"Go, now." Pannis, with eyes closed, lurked in the bushes, extending his right hand backward, finger after finger bending until, when the fifth finger also bent, his hand finally clenched into a fist. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, and he whispered urgently, "Thirty seconds, as fast as you can."
No sooner had the sound faded than several figures sprang from the woods behind Pannis like arrows. Each person kept low, their upper bodies completely concealed by the bushes; unless someone looked down from above, they could only see the bushes swaying slightly, the rapid movement within obscured. Monkeys in the towering treetops overlooked the moving group below, emitting their characteristically piercing screeches. Scenes like this were almost a daily occurrence for them, except that the creatures they saw hiding today walked on two legs.