Take me Home

Chapter 25

She tried to visualise the map in her head for the safe spots they had mapped out and points to meet if anything went wrong and she groaned when she realised she was on the wrong side.

She wanted to swear and hit something, but that would create too much noise. Ahead she could see the sun rising and she knew she only had a few minutes to find a safe place. She knew it was risky, but she had no other choice. She had to cross the road to the other side to get on the right side.

She glanced at the road which was a good 4 to 5 meters wide that she would have to run across in an open field with no cover. She knew it would be painful, but she also knew minutes were ticking by before time finally ran out.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to stand and cried out in pain but quickly covered her own mouth to stop any sound from coming out. She then heard what she thought was yelling and knew she had to move.

She tried to get up again and almost fainted at the amount of pain that was radiating up her leg. It felt like pins and needles tingling up her leg to the back of her thigh where it was burning like someone had poured acid onto it. She heard more muffling and if she had time, she would plan this better but she got up and limped out the house and quickly looked right and left knowing this was her only chance.

Her heart was pounding in her chest as she held up her gun and for the first time in her whole life, she was downright terrified and scared of what would happen. She looked behind her and saw something move so she raised her gun trusting her instinct and fired. She saw someone go down and also knew that it blew her cover.

So with no other choice, she tried to sprint across the road. She made it halfway when her leg gave out and she fell to the floor. With her hearing still out, she saw a bullet hit the ground not too far from her so she started to crawl the rest of the way crying at not only pain but because she was scared. What felt like hours was only minutes as Jade hurled herself across the road somehow unscathed. However, she had to quickly find a place to hide as she could feel herself drifting in and out of unconsciousness. She knew she had no choice but to bite through the pain and quickly get to her feet.

Sunlight started peeking through creating streams of light. She could distantly hear gunshots, but without her hearing, she couldn't determine how close they were. She hobbled along the wall using it for support as sweat, blood and tears all mixed ran down her face. She went through twists and turns before she could no longer stand and made her way into an empty house and sat down in the far corner facing the door and window before everything became dizzy and everything became black.

She was shivering when she woke a few hours later despite the heat from the sun that was heating the war-torn place. She touched the back of her leg and found that it was bleeding again. She couldn't put herself through the pain again, so she just sat there. She took off her helmet and looked inside to see if she could get the radio working, but she had no luck.

Crying she felt useless and stuck for the situation she was in. She was quickly running out of water and had only packed a few protein bars. She wanted to scream and yell out, but that would give away where she was. She tried to move her leg and whimpered in pain and knew she was not moving and most likely not getting out alive. Slamming her fist on the floor she knew she was nowhere near where she had to be and knew no one would ever find her.

She would rather die than be caught and if it came down to it, she would take her own life knowing that it was better than being caught as a woman prisoner. She dug into one of her pockets to see what ammo and weapons she had left because she would fight to stay alive until her very last breath.

Reloading her gun, she could still only hear muffled sounds which increased her paranoia as she did not understand what was coming her way. She slowly sipped on her water knowing it could be days before they sent a rescue party and knew she needed to ration what little food she had on her.