Outlaw

3. Calypso

"Three days isn't very long in a chase for your life..."

The creepy ladies words rang in my ears, that, combined with the beating of my heart and the pounding of my feat on the ground created an eerie and sonorous cacophony. Trees drew minor scratches on my arms with my own blood but I didn't care, the only thing I cared about was getting as far away from this woman as possible. I crushed the lives of countless bugs under my feet in my headlong rush to who knows where. I hadn't run back the way I had come so this was all new territory to me now. When I reached a river I realized that I did know this place, this was the river close to my village; this meant I could get supplies. This meant I might stand a chance.

I might survive.

I tore down the dusty trail threw the buildings, not caring about the confused, startled and, in some cases, disapproving glances the villagers shot at me like bullets. The only thing I cared about was getting home, getting basic supplies and leaving as fast as I could. They could give me all the weird looks they wanted but, right now, that was not the concern that was at the forefront of my mind, if I'm being perfectly honest.

The ground seemed to rise up as I sprinted, meeting my feet halfway in the air rather than where the ground should be. My lungs burned and my legs ached like shit but I kept running.  Stopping to catch my breath could be the difference between life and death for me and I didn't want to take that risk.

As I reached my house, my mum didn't bother even looking up from the wood grains on the table that drew her eyes. Opening the cupboards in a frenzy, I piled all the food in the cupboards, which wasn't much, into my pack and filled up multiple water skins from the bucket from the well that sat on the side; I would have to make do with river water soon. I grabbed a bed roll from my bedroom and went to the safe. My hand hesitated an inch away from the dial to enter the passcode: what about my mother? Without me to make the food she will die. My only family, dead because I poked my nose where it wasn't wanted. It was all my fault. I never meant for this to happen, I never meant for any of this. No, I can't hesitate now, what's done is done and getting myself killed won't do anything. My hand finished it's journey to the dial on the safe and I entered the code. When the safe clicked open I grabbed the meager amount of coins that were in there and slipped them into the pouch on my belt. I sighed: this wasn't nearly enough to survive for a reasonable amount of time but it would have to do. My legs burned and it took every bit of will I could muster to walk myself out the door and begin running out of the village and into the woods on the other side.

Now I know what you're thinking:

"Calypso, aren't the people who want you dead in that woods?"

Well no, my village is surrounded by woods so actually I am in the half of the woods that the government aren't in. I have never been in these woods before so I just have to trust my instincts and poor sense of direction. This is going to be so much fun (that was sarcasm for those of you who needed it explaining). Every ounce of self preservation in my brain was screaming at me to stop running and take a break but I couldn't. Fear won the argument and kept my body moving like a machine working to keep my system running as smoothly as was possible under the current  circumstances, my legs pounding a steady rhythm into the foot-trodden ground.

I was as good as lost I this section of the woods, the only thing that guided me forward was the sun. I was headed west; the direction that the sun set in. I was going to have to rely on the sun a lot in the coming... However how many days I could last. It was a morbid thought, worming it's way through my brain like a sly, slithery snake. I pushed it to the side of my mind; not gone, just not to think about now. I had to focus on one thing and one thing only: survival. If I lasted long enough to think about it then it was a win in my books. I could worry about it at a later date, I wasn't going to think what it would mean if a later date didn't arise, that was a concern to future Calypso to worry about. This, you see, is my usual way of dealing with annoying problems: pushing them forwards for future me to deal with.

The woods look both familiar and alien, the trees, bushes and small woodland plants mirror the woods that I know and love on the other side, woods that now seem so hostile. The paths and trails I used to rely on to guide me were foreign. It all looked the same yet so, so different. It messed with my brain - not that I really devoted much attention to my scenery while running for my life.

I hadn't realized the time so before I knew it, the sun had set and the world was bathed in semi-darkness. I considered lighting a fire for warmth but decided against it and resigned myself to curling up under my blankets and staring into the inky woods all around me. I was situated in a clump of trees that started a reasonable distance apart but as they went up they arched together, higher bows twisting together to form a dense canopy above. I was now nestled in that hollow in the middle of the tree trunks. It was small, but cosy. Before you say it, I was going to light the fire outside the hollow and sit inside the hole in.

My thoughts were swaying between sleeping, and sitting and staring into the dark all night like the paranoid bitch I had become. In the end I decided that, in the interest of my own health, I would sleep. I wouldn't have been able to continue if I hadn't. I let the thoughts drift through my head as the calm, comforting embrace of sleep welcomed me into its arms and, finally, I was at peace