Outwardly, Christi wrinkled her nose at the acrid smoke from Eli’s cigarette. It smelled worse than the saturated atmosphere of home. 

Inwardly, her heart screeched to a stop. Another person was dead, worse than the way Tillie had died. Eli wanted to find out who had done it, who had killed her. She could hear it in his voice, it was the same note that she had heard in Daniel’s when she had ran; he wanted revenge. And she knew, she knew who had done it, at least one of them. She knew that if she told him what her brother had done, he wasn’t going to stop. And as strong as Eli looked, she knew that Daniel wasn’t going to be alone. He’d bring help, and he’d probably bring the police with him to, to get her. 

The silence in the trees made her tense, and her eyes scanned through the foliage. Jack’s ears were nearly flat, and the only sound to be heard was his low growls. Once, twice, she heard a snap of a branch, then a faint voice that sent a chill down her back. 

[i]Danny.[/i]

Christi didn’t think, she just acted. Before either Eli or Eric could react, she had slung her backpack over her shoulder, grabbed her crossbow and bolted at a dead run, Jack at her heels. This time, however, she knew where she was going. The mine shaft has given her her bearings, and she knew that almost a quarter mile south of here was a steep cliffside. It was far from unclimbable, more of a hillside than a cliff, but it was still quite steep; a single wrong step could send you tumbling down straight into a tree. It was also a shortcut to a river that lead to a tall, narrow ravine, within which was an old bear cave. It was a place that most people didn’t know about; even she had only come across it by accident, and she’d spent more time in these forests than she had at home. It wasn’t complete safety, but it would be good enough for now to get her brother off her trail. 

And if the others chose to follow her, well, she’d deal with that later. 

[@AcerRo][@Remipa Awesome]