REVIVE ▸ d. winchester [2] ✔

Chapter 41

With her eyes on the horizon, Jackie ran.

Before long, she had fallen into a consistent jog. She only stops once to move her cuffed hands from behind her back, preferring them to be in front of her. Her sore shoulders made it a bit difficult to thread her legs through her restrained arms, but by sitting down in the snow, moving one foot at a time, she is eventually able to do so.

Other than this, Jackie doesn't stop. The fear of search dogs hot on her trail keeps her quickly moving and her eyes peeled for the creek that Nick had advised her to search for.

Her feet trudge through the wet snow. Jackie's eyes are left watering at the slight wind that hits her face, and the girl's hair beats against her back with every step. With her heart pounding heavily and her breaths becoming more strained as each minute passes, Jackie begins to worry about the direction she had been heading in.

The sun keeps getting brighter and brighter directly ahead of her. With the sun rising in the east, she knows that it couldn't have been her that was misguiding herself.

What if Nick misguided her?

Almost twenty-five minutes pass before the girl has to stop. Her feet are soaked, shoes completely dampened and frozen by the snow. Even the bottoms of her bright orange jumpsuit had sustained enough moisture to leave them feeling bitter agaisnt her skin. Yet as Jackie leans against a tree, taking in a long, deep breath, cold exposure is the least of her concerns.

"Two miles. He said two miles," she mutters outloud. Her head pounds with her heart, blood rushing through her veins as her body tries to keep up with her movements. Laying around in a cell certainly hadn't been helpful for the girl in the last week, nor had been getting shot in the leg, and both were doing their worst for Jackie as she tried to keep herself moving.

Jackie looks up through the tree tops, taking in one last gulp of air before holding it in. Her eyes focus on the bare braches agaisnt the gray morning sky, and as she feels her pulse dampen in her head, she also begins to hear the noises around her.

Morning birds chirping, the wind whistling, and a quiet trickle of cold, fresh water.

Jackie's head turns, and she forces her feet to move. It's not long before she comes across the creek she had been so desperately searching for. The sight brings a relieved smile to her face, which incidentally leaves her bruised cheek aching in the cold.

Jackie watches the water ahead of her flow by, half of it frozen, half of it crystal clear. The noise of the creek floods her ears, the sound of the wilderness overcoming her senses for a few moments. She finds it calm, relaxing even, and if she weren't in such a rush, she likely would've found the location beautiful.

The girl doesn't have the luxury of relaxation, however. She quickly scouts out the area, searching for the best place to cross the water. The stream wasn't very deep or very wide, but she certainly didn't want to be wading through.

It isn't long before she comes across a more rocky area. With her shoes already wet and the rocks somewhat covered in snow, she hopes the area wouldn't be too slick. Using a few thin braches abover her head, she maneuvers across the first few feet with ease. It's only when her ears take in a very distant but distint cry of police sirens does she lose her poise and leave one of her feet slipping into the water.

The shock of the cold water leaves Jackie leaping out and across the remainder of water in a hurry. Once cleared, she doesn't stop to look back. Instead, she picks up her run again, fear returning to her body. She can still hear the sirens, and she knew it wouldn't be too long before the silent woods were filled with the barking of hound dogs.