Mistake

Chapter Two

I freeze. Lady wakes up, and looks at me with panicked eyes. The leaves stop for a moment, then continue on their way to wherever they were going.

I exhaled. I hadn't noticed I was holding my breath. I count to 200, then start packing up. This camp isn't safe anymore. Dang. I really liked this place. I take a little bit of the cat treats out and give them to Lady before I put the bag away. Quickly, I re-tie my shoes, then make my way down.

When I finally land on the ground, Lady is waiting for me. Stupid cat. I can't help it if I fumble a little, I'm just tense. But its okay if you don't understand, most people wouldn't.

Imagine this. Everytime you get comfortable, they find you. Every person you befriend, turns out to be one of them. This is the life I live in, or just goes to show paranoid I am.

I pick up Lady and shove her in my bag. I know she hates it, but she's too slow to run next to me and I put my blanket in last, so she'll be somewhat comfortable.

I run to the lake to follow the river the way I found my way here. I've been running for at least half an hour, but I can't stop even though I'm getting tired and really hungry since I left in a rush, or being stupid enough to not eat any breakfast. I've probably only run a couple miles, so I keep on pushing, promising my stomach I'll eat lunch at noon.

I'm thinking about what I'll have for lunch when I trip over a tree root I hadn't seen. I manage not to fall on my face by automatically sticking out my arms, but my hands get all scraped and OWW!! I think I twisted my ankle. Holy crud this sucks... I stay in a fetal postion, completely tense, trying to squeeze the pain out. I notice that my bag fell off and look around for it.

Lady meows and brings my attention back to her. She's over by where my bag fell off, and looks mad at me for dropping her. She starts cleaning off the dirt on her coat, not even bothering to come any closer.

I struggle to get up, but fall again. I take off my shoe and take a look. Ewwie. My ankle has balloned to twice the normal size, and the rest of my foot is green and purple. Kind of like what I would imagine a zombie foot would look like, except not rotting and bloody.

So good news, don't have zombie feet. Bad news, I won't be able to run for a while. Bad news, they could easily catch up with me. Bad news, its going to get dark quick.

I look around, struggling to stay calm. I begin to recognize my surroundings. Oh yeah, I had a cave thing a couple weeks ago. I try to get up again without thinking and fall again. The cat looks at me with laughing eyes. Stupid cat.

I crawl over to a tree and brace myself against it, slowly standing up. I try to use a fallen branch as a crutch, but it doesn't work quite as well as I thought it would (meaning not at all), and end up trading it for a smaller branch as a cane.

Painfully slow, I gather up my stuff gingerly, trying to keep my balance on one foot when I can, wince and trying not to yell when I can't. Finally, I'm packed and ready for action. Whoo hoo.

***

When I finally make it to the old cave, its nearly dark and I've fallen at least 10 times, probably more. Lady has followed me the whole way, complaining, probably hungry. I haven't eaten anything all day, and I'm starting to shake a bit. My stomach grumbles to make its point.

I throw my stuff in the corner of the cave and slowly lower myself. I pull something out of my bag at random and had eaten two before I realize its the cat treats. Disgusted, I put a smaller pile in the corner for Lady to chow on before taking a swig from my water bottle to wash away the taste. I pull out the trail mix from yesterday and eat half of what's left. Finally, I begin to concentrate on my foot again.

The swelling's gone down, but it still hurts the same. I tear up one of my old tanks and wrap it around as tightly as I can without hurting myself. I drink some more water, then pull my blanket out, wrapping it around me, but sticking my bad foot out. Maybe the cold night air will numb the pain.

My head begins to droop and my eyelids are becoming more diffcult to keep open. I was almost asleep when Lady walks over to curl up with me, but bumps my foot and I am forced to stifle a yelp. She looks at me as if to say, "Well why'd you do that?"

The pain fades and my last thought as I'm going to sleep:

Stupid cat.