Milenka

Chapter 2

The breeze of cool air and the beam of hot sun awoke me. A familiar and steady beat of water rocked against my legs. I knew by now never to move or open your eyes until you knew as much about yourself and your surrounds as possible. I took in small short breaths. I could smell the sharp, burning smell of gasoline, and hear the water and machinery cranking close by.
Oil factory? No people around? Do I get up... No just open your eyes.
I bright white light ripped across my vision, momentarily blinding me. My eyes adjusted, I was enveloped in a large field of lifeless golden grass I saw the factory fences across the field with smoke from pillars dancing into the clouds. Alone. In a field. I went to lift my body pain shot through my head and spine and legs, my vision blurred as I saw my bare skin caked with blood and dirt. Bruises flowered across my skin, I couldn't see but I could feel my cracked lips splitting and bleeding each time I attempted to move my mouth. I tried to breath but my throat only croaked out air until I felt my lungs buckle under the forced attempt to breathe. I stood, slowly and surely assessing each wound across my body. I fingered my hair, now black with dirt and plastered to my back with blood and mud. I crawled. With each step I reopened a wound on my body. I blocked out as much as the pain as I could and went through a mental list of what I needed. Clothes, water, shelter. That sounds good.
"Hey! You! What in the hell are you doing out here?" A man's voice called out behind me. My body automatically got low pressing my body into the ground. I glanced up, my heart nearly ripping through my naked chest, he was closing the distance between us slowly approaching a hunting rifle clack against his back, the necks of two geese in his large fist. His brown hair was freckled with gray and his eyes glistened with warmth as he stepped towards me as if I was a wounded animal. He was two feet away now reaching his hand out, then he pulled back. I realized I had shrunk into myself a little at his outstretched hand.
"You need some clothing miss, and a hospital."
My eyes darted around me when he began to remove his hunting jacket and drape it across my body.
"Can ya stand?"
I hesitated.
"Can ya speak any American?" He raised a bushy eyebrow, I noticed he had a mole at the bottom corner of his left eye.
I paused, then nodded.
"Can I take ya some place safe? Do ya have a home? Someplace warm?"
I stood to my full height clutching the edges of the jacket. Only stopping at 5'3", I saw this man was big and I didn't want to oppose him and he was offering me help. I nodded and took a step forward but collapsed onto my knees, as the pain claimed my body. His arms grabbed me; I didn't hear his voice yelling out but I saw his mouth moving as my vision blurred, then blackness surrounded me.