Annihilation

Liminal

... ALENA ...

The bindings around my wrists were so tight that it was impossible to move. Even if I'd broken a thumbs to wriggle free, they wouldn't have fit. I stretched my fingers as far as they could reach, inching my body back and forth for slight shifts to feel into the small spaces around me. If there was anything in the trunk, it was too far out of my grasp.

I was panicking, able to feel and hear the speed of the car putting me miles and miles away from my found family. Asphalt gritted underneath the tires, traveling unsmooth roads that made the car bump. They took turns so fast that I shifted even in the tight space, grunting each time my head, shoulders and hips knocked against the interior.

Every now and again there would be the repetitive thumping and then cracking of something being hit by the car, maybe an animal or one of the undead, travelers that they must have been aiming at given the number of collisions.

A slim sliver of light shown through a slight gap in the tail light seal. Through its glow I knew the day was passing, bright yellow transforming into deep gold.

The road turned to gravel, sparse crunching from a path that'd been well-ridden. Adrenaline from the fight against them and constant observation had started to wear off and though I wouldn't fall asleep, my body deflated with fatigue.

My eyes never closed but drooped, widening only when the car pulled to a quick stop, as if it were unexpected or intentionally meant to jerk me to attention.

Slamming car doors, heavy footsteps and the unloading of weapons. I waited for their approach, without a move to make. My legs and ankles were still bound, rubbed painfully raw from my failed attempts to loosen the knotting.

There was muttering at the back of the car, a short back and forth of words that were impossible to make out. And then came the silence.

My joints ached from their stifled movement and locked position, tingling starting in my fingertips and toes until all of my limbs had fallen asleep. So had the sun, moonlight trickling through the cracks not big enough to give me sight. The focus on my hearing was so quiet that it became too loud, not a single indication that anyone or anything was nearby.

They could have ditched the car, leaving me to succumb to the temperatures, to starvation or my own fright. I found myself torn between hoping that they disappeared forever, perhaps killed by a group of the undead in the night, and wishing for their return, if for nothing but the small chance to fight for my life.

My eyes drifted with the hours that passed, pinpricks of pain and the thud of my heartbeat drawing me from sleep every few minutes.

After a certain point I lacked everything, my stomach hollow with only the few berries I ate before being taken as my last meal. As every ounce of energy wore down, so did any air that felt breathable, the slow, deliberate breaths I took turning more ragged and desperate.

Just when I thought I was on the edge of my last exhale, that I'd used up all of the oxygen within the confined space, the jingling of keys sounded.

It was a horrifying relief, a contradiction in being alive but at the beginning of whatever torture they had in store.

Sunlight blinded me, piercing so strongly with the trunk's opening that my eyes could only bear being opened a crack. Demetrius didn't lift me easily, his fingertips digging into my arm to pull me over the edge of the car so that I thunked onto the ground. Still, there was air. I breathed and listened, letting my eyes flutter as their shapes came into view, Demetrius positioned to take whichever limb he'd use to drag me to my next destination and Gideon looking down on me with a sinister smile that became sharp against his blurred frame.