(Photo by Lum3n)

The night air was already chill and heavy with humidity as Syn and Pierce entered the forest. Smells of fungi and moss greeted them and the ground beneath their feet became much less even, slowing them down as they had to make their way more carefully to avoid slipping and injuring themselves.

“I grew up near a forest,” Pierce whispered. “Me and my siblings would hike through it all the time. Found a snowy owl once that let us get close enough to pet it.”

“Sounds nice,” Syn replied.

“What about you?” Pierce asked. “Where’d you grow up?”

“Right here,” she told him. “This was my backyard and my parents would take me out here all the time.”

“D’you have any siblings?” he asked.

“Not really,” Syn said.

Pierce gave her a puzzled look and slowed down even further as they climbed over a fallen tree.

“What do you mean by that? You either had siblings or you didn’t”

“We lived with a bunch of other families,” Syn explained. “Sort of like a commune, but without any of the weird stuff people usually think of when they hear about a commune. My parents and a bunch of their friends all just sort of pitched in to buy some land and built their homes together. I’m technically an only child, but there were so many other kids and we all grew up in each other’s homes that we were like siblings.”

“Must have been hard when things started going crazy,” Pierce said.

“It wasn’t so bad at first,” Syn said. “We were pretty self sufficient so we were able to get by on our own. But once the patrols started there wasn’t much we could do. We hadn’t exactly built our places to be defensible. We couldn’t have fought back even if we’d wanted to.”

“It’s probably better that you didn’t fight,” Pierce said. “I had some neighbors that tried to, and…well, it didn’t go very well for them.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’ve heard.”

“So, are we just going back to your old home?” Pierce asked after a few minutes of walking.

“I want to see if there’s anything left there that we could use, but we won’t be staying. We need to put a lot of distance between us and this place before it’d be safe to settle.”

They continued on for a while longer but Syn could almost feel Pierce’s thoughts and could tell from the way he moved that he was distracted and not fully paying attention to where he was stepping. She didn’t need him to ask for her to know what he was thinking because it was the same question that had eaten at her own thoughts for the past several years.

Was there really someplace out here where they could be safe?

Syn knew the answer to that question was a resounding yes. She wouldn’t have ever risked such a journey unless she had been sure. When Pierce first discovered that Syn was planning an escape, he’d tried to get out of her where this place was but she knew it was far too important a piece of information to share while they were still captives. Even now, she wouldn’t dare share that information with Pierce. If they got caught, Pierce could be forced to divulge the location that Syn had discovered, the place where no patrols went, where no surveillance was performed, where anyone lucky enough to make it there could live out their lives without fear of being discovered.

They crested a hill and a wide, flat valley lay before them. It was a sight well known to Syn, and yet it had been years since last she’d stood in such a spot, overlooking the valley where she’d grown up.

“We’re here,” Syn whispered.

She and Pierce crouched down on the ridge and surveyed the area. Going down there without first making sure it was safe would have been incredibly foolish indeed. Neither Syn nor Pierce had ever heard about patrols being stealthy. Part of their effectiveness was their overt, aggressive manner of moving through an area. The fear they elicited tended to be enough to drive most people out of hiding. Those who didn’t flee right away were then found by the patrol’s numerous sensors.

“Looks clear,” Pierce said after a while.

“Yeah,” Syn replied, still uncertain.

Her memories of the last time she’d been in this place, when her family had finally been discovered, still haunted her.

“That’s where they came in at,” Syn pointed towards a point on the far side of the valley where a wide swath of trees had been felled, leaving behind what looked to be a path. A few saplings were growing there now, reminding Syn of just how long ago that had been. “We were over there in the fields, beginning to harvest our fall crops. Everyone knew it was only a matter of time before they came for us, but somehow, I think we all thought it wouldn’t happen yet, always somewhere in the future, and that maybe we’d get lucky and just get to keep on living our lives.”

“Can I ask you something?” Pierce spoke with much greater hesitancy than he usually did.

“Go ahead,” Syn told him, though she was only paying partial attention to him while she was distracted by memories of that day.

“What happened to them?”

“What do you mean? I just told you, we were all taken.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t bring any of them with you, to escape, I mean.”

Syn became acutely aware of the tension in her neck and had to force herself to resist the urge to tense it even further. Gradually, she was able to relax the muscles once again. It was always the same when she was made to remember what had happened to her family after their capture.

“Do you think I would have left any of them behind if there had been any other choice?”

“So, they died?”

Pierce grimaced as soon as he spoke, as though recognizing the lack of tact he was expressing.

“I’m sorry,” he said immediately. “Forget I said anything.”

Syn nodded, her jaw clenched and unwilling to look Pierce in the eye just yet. She’d calm down in a while, but until then she needed to ignore Pierce.

Without a word, Syn began to lead the way down into the valley. The homes were hidden from view beneath the tree canopy but she hoped that at least some of them were still standing. As long as the structures were still sound then she had hope that their stored food would still be good, as well as the various tools and equipment she hoped to gather here.