Oliver tried his best to keep pace with Miriam, but he found himself falling steadily behind. The young girl continued to dart lithely through the forest, dodging branches, roots, and any other obstructions that might slow her pace; it seemed almost as if she had memorized the lay of the land. Unfortunately, Oliver was not blessed with the same knowledge and he kept stumbling as the duo plunged deeper into the forest.

Every time he felt his balance thrown slightly, his heart leapt to his throat in terror. If he collapsed to the ground, would he be able to get back up again? Would Miriam wait for him to collect himself? He had no answers and no reason to trust that she would wait for him, so he just gritted his teeth every time he stumbled and concentrated on ensuring that the ground didn't rush to meet him.

But despite his best effort, his mind kept growing hazier and staying up-right seemed increasingly impossible. It took all his willpower to continue to follow the blur of white-blonde that represented Miriam. He watched as she made a sharp right-turn and suddenly disappeared from sight – it took Oliver's exhaustion laden mind several seconds to process that she had broken through the foliage and was now concealed by the same.

I've followed her this far and she hasn't led me into a trap, Oliver thought to himself as his footsteps led him closer to where he had seen the frail girl disappear, If I'm going to trust her to lead me somewhere safe, I suppose I shouldn't just leave right at the end.

His resolution reached, he crashed through the underbrush, branches slapping his face. The first thing he became aware of was that Miriam was standing still; the two of them had reached their ultimate destination. The second thing he became aware of was that he was standing on the edge of a small clearing in the forest. The third thing he became aware of was that he had collapsed to the ground; whether it was from exhaustion, relief, or a combination of the two he really couldn't say.

All he knew was, for the time being, he was safe.

And it was all thanks to Miriam placing her own well-being in grave danger.

His mind was quick to inform him that she deserved his trust for this feat – after all, what greater show of sincerity was there than risking your life for someone? Since the moment he woke up in a strange room full of strange people, Miriam had been nothing but cordial to him.

Yes, it should have been easy to trust her.

He didn't.

He couldn't.

He needed to get out of this situation alive so he could look for Ryuto and Yuki; trusting someone was a weakness he couldn't allow himself; caring for someone was a weakness he couldn't allow himself.

He had already seen the disastrous results that caring for someone could bring about.

There was a hand shoved in his face. Normally his reflexes would have caused him to jerk back, but it seemed that exhaustion had robbed him of even his basest instincts.

"C-Can you stand?"

Her voice was weak and uncertain, but it sounded as if she had full control of her breathing – no one would have guessed that she had just made a mad dash through a dense and winding forest. On the other hand, every breath that Oliver took was both a wonderful blessing and a painful experience that seared his lungs and rattled his chest.

He couldn't help but wonder just how much training Miriam had been forced to undergo to achieve that level of athleticism on the battle field.

Returning his mind to the current state of affairs, he raised his eyes from Miriam's hand to look at her face. Although her cheeks were flushed and her face was speckled with sweat, a tiny smile decorated her lips and her eyes were wide and trusting.

Oliver could only bring himself to look at her for a few seconds before gnawing guilt compelled him to look away.

"Do we need to move again?"

Even to his own ears his voice sounded raspy and weak, clearly betraying the exhaustion that had brought him to his knees in the first place.

"N-No, not really. But, I just…thought maybe you would like to go sit in the shade? I-I mean it's fine if you want to stay here, it just might be more comfortable there and well, I mean, we can't stay here forever…"

"I'll be fine here. Once I catch my breath, we can move on."

He deliberately chose to ignore the hand that hovered in front of his face.

"O-Oh, well, if that's what you want…please feel free to rest here. This is a safe area after all. Ah! Hold on, there's something…something that I have to give you."

Her hand was reluctantly retracted and Oliver heard the sound of bare feet on the leafy underbrush as she walked away from him. Careful to keep his head down so she wouldn't know she was tracking him, he watched as she approached a nearby tree and began to rummage around the roots.

Oliver's heart rate and paranoia spiked in equal measures.

Had she simply brought him here to kill him? Was she retrieving some weapon so she could put a swift end to his life? Was this her twisted idea of mercy? Had everything she said back in the cabin been nothing more than a ploy to catch him off guard?

