SHORT FLASHBACK:

…"I said stop." David grabbed the wire attached to the thick iron ring around her neck.

She widened her eyes in shock and feared for what he might do.

"Please, the police will arrive any moment now. They will take you to the hospital where they can take care of you." David explained.

She didn't need to go to the hospital. She wanted to reach Suburbia before tomorrow morning.

A car came around the corner. She recognized the car from pictures Doctor Hall had once showed her. He said that the police were good men, but the man holding her said they were going to take her to the hospital. She refused to go there. She placed her hand on his, making him retrieve his.

"Don't touch me! You're diseased!" he called out afraid of getting infected and stepped back.

The moment he let go of her was the moment she ran away. As fast as she could…

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I own nothing except this particular storyline. So there, no one's gonna see me in court.

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CHAPTER 4: CHASED AND LOST

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The policeman chased her. The driver's mate rolled down his window and called to her: "Halt!"

She didn't listen out of fear to be taken to the hospital. It would slow down her journey so she kept running, taking a quick look at the map in her mind. Only a few more feet and she would enter a forest.

There it was! She could already see it.

"Step on it, man! We're gonna lose her if she enters the woods."

"You wanna drive?" the driver asked annoyed by his partner.

"No need for it now, is it? She's already in. Stop the car, Alex. I'll follow her."

"I'm right behind you!"

Both man stepped out of the car and ran into the forest in the hope of even finding the girl. This was the forest known for it's darkness, even in daylight.

After several minutes of running and searching without having any trace of the pale girl, the police-men gave up and returned to their car.

"Dammit." Alex hit the car with his fist.

"Relax, man. Do you have any idea how big this forest is? We'll just drive around it and pick her up wherever she comes out." his partner suggested, thinking it was a good idea.

"And how do you know where she's gonna come out?"

"I don't, that's why we call for back-up."

"I don't know, I mean, she didn't really do anything wrong." Alex tried.

"Didn't you see how pale she was? The woman who called could be right. What if she really has a disease? I sure don't want to be infected with that. Therefore we will all be better off, knowing she's behind plastic and surrounded by doctors, if you know what I mean."

"She could really run for a sick person, Tim. Ever thought about that?" Alex pointed out, then started exaggerating the whole situation...just in case… "Being that pale isn't human, if you catch my drift."

"…Sooo…?" Tim persuaded Alex to please tell on, because he didn't get it.

"If we catch her, and she is what I think she is, we'll be rich."

"And what is she, according to you?" Tim had a hard time following his partner.

"You know, something from up above." Alex said.

"Oh please. She ain't no friggin' alien, Alex. Get that thought out of your head."

"Fine." Alex sighed, thinking his idea about the girl was still pretty neat. "We'll go back and talk to the people who saw her, see if they know more. But we cannot risk a remotely diseased person running around, so we must warn surrounding villages to keep their eyes open, agreed?"

"Agreed."

-

She kept running as if she was being hunted by monsters. It was difficult to see where she was going because the many trees keeping the sunlight from getting in their realm.

Of course the most predictable thing happened. Especially now she ran through darkness without paying much attention to the obstacles in front of her, never mind she couldn't really see them because of the speed she ran with. Because of fear for what was behind her, she ran right into a thick branch in front of her, making her bounce back and fall on the floor. She sat up fast and wrapped both her arms around her ribs, trying to catch her breath which got knocked out of her when she hit the branch. It was so painful, she groaned and a tear slid unwillingly down her cheek. She barely noticed it and was dimly aware of the bright light which entered the forest not too far from where she sat. She breathed heavily, concentrating on slowing it down. It took several seconds but she finally succeeded. She could still feel the pain, but not as much as it started with.

She tried focus on the source of the light and saw it was coming out of an opening in the forest. But how was this possible? Her map showed her she would be in the forest much longer than this if she wanted to go to Suburbia! She must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, but she couldn't go back. It was much too dark to see where she took the wrong direction. The map only showed her the way to go to get to Suburbia, no more. And now that she was off track, the map was no use anymore.

She was lost. She tried not to panic. She had to find some other way to get to Edward. But what way was there?

Though the pain of hitting the branch and the fall afterwards was still pretty hard to handle, she managed to get up and walking. After a while the pain disappeared little by little as she walked out of the forest and on the street once again.

The houses here were different from what she had seen back where she met David. Here they were much bigger and detached. Some of them were stores, others were bars.

Again she saw lots of people, but these weren't really regarding her as weird. It made her wonder, but it was very reassuring. She simply kept walking, not knowing where she was going.

-

She could already admire a few stars and saw lesser people on the streets. They had all disappeared into their homes. The only ones she did see, had just returned from work. Then she saw a group of teenagers walking across the street. They obviously saw her too, because they came her way.