THE GUARDIAN

Day One. Still...

I am experiencing a frightening sensation now… a tightening in my chest… a feeling of suffocation.

My mouth gaped widely as I tried to get more air into my lungs. A voice in my head had questioned many times, “If you’re dead, why are you catching your breath?”

I don’t know how long we’ve been running. All I know was that my knees were about to give in and that the place was dark. It was even difficult to see my mysterious savior, who was running step ahead of me… his hand still holding mine firmly. He was pulling me… heaving me forward, as if giving me a boost to run faster.

Run Faster – that's a problem.

I’m a plus sized average height woman. Running is not really my forte and when I run - it’s 'kinda’ like that episode in the “Identity Thief” movie when Mellisa McCarthy tried to outrun Jason Bateman. However, this time, I am truly giving my full sprint… but, I’m just not sure how speedy I was going.

I was on that state of concentration to what I was doing and what I was thinking, when my hand was suddenly released from his grip.

My right foot tripped on a protruding root from the ground.  I lost my balance and fell down… I thought it was my belly that landed first then my face…  I don’t remember… since I blacked out a bit when I skidded.

The man quickly halted, went back for me and asked, "Are you hurt?"

I raised my left hand and gave him a thumb up, while my right cheek was still at a touched down mode.

I was not hurt. I was just really… really… extremely out of breath… I didn’t feel the twinge from the fall nor the bash on my feet. I didn’t notice the soreness from the tiny cuts on my arms and legs brought about by the sharp edges of leaves of the tall grasses in which we were at that moment. 

The choking difficulty in breathing stripped me from sensing all other pains in my body.

“Good. You’re not hurt”, he said while tapping my back. “Stay down. We’ll rest here for now”.

Is he kidding me? – I mumbled in my head. I was still down. He did not pull me up that time.

I wished to ask him a lot of things… I wanted to thank him… but I did not say a word. I can’t… I was still puffed.

I rolled over and rested on my back. I realized – I was in the same position when he found me. Only this time I wasn’t trapped and I was not closing my eyes.

I noticed that it was not so dark in where we were anymore. I looked up and saw that the sky was lit... not by stars, but what seemed like meteor showers… like scattered shooting stars that are falling straight to the ground in slow motion.

The brightness above gave just enough flickering light for me to see my mysterious savior. He was scouting the area.

He moved around quickly, stooping himself to avoid detection. Then the man went back to me and said, “I’ll take the first watch while you..."

I did not get the rest of what he has to say… I passed out.