Elation, salvation, happiness, satisfaction, the feeling of victory.
That's what she felt when she saw not so far away the first vague features of buildings.
After such a long time in isolation, she was having the time of her life at this moment. She might have been an introvert, but it didn't mean she didn't appreciate the achievements of people like food, shower, clothes or bandages.
To talk with oneself for a long time even if it's to keep somewhat sane in such a situation isn't exactly delightful either. Though it felt like forever having spoken to someone. The last two days after the storm left her with a very dry mouth which she could moister through some fruits or the salty sea water. Even more to add to her elation it seemed to be not some village but a harbor town. Though that was only a side-thought.
Her main goal was to reach the town before her legs gave out. With her fiery resolve she walked with a steady pace in order not to worsen her injuries. As she got closer her previous happiness seemed to slowly fade away. At first she thought her mind played her a sick joke but after some time she realized something pretty odd. The people she was coming near were backing away from her. And she didn't even go that near them nor say something. Her smiling face turned into a frown.
"Judging from their reaction it seems I'm in a far worse condition than I thought. But ain't it pretty cold to run away from an injured? And here I thought that people were nicer," she thought as she got closer to the town. Meanwhile she found a good bench so she didn't have to lean on any trees to hold her own which was good as she found a road made of cobblestones.
With some clumsy movements of her own she successfully got onto the road and marched towards the town. Meanwhile her mind was busy thinking about the suspicious behavior of the people.
"I've got a bad feeling about that. Or maybe I'm overreacting," she pondered, "Though one shouldn't ignore the first gut feeling. Something's definitely going on."
Just at the last sentence she reached the entrance and walked forwards looking for a place where one could probably give her some bandages or food. Her suspicions got deeper. The townspeople were either ignorant of her or purposely got out of her way.
"Maybe I'm not looking like a superstar right now but that doesn't mean that they can avoid me," thought she darkly, her frown deepening though she quickly replaced it with a blank face. She tried to straighten her posture as much as she could but she pain in her legs and feet made it difficult for her so she resigned to the half-slumped stance she managed to achieve.
"Not that we want to scare them completely," she thought sarcastically.
During the walk the half-dead on her feet woman noted how the buildings seemed to have been built out of stone with wooden balconies, door-frames and window-stills.
At some point while busy eyeing the town, she reached a large fountain with crystal clear water. Upon seeing it, she gleefully smiled which most likely came off as some wicked smile yet she didn't care.
"At last some clear water I can drink from or wash my wounds," thought she and sped up to it.
Without any further notice she sat down, much to her legs' relief, and took a handful of water to drink. To her surprise she saw her own reflection which was much clearer than that of the sea water that didn't even show her but only her shadow.
A dirtied round face, cheeks covered in sand, her flat a bit pointy nose smeared with mud, the forehead, a wonderful place for acne, was now decorated with dirt and slime that made her fringe stick like glue, her round chin had some grass on it, her normally well-maintained thin oval lips were dried up and cracked, on her face could be found in some places either grass or leaves and her dark brown hair was in complete disarray with leaves and mud protruding like rocks in the mountains making it almost black. The only disturbing factor were her eyes. Usually she had brown eyes, yet for some reason she could see a lighter tone reminding her of caramel. She shook off her thoughts and proceeded to wash her face and wounds. She hummed slightly under her nose as she got in a remarkably better mood though her body was still hurting very much.
When she finished, she nodded in approval at her reflection.
"I might not be Madonna, but it still is much better than a minute ago," she muttered she under her nose. She didn't quite know yet what to do with the rags of her ripped jeans she used as her bandages because she didn't want to use them again for fear of an infection. If she already didn't have any. It was not easy to say as her feet simply felt numb and painfully sore.
With her feet, legs, face and other places relatively cleaned, she sat on the edge of the fountain. The sun came out making the temperature go up so she untied her hoodie, her MP4 player with earphones carefully tucked in a pocket inside her hoodie( she really loved that piece of cloth) and placed it next to her to dry up a bit. A light breeze caressed her cheeks which gave a nice feeling of warmth.
"The nature may be bitch. And not an obedient one at that. Though it sure has some good moments," she said loudly with a content smile. She lay there on her back with her legs resting from the horrendous walk, looking at the sky with occasional glances towards the people.
"So the attitude didn't change much," she knitted her eyebrows, a scowl appearing on her face.
"Whatever. I need to get some food and bandages first."
