First Night

t was painful, agony as they scaled the wire.  It cut into their fingers, their shoes being just too wide to get a decent grip between the links.  Getting to the top, they had to carefully negotiate the barbed wire, and by this time, there were guards there, shouting at them, and several were sprinting for the only gate.  This was a security advantage for them, but this was one of the times it didn’t work, because it was on the other side of the compound.  The five girls leapt lightly down from the fence just as they came charging round the corner, but the girls were already running as fast as they could the opposite direction.

 

The chase went on throughout empty, cold and dark streets.  If they hadn’t been concentrating so hard on outrunning their pursuers, they might have stopped to find out where they were.  Allyssianne thought she recognised one of the squares they ran through, but wasn’t about to stop and think about it.

 

After ducking in and out of side streets, running anywhere that wasn’t large, open or straight for long distances, they managed to escape from the city and the guards, and into a forest nearby.

 

They collapsed in a panting heap a few kilometres in, their adrenaline rush over.  The little band dragged themselves back to their feet and walked slowly away to find a sheltered place to stay.  There was snow all around, even in the city, most of it was coated in white.  Allyssianne thought back to the square she had seen, and tried to think of where she had seen it before.

 

The girls took off army style backpacks when they reached a small clearing, thankfully sheltered from the snow.  They took out thick grey cloaks, putting them around their shoulders to try and ward off the chill as Natalie gathered the resources to start a fire.  Allyssianne, to everyone’s surprise, morphed into a wolf and loped off to hunt some food.

When she got back dragging a small deer with her, the other girls were gathered around the small fire, trying to escape the chill of the rapidly approaching night.  While eating the cooked deer, they tried to think of what they were going to do.  Allyssianne was silent, still puzzling over the square.  The others, however, were throwing ideas around like snowballs to try to create a plan.  It wasn’t long before they had an idea of their next course of action.

“We should find the guys that you saw on that screen.” Natalie said, her teeth chattering as she huddled closer to the fire.  Holly poked it with her wand to try and get it to produce more heat.

“It would be easier to coordinate that rescue plan if we knew where we were...” Marny pointed out.

“We’re near Moscow.” Allyssianne said, her puzzle finally solved.

“WHAT?!”