It wasn't supposed to happen like this. Isaac had a plan; she had their path all picked out so he and Aubrey could carry Auntie Mel out, and they were all going to find refuge somewhere in the forests. She didn't know who the other guy was, but she saw he had a big gun with him. He could have protected them, helped them get out of the town safely. But in the end, none of that mattered. Emery could hardly keep up with what Aubrey's mom was saying. There was something too surreal about the absolute certainty with which she spoke, and it made her terrified. She looked to Aubrey, panicking as she tried to think of how to avoid the situation, and noticed the anguish apparent in his visage. No, no, no. They still had a chance. The mysterious man with the gun can help them. Aubrey wouldn't look like that unless… unless… her stomach dropped at the realization.

Emery couldn't quite remember what happened next. All she knew was the man, the mysterious man whose identity still remained unknown to them, was leading them somewhere. Right across the town square, she thought he mentioned. If it were any other day, if she hadn't been so frenetic, she could have offered a different path. One that avoided dragging them into the line of fire. But as it were, she could hardly think straight. Her instincts took over and her feet moved on its own, going by her intrinsic knowledge of the town more than anything. The streets passed her by in a blur, and she was lucky Isaac took hold of her when he did, or she would have likely taken a fall and endangered everyone by now. 

She didn't want to cry—not when she knew everything was a hundred times worse for the blonde—but it was hard to keep her frazzled emotions in check. The sound of gunshots echoed across town, keeping her on high alert, and it was never ending. Emery tried to cover her ears with her hands, but it did little to drown out the ringing of gunfire. To make matters worse, the mystery man had just engaged two Crucibellian soldiers in combat. Despite him luring them away from where the three of them hid, they were still within their sights. She tried not to look as he took the first one down, tried to ignore the other one's cries, but she found herself in a state of shock. Emery could only look on in horror, and she shrank behind her two companions when the mysterious man returned to speak with them, afraid to get too close to him. 

Again, the man led the way, taking them through the town square. For once, she was glad that she was too out of it to pay attention to the chaos unfolding there. She barely registered when Isaac asked about a hidden path, but she surprised herself with an immediate answer: a rarely trodden path wedged between thickets. It ran parallel to the lake and forked in the middle, its leftmost path leading straight to the northern woods. With the Crucible forces roaming about the island, she couldn't be certain that they wouldn't come across anyone there, but it was their best chance. [b]"Over there,"[/b] Emery pointed the way to Isaac and Aubrey and stuck close to them, still frightened to be near the white-haired man.