Our progress was painfully slow going all the way up the slight forest incline. Azad limped ahead, barely at a jogging pace.

Xandra sprang along too, but like some kind of feeble rabbit with a belly ache. She held the dinner-plate sized burn mark at her stomach which also had a blueberry-coloured bruising around the edges.

And then there was me, lumbering along, smacking into one tree after another with my hulking form as if determined to touch every one on our way out of the national park.

"Where does this go?" said Xandra, hopping along beside me.

"Up," said Azad, "We need to stay out of sight."

"Okay," said Xandra, "But where does it go?"

"I told you. Up," said Azad.

"And once we're up," said Xandra, taking a moment to hop along and catch her breath, "Where after that?"

"Down," said Azad.

"Okay, stop, stop, stop!" Xandra said.

She came to a stop herself and Azad and I ceased moving too.

"Do you even know where you're taking us?" said Xandra.

"Yeah," said Azad.

"And don't say up or down," said Xandra.

"I wasn't," said Azad, "I'm taking us to a hideout I know. Better than the den, you'll see."

"Okay," said Xandra, "So is this the way there?"

"Not yet," said Azad, "For now I'm taking us wherever there's more cover to hide us, and far away from where you fought Burgess."

"So you're telling me you're just making up where we're going?" said Xandra.

"I told you," said Azad, "We're covered by everything around us. We're not seen here."

Xandra sucked in a breath and tried to find her happy place.

"Fine," she said, "I can understand staying out of sight. But do you know if this is the right direction to get to where you want us to go?"

Azad popped a joint in his neck and sighed. One moment passed into another with no answer from him.

"Well?" said Xandra.

"Sorry, what?" said Azad.

"I said do you know which direction we're supposed to go?" said Xandra.

"I'll know when we're near a town," he said, "Until then not really."

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"You're making this up!" said Xandra, exasperated, "You sounded like you knew what you were doing!"

"Hey," Azad said, gruffly, "All the best heroes make stuff up as they go. Right, Burgess?"

Both Azad and Xandra looked at me. I had been following the conversation, but with them both staring at me wanting to take a side I felt like a dog that had been caught chewing up the house furniture.

I grumbled, feeling like Ruff Rover saying one of his catchline phrases, "I ruh-no rhenything."

"I know a place we can go," said Xandra, "And I know how to get there too."

"No," said Azad, "We agreed that we'd go where I wanted us to go. Leave it with me."

"So where's your place, then?" said Xandra.

She then walked over to me and then put her hand into the bundle and took out a plastic water bottle, uncapped it, and drank several gulps.

Azad started kicking up the dirt a little. As he did Xandra made a gesture to me, asking if I might want some water too. I lowered my head and let the bundle drop to the forest floor. Xandra looked ready to pour the water into my mouth but there was no way I was going to be cool with that.

I raised my right hand and made an effort to pinch the bottle of water from her grip.

SPLOOSH!

I pinched too hard and the remaining water in the bottle drenched Xandra's face.

Azad broke into hooting laughter at this to the point he fell onto his back.

"HAHA-ooo-ooo-HAHA–aahhh-" he laughed, wincing from the pain laughter caused his still injured body.

Xandra shot me an unimpressed look. I grumbled a 'sorry' as best I could.

Xandra then squatted and retrieved another plastic bottle of water from the bundle, uncapped it, and this time waited for me to open my jaws. Feeling guilty, I did so, and she poured the water in until the bottle was empty. Boy did the water hit the spot. I grumbled 'thanks'.

"You're welcome," said Xandra.

She then turned her attention back to Azad who had recovered from his laughing fit. He remained sat on the ground, large thorn bushes surrounding him behind, to his left, and right.

"We don't have the luxury of surprises when we're on the run," said Xandra, "Where are you taking us?"

"Ugh," said Azad, "To a mansion. Surprise, ruined."

"Ah-gra-hoom?" I grumbled.

"I got lucky finding it," said Azad, "It'd been abandoned for a few months."

"Why?" said Xandra.

Azad shrugged.

Xandra wiped the last of the water from her face using her sleeve. I could feel a building tension between them that seemed like a grenade waiting to go off.

"If it's a mansion it doesn't sound very private," said Xandra, "It doesn't sound safe."

"Nowhere's safe," said Azad.

He stood up, wincing to the point all the veins in his neck throbbed, his face going red.

"Where'd you want to go?" he said.

"I know a place," said Xandra, "An abandoned swimming pool. It's far away though. It'll take us about two days to get there."

"Two days?" said Azad, "Mine will take one day. And it's a mansion. A man-sion."

"Well I say we go to the swimming pool because I'm not cool with making everything up as we go," said Xandra.

Azad folded his arms, and said, "A mansion's better than a swimming pool. People pee in swimming pools."

"People pee in mansions too," said Xandra.

"Yeah," said Azad, "In the toilets."

"There's obviously not going to be water in the abandoned pools," said Xandra.

Azad turned his attention to me and said, "What would you prefer, Ber?"

Oh gosh, leave me out of it, I thought.

Without the ability to speak I could hardly give a nuanced answer. What I wanted to say was that it would be good if we could head to the mansion first, then go to the abandoned pool second, if one were on the way to the other. But I couldn't say any of that, so I opted for a rather cowardly option.

I shrugged.

"Whatever," said Xandra.

She fixed her attention on Azad.

"We'll go your way," she said, "I don't even care anymore."

Azad, delighted to have gotten his way, gave an affirmative nod.

"Let's move," he said, turned, and stopped at the mass of thorns in the way.

He turned back to face us.

"Ber?" he said, "Handle this, yeah?"

I lowered my head and bit at the bundled blanket, picking up the blanket and the blue basket within. I then lumbered ahead, picking up momentum and tearing through the thorn bushes.

Azad and Xandra followed after me through the clearing I made.

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