"Run!!" Leyla yelled, as the shots rang out behind the group of fugitives.
"Don't just stand there!!"she screamed again.
"For the gods' sake! MOVE!!" she shrieks at the bunch of frightened girls.
"I'm tired. I don't want to! Maybe they just want us to stop!" said one.
"Fine! Stay behind and see what kind of a 'greeting' they give you." she states coldly as she and the rest of the girls keep moving at as fast a pace as their tender living will alow.
The defiant and complaining girl breaks off from the group, and sets off back in the direction from whence they came with a haughty air. The trees rustle ominously as she stalks off.
As they keep moving, they hear the report of guns, and a shriek of terror and pain, then nothing.
"I knew something like this was gonna happen. Damn cows. Now they are going to go into shock on me." Leyla mutters under her breath disgustedly.
They stop for a few moments to catch their breath, and for Leyla to check on the general well-being of the 6 remaining girls. She can almost see their frightened features in the dim moonlight under the trees.
"What happened? Is she alright? Did they shoot her?" One of the younger, more naive ones whimpers.
"Chrissy, I'm sorry to tell you, but YES they probably shot her, YES it was her own damn fault, and NO she is probably not effing alright." Leyla gruffly tells the younger girl,
whose eyes are now brimming with tears.
"None of you try any more funny crap unless you want to end up like Cathy!" Leyla says, finally saying the complaining girl's name, and they gasp, almost shocked she had the audacity to mention her name.
"What's going to happen to us?" Chrissy asks, voice cracking in an attempt to hold back her tears.
The rest of them chorus and whine along similar lines, some with looks of utter despair, others with bewilderment, and a few with defiance. It was the defiance Leyla played to.
"If you listen to what I say and move quickly and keep SILENT, we might make it to a safe haven ALIVE." Leyla says, in exasperation.
The grumbles continue for a minute before one of the older, more sensible girls, Annie, stands up and tells the others "Would you all just climb out of your holes of self-pity and buck up?
DO YOU WANT TO DIE? Just shut the hell up and listen to Leyla! She might actually know what she's doing!!" Turning to Leyla, She says, "Now, what could I help you with to get this group of pampered pansies to wherever the hell we're going?"
"Thank you, Annie. Now, what we will need to do first is take off ANY clothes that will hinder you moving swiftly. For example, those damn things they call "petticoats". To hell with modesty,
ladies, would you rather die or show a little leg? And that WAS a rhetorical question, Gina!", she sighs, seeing the not-so-bright girl's hand start to shoot up.
"Well, that won't be a problem for me!!" shouts Rita. Rita, considered by all the hoity-toity girls and their mothers to be somewhat of a flirt, vagabond, and all-around tramp just because she refused to wear the abominations called petticoats and corsets, has no such qualms about removing undergarments of the former said kind, because she isn't wearing any!
Leyla is not wearing those accursed things either, her and Rita being thick as thieves and friends of the closest kind. A private joke between Leyla and Rita is that if the mothers of their snobby classmates knew what the pair had gotten up to before coming to the Academy, they would fair swoon at the knowing.
Rolling her eyes inwardly, she curses the stupid 'School Board' who decided to make these old-fashioned clothing atrocities a required school dress code item. The school administration gave her and Rita no end of crap about their refusal to comply and wear them. More than a few hours of menial school chores were served by the two 'delinquents'.
Shocks of dismay meet these statements, but as the sounds of the chase get closer, they cast aside inbred instincts of modesty and hastily rip off their petticoats and try their bests to remove their corsets in a swift manner.
"Now then, now that that is behind us, move your prissy derrieres and march!!" Leyla once again shouts.
They set off again, with a much renewed energy as a result of their short respite.
Hours later, as the sun is starting to peek its head over the tip of the horizon, Leyla finally calls a halt to the weary company.