Ever muscle in his body tensed as he watched her. He knew it was pointless – he lacked the strength to stand, let alone run away. If Miriam wanted to kill him, she had found her perfect opportunity.

When she turned around, Oliver felt his ragged breathing abruptly stop. Miriam held a small knife. Although it was crudely sheathed, he could that the blade was well-tended by the immaculate state of the handle. As she drew closer to where he was paralyzed, Miriam didn't lift her face from the dagger in her hands.

Trusting her was the wrong decision.

Oliver's head screamed for him to move, but his body was unable to respond. The mixture of fear and exhaustion kept him pinned to where he was collapsed on the ground. Now that Miriam had drawn closer, he could see that the knife was almost identical to the one Sonika had used against him.

"Please," He heard Miriam say softly as she knelt in front of him, "P-Promise me that you won't uhm…hurt me."

"Hurt you?" Oliver parroted slowly as Miriam's words sank into his mind.

"Y-Yes…I…I want you to take this. Sonika gave it to me to defend myself but…I…can't…just can't do it…" Her voice grew quieter as her explanation continued on and she averted her eyes from Oliver. He could have sworn that he heard the tell-tale warble of the voice that preludes tears.

His eyes settled on the knife once more before he gently took it from her hands, his fingertips brushing lightly against her palms. Miriam's hands shot to her chest and Oliver saw a pale pink color alight on her cheeks.

Not only had she provided him with a weapon that the others didn't know about, but she had also betrayed that maybe her trust of him was developing into something even easier to manipulate. He heard the pesky voice of his consciousness chime in that he shouldn't take advantage of a vulnerable girl in this situation.

The voice was silenced as he pulled the blade from its sheath.

As he examined and turned the knife in his palm, he found himself mentally repeating the mantra that had managed to keep him alive for so many years.

Fond memories and kind thoughts didn't help you survive; thievery and lying did.

Surviving this war would be no different. All he had to do was throw away his consciousness – everything that marked him as a soft, easily manipulated human. Instead, he would rely on the darker sides of the human spirit to get him through his ordeal.

It was the only option available to him.

To ensure that he found Yuki and Ryuto, he would be forced to throw away the very kindness that had driven him to being intent on protecting them in the first place.

If it meant that he could see them even just one more time, he would be willing to do it – he would be willing to do anything.

He would survive in order to find his family.

To survive, he would harden his heart.

His evaluation of the knife complete, he slid it back into the sheath and turned once more to the waif-like girl. She was still standing, but she was staring intently at him, obviously waiting for him to say something.

A smile crossed Oliver's lips as he gently ran his hand along the knife's handle.

"Thank you so much Miriam."

His words had an instant impact on the younger girl, causing her to give a vicious bob of her head as a smile broke onto her face. Her expression shifted into happy embarrassment once more as color graced her cheeks before she muttered something about having some rations stored away and scuttling off to the tree once again. Oliver watched her go as his smile dropped slightly, responding to his lingering conscious.

Everything was shaking.

An unsteady moan escaped Oliver's lips as his bleary eyes slowly opened. He was greeted with an unfamiliar, fuzzy face and even more vigorous shaking.

"We don't have time for this!" He heard a gruff voice whisper, "You need to get up now Oliver!"

The use of his name effectively swept away his cloud of exhaustion and confusion as his eyes focused for the first time on the individual in front of him. It took several moments for Oliver's mind to identify the person as Tonio. It took several more moments for his mind to process that his vision was uncertain because Tonio was still vigorously shaking him as he held him aloft by the lapels of his jacket.

"I'm up, I'm up!" Oliver grumbled as he tried to squirm out of Tonio's grasp. His efforts were rewarded by Tonio dropping him unceremoniously back onto the ground. A grunt escaped Oliver's lips as he glared with as much malice as he could muster at the older boy.

"What the hell was that about?!" Oliver asked harshly. Tonio responded by making an urgent shushing motion.

"I don't have time to be gentle right now! We have to go!"

