"Guess I didn't give your boyfriend enough credit, Tally- wa."

"Maybe if you bothered to remember that he was your boyfriend too, you'd …" Something shifted in the trees ahead, and as her words faded, Tally heard the snap of a bowstring. She threw herself to one side as the arrow struck the tree, letting out a buzz like a shock-stick and covering the trunk in a web of flickering light.

She scrambled away, rolling to a spot where two trees' branches wound around each other. Squeezing into a narrow crook between them, she said, "What's the plan now, Boss?"

"The plan is we kick their asses, Tally-wa," Shay chided softly. "We're special. They got in the first whack, but they're still just random." Another bowstring snapped and Shay let out a grunt, which was followed by the sound of footsteps sprinting through the brush.

The sound of more bowstrings sent Tally to the ground, but the arrows whipped off into the distance where Shay had retreated. Jittering shadows flickered through the forest, followed by the sounds of electrical discharge.

"Missed again," Shay chuckled to herself.

Tally swallowed, trying to listen through the frantic pounding of her heart, cursing the fact that the Cutters hadn't bothered to bring sneak suits, or throwing weapons, or hardly anything Tally could use right now. All she had was her cutting knife, fingernails, special reflexes, and muscles.

The embarrassing thing was, she'd gotten turned around somehow. Was she really hidden behind these trees? Or was an attacker looking straight at her, calmly notching another arrow to take her down?

Tally glanced up to try to read the stars, but branches broke the sky into unreadable patterns. She waited, trying to take slow, steadying breaths. If they hadn't fired at her again, she must be out of sight.

But should she run? Or sit tight?