They kept crawling in the grass, heads down, although Cate secretly wondered if they were equally as obvious as they would have been walking, but she didn’t say so. A voice in her head told her that crawling was as naïve as a baby covering its eyes with its chubby hands and expecting to be hidden from sight. When they came to a fence, Jack indicated for her to climb through, which she did, thankful for the long grass to obscure them at least slightly from view.

But there was no barn or farmhouse for them to seek sanctuary in, and her heart sank as she surveyed the land around them.

“There’s a ditch down there,” Jack said. “It might be the best we can get.”

She nodded and followed him, her hands stinging from being used like feet on the ground, palms red-raw already from connecting over and over again with grass, stones and dirt. And her knees were numb as she focused on each movement, moving as quickly as she could despite her discomfort.

The shooting became more intense then, going from irregular pops to a constant barrage of shots, and she stared down into the ditch, her and Jack like two animals frozen in place, surveying the field.

The ditch may have been fine to hide in a day earlier, but the rain had turned it to mud, and there was at least an inch of water for them to sit in. But it would obscure them from view, and she knew that was the only thing that truly mattered. It was hide or die, and a little bit of mud wasn’t going to kill them.

“I’m sorry,” Jack muttered.

“Don’t be, it’s not your fault,” she replied, trying not to sound too disheartened. “If it keeps us hidden, then it’ll be worth the wet. I’ll go first.”

She shimmied down, the muck up to her ankles and squelching as she braced herself against the wet cold. As a nurse, she knew the repercussions of their decision; they could end up with horrible skin infections from their feet being submerged in mud all day, and Jack was terribly susceptible to infection, but she couldn’t see they had any other option.

Jack tucked in beside her, moving closer, tentatively as if he wasn’t sure of her reaction, but she did the same, pressing against him and holding out the blanket again. The edges of it were covered in mud now, but it was still their best bet at staying warm.

Rain started to fall again then, and they both huddled down lower, using the blanket as a shield from the wet like a tent canopy above them. Cate shut her eyes and prayed it wouldn’t last long, as her teeth started a determined chatter that she had no chance of putting an end to.