Estelle knew knew she had to flee Myanmar. The military junta had just announced it would introduce conscription to bolster its forces against the myriad armed groups challenging its power.
The former government worker was terrified she would be forced to fight.
She is among thousands who have decided to leave their homes since the mandatory military service law was announced in February, and then came into effect in April.
Some risked their lives to trek through jungles and ford rivers into neighbouring countries without documentation because the military has made it increasingly difficult to leave through formal channels.
Others fled to areas under the control of armed groups fighting against the military, or have joined these groups themselves.
The mass exodus is taking place as the military regime faces its most serious crisis since it took power in a 2021 coup which sparked widespread protests.
The street demonstrations, which were met with a brutal crackdown, morphed into an armed resistance that has seen newer anti-coup forces join with many of Myanmar's autonomy-seeking ethnic armed groups.
The United Nations Human Rights Office says more than 5,000 people have been killed by the military since the coup.
Estelle joined a countrywide Civil Disobedience Movement after the coup and faced international travel curbs as a result.
She and a friend paid the equivalent of about US$280 each in Myanmar's kyat currency to travel by car from the city of Mawlamyine to the Thai border and then hired a smuggler to take them across the Moei River.
They took the risk despite the fact that at 36, Estelle falls outside the age range for conscription.
The junta said it planned to call up 5,000 people by the end of April and 60,000 by the end of the year. Men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 are eligible, with the age limit extending to 45 for men and 35 for women in the case of specialists like doctors.
For Catherine, whose name has also been changed for security reasons, the writing is on the wall.
"Military conscription laws in other countries are designed to protect and defend their nations against external threats, but in our country, this law is intended to force us to kill our own people."
Several media have said that local officials serving under the military's administration were drawing up lists of women who were eligible to be called up.
An analysis of military pamphlets and pro-military media channels conducted by the Burma Affairs and Conflict Study advocacy group found that women were likely to be called up in August.
Women were at the forefront of resistance to the 2021 coup and have also joined armed groups fighting the military. Around one-fifth of the 20,000 political prisoners in Myanmar are female, according to a local rights group.
Although Rohingya Muslims are not eligible for conscription under the law because they are denied citizenship, the military has conscripted more than 1,000 Rohingya men and boys since February using methods including abduction, threats and false promises of citizenship, according to a Human Rights Watch report.
The International Organisation for Migration in Thailand said it had seen a steady increase in people crossing the border from Myanmar, including a nearly 30 per cent increase between January and February.
But it's not just military conscription that some women fear. In the eastern Shan State, three ethnic armed groups have announced mandatory service policies in recent months and two organisations have conscripted women.
Fear of being conscripted drove 16-year-old Christine, from her home in Lashio township in February after one of the armed groups told her grandmother that Christine and her siblings would have to serve in its forces.
They fled the next day and Christine headed to Malaysia. She spoke of hiding in the back of a cargo truck and walking through mountains at night.
She is now in Kuala Lumpur where she is terrified of being arrested by immigration officials.
"I don't have many difficulties as long as I don't leave my room."
Estelle also found it hard to get by in Thailand because she did not enter legally.
But she has no intention of going home while the junta remains in power.
The writers are from Reuters