I don't know how to fight. Slipping through the trees at high speed I could feel myself losing it. I couldn’t stop worrying about Jim escaping me. I was running to fast, I jumped up onto a low lying branch.
I had my legs bent so that my butt was on my heels, my arms straight over my chest with my hands holding onto the branch. I took a calming breath and then another one. Smelling the air, I could taste the smell of Jim’s Old Spice and cigarettes. I looked into the direction of the smell; I understood what direction he went in.
Now I could tell where there was a path. Now that I have calmed a little, I can track him. I can’t make mistakes, not like at the cabin. I started to run toward the smell.
As I ran, my mind wandered back to what happened at the cabin.
* * *
Jim was sitting next to me on the loveseat, and Dave took residency across from us in an old recliner. I guess Dave had forgotten that we were here to grab a couple of items because he was all relaxed in his chair.
Dave and Jim both cracked open a couple of beers, lit up cigarettes, and started bullshitting back and forth. The next thing that I knew they were trying to strike up a conversation with me.
It didn’t take long before the conversation became real creepy. They wanted to know if I was a virgin. I played stupid and nervous. Then they started to offer money for me to take off my clothes. Of course, I refused. And then they threatened me, so I pretended to be scared. Then I did what they asked, and walked across the room to take off my clothes.
Now I wasn’t scared; I was excited because I felt the way these men felt about hunting animals in the wild. I knew I was stronger and faster, but I was also inexperienced.
I was about to find out how much.
The cabin was basically one big room with a fireplace on one wall. There was a loft in the roof of the cabin; the staircase came down almost in the middle of the room. The bottom of the staircase came to a landing that leads to the rear of the cabin. The staircase acted like a wall that separated the cabin and made it feel like more than one space. On the other side of the staircase were a washing basin, refrigerator, stove and a few cabinets. That made it kind of a makeshift kitchen.
The bathroom appeared to be outside where an old outhouse was. This was serious rustic living. I'd never taken into account that all my speed would be hard to use against them in such a small area.
I had never been in a fight in my life. I just had to take these two guys out fast. I'd never been around men that knew how to hunt and kill. I started off on the right foot; I wanted them off guard; that's why I stood there taking off my clothes, throwing them into the corner of the room. My nakedness would distract them, and I wouldn’t mess up my dress.
After I was naked, Jim walked up to me and put his arms around me. He kept talking about how he wasn't going to hurt me or make me do anything I didn’t want to do; he just wanted me to be warm.
When he started trying to kiss me, I knew that the game was up. I wasn't going to be able to take one of them off into another room, so I decided to take them both on at the same time.
So I spun Jim around and tried to bite the back of his neck. I was a little surprised; I was pushed back by Dave, and then all hell broke loose.
I clawed at Dave first, but he stepped back. I swung into the air. Then I took a punch to the face from Jim.
I was able to take the damage, but it still hurt. It was a full on brawl: punching, clawing, kicking, and throwing each other around the room.
It didn’t help that they still were wearing all their clothes. They were wearing thick winter jackets. Every time I clawed them, I just ripped up their clothes; my punches and kicks where softened against their heavy outfits. Even though they had the extra protection, I was still beating the hell out of them.
At the same time,
Alexia Stark
Diana Wynne Jones
Sandra Jones
Elizabeth Aston
Alex Dryden
M Harold Page
Eliza Victoria
Mary. Astor
Velvet Carter
Colin Thompson