Twenty-Five
The boy was lucky. When the dogs came, he was not in his hide. The leaves had not been enough to last him long. Hunger had forced him back into the open, and this time he had gone further than before. So, when the dogs came later that night, rushing through the woods - hungry as lions, vicious as hyenas - Samuel was in sight of the road. And he ran.
Looking back over his shoulder, he could see three of them. In the darkness, with their teeth bared and their hackles raised, they looked like demons, and they moved as easily as ghosts. Samuel sobbed his fear silently as he ran. They were faster than him, he knew that, but where there were cars, there were people. And where there were people, there was hope. Not of help - Samuel Kayembe had seen enough in his short life to know that the people of the world were not interested in helping boys like him. But, as terrifying as the dogs were, they were still dogs. And they were as famished as he was. If the men that followed them did not want to be hunted themselves, they would have to call them off or risk them attacking someone other than their quarry.
Samuel almost tripped on the uneven ground, his battered, beaten, bare feet cut and bloodied by the underbrush. His heart crashed against his rib cage, his blood rushed in his ears. The road was near, but the dogs were nearer. Even in their starvation, they were strong, and they were desperate. They caught up to him like a bird on the breeze, too swift for him to escape. He stumbled and felt the lash of teeth against one ankle. Pain seared his leg and he almost toppled beneath the dog's claws. But the road was so close...
He spurred himself on, adrenaline flooding his muscles, blocking out the pain. He reached the embankment to a chorus of shouts that rose above the cacophony of dogs. He turned to see the men, chasing their quarry. He was reminded suddenly of Josue, his brother, whom he should have kept safe...
His foot caught in a tuft if grass and he fell, bumping down the cutting, slamming onto the tarmac below. The dogs came after him in a stream of teeth, no hesitation, no pause. There was the frantic honking of horns, the screech of brakes. Lights blinded him as he scrambled to get up, body scraped, now, by hard ground as well as teeth. There was a thump and a howl, but he did not look back.
Samuel ran on.
[TBC]