Escape
Branches clawed at her arms and face, leaving drops of morning dew as they took her blood in trade. Her chest was on fire, her breaths ragged and short. When a bird screeched above her she dove towards the base of the closest tree. She whimpered as its call echoed through the woods, picked up and repeated by others until the forest canopy was alive with sound.
She desperately searched the area, crawling through the mud and leaves, digging and tunneling under limbs until she had her entire body nestled close to the trunk of a large bush, still whimpering and panting. The caws and screeches grew in volume, almost deafening, and closer. Too close. She clamped her hands over her mouth, trying not to breathe, listening intently.
The ground beneath her shook as something heavy landed nearby, then another, and another and the forest fell silent. She tried desperately to remain quiet, still her shaking body, drawing in quick breaths through her fingers, her eyes darting and searching for any sign of movement. Tears flowed down her cheeks, leaving a clean pink trail through the grime and dirt covering her face.
How did it come to this? Yesterday life was normal, boring even. She was jogging, earbuds in, music blaring, her biggest worry what to eat when she got home. Then everything went black and when she finally came to and opened her eyes, the world had gone insane. She found herself in a cage within a row of cages, each one holding a bedraggled and blood-covered, cowering woman. And then she saw them.
The humanoid creatures were over 6 feet tall with midnight black gleaming feathers, human-sized raven-like heads with cruel charcoal colored beaks. It just wasn’t possible. Her mind kept screaming that at her, all through the night and into the next day.
When one of the creatures opened her cage this morning, she shot at its legs like a bullet, knocking it off balance. She didn’t stop running, though she could hear the other women screaming for her to release them. She’d get out, then she’d send help back. It was their only chance. Her only chance.
She’d run through the dark, bouncing off rocky walls, disoriented, chasing a tiny ray of light in the distance. The light grew bigger, brighter and she burst out of the opening into the forest. And now she was trapped again. Not a cage, but a bush, surrounded by those … things. A faint noise caught her attention, familiar but what was it? It was a car, a vehicle, growing fainter as it drove away. There must be a road nearby. She was going to make it out and she was going to help those girls. Time to make a break for …
She screamed and fought wildly as she was yanked from the bush, dangling in the air inches away from its face and then the world went dark one last time.
