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I run with my hand over the cut, listening. Jouni’s feet are still right behind me. He got past them too.

More men start shouting behind us. They’re in heavy boots, and one of them’s dragging a foot.

Even the one with the bad foot is catching up.

I’m faster than him. I’m faster than all of them.

The roars are farther back now, with spaces between them. I wait for another every time one stops. Before, there were so many I couldn’t even hear the men.

My palm slips against my ribs, and I press harder.

There’s the split rock, with the crack down the middle. We can get through it sideways, but a man would have to squeeze.

I pull my elbow in and go first.

The rock grinds my knuckles into the cut, and I yell and stumble out the other side.

Jouni comes into the gap behind me.

His feet scrape on the stones, and he roars at the men. It’s the same roar he does at me when we wrestle.

He’s stopped.

Jouni, come on.

I know right where he’s standing. It’s the narrow part in the middle, where we used to block each other with our hands on both walls. The other one had to say please to get through.

He can’t keep them out. He couldn’t even stay up on the slope without me.

One of the men shouts, and the boots stop pounding. Something hits the rock and rings. Jouni roars again, higher this time, and I want to turn around.

Run.

I keep going with my hand pressed to my side.

Behind me, men grunt and feet scrape on the stones. I try to get enough air to shout for Jouni.

Jouni makes a small sound.

Jouni?

The boots start again, on my side of the rock.

I run harder, even though my legs keep trying to fold. I hear the man with the bad foot again, and I listen past him for Jouni’s feet.

Jouni can catch me. He always catches me when we race.

I hold my free elbow out for him.

It hits a branch, so I pull it in and keep running. The boots follow me down the next slope, but by the bottom they’re farther back.

I can’t smell the cooking fires anymore. All I can smell is wet leaves and my own blood. I pass a broken tree I don’t know, then a bank of bare earth with roots hanging out. I’ve never been out this far.

My side hurts worse going uphill, but I climb it anyway.

By the top, I can’t hear anybody behind me, not the men and not Jouni.

I run with my ears turned back. My feet are too loud, and I’m gasping too hard to hear anything.