She couldn't breathe. Fire burned in her lungs. Her footsteps were now automatic, leading her forward. How long she had been running, she didn't know. All she knew is that she wanted to put as much distance as possible between them. As she ran, the metal handcuffs clinked against her body. Her shoulder ached from where she twisted them from behind her body to the front. She had dislocated it in her escape, but she doubted that it had popped back in. But there was no time to treat it at the moment. So, despite how loud the pain in her body screamed, she kept running.
The foliage was becoming thicker. She reasoned that she was getting pretty deep into the woods. If she could find some shelter, she'd consider stopping. Her lungs were all too ready to agree.
The first few nights of the police searching would be the toughest to evade. They would bring dogs, copters, comb the area. Stopping now might mean capture. There was no way to tell how many miles she had run. Five? Ten? It wouldn't take them long to cover that little space. She had tried to cover her tracks, but in a sprint, and being pursued, going back to check could have resulted in capture. No, she thought, she had done the right thing. Distance is good.
She slowed her pace. She was past tired. Looking up in the sky, she guessed that it had to be around 7. Had she really been running for that long? It was only around 5, maybe 5:15, when she escaped. Maybe she had put more distance between them than she had thought. Would the dogs get this far in a night? She doubted it, but wouldn't bet on it. The most important thing now would be to find shelter before the animals and bugs came out to eat her alive.
How long had it been since she passed the lake? Which direction was it in? In her haste, she didn't even think about directions, but as far as she knew, she had run in a straight line. She would always been able to turn around and retrace her steps if she had to. But what waited for her out there? Jail? Lethal injection?
Her foot caught in some vines and she landed on her knee. Pain shot up her leg and she gritted her teeth to keep from crying out. For a moment, she considered just laying down right there. Her lungs begged her to stop. Her heart beat so quickly, so hard, she could feel it in her neck. Her shoulder was in serious pain. She grabbed ahold of a fallen branch and put it between her teeth. This was going to be excruiating, but a scream would alert others to her prescence. She took deep gulps of air, trying to ready herself, then grabbed ahold of her arm and shoved it back into place. Seering pain racked her nervous system, but she fought the urge to scream. The pain subsided quickly, leaving only a dull ache and relief in its place.
She turned around to untangle her foot. A metallic handle rose up from the ground, mostly covered by fallen leaves and foliage. She grabbed a hold it and yanked. It opened with a loud, grinding screech. A trap door? All the way out here? She stared into the darkness for a moment, debating whether she wanted to enter. It is shelter, she reasoned. She had to get out of the woods. It was probably an old bomb shelter. Or a pit of snakes. Well, whatever it turned out to be, it got her out of the open and offered a brief respite.
She eased her legs onto the ladder, leaving the door open so she could still navigate by sunlight. She stepped down, one foot after the other, until she found hard ground.
It was filthy inside. If it was a bomb shelter, it looked like the bomb had exploded inside instead of out. That, or someone had ransacked the place. It was cluttered with everything from baskets to an old bed to farming equipment. A great place to hide, she thought, but not a great place to be found. If they tracked her to this...clusterfuck...she would be a sitting duck.
She found a small electric latern and clicked it on. It offered hardly any light, but it would be suffient enough for the night. She returned to the trap door and closed it. She stood for a moment looking at the bed, wondering if it would be better, cleaner, to sleep on the floor. She kicked the bed, all too prepared to see roaches scurry from under it, but there were none. Resigning, she set the latern down next to the bed and laid down. Her body weakened and exhausted, it only took her minutes to fall asleep.