My Wife Rules The World

The hollow was better than anything they'd found in two hours of moving.

Leon dropped down into it first, checked the ground — firm, dry enough, the fallen timber forming a natural wall on three sides that blocked sightlines almost completely. Fred came down next, then Emma. From inside, looking up, you could see patches of sky through the canopy but nothing at eye level came through. Anyone moving through the forest above wouldn't see them unless they walked directly to the edge and looked down.

"This works," Fred said, mostly to himself.

They settled in without much discussion. Leon checked the zone map out of habit. The depot was still northeast, still the same distance it had been when they'd stopped running. A few notifications had come through on the band — routine game updates, movement summaries from the broader group that didn't give away positions but confirmed the game was active. Several Seeker teams were apparently operating in the western section.

Which explained the last two hours.

They stayed quiet for a while, listening. Twice in the first twenty minutes Leon heard movement above — footsteps, a voice briefly, then nothing. Both times they pressed further into the timber wall and waited. Both times it passed.

By 8:30 the light had changed completely. Through the gaps in the canopy the sky was a clear bright blue and the sun was doing what it does at full morning in open highland — making everything visible. Leon looked up at it and felt the problem settle in practically.

"We can't move in this," he said.

"No," Fred agreed.

"If we try to cross any open ground between here and the depot we'll be seen from fifty meters."

Emma was looking at the canopy. "How long until it's workable again."

"Sunset's around seven. Later if there's good cloud cover, which there isn't." Leon looked at his band. "So we wait here until then and move after dark. Slower pace, more careful. Five, six hours to the depot from here if we're keeping hidden."

"That's the whole day," Emma said.

"Yeah."

None of them seemed particularly happy about it but none of them disagreed either. The alternative was moving in full daylight through terrain that had clearly attracted multiple Seeker teams, which was a straightforward way to end their run as Escapers before noon.

Fred sat down against the timber wall and stretched his legs out. "Ten hours, roughly."

"Give or take."

"Okay."

Emma checked her pack. Then checked it again, which told Leon what she'd found the first time. She pulled out what was left — one portion of rations, the filtered water bottle, half full.

"This is what I have," she said.

Leon checked his. One portion. His water bottle was about the same.

Fred looked at his own supplies. One portion, a full bottle. He held it up. "We split what we have three ways. That's manageable for ten hours if we're not moving."

"You don't have to—" Emma started.

"We're a team until the game ends," Fred said simply. "It's practical."

They divided things up. It wasn't much but it was enough to keep three people functional through a day of waiting.

Leon gathered what dry debris he could from the hollow floor and built two rough sleeping surfaces, nothing elaborate, just something between them and the cold ground. Emma used the cord from her pack to rig a low shade between two points in the timber wall that would keep the direct sun off them as it moved.

By 9:15 it was as set up as it was going to get.

Fred looked at the two arrangements and then at his own space, which Leon had made slightly off to one side.

"I can move further over," he said, shifting his pack.

Emma glanced at him. "It's fine, there's room."

"I just thought—" He paused. "I wasn't sure if you two wanted more space. Together."

Both Leon & Emma looked at him confused.

"I assumed," Fred said carefully, "from how you've been moving together since yesterday — I thought you were a couple."

"We're not," Emma said.

"Oh."

"We're not a couple."

"Okay."

"We're from the same dorm building. That's it."

"That's completely fine, I just—"

"We are not a couple," Emma said again, with the energy of someone who felt once had not been sufficient.

Fred nodded with the expression of someone who had understood perfectly the first time and was now regretting having said anything.

Leon said nothing and looked at the canopy.

After a minute the silence settled and they lay down. The hollow was reasonably comfortable given the circumstances. Somewhere above them the forest carried on its usual business.

Leon was almost asleep when he said, quietly, "Actually, she already has someone she likes."

There was a pause.

Then a sharp impact on his arm.

"Leon."

"I'm just saying."

"Don't just say."

"It saves confusion."

"I will push you out of this hollow."

"That would make noise."

Another impact, harder. He shifted away from it and Emma made a short frustrated sound and turned over, pulling her jacket tighter.

Fred, from his side of the hollow, said nothing for a respectful moment.

Then: "What about you?"

Leon opened his eyes.

"Do you have someone?" Fred asked. "Girlfriend, or—"

The question landed simply enough. Leon opened his mouth to answer and then didn't, because the first thing that came into his head was a face, and the face wasn't someone he could explain, and the explanation would take longer than he had words for right now.

He stayed quiet.

Fred noticed. Emma, despite having been apparently on her way to sleep, had gone very still.

Neither of them said anything. They just waited.