AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I smiled.
If there was a train, then there were tracks. And tracks always led to civilization. I just had to find them.
My feet stung after miles of heading in what I fucking prayed was the right direction. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t mark my progression through the forest to avoid going in circles. If I did, Drake would be able to follow my path. And I was workinghardto keep that concealed. Doubling back to take a new route every mile or so. Walking through streams when I could. On top of logs.
I was painfully aware of how slow I was going. Entirely unable to run or even walk at a decent pace. Every step felt like wading through water. Or mud.
I stopped being hungry long before my escape and I knew that wasn’t good. I could go at least three weeks without food and stay alive, but not without sacrificing energy and strength. The mushrooms and berries of the forest were tempting, but I wouldn’t go down like the dude from Into the Wild. Nope.
That wasn’t the way to go.
So I settled for sips of stream water, hoping I didn’t get sick from it, shivering at the glacial temperature made colder by the rapidly declining temp as day twisted into night.
My eyes fought to close, legs twin pillars of purestrain.
Nearly falling, I caught myself on the trunk of a tree, the jarring blow of the rough bark enough to rattle my consciousness back to the present. Away from the jaws of exhaustion.
If only the damned train would go by again, I could orient myself. See if I was going the right way, still. It felt like the right way, but everything looked the same.
A dark shape crouched far ahead, quivering between two thick-trucked redwoods and I froze, half tucked behind the tree I’d run into. My breath fogged in the air, obstructing my view, and I clamped my lips shut.
Gooseflesh rose on my arms.
Oh shit.
I patted the tatters of the t-shirt hanging from my body, searching uselessly for the long bit of metal tweezer no longer in my hand. I scanned the dark forest floor, but no metal glinted in the moonlight.
When I looked up again, the large shape stared back at me with reflective eyes.
I turned to run, my foot catching hard on a tree root that sent me whipping to the ground. My temple connected with hard stone, and I blinked slow, a ringing in my ears as the moon darkened… darkened… until there was nothing.
* * *
I cameto with a pounding in my head, itchy dried blood tight over my forehead and down my cheek. A weak groan left my lips when I pushed myself to sitting, many fingers and toes numb from the chill in the evening air.
Evening? How long had I been out?
Orange light stained the ground. My straining eyes struggled to make sense of my surroundings, blinking through a gnawing sensation of danger biting at the back of my thoughts.
I pushed up from the cold earth, teeth chattering as I found my footing again.
Dried blood flaked away from my skin as I felt the new injury just above my temple, prodding the area to assess the damage. My pinched eyes flew open at the memory of what sent me tripping in the dark.
I whirled around, a shaky laugh falling from my lips at the moss covered boulder squatting fifteen yards away between two tall redwoods. I shook my head, wincing when that shook loose another shooting pain through my temple.
Now which fucking way was it?
“Guys,” I asked, holding my breath as I awaited a reply from the madness in the voices of my guys. “I could use a little help.”
In answer to my call, a train’s horn sounded, loud enough to vibrate in my rib cage.
I darted through the trees, rushing toward the sound despite the protest of my body. Without caring about covering my tracks. I wasn’t going to lose it this time. No fucking way.
“Come on, bitch,” I urged myself, Ignoring the burn in my limbs. The pounding in my head. The desperate,desperateneed for rest. The darkness consumed it all, spreading fresh adrenaline like a salve over my entire being.
I pushed my legs harder. Faster. Letting the sensation of flight as I soared over the earth, catapulting over fallen logs and darting around trees to provide me with the only fuel I needed to keep going.
Flashing images of my guys stood in the forest all around me, watching as I soared past them. Vanishing as soon as I turned my head.
