Cleo Hart: Intelligence by Default

Kidnapped

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I paused, leaning shakily on a crumbling drystone wall and sucking in air desperately. Every inch of my body burned with exhaustion, protesting furiously at the lack of oxygen being provided by my  lungs. My feet were swollen and blistered from days of running, but had reached an alarmingly comforting numbness in my dank, dirty trainers.

My head snapped up at the low rumbling of a vehicle approaching from behind me. I groaned, looking towards the road. The four-by-four was back on my tail. With a combination of guttural grunts and obscenities, I jumped over the wall and started sprinting through the wide field behind. The beige, roofless jeep swerved through an open gate, gaining on me at an alarming rate. I shook off my anxiety and attempted to focus on taking in my surroundings. I had about fifteen seconds before I was at touching distance from anyone sat in the front seat of the car. I glanced to my left, where a large forest loomed behind another wall. It was my best shot.

Skidding slightly on the mud, I cut round at a right angle and jumped the wall, before diving into the trees and running harder, as if that was even possible. I heard the jeep slide to a halt at the edge, the trees too dense to drive through, and smiled slightly. After twenty minutes of hard paced, merciless running, I collapsed against the trunk of a tree on the opposite end of the forest, a dozen feet or so from the edge.

I tried to think about my next step, fighting to make sense of my slurring thoughts while my vision pulled in and out of focus. Hit with nausea, I keeled over and retched into the grass. The four-by-four would be trying to find me by now, so I had to think fast.

I attempted to prop myself up with my elbow, but as soon as my head left the bark of the tree, an immobilising wave of dizziness overcame me. My instincts automatically took me back to the ground, the world spinning. I attempted to move again, but my body bitterly refused. Days upon days of running had finally caught up to me, and now I couldn't even lift a hand to wipe my brow.

I drifted in and out of consciousness, leaving me barely awake when a shadow approached from the outskirts of the forest. The smudgy figure lifted me from the ground, and began to walk out of the trees. My response was to try to fight whoever it was, but as a result of my nonexistent energy levels, I merely tapped the warm shape with my fist. There was a distant chuckle as I was put down onto the back seat of an open-top car. I closed my eyes momentarily, almost giving in to the exhaustion, before being struck with the sickening realisation, that I had just been placed into the back of a jeep.

Whatever adrenaline reserves I had left spiked up, allowing me my sight back, and giving me enough energy to jump over the door of the car. My vision cleared a little, transforming the smudgy figure into a dark haired man with a determined expression, who looked at me almost amused, before efficiently tackling me to the ground. I fought as hard as my exhaustion would allow, weakly kicking, scratching and biting and whatever I could find. But he was strong, and showed no signs of concern as one of his colleagues handed him a square of dampened cloth. Panic swelled through me, resulting in more kicking, alongside desperate screams for help. The cloth, held in his palm, was neatly pressed against my nose and mouth, and despite begging every atom in my body to fight the sedative, I found myself swiftly sinking into the depths of unconsciousness.

-

I groaned slightly as the sensation of stiffness and aching returned to my muscles, and attempted to open my eyes. A cloth-like material was wrapped tightly over them, leaving me in the dark. I grit my teeth as panic rose from the depths of my stomach. Upon further investigation, I found that my hands were trapped behind my back by cold, metal restraints, probably handcuffs, and I was sat in a wooden chair, which creaked noisily every time I shifted my weight. The click of a doorknob startled me, but I let my body fall slack, in an attempt to buy myself some more time. No such luck. The blindfold was pulled from my face, leaving my eyes squinting as I tried to adjust to the brightness of the synthetic lights in the white room.