Pinned

Chapter Seven

As it turns out, I'm not the best at running. Completely out of breath and red in the face, I had to slow down to a walk two miles from the building. Night began to fall around me, and as the shadows crept in, the forest became a much more intimidating place.
The night air was warm against my skin, and smelled like the damp moss beneath my feet. I started looking for a safe place to sleep along my path, preferably somewhere dark, and deep within the walls of a mountain; I didn't want anyone to find me, friend or foe. This time was mine and mine alone, to discover a world I'd been barred from for years, and maybe find some other escapees I'd never met before.
Without a watch, telling time was getting increasingly difficult, and trying to get around in only moonlight without getting caught by a predator or an officer was arguably the hardest thing I've ever done. After two hours of stumbling around a damp forest in nearly complete darkness, I finally found a break in the woods.

Although I was still so deep in the forest I couldn't find my way out if I wanted to, I had stumbled across a pretty big meadow in the middle of it. Roughly half a mile in size, it was entirely clear of everything but grass, and lit brighter than anything I had seen for hours. I sat at the edge of it for awhile, watching all of the other sides, waiting for the movement that would tell me I had been caught, I was done for, and somebody was waiting in there to kill me. But that movement never came, and eventually I began to relax. I climbed into a huge oak tree, and fell asleep for a short bit in the branches. It wasn't until the sun started to come out again that I climbed down, and kept moving through the forest.

"Day two, and still no sign of life in the damp, gross smelling, never ending forest," honestly I couldn't help but talk to myself. It was so boring out here I wanted to scream, and it was unbelievably hot, humid, and gross smelling because my dumb ass forgot to pack deodorant for this incredibly ill thought out adventure. I stopped moving. The problem was, something else around me didn't.

Terrified and absolutely not ready to fight anyone or anything, I quietly crouched down into the high grass behind the tree next to me. My head was swimming, no matter who this was it wasn't going to be good. If someone followed me this far without making themselves known before now, it couldn't be for any good reason, and if an officer found me, I can guarantee he's going to kill me, if not do worse.

On the other hand.. it could be another escapee. Whoever they are, they stopped moving too, but I could hear them breathing. Actually, I could smell them breathing.. I turned around and sitting behind me was the biggest, meanest looking Rottweiler I had ever seen. I screamed, and put my arms across my face, because obviously a dog like that is here to tear me to shreds. He just sat there though, with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, and his head tilted sideways. Looking at him now, I could see he definitely wasn't a purebred. His entire coat was jet black, except for one little triangle of white on his chest, and the over sized tongue that lolled out of his mouth as he panted had a big purple spot in the middle of it. His fur was a thick, curly mess, and his brown eyes had a spark of intelligence and kindness that I'd never seen in an animal before. I could tell he wasn't going to hurt me.

I reached out my hand to him, and he put his enormous paw in it. His foot was every bit as big as my entire hand, and when we both stood up his back lined up with my hips. The dog was at least a hundred and fifty pounds; he looked like he'd been eating well. I didn't have a leash or a name for him yet, but I didn't need either immediately because he stuck by my side without me having to hold him.

"Hey buddy, I can't see as well as you can, so you're gonna have to wait up," he stopped long enough to glance back at me, then put his nose back to the ground.
"Alright, so buddy's out, you don't like that name. Chubbs?" He growled at me. Guess he didn't think it was as funny as I did. He went over into the grass and just stood there, looking at me, so I assumed he was going pee and just kept walking. As I was getting out of his line of sight, he chased after me, grabbed my shirt with his teeth and pulled me back towards the grass. I tried to keep walking forward, telling him where I wanted to go but he refused to listen so I turned around to follow him, instead.

He continued to lead me by my shirt, even after I had obviously agreed to follow him. "You don't have to pull so hard, I know where you're trying to go." That didn't matter, apparently, because he kept pulling me until I started to run.

After over an hour of running in what felt like the wrong direction to me, the dog slowed down, and so I was finally able to breathe. I literally felt like I was going to puke. Barely able to breathe, I choked out "Slow down you little motherfucker-" but I had to sit still in a completely involuntary coughing fit. I puked, he reluctantly stayed with me until I could breathe well again, and then took off running into the trees. I lost sight of him, but continued to follow the sound of his running at my own pace. By the time I got to where he was the sun was setting, and I was too exhausted to keep following him around outside. He had led me to a cave, and it was so dark inside I couldn't see even an inch in front of me after we got two feet feet in.