text: [Themes: family friendly, family friendly]
  
  You duck out of hiding, and clamber over a set of tree roots to the place where you, Stacy, and Katherine were before you split up. You take another moment to scan the woods. Nobody is in sight, neither your teammates, nor the opposition.
  
  "Hi!" says Corey from behind you, making you jump. Again.
  
  "Could you stop doing that?" you ask.
  
  "Doing what?"
  
  You look around. "Where's Stacy?"
  
  "I saw her hiding over there," points Corey, indicating deeper in the swamp. You start to cautiously head in the direction he's pointing in. After a moment, you hear voices
  
  "I'm convinced that was cheating," Stacy says. Rats. She must have been captured. You and Alexsis usually play with the rules that someone who's tagged out has to go to jail. Someone who's in can tag someone who's out back into the game, but once you're tagged back in, you have to run back to your own territory before you can rejoin the game.
  
  "It was perfectly legal." Jonathan's voice. "Come on, let's go to jail. Finn, you head back to the flag and tell Liam what happened."
  
  "Roger," says Finn, and starts making her way through the woods off to the right. Jonathan and Stacy head off to the left.
  
  They're splitting up. That means you'll only have the opportunity to follow one of them. You'd hate to pass up on the chance to find out where they're keeping their flag, but you're not sure you'd be able to successfully take it without Stacy's help.
  
  > follow Jonathan and Stacy to jail
  "We're following Jonathan," you whisper to Corey. "And then we'll tag Stacy back in." He nods, and the two of you start following them.
  
  Jonathan and Stacy are easy to follow, because they aren't bothering to be quiet; Jonathan is in his own territory, and Stacy is already out. You also don't have to worry about being quiet as much, because the pair of them are making enough noise to provide decent cover for you and Corey.
  
  You follow Jonathan's voice deeper and deeper into the swamp. By the time he says "Here we are", you're clinging to tree roots to avoid getting soaked everywhere below the knees. The ground is littered with puddles.
  
  You peer through the trees, trying to get as good a look as possible without being spotted. The jail seems to be a relatively dry patch in between the roots of a particularly large tree. The rest of the tree is surrounded by and open and mucky area of puddles.
  
  Ordinarily, you'd have one person be a distraction while the other snuck up from behind, but that might prove difficult to do here, given how open (and mucky) the area is. There's two of you, and only one Jonathan, so both coming out and trying to divide his attention between the two of you might work.
  
  > distract Jonathan while Corey tries to tag Stacy in
  Best to stick with a strategy you're familiar with. Besides, if you distract Jonathan well enough, Corey won't need any cover. "I'm going to go distract him," you whisper. "Then, you come out and tag Stacy in."
  
  Corey nods at you. He makes a finger-walking motion towards the tree. He's going to try and sneak up closer to the tree, you think. Good idea. "I'll wait a bit before I come out so you have time to get there," you whisper. Corey nods, and heads off, much more quickly and quietly than you'd have expected.
  
  You cross the overlapping tree roots carefully until you get into position. You wait for about a minute, you don't want to make your move before Corey is ready. Once you're sure he's had enough time, you step out into the open, waving cheerfully. "Hi Jonathan!"
  
  "Oh, hello!" Stacy waves.
  
  Jonathan jumps slightly—he hadn't heard you coming. He starts edging towards you, away from the tree, slowly so as not to leave them unguarded, but steadily. You see Corey sneak out of the bushes, so quietly that even Stacy doesn't notice him. Jonathan moves closer towards you, feeling more confident that he can protect Stacy if you make a run for it. Perfect, you think. Of course, this does mean he's now getting closer and closer to you. You should be ready to bolt once Corey tags Stacy.
  
  It's Stacy who breaks the balance, whirling around suddenly upon hearing Corey. Unfortunately, Jonathan hears her turn, and whips around. Corey leaps into action, tagging Stacy, and then bolting into the woods. "Run!" he yells.
  
  You don't need to be told twice. Stacy may have a free walk back to your side, but you and Corey sure don't. You bolt off after Corey.
  
  Jonathan sprints after you, and he's faster than you are. You can tell by the noise through the trees that he's gaining on you and Corey. You gauge your position in the woods, and it's not looking good. You don't think you can make it back to your side before he tags you.
  
  Normally, things would seem pretty grim for you about now. But there's two of you. If you split up, he'll be forced to chase after one of you, and the other is sure to get away.
  
  But there's a lot to consider before to split up on a whim. You might never find each other in time to make an attack on the flag.
  
  > split up
  You'll worry about survival now, and the flag later. "Corey, we're splitting up!" you yell. He nods, and veers off to the left. You veer off to the right, before making for the stream at an angle.
  
  You're panting so heavily can't tell if Jonathan is chasing you, or Corey. You suppose he must be chasing Corey, or he'd have tagged you out by now. Or maybe your splitting up just made him hesitate, and he's on your tail again now.
  
  You force your breathing down so you can hear. Nothing but the sound of your own feet.
  
  You're hesitant to stop running, but you're also hesitant to pass out from overexertion. You slow down to a jog, and then a walk, and then stop moving altogether. Nobody tags you, so that's a good sign. You scan the woods around you, and Jonathan is nowhere in sight.
  
  Of course, neither are Stacy and Corey.
  
  Now you need to focus on getting back together. Splitting up was a spur-of-the-moment decision, you have no idea where Stacy and Corey will go in an attempt to meet up again.
  
  That said, there are a couple places that are more likely than others. For one thing, Stacy needs to go back to the brook to tag back into the game. If you head over there, you might be able to intercept her. It's also reasonable to expect that they might try and head to where the three of you were separated in the first place.
  
  > go to the stream
  You don't know if anyone will think to go back to where you split up, but you do know that Stacy absolutely 100% needs to go back to the brook to tag back in after getting out of jail. If you hurry, you might be able to catch her before she heads back into the woods. You jog over to the brook, and head downstream to get closer to where Stacy might have run to.
  
  You walk along the edge of the brook. "Stacy?" you call in a hoarse whisper.
  
  Noises come through the trees, and you cautiously head towards them. "Stacy?"
  
  Jonathan leaps out from hiding, and tags you. "Gotcha!"
  
  Stacy staggers out a moment after him. When she sees you, her face falls. "Not you too?"
  
  "What happened?" you ask.
  
  Stacy's face breaks into a scowl. "Jonathan cheated."
  
  Jonathan laughs. "What I did was in no way cheating."
  
  "He followed me back to the brook, and then tagged me once I crossed back over," she grumbles.
  
  Jonathan grins. "Then you showed up looking for her. Two for one. Come on, jail's this way."
  
  "I know the way," complains Stacy.
  
  Jail is boring, but at least there's other people here. You, Stacy, and Jonathan are in the middle of a very animated conversation about whether or not the last star wars movie was totally irredeemable, when cheers of victory begin coming from the brook. Unfortunately, they're Alexsis's cheers, not your teammate's.
  
  Jonathan stands up. "Good game." The four of you start to head back to the brook. Maybe I can persuade Alexsis to do a best out of three, you think.