"Nah, I don't see them up here." I heard a deep males voice. "I thought I'd heard someone earlier. Let me look around." He was talking on a bulky black phone. It looked like one of the early models of cell phones. The man began to look around, searching behind trees, through bushes. He even looked down the ditch Sam fell down. He stared at it for a long time, but eventually walked away. He then made his way over to me. I held my breath and tensed up. He was right near me. If he would just reach out and move a few of the bushes branches out the way, he would find me. My heart was pounding through chest. I was almost certain he could hear me.

"Daisy. We've got Jaxlor's coming your way." Luke's voice came through on my walkie talkie. I swear in that moment I wanted to faint. Unknowingly, Luke and the others had given me away.

"I knew there was some Tilerian scum hiding here." The man moved the leaves from the bushes and attempted to grab me. I dodged him quickly. "Come here!" He shouted. I pulled my knife back out, ready for him to attack me. I knew if I shot him, it would make too much noise and I'd give the others away too. I didn't want to do that.

"Get back! I swear I'll kill you!" I yelled at him. I could hear static and voices come through on my walkie talkie again. I wished they'd shut up.

I tensed when I heard a deep voice from above, near where Daisy was before, I only hoped she’d hidden before he’d come. I waited as I heard the rustling of movement, and the paused in it as he looked around searching carefully. I froze in shock as Luke’s voice crackled from a distance and I knew Daisy wasn’t safe anymore.
Hearing shouting from above, I rose out of my hiding spot and pulled out my knife. Making my way as quickly as I could over to the slope I’d fallen down. Looking up, I spotted the makeshift rope Daisy had created for me and put my knife’s handle into my mouth, wiping my hands on my jacket to rid them of mud. Reaching up, I gripped the end of the rope and pulled myself up. With great difficulty I used all my strength to haul myself further and further up the rope. Finally reaching the top, I pulled myself over the ledge and stood up, immediately looking for Daisy.
As soon as I spotted them, the Jaxlor’s back to me, I snatched the knife out of my mouth and as quietly and as quickly as I could, made my way over to them.
“Not if I kill you first, Missy.” He grumbled and I saw him reach behind him for his gun. Standing directly behind him, I raised my arm and quickly sunk my knife right into his back.
He froze in shock, and gurgled as I pulled my weapon out of his back letting him collapse to the ground.

I stood there, shocked. I was still trying to process what happened. I watched as the man hit the ground, revealing a muddy Sam standing behind where the man once stood. "Are you- I mean" I looked at Sam then back at the man. "Thank you." I managed out. My heart was still pumping fast. "I-" For some reason I couldn't get any words out. I took a deep breath, taking a step back and trying to calm myself down. "Thank you." I looked up at Sam. "Are you ok?"

I wiped my brow, getting more mud on my forehead without noticing. “I’m fine. Are you okay?” I asked looking at her with concern. “You look like you’re going to collapse.” Waiting for her to respond, I knelt down and cleaned my knife on the dead Jaxlor’s uniform before reach down to take his black phone and gun off of him.

"Mhmm. I'm fine." I nodded, watching him clean off his blade. "I've just never seen that before... Up close... And personal." I sighed, running a hand through my hair. It wasn't that serious. I mean that man was the enemy after all. "Let's just get going." I looked up at him. "And you need to get clean. We should head back to the beach so you can get cleaned off."

I looked at her as I stood up and then to my clothes and hands. “Uh, it’s probably not a good idea going back to the beach, that Jaxlor came from somewhere we passed. We don’t want to go back once they realize he hasn’t returned.” I said and turned back to the slope I’d fallen down earlier. “Thing is, I left my bag down there.”

"And we can't go back. That was the only path this way. It wouldn't be good to retrace our steps." I sighed. "We have to go down there don't we?" I nodded towards the slope. "It's really the only way we [i]can[i] go right now... Unless we cut through the thickest part of the forest. But that might not be smart... Considering we don't know what wildlife lives here. Like snakes and bugs."

I looked back at her. “You won’t get muddy if you don’t fall, just be careful cause’ it is slippery. Once we’re down, we’ll have to get rid of the rope, we don’t want anyone to see it and follow us.” I turned back to the rope. “I’ll go first and help you down.”

I nodded. "Alright. Go ahead then." I waited for him to climb down the rope so I could go next. Hopefully fast because I didn't know who was coming. While I waited, I picked my walkie talkie up and phoned the others. I let them know what happened and to stay on their toes. The Jaxlors knew Tilerians were here and they were out looking for us.

“Okay.” I breathed out and stepped forwards, gripping the rope and abseiling down the slope. Dropping to the ground, I made sure I had stable footing before calling up to Daisy. “Alright, ready for you.”

"Ok." I called down. I inched my way towards the edge, grabbing the rope and inching my way down. My backpack was making it more difficult than I thought with it weighing my down and all. "Almost there." I mumbled to myself. I could pretty much jump from where I was.

“You alright?” I asked her as I held my hands up, ready to give her a hand if she needed one. She was doing well so far though, exactly what I had done. “You won’t wanna drop from there or your backpack might put your landing off balance.” I added quickly.

"Alright." I slid the rest of the way down, landing firmly on my feet. "Woo! That was somethin'." I looked up. We needed to cut the rope now. But if we did it wouldn't be much use. "How are we going to get the rope down?" I asked. "We could pull it til it comes off the tree."

“Oh yeah, didn’t think of that, probably should’ve done that while we were up there.” I said looking up at where the rope was tied. “Try pull it down, I’m just going to grab my bag.” Stepping back, I turned and scanned the area for my backpack, trying to remember what spot I’d hidden with my bag in.

I nodded, picking up the bottom or the rope from the mud and pulling on it. "It won't budge." I said between my teeth, pulling even harder. I planted my feet in the mud, pulling on the rope as hard as I could. "Got it!" I said before I let out a small squeal, falling in the mud as the rope got free.

I spun around at the sound of Daisy falling over as she pulled the rope down. Wading over to her, I tried not to laugh as I helped her out of her mud. “Luckily you’re backpack took the brunt of it, you’re hardly muddy!” I said as I looked her over.

I frowned, as he helped me up. "That wasn't supposed to happen." I looked up at him and saw he was trying not to laugh, which made me laugh. "I'll just think of it as a little coating of war paint." I looked down at the mud on my hands and smeared two fingers across each cheek. "See?" I spit my tongue out at him.

I grinned and chuckled at her actions. “Yeah, I think that’ll definitely help you with camouflaging.” I said as I went back searching for my bag. A few moments later I found it and my walkie talkie half sunk in the mud. “I think this is busted.” I said lifting the walkie talkie up for her to see how it was covered in mud.

"You got that right." I raised a brow. "Keep it though. Just in case... You don't want any Jaxlor's to find it." I shook my hands, trying to get some of the mud off of them. I didn't want to wipe them on my pants. But if I didn't come across any leaves soon, I would. "Where should we go from here? Maybe down that way?" I pointed to a small trail farther back and towards the left of us.

I looked over my shoulder to where she pointed, having not seen it before. “Yeap, sounds good to me.” I said and tucked the walkie talkie back into my bag before zipping it up and throwing it over my shoulder. "Lead the way."