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branches. “My foot’s busted. Can you test it for us?”
    “You mean try climbing it? Now? Are you serious?”
    “If we test it now, we can find out if it’s safe. If it is, then we’ll come back later today. Make this our base camp until we figure out what to do next, and where to go. We also need to find some fresh water. Maybe we can spot a river or lake from the tree.”
    “Fine, but I’m wearing a skirt, so don’t look.” I gingerly put my foot on a low branch and hoist myself up. The branch holds my weight easily. “This might actually work.” I grab hold of another branch above me and pull myself up faster.
    “Can you see anything from up there?”
    I gaze out into the endless green landscape. “Just more trees.” I pull myself up higher. Luckily, the branches remain sturdy.
    David is walking around the tree. “Looks good. I guess we know where we’ll be spending the night.” He sticks one torch into the earth, and then the other, so that they stand upright. “I better get up there too. See if it can hold both our weights. Can you help me?”
    I’m about to climb down and help him up, but right as David finishes speaking, what I’ve been dreading all along finally happens.
    A robed figure steps out from the trees, just twenty paces from us.
    It’s not the one who attacked the animal earlier today. This one is even larger, and he’s wearing a scowling metal mask daubed with orange war paint.
    There’s nowhere to go.
    David and I are trapped.
    “Keep the hell away!” David immediately calls out, grabbing both of our torches. I clamber down from the tree, and he stands protectively in front of me. With shaking hands, I take my torch back from him. “Don’t come near us! I mean it.”
    The figure doesn’t answer. He just keeps watching us from behind his implacable mask.
    I risk a glance behind me and flinch. Two boys with painted faces lean against other trees. Where did they come from? I hear more noises in the distance. Footsteps approaching. We’re being surrounded.
    I turn back to the masked figure, panicked. “Who are you?” I call out. “What do you want with us?” My voice is close to breaking. “I don’t even belong here!”
    I can hear the boys behind us moving closer. They could kill us right now. Everything starts becoming dreamlike and floaty as the blood rushes from my head.
    A muffled voice suddenly speaks from behind the metal mask. It’s deep. Ominous. But it definitely belongs to a teenage boy. “We own you.”
    “Wh-what?” I stutter.
    “You’re in our sector. We found you. That means we own you.”
    The boy’s companions continue moving toward us. More figures emerge from the trees. Twelve in total. All with painted faces and black robes.
    “I’ve got a knife!” David lies, sounding pretty convincing. He swings his torch wildly. “If you touch me or the girl, I’ll stab you. Don’t mess with us.”
    “We’re taking both of you to see the Monk,” the masked boy continues, ignoring David completely.
    I sputter, “I’m not going anywhere with—”
    Right then, one of the other boys lunges forward and grabs my arm. He knocks the torch right out of it. I try to swat his hand away, but his jagged fingernails bite angry crescents into my flesh through my blouse. I cry out in pain, but he doesn’t loosen his grasp, even when David tries to push him away with his torch.
    “Quit struggling!” the robed figure hisses at me as another boy reaches us. I start screaming and fighting. But they keep grabbing at me, their robes flapping. I feel like I’m being battered by ocean waves, and I fight against the tide.
    “Get off me!” I scream.
    Figures surround David too, as he curses and tries to punch at them. I see one of them rip the torch from his hands and extinguish it.
    “The Monk will tell us what to do with you,” the boy in the metal mask intones loudly. And then, clapping his hands together, he addresses the others: “Quick! Take our new slaves to