Fated Destiny Book Three

Chapter Eleven: Hunted

Screaming echoed in my ears as my eyes slowly blinked open and I returned to reality. As my vision returned to me the scene of frantic people running in every direction was laid before me. "....Not dead yet I suppose...." I thought to myself with a pain filled chuckle, and just as I had that thought a sharp pain swept through my body as someone stepped on me in their frantic attempt to get away and I winced as the pain in my right shoulder was still very much there. That shot had come out of nowhere and since they weren't standing over me to finish the job, which means it had to have come from far away. I needed to get out of the open and somewhere safe. I attempted to push myself up off the ground with my right arm, but my attempt was short lived as l fell back down to the ground and another pain swept through my chest from where I had been shot. My strength was gone and I was far too weak to even lift myself up off the ground. I lifted my face up from the pavement and examined my surroundings. All around me were people fleeing, but through the feet's of the fleeing people I could see cars off to my right and to my left I saw an alleyway. I had to get out of the opening. I had too. I needed to get into that alleyway, even if it meant crawling my way over there. Snow kicked up into my face from fleeing civilians and I another pain went through me, this time through my right arm as I was once stepped on again. "That's assuming I don't get trampled to death, but all the people fleeing should provide good cover for me to slip into the alleyway." I thought to myself. I tried to lift my left arm and pull myself forward, but nothing happened and I looked over my shoulder to see left arm standing still by my side, I couldn't even move my fingers as my whole left arm felt completely numb. "God damn it, my nerves running down my left arm must be in complete shock." I thought to myself and winced. No matter, I'll crawl into the alleyway with just my right arm if I have too. I refuse to die right now, especially on some city sidewalk to a random shooter, to hell with that. I lifted my right arm up and reached forward, pulling myself forward with the strength in my right arm and what little strength I had left in my legs. With every inch I took, my body throbbed with immense pain and it didn't help that I would get kicked in the sides as people scurried over me in their mad dash to get out of here. Of course nobody bothered to stop and help the dying man out on the ground, and instead opted to let him drag his dying corpse off of the sidewalk and into the alleyway. To top it all off there was also a wet feeling that was running across my chest and legs as I inched forward, and it wasn't just the snow. I'm pretty positive I was still losing a substantial amount of blood and I'd be lucky if I even made it into the alleyway before I died of blood loss. However there wasn't much I could do until I was in safety, out of the sight of the gunmen. All I could do was crawl, so crawl I did. Eventually my long and painful crawl lead me to the side of a dumpster where I reached up with my one functioning hand and grasped the handles of the dumpster. Pulling myself up I eventually propped myself up against the wall, as my back touched the brick wall a cold shiver shot up my spine and through the rest of my back, which only amplified the pain I was feeling in my shoulder. I winced in pain as I further sat myself up right until I was comfortable, or as comfortable as one could be. I looked around the dark alleyway where I might possibly be spending my final moments, and well....