A VERY DARK tale (#Wattys2016)

Chapter 2

The first thing I registered was that something touched my leg. The pain hasn't returned yet, but my brain has started functioning.

The nudge repeated and with that my hearing picked up a weak, barely visible murmur. My body felt heavy as if I was lying under a pile of concrete slabs.

"Is...dead," I distinguished from the chaotic mix of noises.

"How...s....ge...t...ry," the other voice sounded as muffled as the first. Then the voice got closer, and I sensed something warm on my wrist.

"It...b...ly..." the sentence again hadn't gotten processed through my head correctly.

Pressure on my shoulder did something to my body and out of sudden my eyes flew open and I was facing the sky. A group of people that gathered around me in a circle swiftly jumped away with yelps.

"Scared me shitless!" Someone cried. The thought amused me and something like choking came out of my mouth that in fact was my laughter. My laughter turned into a cough, a kind of a cough that scared me to the point that I froze and felt a rumble going through my insides. I suppressed it and relaxed trying to restore myself.

When I let my body settle with my head, they finally had come to some form of cooperation. I managed to move my fingers and as my fingers twitched, a sharp pain spread through my arm. That caused burning in my veins, and soon my entire body was on fire.

With pain the flashes of last night, I assumed that it had happened last night, came down to me rushing. I remembered the bullet, then I remembered running like a mad woman, then I recalled my bear buddy that I acquired by accident and then last but not least - the collectors.

At the thought of the collectors my muscles flexed and forgetting the pain, in one awkward but quite a swift move I've pulled myself up and positioned my arms in front of my body ready to dodge the attack.

Something firm was irritating my right palm. I glanced at my hands before looking around and noticed that I still was clenching to the stick. That gave me a small breath of confidence and despite my blurry vision, I started blinking and rotating on one spot scanning those who surrounded me.

My gaze was shifting from one face to another and in about two minutes I've gained my vision back and was able to take in their appearances.

My nose started drawing the air in. The air tasted strange, there was no honey in its scent, but also it didn't feel like metal. When I registered that fact, a frantic pounding of my heart eased, and I slowed the pace of my visual investigation.

Five men that had been standing in absolute shock looked nothing of what I expected. To put it bluntly, I didn't know what I expected from life any longer, the fact that I was standing and breathing was enough for me, for now. However, the men didn't look like Indians.

Even being severely injured, dehydrated, exhausted, starved and mentally disturbed, I could see that all five had a Caucasian build and complexion. Three of them were on a younger side, maybe slightly older than me. One of them was in his thirties, he looked robust and severe. I noticed that his shock worn off fast enough and he stood with a frown on his face studying me the same way I was studying him and his companions.

The last was a man in his fifties. He was the most intimidating from the group. He looked well, even pleasant, but something in his eyes told me that he was also dangerous, and I needed to be really cautious around him. But, if to summarize my first impression, I should say that all five were handsome even wearing those funny clothes.

My attention turned to the surroundings, and when I noticed that I was no longer in the forest that stretched right behind the abandoned farm, my arms automatically fell to my sides. My back straightened up, and I began looking thoroughly around.