Heated Abscondment

Her lungs were burning. Her chest was straining to expand large enough to drag in the cold night air. Her body couldn’t pull oxygen as fast as she was breathing. Her head swam with dizziness as waves of exhaustion overtook her. Sheer desperation and panic kept her legs going and her stumbling along. She was no where near the end of the night, nor a place to hide. And he was gaining on her. Fast. She fumbled a little as her steps faltered. She came to a medium sized culvert cutting through the asphalt like a wound. It wasn’t overly large, a simple enough feat to jump across. When one had their wits and energy. But she didn’t. She had spent all day and all night running and hiding from him and his damn helicopter. Part of that day was spent hang gliding, crossing massive amounts of territory, and mainly trying to gain distance down the mountain and cliffs. And the whole night she spent jumping, ducking, and leaping across the back streets and alleyways of the town at the base of the mountain. She readied herself to jump across the culvert, she dragged in a wheezy breath and launched herself. Didn’t completely make it. She scrambled very ungracefully and slowly up the other side of the drainage ditch. She scraped her fingers and knees on the asphalt as she noisily panted. She crested the top on all fours, she stood and paused a moment leaning over resting her hands on her knees. Over her shoulder behind her, she saw the sweeping movements of the spotlight from his helicopter. She moaned and took lurching steps forward, bouncing off the walls of the building she came upon. As she turned to go down an alley, she glanced over at the man who had sat and watched her from the small concrete square clearing beside two buildings and behind one. His eyes met hers and widened a bit. Then he started jumping up and down, yelling and waving at the spotlight and its source. The helicopter. “Hey! HEY! SHE’S OVER HERE!” He then pulled out his phone while waving and jumping. No doubt to call in or text that hotline he set up. That was another hiccup while running, and why she couldn’t stop. She wasn’t blending in. The people were absolutely devoted to him and aiding him in his search. She lurched down the alley, then breathed a sigh of gratitude when she saw a ‘t’ intersection to another and even smaller alleyway. This passage was so narrow, if two people passed each other they’d have to turn with their backs to the wall and sidle past each other. She took this moment to stop and lean against the building. She rested her head against the wall as she looked up in the sky. She could hear the blades of the helicopter. It was deafening, but she couldn’t see much past the buildings she was pressed against. She did however see the shaft of the spotlight beam. It was quickly moving back and forth over a small area. She smiled as she realized they were panning over the mouth of the alleyway she was just on. Where she would have emerged, if she kept going straight instead of ducking down this smaller alleyway. She let out a small breath of a sigh. She slid down the wall, hunkering down on herself, hugging her knees. She wasn’t going to be able to stay here all night, but while that spotlight is so near she wasn’t going to risk moving. She allowed herself this small brief rest.