When I reached the top of the ravine, a burst of renewed energy flared through me and I pulled myself up and over, ignoring the ache in my muscles, ignoring the gnawing hunger in my belly.
I dragged myself a few feet, then lay there panting with my face in the dirt. Something crawled along my arm, but I didn’t move. I was used to bugs and things crawling on me in that tiny cell.
I wasn’t in that cell anymore. I’d never be in there again.
I laughed and rolled onto my back, staring through the gaps in the leaves at the sky.
My vision blurred, and a tear spilled down the side of my face. I wiped it away, then took a deep breath and closed my eyes.
Something rustled, but I didn’t feel like moving.
Except when the low groan of one of the Corrupted drifted from over the cliff’s edge, I shot up in an instant.
How the hell was it climbing up?
I crept toward the edge and peered over, my heart stopping when I saw not one, but dozens of them crawling up the side of the gorge.
Most of them were using the vines, and satisfaction curled through me when some of those vines snapped and they fell to the ground below with disturbing thuds.
A lot of those vines were holding, though, so I grabbed the ones nearest me and yanked, trying to pull them from the trees they were wound around, to break them apart.
But they were too thick and I was too weak right now.
All I could do was keep running and hope most of them fell off before they got to the top. I could try kicking them off, but one of them might grab my legs and yank me over. Better to just run.
I turned and left them behind, just as the decaying hand of the first one reached over the edge.
The forest was thicker and quieter up here. Some birds chattered in the trees. Sunlight sprinkled through leaves thatwere starting to change their colors, swaying lazily in a gentle breeze.
I wandered for a while, going deeper and deeper and hoping that these woods went on forever. That I never came upon anyone or anything ever again. Maybe I should build a shelter? But I didn’t know how. What if I could find a cave?
Never in my life had I had so many options available to me, and I didn’t know what to do. What to choose.
I kept walking, looking for something I could eat, when a wave of irritation rippled through me.
There were Corrupted behind me. Following me.
More than one had made it up that ravine, and they were heading this way.
“Damn it,” I cursed, walking faster.
The trees and shrubs started getting denser the farther I went, and I had to constantly push branches out of the way.
I stopped short when I came upon a tree that had a…afacecarved into the bark. Someone had been here before. I lifted my hand and trailed a finger over the curve of its mouth, wondering who’d done this and why. Was it some kind of warning? If it was, I had no clue what it meant.
I left the face behind and kept moving, soon forgetting it until there was another tree with another face. This was one was different. More detailed. It had eyes with long lashes, a nose, long hair.
Was this another warning? Or did someone live around here?
I swept my gaze in a wide arc, but saw nothing except green and brown and orange.
If someone lived here, I hoped they weren’t anything like Hunter and Hayes.
I stepped through a thick line of bushes when a sharp pain twinged in my right foot. I lifted it and looked at the bottom to see what had hurt me.
A huge thorn was embedded in my heel. I pinched it between my thumb and forefinger, slowly pulling it out and flinging it away.
My feet were so dirty and bloody; I wanted to find some water to soak them in.
