Azad had been running at close to a sprinting pace when he suddenly went limp, as if shot by a taser gun. He collapsed to the tall grass in the field we were in, and let out a long pained groan.

Xandra and I couldn't get to Azad quick enough.

Xandra, being faster and nimbler in comparison to my huge, lumbering body, reached him first.

"Are you okay?" said Xandra.

She reached down to help him to his feet but he shrugged her off and got up on his own.

THOMP-THOMP-THOMP-CROOOSHHH!

I finally reached them both and came to a skidding stop. Once my hulking form gained momentum it wasn't so easy slowing down.

"Are you sure you don't want B to carry you?" said Xandra, "We'd get there much faster."

"I'm sure," said Azad, patting grass off himself, "This is good endurance training."

Xandra let out a laugh.

"The only thing you're training is face-planting on the grass!" she said.

Azad popped some joints in his back. In the cool of the night sweat radiated off him like an aura.

"What's the issue with B carrying you?" said Xandra, "I carried you before and you didn't complain."

"I couldn't move then," said Azad, "I can now so leave it."

"But—" said Xandra.

"-Hey, Xandra?" I said, cutting her off, the deep sound of my voice causing them both to look up at me as if I were some scolding parent.

"Can you just leave him be?" I said, "He said he doesn't want me to carry him so that's that."

Xandra sighed, "Fine," she said, "I'm just trying to help."

"We know," I said, "You appreciate Xandra trying to help, right, Azad?"

Azad thought the question over for a moment, then sighed too.

"Yeah," he said.

"How much further is it to the mansion?" said Xandra, "It'll be light in a few hours."

"Not far," said Azad, "Leave it with me."

Frustration gripped Xandra for a moment to the point she fixed me with a look and then turned her back and walked away several paces to calm herself.

Their argument was going round in circles. I could tell if I didn't say something they would only start shouting at each other again, or worse.

"Azad?" I said, folding my arms and inadvertently clacking some of the bone-armour there together.

"Yeah?" said Azad.

"Do you know the quickest way to get to the mansion?" I said.

"I know the direction we have to go," he said.

He pointed ahead of us. "It's that way somewhere," he said.

Listening to Azad say this was like nails on a chalkboard for Xandra. Somehow she was managing not to go off into a rage at him.

"Okay," I said, "Look, mate. The longer we spend out in the open the more likely we are to be seen by people. I'm happy for you to lead the way, but I need you to work with Xandra."

"What d'you mean?" said Azad.

"Xandra knows her way around the country really well," I said, "She's memorized maps, she knows a ton of abandoned places we can stay herself. It's thanks to her we were both able to stay unnoticed by the Peepers for so long."

I looked to Xandra and said, "Xand, you don't know where this mansion is right?"

"No," she said.

"Right," I said.

I looked to Azad, "Do you remember the name of the town where the mansion is?"

Azad scratched his cheek whilst he thought about it.

"Erh," he mumbled, "Fauncherton Green, I think."

"It's that way," said Xandra, pointing ahead, but more to the right than Azad had gestured before.

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"I wish you had told me that was where we were going before," she said, "We could've reached Fauncherton Green by now easy."

Before Azad could say whatever he was about to say in response, which I predicted was some kind of frustrated comeback, I interjected.

"That's all good," I said, "We'll know better for next time. Now Azad's told us which direction we need to head in to get to his mansion, we can get there quicker."

I looked down on Azad, "You don't mind Xandra leading the way to Fauncherton, at least, right? Once we're there you can show us how to get to the mansion, right?"

"Yeah," said Azad, "No problem."

CLOP!

I had clapped my hands together in what was meant to be a friendly gesture to celebrate how we had all resolved how to get to the mansion quicker, easier, together. But the clap became an unintended boom like the clap of thunder. I had a blanket wrapped around my neck like a cape, with the blue basket contained with the blanket on my back.

Somewhere in the distance a car's alarm started going off.

"Crap," I said, "We better get going."

Neither Xandra or Azad moved for a moment, both wary of each other. Then Azad raised a hand, gesturing for Xandra to lead the way. She gave a stoic nod and then turned, leapt, and started to spring forward at high speed in the night.

Azad broke into a sprint, giving chase as best he could. I sighed with relief, happy to have avoided even more arguing from both of them. I started moving forward and built momentum until I felt like some towering mecha made of meat-and-bone making easy work traversing the flat field landscape.

I managed ten powerful strides before I spotted Azad falling to the ground again. His whole body had gone rigid again, as if he were doing his best impression of a fish trying to jump off its captor's boat back to the sea.

