Chapter 4 The Phoenix Who Never Dies

Carolyn I winced as I struggled to get myself off the ground, holding on to my bleeding arm. I wondered if it was luck, the long distance or poor shooting skills of the thug that made the bullet hit me on the arm. A little distance to the side and the bullet would have been in my heart. I would have been dead. "Get up, Carolyn."I told myself. "Did you get her?" I heard one of the men say. "I did. She is no longer running. Is she?" "She isn't. Let's just go." I bit back a curse. I knew the men were going to come this way to confirm if I was truly dead. Couldn't they just assume that I was dead and move on with their lives? "Let's go." "Move it, Carolyn, except you want to end your life here." I encouraged myself but it wasn't working. I quickly tore out a piece of material from my dress and wrapped it around my injured arm to stop the bleeding. I couldn't stand up to run. One, I was tired to run. Two, the men were going to see me and know that I wasn't dead yet. I decided to crawl on the ground as I hoped for escape and kept the blood from dripping on the floor and giving me away. "Where is the girl? Isn't this the place she is meant to be in?" "I thought so too but I can't find her." "Did you think she escaped?" "She couldn't have gone far with that wound. I'm sure the bullet went through her belly. I'm very good with the gun like you said." I snorted from where I was hiding from them. I was grateful I had found the cave when I had. "We ought to find her body still and take it home to Gary." "It's getting late. We can't keep staying here." "Ah! This bothers me." "Can you keep a secret?" "Why wouldn't I? What happened?" "Let's tell Gary that I shot her. I will show him the bullets in my gun and have him count it to prove it. We can tell him that she was running over a cliff when I shot her and then fell down. He certainly wouldn't expect us to go down a cliff to find her corpse." "Oh, nice idea. He would definitely think that she is dead. Even if she isn't dead from the gunshot, she would have broken her neck as she fell down the cliff. Will he believe us?" "Will you tell him the truth?" "No." "He should if you don't tell him the truth that we stopped looking for her. Even if she isn't dead yet, she would bleed out from the wound. No one comes here so there is no way she can survive." "I hope not." "Let's go home. I'm hungry." I breathed in relief as I heard their footsteps going in the other direction and waited for a few moment to confirm that they were truly gone. Everywhere was silent and I couldn't believe my luck that they had gone home. I stood up, leaned against the wall of the cave and started to walk slowly, trying to find a way out through the other side. I hoped that there was a way out. I couldn't go out the way I had come in in case the men were still lying in wait for me. I couldn't stay in the cave because I would bleed out and die there. The men were right. This place was always void of humans. If I wanted to survive, I needed to at least get myself where people could see me in case someone walked by and the cave wasn't the place for it. "Let's keep going, Carolyn. Don't you dare get tired?" I breathed out in pain, willing myself to not get tired. I wanted to sleep. I wanted to give up. I couldn't keep on going. I was tired, hungry, bleeding and heartbroken. "Oh, Carolyn, well done." I said to myself as I walked out of the cave and found a clearing. It still didn't look like a place that people would be so I kept on walking. "Where do I turn?" I asked myself. I was getting dizzy from loss of blood and realized that I could keep my eyes open if I talked to myself. I entered a forest and my stomach grumbled as I saw a tree of apple. I quickly plucked some that my hands could reach without using a stick and ate. It wasn't until I put the first apple in my mouth that I realized how hungry I was. I couldn't take more than four apples though as I didn't want too much time here and pass out while plucking apples. My legs collapsed under me few minutes after and I groaned as I fell like a heap of old rags to the ground. I was done for. I thought as I went unconscious. "Is she alive?" "Damn, she is still breathing." "How did she come this far?" "It seems she has a wound. She is bleeding." "Oh! Really. Let's take her then." I heard all the words as I stirred awake, though not fully and struggled against them as I felt their hands on me. I couldn't allow anyone to take me not after everything I had suffered. I wasn't going back to Gary. They should just kill me now. How had they find me? I thought they already went back. I felt like crying that I had been fooled. "Why is she fighting us?" "Why else? She doesn't want to go with us." "I'm sure she has a lot to say." "Have you ever seen a person looking like this without a story? Let's take her with us first." I landed a blow on someone's face and smiled, pleased with myself as I heard a howl of pain. I was fighting blindly and didn't know who I was hitting but knew I landed a good punch on someone. "No. No. Don't take me." I groaned, trying to get myself away from them. "Is she saying something?" "She is unconscious and from my experience, I think she is hallucinating." "A bad idea to leave her." "Even if she is in her right mind, it's a bad idea to leave her out here. She will bleed to death within the next six hours, that is if she doesn't freeze to her death first being out here in the cold open field." "Why is this little girl throwing a fight though?" "Let's get her away from here regardless. I think I have a pack in the car." I felt like I was lifted from the ground and being walked away. I was held by my arms and legs so I couldn't break free no matter how hard I thrashed about to get free. I felt a syringe in my skin shortly after and sighed as I fell into unconsciousness for the second time that night.