Does It Matter

35

  
Wu Xie was quickly becoming tired of the constant jostling, everytime the vehicle hit any size of bump in the road(which was quite often) he would find himself being tossed between the floor and tarp-ceiling with a jolt, and every so often he could feel a turn in the road.
How? Because sliding and slamming into a wall was a surprisingly good indicator of direction. Who could guess?

   With his hands tied behind himself, he had no way to brace the impact, and thus was forced to bear with it.
A little light was filtering in through the tarp, glancing off the little puddles that rolled around the bed, from the rain drops that found their way through the cover.
He could barely make out the conversation going on in the cab, with the two grumbling— gang members?....smugglers??— the people in the cab were clearly displeased with coming to this neck of the woods, despite the amount of money they gained from it.

Wu Xie rolled his eyes, before once more sliding back into the wall of the bed, his pained grunt muffled by the tape over his mouth. He felt all turned around, unsure of which direction he was even facing anymore, he knew the direction of the turns, but it did him no good to know if he didn't know the start or end point.
  With the next turn, a relatively sharp one, Wu Xie found himself against the back door, the latch tantalizingly close to his reach. He could almost touch it, if it weren't for the awkward position he found himself in. The truck bounced over the uneven road, knocking his head against the floor, and building his frustration.
He just needed everything to stop moving, for just a moment, so that he could think. But that clearly wasn't going to happen, he just needed to get it together. And focus. Just focus.

I just need to reach the handle, my hands are tied, but that has never stopped me before, why is this a problem right now. Just sit up a little, if I twist just right, I can reach.

With heavy breathing he curled his legs further under himself, and attempted to pull himself into a half kneeling position, failing miserably when another bump in the road sent him face first into the floor, where he lay dizzy for a moment, attempting to get his thoughts straight past the oncoming panic. It was hard to breathe past the tape already, without the constant overwhelming pressure of the small space he found himself in, claustrophobia muddling his thoughts as he attempted to organize them.

With a grunt he attempted once more to lift himself up, pressing back against the wall as the truck moved, preventing another fall. Once he had himself propped somewhat steadily, he began to feel around to the best of his ability for the latch he had previously seen, he knew the basic location, but felt himself panicking more as his fumbling hands failed to catch on the plastic piece.

Finally, just as he was about to give up on the endeavor, he felt the texture change beneath his hands, and latched onto the object, hoping beyond hope that it was what he had been searching for, he yanked on the thing, throwing himself forward in the process. The pain that came with the action was quickly forgotten as he felt a rush of cold, wet air hit his body, and he could see the muddy ground speeding by behind the vehicle. He almost felt like crying with relief at the sight. With a quick glance behind himself, he began to half crawl his way to the exit, surprised yet not ungrateful for the lack of notice from the driver and passenger. Without allowing himself to think too much about what his next step would be, he threw himself forward, out of the vehicle, and tensed for the harsh impact with the ground below. The truck had definitely been speeding, which had the upside of allowing him to gain distance from it quite quickly without further issue, but the downside of a bone crunching impact that had him rolling back ten feet from the direct landing point.
He finally came to a stop, soaked in mud and stunned, just in time to see the truck begin to swerve as the driver attempted to stop. For a moment Wu Xie thought that he might get lucky for once, and the truck would roll. This hope was quickly squashed and forgotten as the truck came to a safe-ish stop a ways down the road, and the passenger door opened.
Not allowing himself to watch any further, Wu Xie pulled himself from the ground, stumbling with the lack of support from his hands that were still tied behind his back. Slipping in the mud, and limping on his left leg, he forced himself to run, not caring about the direction, until he found himself falling, having tripped over a root or a vine, or possibly his own feet, straight downwards. He briefly was reminded of that first contact with Qiling, before he was dragged into the tomb beneath the tree. Again he almost wished that the other was here, effortlessly dragging him out of trouble. He was brought from his thoughts as he landed in a heap among a mess of dried leaves and mud, hearing shouting from above, he looked up to find himself at the bottom of a ledge, not impossibly high, luckily, so he would probably be able to find a way back out, but it seemed luck was on his side today, as the rain had created a mist throughout the woods, giving him enough cover as to not be seen by his pursuers, if the shouting was anything to go by.