I caught Azad before he fell, holding him as if he were a battering ram. I let him go a moment later, and he renewed his sprinting pace like before.

As we ran he made a gesture as if in prayer to say 'thank you' for catching him. Then he made a gesture waving his hand by his neck as if to say 'don't', and he then pointed to Xandra.

Don't tell Xandra. Got it.

I smiled and nodded and we continued running in tandem, following after Xandra.

Things were much more efficient with Xandra leading the way to Fauncherton Green. With Azad our way had involved a lot of zig-zagging, and even a little backtracking, all of which went noticed by Xandra. I hadn't noticed too much because I was more concerned with keeping watch for any trouble that might be ahead or behind us.

The first light of day peeked through the clouds above. We had kept to the outskirts of Fauncherton Green, which even from a distance in the dark looked like a very well-kept and nice town. Not as nice and fairy-tale-like as Lintern Village, but nice in a more modern, clean and pleasant kind of way. What it lacked in old fashioned rusticness it gained in having lots of clean streets. The only blight, if it was fair to call it that, were four towering estate blocks which loomed at the far end of the town.

We had headed towards Fauncherton Green's main town for a while before Azad remembered the way to go. He took the lead back from Xandra, and led us to the left of town. I could feel the change in Azad's direction once he knew exactly which way he was going, with none of the guess-work he had been doing before.

We stayed among forests and small parks on our way around Fauncherton.

"We're almost there," Azad had said.

We had been walking within a forest a stone's throw away from a long winding road on an incline.

Dawn had become a bright morning, and with it there came the occasional very expensive looking car along the road from either direction. We had plenty of time to hide ourselves among the trees and bushes; I had laid down on the forest floor each time, since I was the most likely out of us all to give us away. Xandra had offered to take care of the blanket and blue basketful of food supplies given we were so close to the mansion.

Another car had just passed. We listened to it easing away up the road. On my back still, I looked up at the bright green forest canopy and admired the way the sun's rays shone through it.

"I want to warn you both," said Azad, "We might run into the Sub-Divisioners at the mansion."

"Did they say they were staying there?" said Xandra. She was crouched behind a thin tree holding the blanket and basket on her lap.

"I think they moved on the night I saw them," said Azad, "But that doesn't mean they didn't decide to come back."

"Maybe its not worth it after all then?" said Xandra, "There's other places we can go."

"No," said Azad, "Don't worry about it. I'm just saying they might be there."

"Who are they?" I said.

Azad set himself down, sitting cross-legged with his arms crossed. He made an effort to remember as much as he could.

"There were three boys," he said, "Their names were...erh...there was Neil, and there was...erh...Edwin, and there was…"

Azad became silent as he tried to remember the last name. I fixed my attention on Xandra and saw she was giving Azad all of her attention. She was taking every word of his with utmost seriousness.

"I can't remember the last one," said Azad, "But anyway, I was staying at the mansion for a few days then I heard them coming. So I hid in one of the walls. I was going to introduce myself to them if I thought they seemed okay. So I listened to them talk for a few hours and decided I didn't want to join up with them."

"What did they talk about?" I said.

Azad stretched, popping his elbow joints.

"They were gloating about escaping from containment. They'd planned it together."

"Nothing wrong with breaking out of containment when the Peepers are the ones keeping you there," said Xandra.

"Yeah," said Azad.

He stretched his legs out, popping the joints in his knees too. The sound of it made me wince. When he had temporarily cut off his ability to feel pain back in the construction tunnel, he had also tried to heal the worst of his wounds. Superficially he had done so, enough to keep travelling with us at least. But maybe the pain from healing was a necessary part of healing properly. Or maybe he didn't have the proper knowledge to know how to heal his wounds correctly. There had been so much damage I doubted I would have known, even with the full use of the power, to heal my body to a good state either.

"They were talking about what they were going to do now they had broken out," said Azad.

"Yeah?" I said, "Like what?"

"Neil didn't seem so sure what he wanted to do. But Edwin, I think he was the leader of their group, he made it pretty clear he wanted to use the power to make money. Said he had some scores to settle first."

"And the last guy?" I said, "What about him?"

Azad sighed and looked up at the forest canopy, trying to remember.

"He said he was looking for someone. A girl."

"Oh yeah?" I said, sitting upright since the car before had ceased to be in hearing distance.

"Yeah," said Azad, "I think her name was Tiffany-something."

"Tiffany Becker?" I said, with a start.

Azad flinched.

"Yeah," he said, "How'd you know?"

I felt a sudden knot in my stomach.

"This third guy," I said, "Was his name Dean?"

Azad's face lit up.

"Yeah," he said, "Yeah it was."

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