Hiding From the Unknown

Part 3

My ankles throbbed as I propelled myself forward, pushing myself to run away from the attack. Questions revolved around my head, questions I had no answers to. The small backpack I was wearing hung loosely off my shoulders as it bounced up and down with every step I took. My raven colored hair slipped out of my messy ponytail, whipping wildly in the strong wind before coming out all together and falling limply around my shoulders. I could only hope that my mom was okay.

My legs ached uncontrollably as I took my first break under a tree, which was the first one I had seen in about an hour. Sitting down under it, I ate half the pack of dried blueberries, saving four and a half packs for later. As I brought the last blueberry I had decided on eating towards my mouth, I heard the snapping of a twig. Grabbing the knife out of my backpack, I jumped up, shielding myself from the person. I crouched behind the tree, peeking out to see a small squirrel staring at me with big, black, beady eyes. I sighed, getting up and proceeding to run, determined to reach a place I could stay in overnight.

Every place I ran, I saw something that I thought could have been a person, out to get me, but upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a tree, or a shadow. Eventually, I could see the sky start to turn pink. I witnessed a beautiful sunset, which was even more dramatized because I lived in the west. A realization jumped into my head. I had just seen a sunset, which meant that it was nighttime. How long had I been running for? Since history was around three o'clock, and since I lived in Arizona, where, in my city, the sun usually set around five-thirty, that meant that I had been running for about two hours. By now, I could've easily reached the border of California. I was free from the clutches of Mr. Avario and his Variater...for now, but at this point there was no way for him to find me, considering he didn't know which direction I had run in.

It was getting late, and if I didn't get any sleep in, it would be impossible to function the next day, so through the darkness, I squinted at the place I had come across. It was a small field, visibly far away from civilization, with dry, drought affected grass. There was a small, leafless tree in the far end of it, and branches, twigs, and brown, shriveled leaves were scattered wildly on its ground. It was the best I could find at this point, considering if I ran any farther in the darkness, I would get lost. I shoveled some saltines into my mouth hungrily before getting used to the place I was in.

The floor of the field was hard and bare, the thin, brown grass barely softening it. My eyes fluttered, begging me to close them and revive them from the day's running, so I obliged. I collected a few of the shriveled leaves and laid them out, making them resemble a sheet, before crawling onto them, and snuggling into my oversized sweatshirt, falling asleep in a fetal position. The saltines I had eaten earlier were my only dinner.

I groaned as sunlight hit my shut eyelids, beckoning them to open and face the world, but in the life of a teenager, sleeping was my only happiness, so draping my arm over my face, I continued to sleep, letting my legs get the rest they had been craving. My happy sleep was interrupted by a raspy voice directed at me. I immediately assumed it was a hallucination so I turned onto the other side of my body, grunting slightly. The raspy voice came again.

"Wake up, sleepyhead!"
Grunt
"I said wake uppp!"
Grunt
"Are you deaf?"
    
I flipped around, slowly opening my exhausted eyes.  I saw a blurry face to which I squinted and tried to focus on.  I couldn't even believe who it was.