Too Far Gone // D. Dixon

chapter two

THEN

Maren had been on the road for days, her tired and weary legs had carried her through the desolate and abandoned streets of Georgia.

It had been so long since she'd stopped for anything, but she couldn't afford to. Exhaustion weighed heavily upon her, threatening to pull her into an abyss of sleep at any moment. She had lost count of how many days it had been since she'd escaped from them, but the mere weight of her heavy eyelids were enough of a distraction for her to think of something else.

As dusk had settled upon the horizon, she stumbled upon a set of train tracks that cut through the overgrown wilderness.

Desperately, her eyes scanned the surroundings, searching for a safe place to rest for the night. She knew that fighting sleep wouldn't do her any good if she needed to run. She knew that if she didn't rest soon, she'd get herself killed. The woods alongside the tracks had seemed like a secluded enough spot, shielded from prying eyes. With a heavy sigh of relief, she settled down amidst the underbrush with her aching back leaned against a sturdy tree trunk, and she quickly succumbed to the enticing embrace of sleep.

The night passed in a restless haze, the world around her veiled in a dense darkness. Her slumber was soon disturbed, shattered by the sound of approaching footsteps echoing through the stillness. Her eyes flew open, her senses sharpened by instinct as she realized she was no longer alone. 

No, she thought, they'd found me again.

Her mind raced around the fact that they'd caught up to her. Had she not ran far enough? Had she not covered her tracks well enough? Her nervous thoughts ran rampunt around in her head almost incoherently. The reality settled within her that she'd once again be taken by them, and that this time she might not escape alive. 

In the dim light filtering through the trees, Maren's heart skipped a beat as she caught sight of shadowy figures surrounding her. She was quick to grab her knife, weilding it a few inches in front of her. Panic surged through her veins as hands had reached out towards her, forcefully grasping her and pulling her to her feet.

"No! Get the fuck off of me!" Fear gripped her as she screamed, her voice still as broken and as hoarse as it had been just days before. She struggled against her captors, trying to use her knife against them but their strength had overwhelmed her, something that had happened before. 

"Please, just leave me alone!" Maren shouted and within a second, Maren found herself painfully disoriented, her surroundings slowly encasing her mind into pitch black darkness.

- TOO FAR GONE -

As Maren regained consioucness, the barreling sound of a heavy door sliding shut met her ears as it echoed in the confines of the dark space she now occupied. Panic surged within her chest as she realized she had been imprisoned once again.

Painfully, she rose to her sore feet and launched herself at the steel door, ignoring the ever present pain thumping in her head. With trembling hands, Maren reached out as her fingers brushing against the cold metal walls of the traincar. The realization dawned on her, a horrifying revelation that sent chills down her spine—she had been taken captive and stored in a fucking storage container. 

The fact that she wasn't back in that warehouse was sign enough that it wasn't them who had taken her. No, this was somebody else entirely. She wasn't sure yet if this was a blessing or a curse. Sure, it wasn't the monsters that had destroyed her the first time, but what if these people were even worse? Surely they couldn't be worse...

"Let me out!" Maren screamed from her gut as she slammed her hands on the door, "Let me out of here, you fucking assholes!" Her heart pounded within her chest, the weight of her situation pressing down upon her. She was trapped in here.

Memories of the atrocities committed by the last group she'd encountered flooded her mind—her being captured and ultimately broken by the twisted hunger of those who dwelled within the dark confines of the wilderness. Still fresh in her mind, and still so raw.

"We've already tried that." A voice spoke from the darkness. Maren snapped her head in the direction, panic evident on her features.

As her eyes adjusted to the dimness, Maren's gaze fell upon the faces of fellow prisoners huddled in the corners of the traincar. Their eyes reflected the same mix of fear, desperation, and resignation that she felt coursing through her own veins. 

Maren realized that they were all victims, simply trapped in this nightmare together.