There was a very good reason for why she was running through the woods. There was a reason that she was only wearing a tank top and her favorite jeans; barefoot with her hair whipping around her face in the end of summer. There was a reason for why she had her hand cradling her arm to her body, hoping that her wrist wasn't broken - just minutely fractured. There was a reason for why her heart was beating out of her chest and her lungs were on fire and her legs had lost any feeling they ever had in them.

The reason was her boyfriend. Well, ex-boyfriend now. He didn't really take the breakup too well.

Why did they break up? It might have something to do with the sex that he was having with their neighbor, Jackie. Which lead to the screaming match, which then lead to him grabbing her arm and throwing her against the wall of the kitchen resulting in her landing pretty much on her wrist. Then he tried to beat her into submission. So she did the reasonable thing and defended herself; it wasn't her fault that she had a mean right hook for a girl her size. After he figured out what hit him, he grabbed a knife and she ran out the door for her life.

She was leaving behind a trail that she thought was a mile wide, but she couldn't stop. She had to keep moving. She felt like he was gaining on her with every step that she took and the fear of him catching her was the only thing that was keeping her moving. Keep going. Keep moving. Get somewhere with people; get somewhere where you can hide. Road. ROAD.

She was halfway through the right lane when she realized she was on asphalt. She didn't know what the name of the road was or which direction it was going, but it was a road and that was a miracle in and of itself. She ran back to the shoulder and then along it waiting for a car to come by. There was always a car that came by, right? That's how it happened in all the movies. It was just a matter of waiting.

But she was so tired of running...

Shadows. There were shadows in front of her, which was odd because the moon was non existent in the sky and the shadows were too pronounced for moonlight shadows. Car lights, you idiot. Of course, someone was behind her. She whipped around and threw her hands in the air, flailing them like a crazy person and yelled. She prayed, for the first time in a long time for the driver to stop.

The horn blared, but the truck in front of her stopped and she jogged to the driver's side. He didn't look like any of Luke's friends, so she figured he was safe. She looked at him with wide, scared eyes.

He was driving to clear his head. The truck he owned was old, about to rust through on the bottom, but he needed to spend his money on more important things at the moment, like paying his bills on his tiny apartment while he looked for a job. Obviously driving wasn't the best option because he would eventually need to replenish the gas, but he needed to get out of that place for a while. Just to feel the wind in his hair and to just lose himself in the roads.

He was doing a pretty good job of that until he heard the yelling that came from right in front of him and pulled him out of his reverie. He slammed on the brakes and was met with the sight of a young woman. She was ragged, her hair was a tangled mess and her eyes were wide with fear. It was then that he noticed that there wasn't any color in her face, save for the flush of her cheeks from the hard run she was on. She was dressed in a tank top and a pair of dark wash jeans that hugged her legs quite nicely. As she jogged over to the driver's side door, he noticed she was barefoot, now that was odd.

"Help me," was all that she could pant out.

Her body was hunched over and she looked as though she might vomit if she had to run again. Her arms were covered in little scratches that were now red, raised and angry looking, as though she had been running through the woods for an extended period of time. Her left arm was clutched to her body, and her hand hung at an odd angle. He was about to drive away, but she looked up at him with those big, scared eyes and he found himself saying, "Get in."

She looked taken aback, but ran around to the passenger's side door. He helped her open it, and she climbed into the cab awkwardly. Once she was situated, he told her, "We're going to a hospital to get that checked out."

"No," She said in a panicked shout and started hyperventilating. "No, no hospitals."

"Woah, alright, take it easy. No hospitals. I know a guy, he can look at you. Take a deep breath kid," he tried to calm her, but the results were marginal at best. He shifted the truck into gear and she crawled into the space between the footwell and the dash. It seemed to calm her down a bit, so he let her. After a bit of silence he asked her quietly, "So kiddo, do you have a name?"

She looked at him with distrust evident in her eyes, so he tried something different. "What are you running from?" Again, nothing but distrust. He tried one more time. "How old are you, kiddo?"

"...Twenty two," She said with a puzzled look on her face. Her voice was soft and a little ragged, but still rich and musical. He glanced down at her and smiled softly, then looked back at the road.

"Well, I'm thirty, which still makes you a kiddo to me. So that'll be your name until you give me another one."

They rode in silence for a long time before she spoke again. It was without prompting and that threw him enough to listen to the question. "What should I call you?" Her voice was softer now, and really he barely heard her over the roar of the engine in his decrepit truck.

"Call me Gabe," he said with a smirk, his eyes still on the road. They rode again in silence until he pulled up to the house they needed to visit in leu of a hospital and he put the truck in park, then shut off the ignition. He stopped for a second trying to figure out what he would say to the cranky old man inside, when she spoke.

"Call me Sam," she told him. She wasn't looking at him; she was staring at her knees, instead.

"Alright, Sam," Gabe said quietly. "Let's go wake up the crankiest man on the face of the Earth." He opened the door and climbed out of the cab of the truck and waited for the slam of her door before he shut his own. They walked together up the small, rickety staircase to the front door. Gabe took a deep breath and knocked.