Status: In the Works

Twisted Ties

Almost There

As soon as they had said go she had taken off as quickly as she could, putting as much distance as possible between them. After a good fifteen minutes of running, she doubled back over her exact path. Pausing halfway to the where she had come from, she cut of two patches of hair. It would kill some of her time, but it would be worth it. Heading left first she went a good twenty paces, dropping the hair over there beside a bush. Doubling back the same way, she went over her trail again, this time heading to the right of her original path. She ran as fast as her legs would carry her, for another ten minutes, before twisting to run towards where the road was supposed to be.

If she was right, and none of them were human, they would likely try to track her. And when she heard a howl break the silence, she knew without a doubt she was right. Claire kept running, fast and hard, until she eventually came to a small cave. Yanking off the sweater she had on she cut it into two pieces, keeping her eyes out for any signs that they were close. Scurrying into the cave she hid half of the sweater in there, and looked around before leaving.

There was lemon grass growing close by. Ripping some of the blades free she rubbed the sticky substance inside over her arms and her pant legs. As well as the bottom of her shoes. Even to her nose she was smelling like a lot of lemon grass. And not much else, but it would only hold them off for so long though. Of course every extra second she could get was a bonus, but wasting too much time wouldn’t bode well for her.

Taking another quick look around now that she smelled different, she mapped out her next two moves in her mind. She ran around the cave once, ducking down under some bushes when a bird soared overhead. It seemed to be looking for something, so if she had to guess, it must belong to one of the people hunting her down...unless it was one of the people? No that wasn’t possible. Then again, none of this was to be fair.

As the bird left, she ran from her hiding spot, though she had to take a moment to remember which direction she had to go in. As the minutes ticked on, she cut another portion from her hair, not bothering to tie these strands she threw them in the air, letting the wind carry them. Along her path, she ran into a small clearing, which was dangerous. Looking around, including in the tree’s however, she supposed it was safe enough, so she ran straight across the thing, before circling around it. In the end she was back where she started, and she took a moment to climb the nearest tree.

She used a minute or two so that she could catch up on catching her breath. She could feel herself shaking. Whether it was from muscle ache or fear she wasn’t exactly sure. But she pushed on, moving from tree to tree until she was well enough away from anything with her scent on it. It was tough work. She had hardly ever been able to do much where she had come from. The bark of the branches bit into her hands relentlessly, as though trying to slow her down. And she had to watched her footing as she moved from branch to branch.

She was a lot slower up here than she was on the ground, but at least she had a better vantage point. Not that it helped any. She wasn’t even sure anymore what she was supposed to be running from. Whatever it was though, she had to be on her guard.

Eventually however, she ran out of tree’s to skip back and forth to. And she hardly had time to try and gauge whether or not- Her thoughts were silenced as a new howl broke through the air. By the sound of it, they were near the cave she had hit a while back. Were they really that far behind her? Was her plan working? Smiling wide she moved to the next tree, she had to jump to get to that one, and the first branch she grabbed broke. By some miracle however she managed to scrambled her way onto a thick branch under her without falling. She didn’t want out of it completely injury free, but at least she didn’t fall.

Her heart was racing so fast she could hear it. Taking a moment to rest her hand over the thing, she looked at the cuts on her palms and frowned. That’s what she got for acting like a monkey and climbing things. And the knock to her shoulder as she fell a little ways down hadn’t been great either. Other than that however, she was still standing which was good news. And besides the hints of blood on her palms she wouldn’t leave much of a trail.

Making her way down the tree, she slipped near the bottom and hit the ground hard.It was a long moment or two before she managed to haul herself up to her feet, and even then she had to rub her rear for a moment. Thankfully she hadn’t jarred her back but man did her butt ever hurt from that one. Earlier she had tucked the other piece of sweater so it was hanging from her pocket, pulling it free she looked around.

Throwing the second piece of sweater off to her left, she started running towards the right, straight through some flower bushes. It wasn’t long enough to completely cover her scent, but it might throw them off with their first run through. That was certainly the plan anyway, have them running in circles long enough she could put more distance between them.

Looking around for a few minutes she was worried she was wasting too much time trying to find the right little flower. She was starting to panic a little when she finally found what she was looking for. Honeysuckle. Picking as much as she could stuff in her pockets, and hold in her hands once those were full, she started running again. Rubbing it on her arms as she went along, she had to stop for a few seconds to do her pants the way she had before.

There were so many smells on her it was even starting to gag her, no doubt if they had sensitive noses it wouldn’t sit with them too well either. Which could be a good thing. They wouldn’t be able to track her if they couldn’t smell her anymore right?

She paused near a small stream to do her shoes. The water looked real good, clean and fresh, no doubt there wasn’t a whole lot of people polluting the stream. Cuping her hands she dipped them in. It was so tempting to take a drink but that was a risk. Splashing the stuff on her face instead she sighed. It was so cool.