With no further explanation, he turned and crashed into the forest. Oliver's mind was too shocked by current events to take any actions as he continued to stare at the location at which Tonio had disappeared as quickly as he had arrived. Was it possible that he was delusion and this was just some form of waking dream?

CRACK

The sound was so disturbingly easy to identify that Oliver felt his body spring into action before his mind even had a chance to begin issuing orders. By the time his mind supplied him with the words "gunshot" "tree" "pursuers" and "escape", he was already plunging through the forest at maximum speed. He found his hand instinctively lingered on the hilt of the dagger as he continued his dead run in the general direction Tonio had fled.

His pursuers were close enough for him to hear their gunshots, but he couldn't hear their voices, indicating that they weren't dangerously close just yet.

Now that his feet were pounding the ground rhythmically, his mind began to fill in the gaps of what had happened. He remembered that no matter how much he argued, Miriam insisted she keep the first watch and that he attempt to get some sleep. Eventually he reluctantly agreed which caused Miriam to beam widely before she left the clearing, leaving Oliver alone with his thoughts.

Apparently he managed to fall asleep at some point because the next thing he remembered was Tonio shaking him awake.

But where in the world had Tonio come from and where was Miriam?

Both questions were pushed from his mind as he heard a nearby shout. The words were indistinguishable, but he could clearly tell by the tone of voice that the one speaking was a female. The tone was deep and rough indicating that whoever it was, it wasn't Miriam. Oliver felt his grip on the handle of the knife tighten as he tried his best to run in a straight line while also keeping an eye on the general direction of the voice.

Suddenly, there was another voice sounding nearby, this one decidedly male and coming from the opposite direction of the female voice. Oliver's throat constricted in a moment of panic – they had him surrounded.

His only hope was to break through the forest, figure out where his two pursuers were, wound them or impede their progress in some way, and make a break for it. With that goal in mind, his eyes hardened as he picked up his pace. Within seconds, he felt the tell-tale scrape of branches on his skin as he emerged from the forest onto a rutted dirt road. He spun on his heel a moment before his two pursuers crashed from the underbrush.

Oliver could only stare in stunned silence.

It was Leon and Lola, each of them panting hard as they stared at him. Oliver watched as the two of them exchanged a glance before Lola's blue eyes narrowed.

"This isn't time to stop right in the middle of the road Ollie-boy."

With that statement made, she rushed past him and once more into the forest. The shock still held Oliver to the stop as he felt a sharp tugging on his arm. His attention turned to find Leon staring at him with a harsh expression that mirrored the one Lola had made moments before.

"We need to move."

Oliver gathered his senses enough to give a slow nod of his head. The action was greeted with a smile from Leon before he clamped his hand on Oliver's arm and began to drag him in the direction Lola had fled. Although his feet were unsteady, Oliver managed to prevent himself from falling over as Leon dragged him wherever he willed. With his mind momentarily freed from the task of having to navigate, Oliver found his thoughts snagging on a singular question.

Where had they all come from?

If Miriam had been the one to wake him or the one to lead him through the dense forest, it would have made perfect sense – she had been keeping watch after all. However, he had been woken by Tonio and was being led through the forest by Leon. It didn't add up.

The only reason they would all be there was if…

"…they were following me the whole time."

The revelation was so obvious and yet so completely insane that Oliver couldn't help himself as it escaped his mind and pervaded the air. They had been following him the whole time. Additionally, judging by the actions they had taken up to this point, they had been following him with the intention of protecting him.

His head hammered with this revelation, his emotions such a flustered mess that he couldn't consciously separate them out and name them. Instead, they just continued to assault his senses, making his already exhausted body thrum with displeasure.

"Oliver, I need you to pick up your feet. I won't be able to drag you for much longer."

The sound of Leon's voice brought Oliver back to the present as he once more registered the hand gripping his arm. Oliver had to fight back the overwhelming urge to snatch his arm away and demand some answers – why had they been following him? What were they expecting out of him in return? Instead of answering to this dangerously alluring call, he once more gave a muted nod of his head and concentrated on moving his feet as swiftly as possible; he would have time to dwell on this development later.

All sense of time was lost until Oliver heard the blaring sound of a horn.

