Great Divide

Flight

Copyright © 2017

This story, "Great Divide", is copyrighted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This includes all chapters, epilogues/prologues and associated content. Any unauthorized copying, broadcasting, manipulation, distribution or selling of this work constitutes an infringement of copyright. Any infringement of this copyright is punishable by law.

                                     Jessa

The warrior crashed through the dense forest behind me, the noise startling several creatures and echoing through the remaining stillness of the night.

Over the sound of my harsh breathing and heart beating into my ears, the vibration of his growling rattled my chest. I pumped my arms and barely dogged a tree broken in half and tried to pick up the pace. The phantom feel of him reaching for me spurred my need to get away and I moved to hurdle over a fallen limb when he tackled me.

We slammed into the forest floor with a force that smashed my jaw and knocked my teeth together, my head bouncing off the ground. A sharp pain shoots through my side as he presses his entire bulk into me. I begin to struggle against the iron band of his arms, wishing that I didnt have gloves on so I could dig my nails in. I'm kicking and squirming and raising my voice in a shout when I realize that he has disarmed me completely. He's thrown my pistol from my reach and snapped my tanto blade in half, all while still holding me down.

Suddenly he rises and moves a few feet away, watching from beneath the veil of darkness. It's an unsettling feeling, not being able to see his eyes or face, but I sit up on my elbows and stare in return.

He's not breathing ragged like I am, actually it seems as if he has barely broken a sweat moving through the trees and crashing into me. I'm shaking like a leaf, waiting on my adrenaline to cool its jets and try to breathe through my nose to help lower my racing heart.

He crosses his arms over his chest, and the notion strikes me as something that is such a human movement, but it makes him stand out even more. The creature huffs a loud breath, the sound muffled by the mask and jerks his head to the side, almost as if he is telling me to get up. Then he turns and begans to trek back into the direction from where we came.

He looks over a wide shoulder to regard me and makes a gesture for me to move. I begin to ease up, onto my knees first and a wave of dizziness washes over me. I hit my head pretty hard, I hope that I don't have any trauma or a concussion.

Glancing over to my right, I can see my pistol glinting in the light slipping through the trees. It's not THAT far from me, I should be able to get to it before he can move back over to me.

Like lighting, I move quickly and slip across the forest floor in the direction of my gun, I can almost feel the familiar metal under my fingertips when I'm suddenly snatched up from the ground by my arm.

I refuse to cry out in pain but I am pretty sure that my shoulder has been dislocated. He has my forearm in a tight bruising grip and that animal sound starts up again. He bends at the waist to pick up my gun and then begins to pull me through the rainforest ,back in the direction of the crash site.

I let myself get hauled back, tripping over my feet every now and then, fighting naseua. I believe that he isn't going to kill me because if so, he would have already been through with it. Now I'm looking at being either a hostage, or some sort of captive.

He hasn't removed any of my electronic devices, but I am nervous that they might have been damaged in my fall. If he doesn't search my pack, I might stand a chance with sending out a MAYDAY call on the transmitter.