It was a good fucking day.
He must have ran straight through these woods for almost an hour. The distant shouts and barks and sirens had been steadily dying down the further he went, and the blood on his shoes had been caked over by enough dirt and leaves by now that he'd stopped leaving footprints. He ducked and weaved and climbed and jumped and fell and laughed and kept going until his legs gave out, and even then, he was still laughing by the time he hit the ground.
Jeff rolled onto his back and stared up at the canopy of the forest, letting the all-encompassing peace bring his heart rate back down. He was further in than any of them realized. Safe among the quiet buzz of the forest.
With another deep breath to calm his own laughter, Jeff fished in his pockets for a cigarette.