I checked out of the window to see if they were gone. Luckily Michelle would be leaving for a few hours, Luke was almost never home, Cleo would be at school, which is where I should be, but school was boring and slow. I'd achieved more on the online uni courses than I could for the last year of school.

I had no other way of telling when Michelle would be coming home so I prayed to my lucky stars that she hadn't forgotten anything. I grabbed my pack and bike which had a quiet motor for optimum stealth and started riding a few kilometers down the street to another large property.

It consisted of mainly grassland and grazing cows which gave me a sullen look as I passed. I ditched my bike behind a bush and continued on foot, crawling closer to the house.

It was a quaint little thing, set in creamy Earth-colored bricking, two four-wheeled cars baked in the hot sun. The screen door was closed and the front bedroom curtains were partially open.

I drew a mirror from my pocket and began flicking the reflection from the sun onto the bedroom window. A face appeared at the glass; short black hair and forest green eyes, his skin was oddly pale despite living in baking sun for a long time.

Zac was the only human being I'd bothered to interact with. He was the only child and understood what not having his real parents were like. His parents were both phycologists for the government. They often spent their days studying water purity, and then translating the knowledge into their personal agriculture needs.

He lifted the frame of his window and jumped out. He wore a black plaid long-sleeved shirt with dark green highlights and jeans. Unlike his normal Sunday sleek brush, his hair fell over his eyes. I ran back down the drive as he picked up his bike and started cycling. I hopped on mine and we made an escape from the dusky house.

He gave a joyous laugh as we lost sight of the house, "Who wants to do Advanced Algebraic Fractions anyway?" He shouted into the wind. Zac was smart, not as good as me. However, what he lacked in brains he made up for in his cunning wit.

We cycled for a little while after that, coming to the base of a Private Reserve which people often called the Ravine. We ditched out bikes and I shouldered my pack, it was a brisk walk to the top of the peak of the mountain.

For the half hour that we trekked through the greenery we barely spoke. Words didn't usually need to become between us. We knew each other too well for that.

Eventually we reached the top of the reserve. It was a small clearing with about a twelve meter diameter. It was like someone had decided to shear off the top of the mountain and place an old tree. It was old and gnarled, never bearing fruit or seeds of any sort. Its wood was faded sienna and the leaves were slowly turning darker with age. The shrubbery around the top of the plateau was sparse and the elevation dangerous but we both had better hearing than normal so we didn't need to worry about people creeping up on us.

Zac laid out a blanket and we started chewing thoughtfully on our sandwiches. They were a bit flat, I'll admit but Zac seemed content with something other than the bare minimum his parents often fed him.

I watched the thick clouds crawl along the skyline, often brushing the torn horizons of shaggy mountains. The sun was warming, a contrast from its constant sweltering heat. I laid back and Zac smiled next to me.

After a few moments of content peace, Zac sighed wistfully.

"What?" I asked, his mood had changed and I sensed bad news like and oncoming storm.

"They're moving me," Zac spoke and his voice trembled. "Away from you,"

I bit my lip, sitting up, bringing my legs to my chest as I did so. Zac rubbed my back along the spine while I attempted to comprehend what this meant.

Zachary Trey was a thirteen-year-old agent for a top secret government agency SHIELD. He had screwed up his last mission and was currently spending some time in rural Australia whilst waiting for the international anger to die down. When not on missions he'd also say here.

SHIELD was a mostly American/United Nations agency that operated globally. Its existence had been hidden since after the battle of New York when a large technical fail in Washington sent their high tech stuff exploding on the skyline. Seconds after, their entire collection of super top secret files had been placed on the internet. Maybe they had a bad day, I'm not sure.

Despite Zac's attempts, I know they had been monitoring me due to our interaction. Maybe our lives were like a reality show. Because of this we had been taken precautions, hence the exit via the window. Fury built within me at their mentioning and I wanted to scorn them.

My life was a snowdome paperweight, shaken for the joy of children and now as the dust settled I trembled with unshed tears, my thoughts still colliding and flittering to the floor.

"When?" The word was a broken whisper. How much time did I have with the one who I had given my secrets to, how much time did I have before the one that I could stand, heck, maybe even liked was gone?

"Two days. They only just told me this morning,"

The gap in my chest widened even more, a sob built up within my throat. I had barely anytime left. Two days.

A watery substance trickled down my cheeks; I wasn't usually the one to cry easily however Zac's sudden disappearance would subtract the crutch I'd been holding onto. I couldn't imagine a life without him and I can't remember what it was like before him.

