Freedom
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Cover your head and roll! Tobin tells herself, raising her hands and gripping the back of her head as she leaves the moving vehicle. A series of pops sound and Tobin feels the impact of something hitting her hard in her side three times while she’s in the air. Holy fuck, she shot me! Tobin realizes as her right shoulder hits the pavement, jarring her as her wrist slams against the hard surface protecting her head from the ground, making her cry out in pain. She rolls away from the road on a diagonal, feeling the smooth asphalt change into gravel, her left knee catching and sliding as she moves.
The tires have stopped screeching, Tobin doesn’t know where the woman is, but she’s too busy trying to keep her head covered, squeezing her eyes clamped shut as she half slides, half rolls over the gravel. Every rotation makes her groan in pain. Rocks are bouncing up and hitting her in the face and her arms. She feels the knees of her jeans tearing, her hoodie pulling against her neck and tightening around her arms with the force.
Suddenly, she’s on grass and then a slope and she’s no longer rolling but sliding wildly down the slope, moving faster than before as branches of bushes and foliage slap against her. She hits a small tree that sends her pivoting in a different direction. Finally, her momentum slows, allowing her to reach out and grab at the ground, sliding on her stomach, feet first down, grimacing and crying out in pain as she goes over the uneven ground.
She finally stops, out of breath and in whimpering with pain with gasping every exhale, feeling as if she’s bleeding everywhere. Everything hurts. She’s panting in the darkness, suddenly aware the woman is calling for her. She does her best to slow her breathing, trying not to breath so loudly through her nose, her mouth clamped shut, trying to swallow down the panicked sounds of her shuddering exhales. She tries to keep her body as still as possible, but she’s trembling all over.
Tobin has never felt sheer terror as she does now as she attempts to hide from the woman.
“Tobin!” an angry voice yells from above her, “Show yourself!”
The voice seems like it’s off to her right and Tobin takes a risk and slowly raises her head to get a look. She can see the dark silhouette of the small woman, looking down into the foliage. Carefully and ever so slowly, Tobin pulls at the hood of her sweatshirt, thanking God it’s a dark color and praying it would provide some cover as she slips it over her head.
The woman is walking parallel along the road, soon standing directly straight up from where she is, although there’s a distance of about twenty-five from where Tobin has slid down the embankment. Tobin freezes in her position, keeping her head still and up just a bit to see what she’s doing. She’s terrified, breathing through her mouth, exhaling shaky short breaths since it’s quieter than through her nose. She feels like she’s shaking the bushes and plants surrounding her uncontrollable trembling. Don’t come down, don’t come down here, she chants in her mind.
The woman is using the flashlight on her phone to attempt to see but is growing frustrated from the weak light.
“You better be dead down there,” the woman shouts angrily, “’cause if you’re not and when I find you,” she threatens, “you’ll wish you were never born!”
Tobin watches as the shadowy figure retreats, lifting her head higher when she hears the slam of the door and she sees the headlights of her car make a careless U-turn from the lights flashing on the trees and hears the engine or transmission not sounding so great. When the vehicle accelerates, it whines and knocks terribly, but it shoots off back the direction they had been coming from, accelerating faster as it leaves Tobin’s view.
Tobin lets out aloud exhale, her chest bursting from holding it in, now feeling even more pain from her injuries. She lays there for a moment, catching her breath and crying with fear and pain.
It takes her a few minutes to get herself under control. Her mind is been going in ten different directions, but her most overriding thought is getting back to Christen. She needs to know she’s okay. She has to be positive, she doesn’t trust anything the woman said, but the fear still lingers. She needs to know for certain.
Tobin is finally breathing somewhat normal enough to take some calming breaths, her ribs pinching with each inhale and exhale. They’re probably bruised, she notes to herself. She forces herself to just lie there and rest on her belly, leaning her left elbow holding her top half upright. Her right hand is useless and throbbing. She skims the length of her right forearm, praying no bones are sticking through her skin. She doesn’t think so. There’s no blood on her fingers when she lightly runs her hand under the torn sleeve of her hoodie. Her wrist is swollen and there’s a couple of knots on it, but thankfully no blood.
She’s pretty positive her right wrist is broken from hitting the pavement with the skin on her forearm being so tight and the knots and swelling already. It hurts terribly but she realizes it saved her from a serious head injury or even death. Her right shoulder aches, both of her knees feel scraped up as well as her elbows. She lets her hand move to her side, her fingers going under her hoodie and t-shirt, awkwardly twisting and feeling her skin where she felt those three impacts. Nothing feels wet, she doesn’t feel any bullet holes at the three tender spots on her side. She brings her hand back to her mouth, tentatively licking her index finger, she doesn’t taste blood.
Her head hurts but she doesn’t feel concussed. She does feel a cut on her cheek and now tastes the blood that’s dribbling from her nose. Her skin feels tight, like she’s scraped her face somewhere. She doesn’t have time to think about it. She needs to start moving. She doesn’t want to be near this area when the woman comes back.
She knows she needs to follow the direction her car went and go back to the main road. The main road is her best chance to find someone to help her or she’ll just walk north all the way back into civilization. She’s pretty certain if she goes south, she’ll be in the woods for a long time. She’s scared to walk along the road, not knowing when the woman will appear and that would be the worst case scenario- her flagging down a car for help and it turns out to be the crazy woman. She’s not super keen on waiting it out here in the dark woods overnight and waiting for daylight, especially since it’s getting a bit cooler out and she’s not sure about her injuries. Not to mention the smoke she’s breathing in.
The smell of smoke is in the air and although the sun hasn’t set, it’s getting dark. It’s eerie out here. The sky with this hazy orangish tint with a lower level of grey smoke. She coughs and it makes her wince. Her ribs are sore and coughing somehow pulls at her right shoulder. Maybe she dislocated it against the road.
She kneels up, thankful she’s not dizzy, so she’s pretty sure she doesn’t have a concussion. Carefully she places her right hand into her hoodie pocket to help hold her wrist in place. She blinks rapidly, letting her eyes adjust to her surroundings. Even with this weird lighting, it’s pretty bright so she can see the outlines of the trees and shadows. It’s not going to be easy, walking on this steep angle. She’ll have to be very careful of her footing as she goes. She down to her left and sees how the slope steepens and doesn’t seem to end. She doesn’t want to go any lower than she is, she needs to be certain she’s following the road and doesn’t want to risk straying off into the forest.
The forest is alive with noises, frogs and insects and branches cracking with larger animals moving the woods. Tobin isn’t sure what really lives out here, probably some deer and foxes and coyotes, maybe some cougars. She doesn’t think she’s heard of bears being this close to the city. She doesn’t want to find out. She chuckles dryly at her ignorance of what lives out here, making her feel like a city girl. Still, she thinks she’ll grab a stick if she can find one in the dark. Doesn’t hurt to have something to defend herself and maybe it will help keep herself upright as she walks.
Slowly she stands and begins to move.
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