She took her time thinking it over, weighing the pro’s and con’s. If she did drink it and it wasn’t exactly perfectly clean the downsides would suck, but odds were she either wouldn’t live long enough to suffer through the runs anyway. And if she did survive, at least she should make it to freedom before it hit her. Shaking her head, she looked around again, just to be sure she wasn’t being watched, before dipping down to fill her hands once more. It was exactly what she needed. She could feel the chill of the water going through her as she drank. Rising up afterwards she watched the tree’s for any sign of movement. Nothing seemed out of place, birds were still singing, and by the sounds of it she wasn’t in danger of being caught yet. Finding a log that went across the little stream, she took it as carefully as she could so she didn’t fall into the water.

This was hard. She was beyond tired, and if they had been telling the truth, she was barely halfway to the road so far. She wanted nothing more than to sit down and give in just to have a break. But...her life kind of depended on this. Once on the other side of the stream she walked for a little while. Using the extra time she had gained in order to slow down and catch her breath properly, get her wits about her.

Cutting another inch from her hair, she was glad she wore the stuff so long. Letting the ends fly free in the wind, she pulled off the t-shirt she had on, and cut it into several pieces. Tossing one off to her right she hung a left and ran a good forty paces or so, before getting back on course. She had a tank top over her bra, a pair of jeans with shorts underneath, her shoes, a knife, and her hair.

She could probably cut a good six inches or so off her hair before it came anywhere near her shoulders. But she would probably only cut one more inch free from the braid. She had several strips of a shirt to work with, and she sure had no qualms about slicing into the jeans she had on either. Eventually however her tricks would run out, and she would have no choice. Hopefully by that point however she would be able to break into a full on sprint and escape the worst of it.

For now, she had to move along as though they were right on her heels. After all she had no idea when that would actually change. Looking up towards the canopy of trees above her she was glad for the extra coverage they were providing. She didn’t have to worry about getting a sunburn at least, and most birds that they could train would be larger, meaning swooping down this low wouldn’t be safe for them. She should stay undetected for some time as long as she stayed aware of her surroundings.

She wasn’t sure how long she would walk for, all she knew is she had to at least slow down for a little while in order to keep what strength she had accessible for later. It wasn’t until she saw a large hollowed tree that she stopped again. Hunkering low she grabbed a rock roughly the size of her head, and took the knife she had been given to the bottoms of her pants. She cut a good six inches off each pant leg and sliced that up the middle so she could wrap it around the rock. From there, she found as many leaves and small branches as she could, and made it look like she had hidden herself in the tree.

Walking around the thing a few times for good measure, she looked around. She had trailed enough of her scent in the area gathering things to cover her up. Dreading the next step, she found a tree nearby to climb. After all, if they were tracking her on the ground, the wouldn’t be able to follow her scent in the trees right? Pulling herself up was harder than it had been earlier. Her muscles cried out by stabbing her with pain even as she pushed herself to the next tree over. If she were them, she would make a radius around the area once she realized her prey wasn’t actually there.

Mentally she counted how many feet as she moved from tree to tree. After a good thirty feet or so, she found her way down, and started running as hard and fast as she could, using what little she could see of the sunlight to mark her path towards the road. She was nearly to the halfway point by now, and it had been quite a while. All she had to do was keep pushing.

A loud sound erupted from somewhere behind her, but it wasn’t what she had been expecting. By the sounds of it, there was something else in this forest, though whether or not it was a danger to her she wasn’t quite sure. The sound that reminded her of a gunshot had seemed pretty far away, and there was no way to know which direction it had come from. Either way it would be in her best interest to avoid it. If it was another man with a gun out to get her she didn’t want anything to do with it. And on the off chance he wasn’t there for her? Well she would rather not have another human going through whatever this was. If she was even right about it being a gun, it had been so faint she almost missed it.

She would have to ignore it for now, she was almost there anyway, to her halfway mark. As long as she made it there she should be able to pause and think things over from there. At least, that was the plan originally. Her thoughts were put on hold altogether when another howl echoed through the air. This one sounded far more frustrated than the last, and boy did the sound ever carry. It was faint, far away, and yet with how quiet the forest was, she could hear it so clearly. Moments after the howl had ended she paused, standing perfectly still where she was. Everything had gotten really quiet. Too quiet. All the birds had stopped singing, she didn’t hear any animals scurrying around, it was terrifying to say the least.
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This was a rather long chapter, I hope you don't mind too much. This one ran pretty quick and the next chapter wont be too far from the same. I warned everyone this part would be fast paced. For the web copy of this I am running quickly through it, but when I eventually get around to publishing I do plan on going into it a little more. Enjoy!

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