"Hey," he spoke, his words soft and gentle. He began rubbing my back, along the spine. "We- we could um... I don't know,"

After a few seconds of quietness I spoke, my words unsteady and unsure.

"We could run away,"

Zac was silent, he didn't like SHIELD, its secrecy and manipulative tactics. But they were strong and the only way he could get information about his origins.

"Tonight," he confirmed slowly.

"Tonight," I replied.

...

I peeked out of my window, confirming that the house was silent. Stealth was useful in this situation. I slid my pack on, layered up and ran with my bike up the gravel driveway, hoping to avoid as much noise as possible.

The moon hovered over my head as I rode, setting the silent landscape into a ghostly setting. It was a waxing Gibbous at ninety-nine percent. The moonlight would give us light until we made it the city, then to somewhere else, where Zac would assure me that it was both easier and harder to track a person.

In the countryside, people talked, others often knew of your own affairs before you did. Two unknown teenagers riding on bikes would be sure to catch attention. Zac assured me we wouldn't follow the obvious trail and we formed a map of where we'd go; across farmlands, across cities and continents if we had to. Anything to stay out of SHIELD's grasp.

A thirteen and twelve-year-old, risking their lives in the sake of love and freedom. Take that, Romeo and Juliet.

Like in the previous afternoon, I ditched my bike at the clump of shrubbery and commenced closer to the house by foot. I hid behind the bush and caught the light of the moon by my mirror and sent the reflection onto the window of the first bedroom. Moonlight reflection meant all clear and no sign of tracking. Flashlight meant danger.

A few moments later, Zac climbed out of the window, grabbing his bike as he ran. Together we sped along the countryside, melting into shadows and bursting through pools of moonlight. Once we were out of the town we screamed a shout of freedom into the quiet night.

We rode until dawn, hoping to escape the general area of the scattered town. Luckily for us, Zac and I had accelerated resistance and endurance so long distances weren't a problem for us. We could ride all day at a leisurely pace though we'd be sore the following night. However, the thrill of our escape had us burning for a long time. There would be people searching for us, and they would be searching even harder for Zac. He was a spy after all, a very good one.

At dawn we had our first break, it was quick, a stop for food and water and a moment to repack. At first we'd been heading inland, a south-west area but now we decided to go to the coast, catch a boat, not a plane. Then from there find our way into another country, maybe India.

We never stayed anywhere for longer than an hour, our first day would be the most dangerous and exhausting. Zac had told me that even though they would always be looking for us, SHIELD would be pouring all of their effort into us for the first three weeks.

Over the course of the next day we stopped once every three hours for a twenty minute break, our energy waned as the day progressed. After a lengthy discussion of strategy we decided to stop for the night, even if it was just a few hours. Traps were set and we arranged a shift rotation. Despite Zac's insistent protests I took first watch; four hours of watching the moon crawl up the sky.

Zac slipped into sleep easily, he was sensitive when sleeping but could easily fall between consciousnesses. His breath gave off a faint steam and I gave a faint smile on how his angelic face was, illuminated by the moonlight. It seemed that at night everything existed in shades of black, grey and white. Zac seemed to bend the light to his will and perfected that. He was dressed in a dark grey windbreaker and long sleeved pants, even though they were some kind of heat conservator.

I looked over the plains; we were in a paddock, consisting mostly of grass and a few scattered trees. There was no decent cover for a while except the waist-high grass in which we were currently camping in.

Per like every other time I wasn't currently occupied with something lifesaving my thoughts drifted towards my parents or Cleo's parents really. They were strict, and that's something I can't operate with. Cleo was studious, more wise then smart, she knew of many things, the exact axis on which the Earth rotated, the seventy-eighth numeral of pi, but heaven forbid she attempt to try advanced division.

I wondered what they would be doing now. Luke would be secretly worried, he was the only one in the family that even gave a mention that he cared for me. Michelle would be calling her friends over, ranting over tea about my 'god-awful rebelliousness' and 'constant sarcasm'. Then she would probably be interviewed by SHIELD and list my long and troublesome demerit record. Blaming the disappearance on my retarded real family.

I was glad I left, but the exposed world to a naive twelve-year-old was a force to be reckoned with. As much as I didn't want to admit it to Zac, I was scared. Scared of the unknown in this dark cesspit of this place. It was dangerous, and I'd have to be careful.

I began to drift off, distantly; I could hear the rabid snarl of wild dogs in the night. They wouldn't approach us though, the grassland wasn't their element. I smiled and clutched the gun to my chest closer like a child would be to a teddy bear.