ESCAPE

Chapter 1

The eerie silence was only broken by the sound of the leaves cracking under their feet. It had been more than five hours since they left their last resting place and headed into the hills.

With only the moon to guide the way, Daisy put out her hand to balance her petit body through the haste. The muscles in her legs had long burned and ached like hell, mercifully they were just numb now.

Chancing a look to her companion, she was almost infuriated to observe the man didn’t even break a sweat. Standing at 6 feet with a muscle toned body like a man who spent clearly too much time in the gym, he was still looking as cool as a cucumber in his black t-shirt and cargo pants.

Rey was moving effortlessly through the forest as though he did this every day. His handsome angular face and black hair still in perfect order just set her nerves on edge. Daisy couldn’t spend too much time reflecting on that or she would find herself face first on the suspicious looking forest floor and face to face with God knows what. Just thinking of what creepy crawlies could be lurking around was enough to give her goose bumps.

“Do you think it’s possible we slow down a few steps or preferably stop so I can catch my breath?” Daisy asked in a nearly breathless whisper.

Seconds went by with no answer and he gave no impression of slowing down, Daisy began to wonder if at all he had heard her. She cleared her throat to repeat the question a little louder. “Can we slow down? I can’t feel my legs.”

Rey turned his head and in a neutral voice answered, “Only if you wish to die.” With that he turned his head back and kept moving, even daring to increase the pace. Clearly frustrated by the many close calls they had encountered, he was not willing to compromise.

Daisy opened her mouth, and then closed it again. What could she possibly answer to that? Digging deep for more strength she followed behind Rey quietly, praying they would reach the next rest stop soon.

Dawn was creeping over the horizon by the time they reached what appeared to be an abandoned, dilapidated one room cabin tacked under a huge tree. The limited early morning light did nothing to compliment or cushion the look, if anything. Daisy had the impression the morning dim lighting made it look more like a haunted house in a very scary Hollywood horror.

“Are you sure about this place? I mean, couldn’t we find somewhere else more appealing and less health hazard, this place gives me the creeps. Is there even a toilet or …..”

“It seems to me,” Rey cut Daisy’s mumbling with a nearly cold clipped voice, “that you clearly do not understand the gravity of the situation. Either that or you have a death wish. Which I should add, if it’s the latter kindly state it now and I can point you in the direction of the nearest town and you can be dead within the next 24hours and I can effectively save my life with less distractions. Or you could suck it up and shut up so I can think and find a way out of this for the both of us.”

Watching him turn his back to her and walk straight into the cabin leaving her to make her choice, Daisy mumbled, “Arrogant brute.”

Its not like she had much choice to make, he had after all already saved her life and seemed to be the only person in a position to shade some light on the whole situation, therefore also probably the only person who could get her out of it.

Rey looked around the cabin, assessing exactly what advantages it held. She was still outside mumbling to herself, he will leave her to that for now, he had to think clearly for a few minutes. She was not wrong, the cabin did give the chills and they would probably need a serious dose of antibiotics and maybe a tetanus shot too for good measure once they were back in civilization, but right now they had little to no choice on the matter. Its not like they could walk into a 5 star hotel and book a room, well they could, but they wouldn’t be alive long enough to enjoy the room service. She was lucky he even knew of this place.

He heard her enter the cabin; it seemed she had made her decision.

“So, should I even ask how you know of such a hide away?”

A note in her voice had him smiling at the question; no doubt her imagination had gone in the wild lines of serial killer creep. Looking at her small 5.2 feet slightly curvy shaped body dressed in very dusty blue jeans and a brown pullover shaking with exhaustion and hunger he decided to have a little light moment at her expense.

“Oh, let’s just say some extra curricula activities that don’t need prying public eyes. It’s rather far and quiet here, good for thinking and screaming without nosy neighbors calling the police on you.”

Her small round face went ghost white in a blink and her eyes popped wide as she took a very small step backwards. He could have sworn he could hear her heart beat so hard it was echoing off the walls of the old cabin. He tried to keep a serious face, but her second tiny step back as though she feared any large movement would spell her doom, was his undoing. He burst out laughing so hard, he actually had to hold his stomach as tears licked from his eyes. He chanced a look at her and she still looked unsure, she still hadn’t understood he was pulling her leg, which had him laughing even more.

“Well, am glad you find something to laugh about,” she said this as she stood as close to the door as possible while still in the cabin. Her mind was too exhausted to clearly analyze the statement, joke or not she was not taking chances.

Just twenty hours in this mans’ company and she would gladly hit him over the head with a baseball bat. When she had woken up on Friday morning preparing for her day, she had definitely not planned or envisioned a personal dance with bullets, rescued by an arrogant handsome ass of a man, followed by a run through the forest and over hills, only to end up in a cabin the size of a toilet. She was hungry and angry. Her feet hurt; in fact, her entire body ached like hell. Not to mention she could feel her own sweat rolling down her back and in all tight courters of her body, gross did not begin to describe how she felt right at this moment. And this man had the audacity to stand there looking so cool and fresh and laugh at her.