Over the Wall: A Collection of Short Stories (NaNoWriMo 2014)

Day 4: Can't Stop

Note: This is more of a suspense piece than the other stories and it's another work in progress so please don't hold it against me. If you have any feedback please comment (I appreciate comments as long as their constructive so I can use it to get better, which is probably the definition of contructive criticism) or vote. Thank you for reading!

She couldn’t stop running. Her feet hurt so much and the wind was cutting against her skin and there were so many holes in the ground and she was tired, so so tired, but she couldn’t stop running. They were gaining.

She stumbled and fell onto the ground, not for the first time. She got off and threw off her remaining shoe. It had been falling off anyways. She started running again. She hadn’t heard them in a while but she knew they were there. They were always there. She was so tired of running.

In the distance she could see the forest’s edge where it led into a road. Finally civilization. She ran more and more until she reached it. When she did she slowed and turned all around to see if she could spot them. There was no one around. Of course, that didn’t mean they weren’t coming. She had to make a decision: keep running in the forest where she had no way to tell where she was going but had the cover of the trees or go the way of the road where she would have no cover other than the edge of the forest, which wasn’t much, but would know that she would eventually find some kind of civilization. But how long could that take? She decided to walk on the edge of the forest by the road. That would do for now.

She ignored her bleeding feet and started walking, trying to smooth down her hair some and fix what was left of her clothes. Her captors along with the trees had not been kind to them. Nothing had been kind to her in quite a long time.

The trees were Redwoods, and quite large, so they provided a nice cover. She was still very aware that she was still fairly easy to see if someone looked closer enough but it was the price of not wanting to die in the woods. It was down to which way she wanted to die.

Was that what her life had come to? Not long ago, such a little time ago, she had been happy, carefree. She had had a life and people who loved her. How had she turned from that happy woman to a terrified woman in a forest who knows where trying to decide which way she would rather die? It was too much to bear.

To calm herself while she walked she decided to think of only those good times instead of what might be going on around her. She would stay calm and that would keep her alive. She would stay alive and she would stay free. If she was those two things she would find a way to deal with everything else.

She thought of her wedding. Her beautiful wedding. It had been a fall wedding in her hometown, which was really small, and had taken place outside under all the colorful leaves. John had looked so handsome in his tux and she had never felt more beautiful. Her dress had been blush not white with the bodice fitting like a glove with the skirt flowing down and fluttering while she walked. It had been small with only close family members and friends. Maybe fifty people in all, if even. The guests had sat in fancified folding chairs with an almost makeshift aisle in the middle. It was only makeshift because it was just a space in between the chairs without a carpet or whatever fancy aisles were covered with.

The reception had been held in a hall nearby that was covered with fancy drapes that made the whole room comfortable that made the room with its floor to ceiling windows look like a tent but a really warm tent. The guests carried in their chairs from the ceremony (they were light, she promised) and put them around whatever table they liked to each then either danced or lounged on the large pillows scattered about. It was like a huge Mad Hatter tea party of sorts. It was perfect for her and John. They had been hippies a long time ago so most of the guests were former hippies as well so they loved the wedding. She loved the wedding. She missed it. She missed them all. John and the kids and their friends and everyone else.

By this point she was walking in semi-darkness. The sun had been going down for a while until now, when she couldn’t see what was in front of her anymore other than lumpy shapes. But she kept going.

Soon she couldn’t see at all. She stumbled a little farther from the road and into a clearing where she fell down in exhaustion. She rolled around for a while until she was finally able to fall into a deep deep sleep.

As she was asleep, she dreamed. Obviously as that is what you do when you sleep after running and walking all day. She couldn’t remember what she dreamed about later but she remembered the feelings. Oh so many feelings. They were feelings of happiness and content and sadness and mourning and she accepted them all. She would think later that maybe it was her whole life, minus the last months, rehashing itself with all its feelings in her mind and calming her down for once. She was calm and alive and almost free and that’s all she needed.

Then all those feelings were gone. She was suddenly awake as she was moved from her sleeping place rather roughly and she tried to scream but it was stifled by whatever they had put over her mouth. She struggled but they held her limbs together. She tried and tried but in a way, she knew it was over. It was over. She was no longer happy and she was no longer free and she may not stay alive very long. She was done.

They took her back to the road by where they had set up floodlights. That explained how they had found her. There was no one around to see the lights and question the group’s morals. She struggled some more but they did not let go. She struggled and struggled but they didn’t let go and she began to cry. They covered her eyes and threw her in the back of their car. She heard the door shut and she cried even farther. She just wanted to go home.

As they started the car she was able to shake off whatever was covering her mouth. Taking a deep breath she screamed as loudly as she could. Then it all went black.