I must have fallen over during the night, because when I woke up I was on my side with my legs bent under me and my right calf screaming with pain. My head was throbbing and I was sweating through my clothes. I looked around, expecting to see Pony and Johnny on the dirt around me but was met instead by a thick canvas of bushes and shrubs. I remembered that I had left the church behind in the night and started for home.
I struggled to sit up. What the hell was wrong with me? I was athletic; certainly walking a few miles should not have worn me out like this. I saw that my hands were covered with scratches and remembered the bushwhacking I had done the previous night. It was then that I remembered the light I had been following. I looked frantically around. How had I possibly seen a light? It seemed in the daylight that the brush was far too thick to have let any kind of light shine through. What was worse, I had no idea which direction I had been walking. After sleeping, everything was all turned around.
I wished I had thought of bringing a Pepsi with me, I was so thirsty. I wondered what Pony and Johnny did when they woke up and found me gone. Had they found my letter? I wondered if Pony was angry at me for leaving. It seemed to me that both Darry and Soda were angry with me but I couldn't fathom why. My head was spinning and I struggled to focus.
"OK," I said out loud, and startled myself.
I knew I needed to get moving, to find a road. I had no idea what time it was but the sun seemed high in the sky and I guessed it might be late morning, at least. The air was chilly, however, which puzzled me since I was sweating. In fact, my clothes were soaked with sweat, which only made the cool air that much more difficult to handle.
Just then I heard a train whistle in the distance. My ears perked up at the sound and I recalled how just hours ago I had figured that the next time I heard a train whistle it would be from my bed at home. I dragged myself up off the ground and for some reason I thought it made the most sense to walk toward the train tracks. I followed the sound as it slowly faded. I stumbled along, seemingly scraping against every element of thorned plant life along the way. I cursed like I had never cursed before, in ways that would have made Dallas Winston proud, and my parents roll over in their graves. At one point I caught my ankle on a stealthy root and twisted it hard as I came down full force onto my wrists. My head caught the corner of a rock embedded in the dirt as I fell, and I had the breath entirely knocked out of me.
"SHIT!" I yelled, as I reached up to feel blood coming from the cut on my head. I realized that now, along with the burning in my calf from the cut, my throbbing head, and inexplicable sweating, I had twisted my ankle, maybe even broken it, it hurt that much.
I just lay where I had landed and cried. I thought: I was supposed to be home by now. And then: I should have just stayed with Pony and Johnny.
Yet here I was, lying on the ground, aching, scratched, bleeding, lost, and starving.
It was then I remembered the baloney and bread. I reached down into my pocket and fished it out. It was smooshed, warm, disgusting, but I gagged it down. The baloney was salty and only made me realize how thirsty I really was. My tongue felt like sandpaper in my mouth. I swallowed my last bite and sat there, surrounded by this new mess that I had created.
I was lost. I had never had that feeling before, of truly having absolutely NO idea where I was. I had never even asked what town the church was in. I had figured that we weren't that far from Tulsa, but maybe I had actually really fallen asleep on the train. Maybe we had been traveling for hours and now I was lost in the woods of Arkansas, or Texas. For the first time I felt fear.
On top of everything else, I was realizing that something was really wrong with me. I had had aches and pains before, and headaches, but this was different. My head was throbbing so much it hurt to think. My legs were telling my brain that they could not manage another step. And although it was cool – cold, even, I couldn't stop sweating. And shivering. The shivering was new. I lay down and pulled myself into fetal position, hoping that I would wake up to find Pony and Johnny on the floor beside me, or Darry cooking breakfast in the kitchen and Soda torturing me to get up.
What I did wake up to was a rain, and a cold one at that. The drops came down like bullets, each one delivering it's own personal message of insult and agony. I felt unable to even move, but I managed to drag myself under a bush and cover myself as best I could from the rain. Though, really, there was no escaping it. I felt drips falling onto me from the leaves of the bush and turned towards them, mouth open, coaxing them to quench my thirst.
The next time I awoke, Darry and I were lying in his bed, just like after Mom and Dad died. I was telling him how cold it was and he just kept telling me, "You're not cold, Scout. You're sweating. You're not cold." But I was. I was freezing. I reached out to Darry and held him close, laying my head on his chest. "I love you, Darry, but I'm telling you, I am freezing." I told him.
The next time I awoke, Darry was gone. Pony was next to me, on the ground, holding my hand and looking at the stars. "So many…" he said.
"It's so cold, Pony!" I said.
Pony turned to me. "You're crazy," he laughed, and disappeared.
The next time, Mom and Dad were there. Mom was cleaning my leg where it was burning and talking to me in a soothing voice. "You're OK, Samantha. Just a little cut, that's all. You'll be fine." Dad didn't say anything, he just looked at me and smiled and pushed my hair out of my face.
The next time, I didn't wake up so much as get awakened. Somebody was calling my name.
"Scout Curtis!" I heard, from far away. I didn't recognize the voice. Suddenly I was in school and Mr. Gerard, my math teacher was yelling at me for not paying attention. "SCOUT CURTIS!!" I hate math.
I sat up straight in my seat and tried to answer but my mouth wouldn't move. The voice came closer and closer and in the background I heard something frantically panting, coming through the woods towards me, branches cracking underfoot, and barking, barking? What were dogs doing in my math class? Dogs were panting over me, suddenly, and barking, and louder footsteps approached. I felt a hand on my shoulder, pulling me, turning me over. I fell onto my back, staring up at a strange but not unfriendly face.
"Samantha Scout Curtis?" he asked, matter-of-factly.
I used every ounce of energy in my body to offer a weak nod.
"I'm Luke." I couldn't really focus on his face but I could see that he had green eyes, like Pony. "There's some people gonna be mighty glad to see you. I'm glad we found you."
You and me both, I thought, though my mouth could manage nothing.
"It's her!" he yelled, and I heard an echo of "Got her!" head out through the woods. I closed my eyes as the stranger put his arms under my burning legs and sat me up. "You ready to go home?" he asked. I melted against him.