Chapter 8 | The Woods|

" Yes?"

An unfamiliar young kid responded.

"Find her!", Oliver shouted while running his fingers through his hair.

The 20 men were divided, 5 in each direction.

They kept searching but they weren't able to find her.

Oliver thought for a second and then commanded, " Gentleman, gather up !", his team joined him and then he continued again, " to her house, now!".

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I was sitting on the tree, my legs were locked on one of its branches. My hands tightly grab the trunk. I kept my mouth closed and breathed without a sound. My heart rate was increasing with every minute, one thought which kept disturbing me was that what if they raised their heads and spot me hiding in a tree.

As they all left the place I sighed in relief, then I waited for a moment and hopped down from the tree.

I knew that I can't go back to the cafe because he might have had some spies and neither can I go to my house, so I thought of running somewhere where they can't find me, 'the forest'.

As soon as I had this thought I increased my walking speed and in a few seconds, I started running. I was running in the backyard of the buildings, then I stopped in front of a shop, I went inside from the back door and saw a whole blue interior, clothes in shades of blue colors only hanging on blue stands, some people were buying the dresses. I wasted no time and eventually grabbed a dress from the stand near me. It was a blue woolen sweater, then I took the jeans from the bottom section.

Just then a young lady robot wearing a black dress and hair tied in a bun came," yes ma'am how may I help you?", she offered help in her robotic voice. I replied, " no thanks, I'll call you later . when I need your help". As the robot returned to the counter I grabbed the sweater and pants and ran out from the backdoor. The Robot was looking at me when I looked back at her before escaping.

I ran out and shut the back door with a big bang and was running while hearing alert alarms originating from the shop I stole the dress from. I saw two ways on my way, one leading onto the main road and the other leading to the forest. I kept moving and moving until I reached a bushy place, I searched for a safe hiding place where I changed my clothes and went back to the road, the road was quite wide and on its, both ends were trees which were bending down, both sides integrated to create a natural long arc. The daylight was still visible and was lightening the forest. I was breathing deeply for every moment in that woodsy fragranced forest.

as I was walking I saw a river on my left side and as I turned to my right side I saw a skeleton standing with the support of the tree near it. " Ah!", I got scared and thought of ignoring it, I passed by it but then a notion hit my mind and I walked back in reverse. I released the skeleton from the tree by untying the ropes which held it close to the tree's trunk. I put my clothes on the skeleton and then threw them in the river. After it disappeared I took my white long boots off and threw them inside the water after creating footsteps on the mud near the river, making it look like someone jumped inside the river.

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Hours passed, and Mr. Lewis and Ms. Julie were driving a car everywhere leaving no place, they kept looking for Hannah for hours. Suddenly Ms. Julie got a call, she saw the caller ID and eventually picked up, "yes Kevin, any news ?", she asked impatiently," No mom.", he replied and then he asked for the same. " What about you? ", " nothing to say ... just stay over there, don't enter the COD, and just keep your eyes on whoever enters and leaves from there ", she commanded. " yes mom, I am keeping an on COD from the front, and Amelia from the back ", he informed. " Good ! ", with that she hung up the call.

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I walked more and more for an hour. The sunlight was disappearing and the road started getting rough as I was walking more deep into the forest. Now my feet were hurting bad and I got a few scratches on my foot.