Smells Like Winter

32: Jump

"Jump."

Maddy tried not to think too much about it, just do it.

Jump.

"I'll be right behind you."

Maddy's throat was bone-dry when she gulped. "Yeah, but what if I break an arm or leg or something? Or my skull in two? This thing is moving, you know." She pointed down towards the train flooring, the vehicle gliding on the shrieking rails. "What if-"

"What if you shut that pretty little mouth of yours and just jump off the fucking train before I push you off myself, huh?" threatened her Carter. "Just jump. I'm right here. I'll be right behind you," he said again, a bit softer this time.

She turned towards him, searching for his dark eyes briefly. Jump.

I'll be right behind you.

She jumped, then.

She really wished she could say she rolled gracefully downhill, like that girl she had seen jumping off the train earlier, but that would have been a terrible lie. In fact, she got the faint impression that her descent down the slope was pretty much as clumsy as her tumbling from the stairs a few days ago.

Just way more painful. She gasped in pain when her shoulder rammed into a rock, the hit spinning her body like a ball. Protruding rocks, tree bark and bushes flew by the side of her vision, scraping harshly down her arms and legs and the exposed part of her face. She grunted as she got bashed over and over again, the obstacles smashing onto her body, slowing down the momentum of her tumbling. She rolled one last time and, painful as it was, ended up on her belly, lying face down, not moving anymore.

She spat the dirt from her mouth and pushed herself in a sitting position, elbows on her creased knees, head lowered between her legs.

She paused for a second to examine her scars from the last few days. Her knees were covered with bruises - the older ones from her tumbling from the stairs purple, the new ones from her descent down the slope of the hill greenish. Red scratches, fresh with blood, were covering her entire body and face, the little scar on her cheekbone still burning her where that bullet had greased her. Almost subconsciously, without the interference of her brain, she raised a hand and touched her forehead.

No lump. Phew. Finally some good news.

She was being stupid to be thinking of that right now, but she couldn't help it.

"Are you coming or what?" Mia was standing right in front of her, hands on her hips. She looked Maddy down, snorted, then stretched her hand out to her.

Maddy stared at it as if it was an atomic bomb. Mia was offering her a hand to help her get up.

Did she hit her head on the way down?

Maddy's expression was guarded and cautious as she reached out for Mia's hand and let the girl pull her up on her feet.

"Let's go," said Mia, clasping her hands together as if dusting them off.

And so they walked. They walked on and on and on for hours in complete silence, leaving the train bridge behind. Carter was in the lead, his pace somehow quickening instead of slowing down as the day came to an end little by little, and the sun traversed the entire sky only to finally go down.

Maddy was exhausted, both physically and mentally. Her miserable cartwheeling down the inclined slope combined with the very much infected new acquaintances they had made had left Maddy with a pounding headache, and she felt dizzy from lack of food and too much running. But, as dusk was falling, Maddy pushed forward without complaining, certain that soon they would camp somewhere to spend the night and rest.