Tracks of Life

Chapter 13

What a lovely chapter number for something awful to happen!

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I meandered in the woods, not really paying attention to where I was going. I was mostly following Bacon, who was following the scent of mushrooms. I tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear, thinking about Stephen. I thought about him way too much. But, it was better to think about him than feel sorry for myself. That's probably why I fixated on him so much.

I sighed happily when I thought about how I woke up. It was embarassing, true, but it was also nice. It was nice to be held again and be thought of as a girl while being held. It was nice being liked in a time when there wasn't much to like. We had passed a town on the train that had homeless people running after the train, begging for scraps of food. I was helpless as I watched them. Stephen and I had been extremely lucky. We hadn't exactly starved. We had a few things, and we had each other. We had gotten by so far. I felt bad then because I had felt bad for myself. I realized that I had it much better than these people. I prayed that this horrible time would be over soon.

I stopped walking when Bacon stopped, finding some more mushrooms. He was very good at it. I leaned down to collect some for supper. I was happily picking mushrooms when a shadow loomed over me. I smiled and turned around, "Stephen, you. . ."

I stopped when I saw that it wasn't Stephen. It was a large, evil looking man. He reeked of alcohol. There were two other men behind him, equally large, evil looking and smelly. I screamed, but my mouth was covered with the man's filthy hand. He grabbed me and pulled me closer to him. I bit his hand, hard, until I tasted blood. When he let go, I started running back to camp.

"Stephen!" I screamed. "STEPHEN!"

I could hear them pursuing me. I ran even faster. But, apparently, not fast enough. I was suddenly tackled. I hit the ground hard. The air had left my lungs because a giant weight sat on me. I struggled to breath as I kicked about, trying to knock the weight off of me. The pressure eased slightly and I sucked air back into my lungs. But, then I was picked up and thrown over one of the men's shoulders.

"STEPHEN!" I screamed, before one of the men put duct tape over my mouth. The man holding me sat me down and roughly pulled my hands behind my back as one of the other men put duct tape around my wrists. The man that had first grabbed me sauntered up, nursing his bleeding hand. I had a little victory over that.

The man grabbed my chin and turned my face from side to side. If I could've, I would've spit in his face. Instead, I kneed him in the balls. The man doubled over. Before I could get away, one of the men picked me up and held me up off the ground so that I was kicking at nothing. But, I tried. I tried so hard. The man got up about two minutes later, still holding his wounded nuts. The man spit in my face, something that would've loved to return.

He grabbed my hair and pulled on it roughly, "Looks like we got a nice little thing." I glared at him. If looks could kill, he would be six feet under right now. "Let's take this pretty little thing with us."

The man holding me in the air threw me back over his shoulder and they started running. We ran past the tree where I had been picking mushrooms and I saw Bacon come out and start to follow. I shook my head vehemently and gestured with my head that he go find Stephen. Bacon stopped and turned around, and took off running on his short, chubby legs.

I hoped that Bacon found Stephen and Stephen would come and find me before something awful happened to me.

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