Siobhán listened.
Her breathing was heavy and her legs ached from the last series of sprints through the Park Forest. She steadied herself by placing her hands on her knees, and focused on keeping her breaths deep and controlled. The large fir trees provide good protection from line of sight detection, but that goes both ways, and she was sitting duck out here. The trees high dense canopies also restricted sunlight. The result relatively little brush and obstacles on the forest floor. She could move quickly, darting in and out behind the big trees but that cut both ways too.
No matter…Siobhán thought, she was disadvantaged…she was the one being hunted. Time had quickly become her second pursuer…she could not keep up this pace much longer. I can run flat out for another six minutes tops, she thought, and if I staged my sprints…maybe ten minutes. After that, it would be all over…there would be nothing left…easy prey. Ben would have his prize.
Nothing, where was he?
And how did he find me?
Whap?
Bark exploded from the tree next to her.
The concussion of the round hitting the tree tossed her head slightly back, and tiny slivers and particles of the bark mulch slammed into her right ear and skull, and cut across her right cornea. Siobhán winced and pulled back.
Whap! Whap!
More bark flew…and she fell backward, turned and was running again. Siobhán felt heavy and disorientated…only one good eye governed her retreat and she did not trust the limited sense of depth and distance. She stumbled slightly and tried to focus her senses and resources. Find your footing, she counseled…be calm.
Siobhán wiped at her right eye, and it stung fiercely and hurt to open – like sand paper rubbing across her eye. She closed her eye lid tight at the discomfort, felt the immediate effects of being off balance and forced it open quickly. She willed the blurriness to subside, and focussed on her stride and navigating herself away from harm.
Fzing?…Whap!
A round spun past her neck and exploded the stem of a sapling.
Ben was near…she could sense him now.
Her resolve focused and vision cleared…survival raged inside her.
Run Siobhán! she demanded.
*********************
Lawrence Lewis
About Lawrence Lewis
I do a number of things professionally...but most of all and the true purpose of what I do through "my work" is to provide for my family, be a good husband and great father, and try to make a difference as a world citizen...I guess it's not much more complicated than that 🙂