The sound was ugly and intrusive, but to Oliver's ears it sounded like nothing less than the sweetest clarion call. He felt the pressure on his arm lift as Leon finally allowed the two of them to stop running. The horn signaled the end of their first phase of training. It seemed too good to be true.

"Are we really done?" Oliver asked, his voice sounding obviously worn down by exhaustion, even to his own ears.

"For now," came Leon's ominous reply, "First we have to go back and attend the head-count."

The head-count: it was something Oliver had heard the other kids talk about. From his understanding, it was when all the kids within the training compound were gathered together after a training exercise and counted to see how many remained. Leon had explained that this practice allowed the soldiers to ascertain when they needed to contact the Child Sweepers to kidnap more children.

However, from the way everyone spoke about it – eyes downcast and voices hard and steely – Oliver knew there was something more to it. All Leon would tell him was that he needed to prepare himself to see some gruesome things.

As the two of them walked along, Oliver's mind once more ran through the events that had led him to this point. There was something off about the whole exchange…it took him several minutes of contemplation, but the pieces slowly fell into place.

"You need to get up now Oliver!"

"This isn't time to stop right in the middle of the road Ollie-boy."

"Oliver, I need you to pick up your feet."

Oliver…

How had any of them known his name?

The only person he had told his name to was Miriam.

Oliver was about to demand an answer when Leon pulled up short, causing Oliver to stop abruptly as well.

They had made their way to a concrete building that Oliver already recognized as the place where all their so-called handlers were housed. Already a large crowd of children had gathered and a set of handlers were barking at them to collect themselves into a straight line.

"There are this many people here?" Oliver couldn't help asking as he scanned the crowd of unfamiliar, dirty faces.

"Yeah. There are a number of cabins and buildings filled with children all across this compound. They keep us separated in an attempt to prevent any sort of large-scale action that may lead to a coup."

These guys have a well thought out operation…escape will be more difficult than I thought… Oliver mentally conceded to himself as he took his place in line.

Difficult yes, but not entirely impossible.

There had to be a way out. He was going to find a way out.

As people continued to file in from the woods, Oliver scanned their faces carefully. He watched as Tonio, Sonika, Lola, and even Miriam emerged from the forest. Each time he saw a familiar face, his heart lept in relief no matter how many times he tried to remind himself that he couldn't trust any of them. The safety of those he knew confirmed, he allowed his eyes to scan the faces of the others emerging from the forest.

The only things they all had in common were that they were children and that their clothing looked gritty. Of course it made perfect sense; if the Child Sweepers started kidnapping children that actually had families, people might start to notice. On the other hand, if a couple of street urchins went missing, it was almost a blessing. Things were less likely to be stolen if there were less hungry mouths around.

The flow of children emerging from the forest gradually came to an end as the last of them were forced into a row. This task complete, one of the soldiers emerged from the forest dragging something behind him. Oliver felt Leon tense next to him.

A few seconds later, Oliver understood why.

The soldier was dragging a corpse.

The body looked like a young girl, the remains of a dress still hung on her skeleton-thin frame and her messy blonde hair was plastered to her head via the excessive amounts of blood that had escaped her. Her eyes were large, dilated, and cloudy, making her appear to be something less than human – Oliver was reminded of the dead fish he sometimes saw at market. The entire front of her dress was covered in blood and the clothing was practically torn to shreds.

She had been shot.

She had been shot over and over and over again.

When the soldier reached where the children were standing, he unceremoniously threw the corpse to the ground, resulting in a loud thud. Silence filled the air.

"She failed today's trials," The soldier who had dragged her in intoned in a strong and clear voice, his simple statement portraying his message clearly.

The children made no response.

"You may return to your residence now."

There was a moment where no one moved before the children began to slowly disperse. Oliver could do nothing but stare at where the dead girl lay. He could just as easily end up like her if the soldiers thought that he wasn't living up to standards; if he didn't follow the whims of his handlers, he could seal the fates of himself, Ryuto, and Yuki.

He had to do what the soldiers were telling him to do.

He didn't want to die.

He didn't want to die.

Listen to what they say, and you can live.

Day 1: survival.