She looked around for the umpteenth time, in hope that she would find some friendly looking residents that wouldn't mind helping her.
Then, the woman noted a loud shout that came from one of the buildings behind the fountain, probably a tavern. It was a female shriek, an shrilling one at that. It didn't take long and a young girl with ragged clothes, in her teens, probably 15 or 16, ran towards the fountain but got caught in the middle of her way by some roughish-looking gangsters that had a not-so-pleased expression on their faces. The woman quickly sat up and observed the action from the opposite side of the fountain.
"That doesn't look good. Better hide somewhere," she muttered as she crouched down, her hand leaning on the stone ground. From this position, she could make out a gang of 6 bulky man and a crying fragile-looking girl whose arm was being held by one of them. Thanks to the water that came from the fountain, the wounded woman could easier hide and watch them.
At some point the girl winced in pain as the grip got harder.
"That's got to hurt," sympathized she, having been lately an expert at being in pain.
The man on the other side began to shout in annoyance: "You wrench, stupid bitch, thought you could ran away?!"
He was about to punch her head when a hand stopped him. A lean blonde man in a smart business suit bend over the petrified girl and in a sweet voice with a content smile said to her:
"Well, well, what do we have here, it's not nice to ran away from the master. Additionally losing the precious collar that I went the trouble buying one specifically for you.
Even more it's not nice to hurt the said master. See this wound," he pointed towards the small scratch on his left cheek.
"Considering what I have been through I say someone's a crybaby here," thought the woman behind the fountain just as she tried to get herself smaller so no one would see her. On instinct she grabbed her hoodie and tied it around her waist in case the 'situation' escalated thus she had to make a quick escape.
The man continued on with his ramblings about "Not what I thought when I bought you", his voice turning a sharp cold tone sending the nearby people who hid in the houses or taverns altogether with the gang, the girl and the woman a shiver down their spine. The woman pondered about the collar, he mentioned, taking a note of the loosely hanging chains around her wrists and ankles. It didn't take a mastermind to realize what was going about.
"A slave and a master," she concluded inwardly wondering what to do.
"For now I should hide here, not a good idea drawing attention. Though they are most likely more intent on the girl than anything."
Her gaze intensified on the small frame of said teen. She felt utmost pity for her.
"Not that I can help right now. More than help I would worsen her situation," she sighed lastly. There was no way she was able to overpower 7 man in her condition. She had to resign herself to watching as the young girl got more and more horrified, tears flowing down like flood. Her conscience gnawed on her mind yet there was no other way.
"Heck, I have never been one to help, even back home I was hesitant. I know I'm the worst and I'll have to live with that. Man, I have really never been one with a golden heart," she mumbled under her nose with a scowl while silently watching them when the blonde pulled on the red hair of the girl, making the watching woman grimace at the sight. Just as she wanted to close her eyes and be over it, the blonde man took a gun out of his jacket and pointed at the trembling girl.
"Now, you've been a bad girl. And you know what we do with bad girls?"
An evil wicked smile appeared on his face while it spread onto the fellow man. Like a band of wolves cornering a new-born calf.
Just as he wanted to pull the trigger, the woman shouted.
Her last thought being: "I must be really that stupid."
A loud shout echoed throughout the area, even louder than the girl's previous shriek. Her head began to feel pressure from the shouting, but continued on. This brought attention to her spot which she escaped from by crawling on the ground nearing towards the back of the gang. She stopped shouting altogether and tried to quickly stand up onto her wobbly feet. This didn't get unnoticed by the others. Everything was like a minute ago with the hard grip on the girl's hair who in turn grabbed the hand of the blonde to lessen the pain, though their heads were directed at her.
All the attention was currently on her. As she stood there trying to minimalize her trembling, she noted a visible sign of confusion on the faces of everyone present. She managed to gather all her strength and put on a straight smile, which instead of charming, looked more strained. Out of habit she took a long breath to calm her nerves and walked towards the man with the ever-present smile. She stopped exactly 2 feet away from the blonde, who raised an eyebrow and was about to shout angrily when she put up a palm in front of him.
"Mister, excuse me but do you know where the nearest pharmacy is? I'm not very familiar with this place," she asked in a as much as she could friendly tone. Inwardly she cursed herself for all the idiocy and stupidity that from all things she asked about that, yet given that she had acted on impulse she knew that nothing better would have come up in her mind.
