The Ascent

Chapter 10

Jasmine was no stranger to fighting, having spent most of her childhood playing with her cousins, who were really into fighting sports. In turn, she became obsessed with similar types of sports. However, it was one thing to see those fights unfolding from the safety of one's couch, or play around with one's cousins, and a whole other thing to be in an actual struggle for one's life.

After all, she was anything but a strong girl. Yet, she had one thing that her opponent hopefully hadn't counted on, skills to get out of a difficult situation.

She leaned her weight on her attacker, causing him to stumble off balance and allowing her enough room to do something to ensure her escape. When she later thought about it, she wasn't even sure if she was using any real self-defense techniques or if they were just movie ones. All she knew was she needed to do something as quickly as possible.

As the bald guy stumbled slightly back, surprised by her move, she used his distraction to elbow him in his stomach, using as much of her strength as possible. And the moment she did that, she lifted the lower part of her hand toward his face hitting him with the back of her fist. The sounds her actions produced didn't sound natural. It was more of a squishing sound than that of an actual blow. It squished in the same way as going through puddles.

His reaction wasn't the one Jasmine expected, not the one a regular guy would have had, and there was no sound of his nose breaking or anything like that. Yet, he still released his grip on her enough for Jasmine to do something she hoped would guarantee her safe escape. She hit the guy in the crotch area.

The howling from pain didn't come, but he did stumble back enough for Jasmine to gain some ground, and as he was no longer restricting her movements, she made a run for it. Not in the direction of the woods, because she didn't want to get Isaac into the same type of trouble as she was in, but towards the buildings. She weaved around them expertly, knowing each nook and cranny of her neighborhood.

What eventually saved her from capture wasn't her speed, as she had none, but the fact that she was on the home turf. She knew when to jump over an obstacle and when to swerve left or right. It was an advantage that gave her enough time to slip away from the bald men's sight and hide until they moved to the next area.

Her hiding spot might not have been the perfect one. However, since the bald men never came even close to finding her in the store's back area, she figured it was actually a good hiding spot. Although the men were fast enough, they didn't seem that clever and appeared to assume that people were stupid, that all they would need to do was chase them down.

Knowing that she couldn't stay in that place too long as it didn't have the best escape routes, Jasmine decided to sneak her way to her favorite tree outside the forest. A lonely willow tree at the end of the street she was on.

Although willow trees weren't the tallest or easiest trees to hide on, Jasmine hoped it would be enough for her to wait until the dark on top of this one. There, she could plot her way to the forest and hope that Isaac hadn't been caught.

Carefully, Jasmine looked around and sprinted for the tree as soon as her search came up empty of odd men because there weren't many places to hide. However, before scrambling up the tree, she checked her surroundings because if the bald men saw her, there would be no point in climbing the tree. She would need to keep running. Again.

Luckily for her panting self, no one was around. So, she could go up the tree as carefully and quickly as she judged safe, considering her below-average climbing skills. Once up, she felt like she was inside the tree as thick leaves surrounded her, encasing her in a feeling of warmth and safety.

The strangest thing about what had happened wasn't the fact that she was caught but that she somehow managed to escape. It was like they kept underestimating her, and she wasn't sure if she should have been offended or happy about it. However, they were bound to learn from their mistakes and that was definitely bad news for Jasmine.

Also, the reactions and sounds of the man when she hit him made no sense. There should have been some crunching or at least the feeling of a firm surface hitting her hand, but Jasmine felt none of that. It was like hitting the strangest type of gelatinous structure. A horrifying thought flashed through Jasmine's mind that Isaac could have been right. It made her shiver and question everything Jasmine thought she knew about the world.

"Isaac," Jasmine thought. "I almost forgot that I could send him a message."

Did you manage to get out?

Yes. You?

Yes, but I had to lead them away from you. I ran in the opposite direction, but I'll get to you as soon as possible. Will you be okay?

Of course. Those creeps didn't even see me. You should focus on getting yourself out and get here safely, do you hear me?

Yes, I should probably rest for a bit. See you later.

See you.

After finishing the message, Jasmine hugged the nearest branch, closing her eyes. But she didn't allow herself to fall asleep, knowing full well how much of a restless sleeper she was. She could fall out of the tree and stupidly get herself killed. But even shutting her eyes for a few seconds helped her calm down the commotion in her mind.

Even on the best days, Jasmine struggled with overstimulation and needed more time than an average person to process everything. This was not one of the good days. Starting with the conversation with her parents to the end of the world as she knew it. It was all too much to deal with. For that reason, Jasmine appreciated that she had some downtime before she had to do anything.

"Breathe in, breathe out," she guided herself as her brain slowly gathered and rearranged the pieces of her day.

The problem was that she saw so much without fully being aware. Putting the puzzle together was more complicated than it would have been if she could only focus on the crucial points. One thing was clear. Something was off with everything around her, and she needed to figure out if it was Isaac's aliens or terrorists and what had happened with the other humans.

She was finally willing to admit that she did see something...alien. Yet, she wondered if that was of extraterrestrial origin. It might have been just a hallucination caused by an unidentified substance released by unknown parties. Either way, it was not good. It was far beyond Jasmine's scope of understanding, let alone fighting. Still, she needed to know which one it was to survive.

With either option, the question remained. Were people dead or kidnapped? If they were killed, where were the bodies? If they were kidnapped, where were they taken?

Jasmine's mind felt like the busiest highway during rush hour, and she knew she had to slow her thoughts down if she wanted to figure anything out. Yet, this time, when her life didn't depend on them, they chose to show their disobedient side, and Jasmine couldn't blame them. It was all way too much, way too soon.

Thus, she decided once again to do it step by step. To be smart and do one thing that she rarely could do.

Stop overthinking. Just act.