I heard yelling ahead; the man couldn’t be too deep into the woods. Whatever he was screaming at seemed to be getting closer to him, for his voice grew more urgent with every sound.

I didn’t dare yell out for him. Instead, I walked down a path in the woods carefully, noticing anything that moved.

Soon, I saw him, leaning against a tree, with blood running down his neck from his ears. His face was distorted with pain, but slowly, he opened his eyes and his expression returned to normal. He wiped the blood on his neck away with his arm.

I walked out of my hiding spot behind some bushes. “Are you okay?”

He jumped with surprise. “Yes.”

“What happened? Your ears..,” I began.

“I’m fine.”

He stood up, one hand on the tree to keep his balance. “What about you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re bleeding too,” he said, walking over to me.

“Oh yeah, that’s from the handcuffs.”

“Here,” he said, ripping off a strip of cloth from his frayed shirt and handing it to me. “Wrap that up, then let’s go.”