Chapter 1

1.6K 43 5
                                    

I’m running. My feet are moving as fast as they can. I can’t see a thing. It’s freezing. All around is black. Total darkness. I don’t know what time it is. Don’t know what day it is. Could be March, could be winter. Not even sure of the year. My chest is heaving. The air burns my lungs, chills my insides to the core. I’m dying, I’m physically dying. I think I’m going to collapse on my feet. I forget why I’m running. I’m on autopilot, suspended in a transient state of semi-wakefulness moving my limbs to the sound of my beating heart. It feels as if I’m watching this happen to someone else, reliving this experience as if it were some horrific nightmare. Every sinew of my musculature aches. Blood pulsates through my ears. I race into the frosty air, lips numb from the cold. I can hear sirens. Wailing screeches out in the distance like an ominous spectre. Is that for me? Is that why I’m running? I turn my head into the black using sound as my only guide. Leaves rustle underfoot as I propel my body forwards. My skin tingles. Pain traverses the length of my arm.

I can remember metallic walls. Pristine steel plated glass. Grey blotches huddled around my bedside. My fingers are numb, chest tightened. I couldn’t move, or could I? I’m not sure. Gauze and bloodied bandages hang over a cylindrical metal bar traversing the space above me. Everything is saturated in an ultra-white hue glaring from above. Was it a dream?

A faint resonant beep emits a metronomic pulse about the room. Had to be a hospital. But where? Conduit wires dangled from my chest leading a trail towards a machine resting next to my bedside. Must have been hooked up to something. Couldn’t tell if I was locked in or not. Couldn’t move if I wanted to.

Ears are still ringing. Feel as if someone’s blasted an air horn next to my head. This is getting tough. Legs are aching now, calves tightening with every step. The sirens are becoming louder. Am I running into the danger or away from it? I can’t be sure. I keep moving. No-one’s on my tail, want to keep it that way. Wind rushes past my ears. My jaw is locked from the cold. I grit my teeth as I drive forwards. Where the hell am I?

They wore masks. Eyes bright as saucers. Kept mumbling gibberish. Sounded as if they were speaking from down a well. I screamed but no-one heard. I cried but they continued. What do they want with me? Nothing reached their ears. I could have been drowning in my own tears and they wouldn’t have been able to hear me. They just kept prodding stuff into me like some experiment. Could have been their subject. Could have been a dream. Am I even here? Nothing is certain. I can’t see a thing.

Shutting my eyes tighter I picture what I witnessed. Street lights. Lonely alleyways, dark grey buildings surrounded by barbed wire fences. Think. I can’t remember my name. Sweat pumps from my skin. I disappear into the dense forest. I shiver in the night. Or is it day? Nothing is real any more. I want to go back. I want to return to wherever it was that I belonged. I need to find out what’s happening to me. What do they want from me? Where are they? Who are they? Who am I?

Name tags, brass rectangular pieces hanging from white cloth. Embossed lettering glimmering in fluorescent light. I can see it but I can’t say it. Mouth trying to suck in every last breath from the chilled night air. Scarred face, coagulated blood, deep gashes. Steel machinery, wires, flashing lights. Okay, think. Who did I see? Polished leather shoes, scuffed linoleum floor. Gritty walls, dirty furniture. Place is a mess. It’s freezing. Feel like shivering but nothing happens, I want to empty the contents of my bowels.

I wretch onto my bare feet. Stomach acid falls to the forest floor, it warms my toes.

Where is he? I can hear him. What is he? A janitor? A librarian? Moving too fast to think, it’s too cold to stop. Everything will freeze if I stop. Heart beats faster, I think it’s going to leap out of my chest. I crash to the floor shoving my forearms into the gravel trail underfoot. It stings like hell. Pain shoots through my arms. I think I’ve been shot. I think I’m going to die. I still can’t be sure. Who am I? Everything’s still black.

The siren is getting closer. Make it stop, someone make it stop. I’m trapped. The light is growing dim all around me. I can’t feel a thing. My entire body foes numb. ‘Help!’ I scream out listening to the sound of my voice echoing into the night. Warm liquid rushes down my temple into my eyes. My face feels as if it’s not mine. ‘What is that?’ I clutch at my face. I dig my right knuckle into my eye. A raw ache throbs through the back of my skull.

Pain shoots through my head. My eyes are gone. Liquid runs down my cheeks. All I can see it red. I start crying, liquid seeps out of my sockets. My frozen fingertips notice something. It feels unusual, softened contours, spongy texture. I can’t feel my eyes. Reaching into the innards of my skull, I shake my fingers into my head. ‘There’s nothing there.’ I let out an animalistic howl. A terrifying scream escapes my lungs.

Everything convulses, pulsating with every beat of my heart.

Flashes of the room reappear. Vague outlines emerge from the darkness like shadows in the murk. Ghostly spectres pounce in the flashing lights. Another blood curdling scream. I must be in the forest. Pine and damp leaves hang in the air, its musty redolence rising up from the earth.

Owls call into the night through the trees. I can hear them. The sirens grow louder, they’re next to my ear. It’s distant call resonating inside my ears. Growing louder with each beat of my heart. They’re coming closer, I can feel them. Soon they will be here. I don’t know who they are, I don’t know what they want. They are nearby. I can sense them. Time is running out.

The EscapeWhere stories live. Discover now