Rule 1 - Eisley
Follow the rules.
Ten years ago.
Don’t talk to anyone.
Don’t look back.
Just run.
“Eisley, we need to go. Get up!” Kansas pleaded and pulled me upright.
My bare feet slid in the thick mud of the forest. I was tired, but terrified. I had to listen to Kansas, my only remaining friend, and move.
“Run!”
I squeezed Kansas’s hand tight and pushed onward. I couldn’t see more than a foot in front of me in the pitch dark of the night. I was relying on him to see us through, despite him being just as beaten and abused as I had for so long. We were tired, our bodies and minds, but this was our one and only chance to escape. We had to keep moving.
“I’m scared,” I said, as a bright clap of lightning lit up the sky. We’d been in the woods for ages, and with the moment of light, it didn’t look like we’d gotten anywhere. “Kansas, where are we going?”
“Anywhere but there. Come on, Eisley, we’re almost out.” Despite his words, he was slowing down too. The strong wind continued to push us back. I tripped and fell, losing my grip. My hands scraped against a fallen log.
“Come on, Eisley, please. I can’t leave you.”
“Just go. Get somewhere safe.”
“No!” He pulled off his suit jacket and tossed it aside. “Here. Take my shoes.” He slid the loafers off his feet.
“I can’t. You go, get help.” My vision blurred.
“Eisley, get up. Please, don’t leave me. I can’t go alone.”
I knew what he was thinking. We’d already lost Constantine; he couldn’t lose me too.
His glasses were fogged up. I managed to sit upright, and as I always had, I pulled them off his nose and cleaned them as best as I could. While he was only eleven, like me, he always seemed older. Kansas was smart and cunning, and I trusted him with my life. Without him and Constantine, I’d be dead already. I had to get back up.
Kansas slid them back over his beautiful sea-green eyes and wiped his salty cheeks.
“Come on, we can do this. We’ve got to be close to the town. Someone will be there to help us. We just have to keep moving.”
I stood on wobbly legs and tried to run again, only to drop a few feet later.A loud bang jolted us both. A gunshot.
He was coming.
“Kansas!” I cried out and reached for his hand again.
We ran as fast as we could.Another gunshot rang out, spurring us onward. The edge of the forest was right there, so close, but I couldn’t go. I stopped dead in my tracks.
“Come on, we’re close!” Kansas tugged on my arm.
“I want to go back.”
“We can’t!” True fear shone in Kansas’s eyes. “Eisley, they’ll—”
“What about Constantine?” I reached for the necklace I wore around my neck. A thin golden ring with a small diamond hung on it. “We shouldn’t have left him..” Hot tears began to fall down my filthy cheeks. “We need to go back. He’s waiting for us. We need to save him.”
He squeezed my shoulders, forcing me to look at him.
