“Fuck.”Rough hands rolled me over.“This is your fault.All we want to do is talk.”
“Just leave me alone!”
I hauled in a lungful of air and screamed.
“Shut up!”
I had to get away.There was no way I could outrun him.Not when everything was spinning wildly around me.And going with him was a terrible idea.
That meant I had to fight.
I tried to grab his hands, to claw at him and stick my fingers in his eyes, but he swatted me away.I lashed out with my feet but didn’t manage to hit anything.
For a few seconds, he didn’t fight back, but then he spat out a string of swear words and the strikes came so quickly and viciously that it was all I could do to weather them.
Darkness crept into the edge of my vision.
Everything hurt, my body a mass of pain.
My limbs were becoming heavy, and I curled into myself and tried to shield my head with my arms, but my muscles grew wearier with every passing second.
“What the hell are you doing?”someone cried.“You’ve made it ten times worse.”
The blows stopped raining down on me, and I tried to concentrate as a buzzing started in my ears.
“I had to stop her, and she wouldn’t listen.”
“You should have let her go!Worse we’d have got was…”
The buzzing intensified.
“...busted my fucking knee.”
“… wasn’t supposed…”
I faded out for a moment, then jerked back into consciousness in time to hear: “We can’t just leave.”
Mumbling.
“...not much choice.If we try to…”
More mumbling.
“It’s best if she…”
I lay still and tried to slow my breathing.If I looked dead, perhaps they’d leave me alone.
I passed out again.
When I opened my eyes, I was on my own.
My entire body throbbed, and the darkness continued to beckon, tempting me to go back to sleep, where nothing would hurt and all would be well.
Instead, I planted my hands on the forest floor and pushed myself upright, a wave of nausea rolling over me as pain like none I’d ever experienced lit up every fiber of my being.
I blinked, my eyes struggling to adjust to the light, and tried to make sense of my surroundings.I was still facing the direction in which I’d tried to flee.
Slowly, I turned on my hands and knees and started crawling back the way I’d come.There was no way I could make it to the trailhead, but if I could just find my backpack, I could use the personal locator beacon to summon help.