"Or maybe some place with food for free? I have been looking and looking and looking yet cannot find any decent place. Well, I don't want to judge but the people here don't seem very friendly at all. I have been for some time and no one even asked if anything was wrong or if everything is fine," she continued rambling and complaining. She could literally feel the pressure and gazes from the townspeople with the all-round question that even the men in front of her plagued: "Is she suicidal?"
Even she asked herself that but came with no answer. During her stay behind the fountain she had considered grabbing the girl and trying to escape taking the road though that wouldn't end good as they could have caught up to them. But an idea had struck her. "Maybe cause confusion, grab the girl and run into some people. The gangsters would have to go past each person which would slow them down for a bit. Problem is that we're alone and everyone is hiding behind benches or in the houses."
She had seen them hide the moment the girl ran towards the fountain.
"If there is none here, then we can run to the tavern. The better as I won't have enough strength to outrun them and any obstacle will slow them down. Now I have to grab the girl and run to the nearest tavern."
She knew that the plan had lots of holes and it was far from perfect, but that was the only thing she came up with during the time between hiding, shouting and currently rambling about anything but nothing altogether.
It must have been a minute since she began her "act". A visible vain popped up and pulsed on the head of the guy with the smart suit. His face colored red in anger and cut her off shouting: "Now stop with this shit or I'm gonna shoot your head off."
At that she froze.
The man certainly wasn't joking. Tears well up in her eyes and as theatrically as she could, began trembling and begging the man to spare her life. Which wasn't difficult because the panic in her had made her shake even before her shouting yet had tried to suppress this feeling.
She had reminded herself of the storm: "Nothing's going to be better if I keep panicking. I need to stay as calm and focused as I can."
That was the second promise she made to herself since arriving, the first being to smile at all costs.
Not that it helped her currently.
The panic was a natural thing that would cease with just some words.
She saw the widespread annoyance on the gangster's feature and noticed the firm grip on the red hair of the girl, who was absolutely confused as well as shocked by the whole ordeal. The woman grabbed the man's hand, thus freeing the girl, and wailed: "Please, please spare this life. I only have one. For such a fine young manly handsome man you have to let me go, please."
She placed herself between the girl and the blonde and took the girl's arm. The other man were still surrounding them. She chose to let go of the blonde's hand. This time she began to run from one to another grinning like a madwoman while giving the compliments.
"Oh you wonderful beautiful beings that are the manliest of all, " she praised them.
In her mind she was having a massive panic attack as she slowly ran out of any ideas. She tried remembering any literature that would help her with any praises though only came up with bad Shakespearian coupled with her own wordings that could have been a lot better.
For now she tried making her way towards the nearest place with people. Which would be the tavern that the girl had ran out. She hoped that they wouldn't notice the way she made towards the tavern but the hope died very quickly when the blonde took out his gun and pointed at them. Two bulky man coming up to both of their side.
"Now play time's over you bitches!"
Just when he yet again tried to pull the trigger the woman bit him in his hand as she had previously came up to him with her lame "act", pushed him onto the ground and ran to the tavern with the girl in tow.
It took 3 seconds for the others to recover from the surprise, so currently they were dangerously coming closer. On instinct she pulled the smaller female in front of her so she wouldn't get grabbed by them firstly if they caught them.
Thankfully they reached the entrance and in an also mad dash ran to the counter. The 18-year old noticed a staircase behind it. In the next minutes they rushed through one corridor to another with 6 bulky man and 1 blonde on their heels. At one point the smaller girl tucked on the hem of her shirt while pointing to one of the rooms. They turned left and ended in a western styled room, that the wounded woman took as a dead end. The red head though led her to the window and showed a very narrow passage.
The ledges of the window were long enough for them to step on and go down onto the ground. The first to go was the smaller one who while climbing down placed her foot onto the protruding lamp on the other side and jumped down. The process was repeated by the older woman who in the mean time had barricaded the door with a table and two chairs. The moment she placed her second foot onto the ground the door busted open. Without wasting time the two got through the narrow passage and onto what seemed like the main road with lots of people. Though they didn't stop. They raced all the way down to the docks with the younger teen navigating the older. On the way the 18-year old realized the bloody footprints she left behind.
"Oh, shit" she swore loudly enough for the younger to hear. Then turned to the red head.
"We don't have time. They are gonna find us if we don't do something about the footprints," she gasped halfway visibly out of breath from all the running. The other one nodded in response also out of breath leading them to the docks.
It seemed that their adrenaline and stress levels wouldn't go down for the next good hours.