A good book... or not? (Part three)

3

I kept shoving things into a couple of old backpacks.
“Why didn’t you say they were coming right away?” asked Shadow.
“Because,” I answered as I took an old tattered bear from Jay and stuffed it into his pack.
“Be careful with Teddy!” said Jay.
“I will,” I said as soothingly as I found possible right then.
Shadow coughed loudly. “Hello? Will you answer me?”
I sighed, “I can’t -”
Just then Karma started crying.
“Look, Shadow, everything’s chaos right now. Will you keep packing while I take care of Karma?”
Shadow gave me a look that said “I’m not done yet,”
“Okay,” he answered.
I got up and ran to Karma. “Are you okay, sweetie?” I asked.
“No,” sniffled Karma.
I sighed, “Why not?” I asked
“Because I can’t find Princess!”
Princess is a kitten we found a few weeks ago, and since Karma found her, she got to name her. Hey, it was either that or “Fluffy”! I mean, at least “Princess” is slightly imaginative.
“I’m sorry, Karma, but if we can’t find her we have to leave her here-”
I was cut off by a barrage of wailing
“We can’t leave her here!” Karma cried, “She’ll diieee!”
Karma’s already high pitched voice got even higher and louder in distress.
I put my hand over her mouth.
“Shhhh!” I warned, “We can’t be heard!”
Karma continued her wailing.
“Do you want them to find us?!” I hissed
“She won’t die,” Shadow said from beside me.
I almost had a heart attack.
“Shadow!?”
“Who else?” he asked.
“I- never mind!” I snapped. My nerves were more than slightly frazzled.
Shadow wasn’t offended by my attitude. He just went on speaking to Karma
“She won’t die,” he repeated. “Her mother is still here,”
“Really?” asked Karma,
“Yes, I saw her yesterday.”
“Good,” said Karma. She wasn’t happy about leaving Princess behind, but at least her cat wasn’t going to die.
“Karma, you should get your sweater,” I told her.
“But it’s itchy!” She complained
“I know, but it’s also the warmest thing you have.”
Karma sighed “Okay,”
She got up to get it.
“Did you really see the mother?” I asked Shadow from behind my hand.
He shrugged. “No, It won’t hurt to tell her that I did, though,” he whispered back.
“You lied?” I asked him in mock astonishment.
“I lied,” He confirmed, playfully punching my shoulder.
“Well, I-” I began only to be interrupted by a loud crash.
“Ah!” I jumped, “What the-”
“Look,” Shadow interrupted. “Over there,” he added, raising his arm.
I turned to look out a window, and saw a big, greenish brown helicopter heading close to were we were hidden. Too close.
“Chopper!” I yelled “Run!”



* * *

I saw everyone scrabbling around, grabbing their backpacks, out of the corner of my eye. I kept watching the copter, making sure that it never left my sight.
I saw it prepare to land, about a half mile away.
“We’re ready!” Shadow shouted over the noise of the helicopter.
“All right! Let’s split!” I called back to him.
I ran and snatched up Jay as I went, swinging him around onto my back, so he was hanging on my shoulders. He was fast, but not fast enough to keep up with us.
He protested, “Hey!”
But I ignored him. I needed to focus on running. If I took a spill… I decided not to finish that thought. I watched as Shadow grabbed two of the backpacks, his and mine, ‘cause I couldn’t put mine on while I was carrying Jay. Karma was still holding her sweater, running at full speed into the forest. She had her backpack on. Dee wasn’t holding anything except her backpack and a strange bundle wrapped in towels that I couldn’t make out. Shadow was a little bit behind me, slowed down by my backpack. His and mine were the heaviest, I’d made sure that the smaller ones had less weight to bear.
“You okay?!” I yelled over my shoulder.
Shadow glanced up at me, but he didn’t spare his breath answering.
I looked ahead with concern at Dee. She was doing good. They were all doing pretty well, I confirmed, glancing around at everyone else.
Good, at least we’re getting out of sight! I thought to myself as I watched the chopper slow and spin a 360. Looking for us, I realized grimly.
I felt a burst of fire screaming up my leg muscles, but I ignored it, I had more important things to worry about than how sore I was gonna be tomorrow. Jay was getting heavier by the second.
Dee’s bundle was moving slightly, one of the towels had slipped, and she had a determined look on her face. She was not going to drop that bundle of towels. I drew in a sharp intake of breath as I realized what Dee was carrying. I was going to shout up at her to lose it, and quickly, but I knew she’d just ignore me. Kinda like Shadow would have, if he’d been the one with those towels.
My long hair was seriously getting in my way. I was spitting strands out left and right, and blowing them away from my eyes. I made a mental note to cut it shorter when we got… where ever we were going to sleep that night.
The noise of the helicopter was fading, slowly, but fading all the same.
My legs didn’t hurt anymore; in fact, I couldn’t really feel them at all. If I could have, I supposed they’d feel like Jell-o, or something else real wobbly.
We were far enough away that I could set Jay down. I did and he immediately started running, he was faster than me now that I was tiered. He sped up and was able to level off with Karma. She was running about ten feet behind Dee, and I was running a couple feet behind her. Shadow was next to me, on my right. I ran closer to him and held out my hand for my pack so he wouldn’t have to carry it any more. He tossed it to me, and I caught it. We kept running due east, towards the rising sun, still less than half way up. I realized something was different, even as I was running at my top speed.
Shadow figured it out first. “I can’t hear the chopper anymore,”
“Right,” I answered.
“It must have landed,”
“Or flown away,” Shadow said, optimistically.
“We should slow down for now,” he said quietly, changing the subject.
He was tired, we all were. We’d be better, and more able to run after some rest.
“You’re right. We should stop however much I so do not want to.” I managed to gasp out.
“Slow up!” I called ahead to the other three.
The five of us slowed and sank to our knees. Relieved to have some rest, I laughed to myself. I felt my legs start to tingle, and after about fifteen minutes the screaming pain returned. It felt good to sit there, though, however much pain I was in. I felt myself getting dizzy and lightheaded. The last thought in my head that I remember was about wolves. Yeah, strange, I know. More specifically it was how they took down their prey, sometimes. By running it until it suffocated, chasing it down until it couldn’t breathe anymore. And then… then the wolves would go for the throat. The fatal bite. And the deer, or antelope or whatever it was would feel death coming for it at last.




So...

-DarkHawk09