Over the course of the next hour, the hunters and the herd played cat and mouse. They would approach and the herd will pick up speed, never managing to stop. It wasn't hard to work out what the plan was, we had a stand of trees to our back, an impenetrable barrier in our bare feet. The grass was soft and luxurious but I didn't fancy having to run through the fallen sticks and bark of the small stand of trees. Holly for her part, stayed near the front of the herd and as was my custom, I stayed nearby. A number of zebras had drifted close to the small copse, testing the ground and checking for means of escape while the more experienced zebras watched idly.
To me it looked like they had the right idea and I assumed that all the older zebra knew the path. I took a step towards the trees and only barely heard Holly take a sharp intake of breath. I turned and locked eyes and with the smallest of movements, she shook her head. Puzzled, I watched as the girls, took tender careful steps into the trees, treading slowly and deliberately as they experimented on the rough ground. Every now and again, a girl would yelp and lift her bare foot as a twig or stick dug into the sole of her feet. It looked like slow painful going but if the men rushed us, they had a good head start - one I'd never catch up on.
By now, the new girl, Emily, was almost out of sight, her black and white stripes making her almost disappear in the shadows cast by the trees. If the men chased us now, she was almost guaranteed to get away. As she explored, the wrist bands for the remaining zebras turned red one by one. For once, no one seemed to mind.