They walked quickly through the corridors of the school and past the gate at the entrance. They slowed to a steady pace as they passed the school guard and slipped behind some tall shrubs along the busy street, then broke into a full sprint to the forest behind the school. Xaiden had discovered this gap in the chain link fence when he first started attending this high school and was chased around by some obnoxious seniors. He quickly pushed the memory aside and focused on pulling the rusty metal out of the way as Jax tossed his backpack through and squeezed past. Xaiden may not be as athletic and quick with his fists as the main character in his novel, but he was proud that he'd still been able to outsmart those guys and even form his own band of misfits in the weeks after that incident.
Not many people would venture into these woods, even if it wasn't completely illegal to step foot past this deteriorating fence. History books from the first grade on covered the horrors that these woods contained in increasing detail. They warned of artifacts from past wars, chemical spills, and the ever present chance of walking into a derelict trap. Many had lost their lives trying to satisfy the greed of investors who believed with enough money, they could clean the forest up and use the wasted real estate on something more profitable. After an explosion caused air pollution for the surrounding cities for several years and severely damaged the delicate ecosystem they maintained, the Archon[1] at the time had completely banned all access to the forest. That was over 500 years ago now, and this forest was still the most feared place on the planet.
Getting caught accessing these grounds would be enough for lifetime imprisonment for endangering the community, and Xaiden knew this better than most since his own ancestor had been the one to declare it off limits and entrusted each generation after to uphold this decree with the utmost care. That's exactly why he chose to slip into this forbidden land back then, he knew those guys wouldn't follow him no matter how tough they acted. Xaiden wasn't sure if they ever told on him, but even if they had, no one would believe that a member of the prestigious royal Caelus family would ever cross that line - no matter how estranged that member may be.
Xaiden felt a bit guilty about risking his friend's lives and futures, especially back when he first showed Jax the way through, but desperate times, desperate measures. Still, it'd been a long time since they had needed to use this as an escape. It had soon become a fun adventure and an ironically safe space for them as their gang expanded and they spent their afternoons carefully exploring and mapping the land.
[1] Archon is what the rulers on the planet Zenith are called, similar concept to Emperor, basically supreme world ruler.