ropes around her stomach. Then, securing one end on the branch of the tree she was on, she wrapped the rest of the rope around her wrist and in the palm of her hand.

They'd planned that at this point she had to let go of the knives, so the others could use them. Iris looped them around her second rope and began lowering them downwards, slowly so that the others could see them in time. Eventually the rope reached the ground, and she no longer needed them.

Now it was the tricky part.

She needed to jump from one tree to the other.

One of the branches stood out to her – it was strong and it could easily hold her weight, protruding outwards with plenty of other branches that she could climb down on. The clear problem of that particular one, however, was its smoothness. It might manage to hold her; but if she jumped and consequently slipped, she could fall to her death.

Iris thought about the countless times she had escaped from her own bedroom at home. This was a completely different challenge, but she had no other choice.

So she jumped.

Gritting her teeth, she flailed in the air, feeling the weight of her body inch towards the tree.

But then she let out a shriek.

Her free hand grabbed one of the branches, just as the rope tugged her wrist and she lost her balance, one foot hanging in mid-air, the other barely on the tree itself. There was no way for her to reach a point of stability, unless she let go of the rope. They needed it to help the others over – that was the plan. Then they'd use the last rope to lower themselves back onto the ground.

"What happened?" Wrench's voice crept up on her, his face coming into view as he reached her level on the other side. He had also managed to successfully climb the tree with the knives, and now he was lowering them back onto the ground for Ember.

Iris rolled her eyes, feeling one of her hands slip of the branch it was clutching. She would fall very soon if they didn't act fast. "I'm stuck." She said, groaning. "I think the rope caught because it's tight on my hand and I can't get it off."

Wrench looked at the hand in mid-air and sighed. "Okay. Looks like you're gonna need my help then."

"I don't need your help." She spat.

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah?"

Her foot slipped off the tree, causing an immense strain on the only hand of hers that was holding her body weight up. It ached tremendously, and she cursed. "Fuck. Fine, okay. Just help me then for gods sake."

"You mean, please?"

Oh god, she really hated his guts.

"Fucking please Wrench. Help me, dammit."

"That's all you needed to say." He smiled, before undoing the rope around his tree so that it was only held up by Iris. Now that the tightness had loosened, she was able to use her other hand to grab the tree again, finally able to put both feet on the tree.

After flipping Wrench off angrily, she tied the rope on her side before chucking the other end to him. He caught it with a smirk, before securing it once again.

"You need help doing the other part, too then?" He said, laughing.

She began lowering herself with the last rope that she had tied onto a different branch, ignoring him. Boy would he get punched in the face for that comment one day.

When she reached the ground, her shoes touched the damp grass below her and at once she felt safe again, her chest still heavy from the stress of her climb. Wrench was on his way down whilst Ember was making her way over the fence. Levi would be climbing soon.

Now that Camp Juvy was no longer around her, she was able to notice the feeling of freedom. It was overwhelming – nothing like London, either, where her parents always seemed to have a hold on her. This was different – she had no authority to answer to; she could go anywhere she wanted.

Well, basically. There was the issue of money, and the fact that the journey ahead was for Hunter's benefit, but it was liberating. Even if the reason for it wasn't good.

Once they'd all made their way over, leaving the ropes behind, they began making their way onto the main road, which would eventually lead them into Florida, where they could find the train station.

Rex had spoken to Iris earlier on Hunter's phone, agreeing to give her money through one of his connections in America – some guy called Trevor from Alabama. Apparently Trevor was a friend of Rex's cousin, but even still he was demanding a high price – one that Iris promised to pay back to Rex once she was able to access money herself.

"You cut yourself?" Levi said, gesturing to the gash on her arm. His eyes sparkled in the soft streetlights above as he walked beside her, each stride effortless with his long legs.

She looked at the cut and shrugged. "I guess so. It's not that bad."

"I'm sure we can give you a plaster at my uncles house." He bumped her shoulder softly. "Although I guess you can't be seen looking that weak, right?"

"I can wear a plaster." Sticking out her tongue, she bumped him back. "I had to wear a freaking bandage when I was stabbed."

Levi's eyes flashed as he looked at Wrench up ahead. "You know I still don't forgive him for that."

"I know."

"But you shouldn't think that I'm buddy-buddy with him, okay?" One of his legs stretched out to kick a small rock nearby, and it rolled back up ahead with high speed. "I could never be friends with him after what he did to you."

Iris smiled, looking up at him fondly behind a strand of dark hair in her eyes. If she could describe one of Levi's traits to a stranger, it would be how fiercely loyal he was. Once he trusted someone fully, he would stand by them for as long as they wanted him to. "You don't need to hate him just because of me."

"But I do." He said, taking one of her hands as they walked along and turning it face up. As if to examine it almost, his index finger stroked each line of her skin softly, before he squeezed it and smiled at her. "I can't not hate him for that."

The group turned into a larger road where the glow of Florida shone up ahead, each light flickering individually in the distance. It was a reminder of how they were once again civilians and not juveniles, simply normal people making their own journey towards a larger pocket of life. Even if they did look suspicious walking along the side of the road.

"Why?" Iris asked after a while, turning around so that she could see his face as he walked behind her.

Levi frowned. "Why what?"

"Why do you have to hate him for stabbing me if it's nothing to do with you?"

He looked away, focusing on the road beside him, his jawline illuminated by the headlights of the cars driving by. "Because I can't stand to think of you being hurt. It's like with Hunter, I love him so much that I can't not want to help him. Every time I see that scar of yours, I think of him hurting you and...I don't know why. I just – it makes me so fucking angry."

"Levi," She said, stopping in her step and wrapping her arms around him. She breathed in his scent, hearing the fast beat of his heart inside his chest. His warmth migrated to hers and instantly she felt safe.

His hands stroked her arms, and even though the others were still walking up ahead, he made no move to follow them. "Yeah?"

"You know how I don't like other people protecting me and shit?" Her voice was muffled as her lips spoke against him.

"Oh, right. I know I-"

She gazed up at him. "I kinda like it with you. So...thanks, I guess."

Their eyes locked, bodies still close and touching, wrapped around each other as if they needed the warmth to survive. Levi's hold on her was rigid and strong, but not imprisoning, the softness of each stroke from his fingers melting her insides, the intimate gaze of his eyes seeming as if it had been made just for her.

"Florida, babies!" Ember's voice shouted down to them from up ahead, breaking Levi and Iris apart as they tore away from each other and back into the cold air. She was standing next to a sign that told them they had entered the city, and a grumpy looking Wrench who yawned with fatigue.

Ember didn't seem to notice the flush on their cheeks as the group re-assembled once again. "We're in Florida. We did it, guys."

"We did." Iris said, clearing her throat. "But we still have a long way to go."

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡ 

AUTHORS NOTE: Sorrryyyyy for the lack of updates I am struggling guys, I have a bad case of writers block. 

I promise this book will be finished soon though!!!!!

Also I am having a marathon of Harry Potter at the moment (which is why I used that quote lol) which for some reason made me want to write this chapter?!

Sorry for the weird chapter too, it will start getting more exciting now!

How did your summer go? Tell me all the details, I'd love to hear them :)

Lots of love,