It's been five days since we left the cave, and Tony. We walked through the forest which seemed to never end only talking when we needed to. Even that was reduced to a minimal. I knew it was because of me. The boys kept their distance as I navigated through the forest. I had no clue where we were going, just that it was away from the wall. When noon came we stopped by a large tree.

“Why are we stopping?” John asked.

“I figured we could take a break.” I said. “I'm pretty sure we aren't being fallowed. They know we escaped, but they might not know who we are.”

“Yeah. Let’s hope they don't find out soon.” John said.

“We need to get out of this forest as soon as possible.” Tevan said.

“Why?” John asked. “We have more coverage here.”

“And so will they when they come after us.” I say. “I could climb this tree, look around. See if there's anything around besides forest.”

“Yeah that's probably the best thing we can do right now.” Tevan said. This was the most we have talked in the past five days.

“Look. I'm sorry we haven't talked much lately, and I know it's my fault.” I started.

“It's fine.” Tevan said. “You've been through a lot lately, we get that. It's a surprise you're not having a metal breakdown right now.”

“Have I ever had a mental breakdown?” I asked. We all laughed a little.

“Yeah you've got a point.” John said. There was a long pause, but for the first time in days it wasn't dreadful.

“I'm going to go up there and take a look.” I said pointing up the tree.

“Be careful.” Tevan said. With that I climbed the tree. As I expected it slightly taller than the other trees.  The sun was overlooking the sea of the colorful, fall trees. I took a quick look around before going back down to tell the boys what I saw.

“We're almost out of the forest. If we go a little to the left there's a village not too far from the edge of the forest, or we could continue forward and just hit a large stretch of open land that doesn't seem to have much water.” I explained.

“Let's go with the village.” John said.

“Yeah.” Tevan said.

“Let's go then. We should reach the edge of the forest by dark.” I said. We started walking in the direction of the village, the leaves crunching under our feet.  More than half of the trees were bare, or close to it.  Fall was coming to an end.  Soon winter would be upon us.  The thought of that made me realize we didn’t really have winter coats.  I would be fine.  Cold doesn’t really affect me, I was just worried about the boys.

When nightfall came we found ourselves at the edge of the forest. I climbed up the nearest tree and looked out at the village. Turns out it was more of a small city then a village.

“Looks like more of a small city then a village from this close.” I said jumping out of the tree.

“What if this is the size of the cities out here?” Tevan wondered.

“It could be.” I replied.

“So what you two are saying is that we could have been living in the biggest city, and we just left with no way of getting back in?” John asked.

“Size doesn't matter John. That city isn't safe for us.” I said pointing back towards the wall.

“It was for me.” John mumbled.

“Then why did you come?” I asked. “If you thought that city was “safe” then why did you come?”

“I was told that the wall was there to protect us from what's outside, but so far there's nothing.” John said.

“That's because that wall isn't really for protection, it's more of a trap for people like us. Especially for people like me.” I replied.

“I'm not like you.” John said getting a look of confusion from both of us. “I'm normal, not that it's a good thing.”

“John you should have stayed.” I said. “Not helped Tevan get me out and just stayed home.”

“I didn't want to stay home.” John said. “You're not the only one here whose parents have died.”

“I know that.” I said. “You could have gone somewhere else.”

“I helped Tevan get you out and I'm standing here right now because I'm your friend, and friends look out for each other.” John said. He was right.

“Yeah.” I said. There was a long pause. “We should probably go.”

“If that's a small city the people probably won't like you walking around with a bow on your shoulder.” Tevan said. “Only problem is where to hide it.”

“If we take some stuff out of my backpack it should be able to fit. It's long enough to store the bow.” John said taking off his backpack and holding it up. Tevan and I looked at John for a second, then looked at each other with the expression of: how couldn't we think of that.

“Guess it's a good thing to have a normal brain with normal thoughts.” John said seeing our expression.

“Yeah I guess we aren't normal enough to think of that.” I said. John grinned.

“Well we haven't really looked at your backpack until now.” Tevan said defensively. “I was thinking she could use her backpack until I realized it was too small.”

“We could do that.” I said.

“But that's your bow. Shouldn't you be carrying it?” Tevan said.

“We could trade backpacks for the time being.” I said.

“I thought you didn't like that kind of backpack.” Tevan commented.

“I don't, but sometimes you have to adjust.” I said. “Besides, it's only for a little while.”