'I'm never going to make it' Caroline thought as she ran down the alleyway, her footsteps echoing off the stone walls around her.
Turning sharply around a corner, she ran towards the edge of town, her goal was to get to the shore and hide in the reeds until the soldiers passed her, but the soldiers, from the fort she just escaped from, were gaining on her. She could hear them yelling at her.
"You'll never get away" one of them said.
Her lungs were burning as she ran through the busy streets of Boston. Weaving in and out of the crowds, she took a second to look behind her; she didn't see the soldiers anymore. Caroline slowed to a walk as she blended into a group of people as they made their way down the street. She drew a deep breath, trying to ease her burning lungs. After all, she did just run about a mile being chased by soldiers, not to mention the stays she wore under her dress restricted her lungs from taking in a full breath of air.
She glances behind her one more time double checking no one was following her. She darted behind a building and made her way to the shore. Walking along the shore, she finally had an opportunity to look at the letter she stole from the Southgate Fort.
Just as she was unfolding the letter someone grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. As she was spun around she saw the three soldiers that were chasing her.
"Thought you could slip past us?" The soldier that held her growled.
She gasped and hid the letter behind her, tucking it into her dress pocket. "Release me!" Caroline yelled and struggled to get away, but the soldier only gripped tighter. "Release me this instant!"
"Oh no you're coming with us. We have orders." The soldier that was gripping her shoulders, spun her back around and tied her hands together, shoving her forward, the soldier called out to the others to follow them.
Caroline started walking in the direction she was pushed. The ground was uneven and rocky; with the solider pushing her Caroline tripped and fell more than once. Caroline kept looking round for a chance to escape, but no such chance arrived. Following the shoreline the soldiers kept shoving Caroline further away from the crowded streets.
"Where are you taking me?" Caroline asked over her shoulder after they have been walking for a few minutes.
"Just a little ways further" the soldier responded with a sinister grin.
He guided her to the back side of a deserted barn. She looked back at the busy streets over a half mile away. No one will hear her if she screamed for help. There was no way she could outrun the soldiers even on smooth terrain she didn't have a chance.
The soldier took out, what looked to be a scarf from his pocket and began to put it around Caroline's eyes.
"What are you doing?" She asked as she tried to duck away. "Aren't you taking me back to the fort, to have me stand trial for trespassing?"
"No, we're not. Our captain gave us orders to silence you." One of them replied, making motions with his finger across his throat. The soldier holding the scarf added. "We'll make it quick, you won't suffer. Much"
Her eyes went wide with horror. Her heart was racing as she looked around for somebody to help her. But there was no one. She was alone. She was going to die alone.
Caroline felt panic rising up in her as the soldier attempted to wrap the blindfold across her eyes again and Caroline ducked away. The soldier brought his hand swiftly across her face, nearly making her fall to the ground. Caroline regained her balance, looked him straight in the eyes and spat in the soldiers face.
"Come here and hold her still!" He yelled to the other two soldiers as he wiped the spit from his face.
The soldiers came up and held her immobile as he wrapped the scarf around her head, blocking out her sight. She felt bile rise in her throat as the soldier tied a knot at the back of her head. She thought about making a run for it. But with her hands tied behind her back and blindfolded, she wouldn't make it very far before the soldiers would catch her again.
'So this is how it's was going to end.' Caroline thought. 'Just twenty-two years of life, that's it'.
This would be the last day she would ever have. She was thankful her mother wasn't alive to see this. Blindfolded and up against a wall about to be executed.
"You have been found guilty of trespassing into a military fort. With the intent of spying" she heard a gruff voice say.
'Ha, found guilty' she thought. 'There was no trial, even if there was I would still be found guilty.' Caroline did was she was being accused of. But what she did wasn't deserving of death. 'The letter must be more valuable than I first realized if the captain thought I should be killed for having stolen it'.
"You are hereby sentences to death by firing squad, may God have mercy on your soul."
That snapped Caroline's thoughts back to the present. She drew a deep breath, trying to prevent herself from falling to her knees and begging for her life. She may be young and scared, but she wouldn't give the soldiers the satisfaction of her begging.
She held her head up and concentrated on her breathing, which was hard to do knowing that there were three men with their muskets aimed at her, ready to end her life.
"On my signal men, ready, aim..."
"Mother, I have failed you," she said silently, feeling a wave of sorrow wash over her she bowed her head in defeat.
She waited for the sound of the guns firing, for the bullets to rip apart her chest and end her life. But there was no sound but the frantic beating of her heart. Then she heard something heavy land in front of her. Confused at what was happening, she backed further up against the barn wall.
"What the h…?" She heard the solider yell out before a gun fired right next to her.
At the sound of the gunshot Caroline's life flashed before her eyes. She felt her heart break as she recalled the promise she made her mother that she would no longer be able to fulfill.
Her ears ringing, from the gun shot, not able to hear anything she dropped to her knees. Her breathing was ragged as she waited for the pain, waited for death to overtake her. But it never came. She lifted her head up, her breathing was shallow. The ringing in her ears started to subside.
"How am I not dead?" She whispered struggling to get to her feet when suddenly two strong hands pulled her up away from the wall and removed her blindfold. She fought against the hold on her, but the hands didn't let go. When she looked at the man holding her she had to crane her neck back to try to see his face. He was much taller than she was almost by a foot. He was wearing a white hood; she could barely see his face from under it. Caroline realized it wasn't a soldier that held her and she stopped fighting against him. He turned her around and untied her hands, she looked about her and saw the soldiers that just minutes ago taking aim to execute her, were now lying dead on the ground in puddles of blood. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the bodies. She rubbed her wrists to try and relieve the pain where the rope cut into her flesh. She looked back at the man in front of her.
"You saved my life." She said in a shaky voice, looking up into his eyes. So much was going through her mind at that moment, she didn't know if she should run from this man or not. No more than five minutes ago she was saying goodbye to the world, taking her last breath, only to be saved by a complete stranger a stranger, who killed three soldiers in just seconds.
