Escape, a New Life (9 page)

The men stopped and argued a bit about the size of the holes.  At least that is what Eric gathered from the few words he picked up.  They waived their arms, and one emphatically stuck his shovel in the ground, took the other man’s shovel, and stuck it in the ground about six feet from the other one. 
This is how big it should be.
  At least in his mind that is what Eric imagined the context was.  The other man seemed to agree and they both started digging again.  They worked quickly, and within five minutes had a shallow hole dug, about six feet long and maybe three feet wide.  A grave.

Instantly, he knew whom the graves were for.  From his back pocket he pulled out a sharpened stick that he had found in another hole in the ground, much larger than these, while he had been searching for Abby.  There had been about a half dozen of them stuck into the side of that hole.  It looked like someone had used them to climb out of there.  At the time, he had figured it could be a weapon, if needed.  He was glad now that he had grabbed it.  He would not fail to protect her this time.  If he had anything to say about it, these two unsuspecting men were digging their own graves.

********************

The group decided that two of them, Tom and S
ara, would go back to the beach to find Eric tonight.  Sara wanted to do it herself, and nearly convinced them that she could.  Her plan was simple – seduce him and slice his throat in the throes of passion.  She presented a convincing argument, but Tom insisted on going in case anything went wrong.  He wanted to make sure there were no hiccups.  He pointed out that they would also have to bring Eric’s body back, and that was something Sara could not do herself.  The other four were instructed to stay behind, watch Abby, and start digging the graves. 

It was all she could do not to look into the woods where she knew Eric was hiding.  She wanted to see him.  She wanted to communicate with him
, but she did not want to give him away.  After Tom and Sara left, the men went off through the trees, and a few minutes later Abby heard a faint sound in the distance.  Based on the conversation that they had all just had in front of her, she assumed it was digging.  She could not see them, but she could hear them.  They were within earshot at least. 

Abby was studying the faces of the
two women watching her.  The redhead was very pretty in the classic way that redheads are.  She was not very tall, but was taller than Abby, which was not an impressive accomplishment.  Her fair skin was dotted with a few freckles high on her cheeks, but not too many.  Abby figured that she was probably a few years older than her and had, like Sara, probably been here for quite awhile, judging by her too thin appearance.  Had she seen her in everyday life, she probably would have described her as cute. 

The other woman, staring directly at Abby, was not so pleasant to look at.  She was probably pretty once upon a time, but the last time they had met, Abby’s knife took care of that as it slashed across her face.  She wore her black hair down over the left side of her face, trying to hide her injury, though it did a poor job. 

They were both standing by the fire.  Not close enough for Abby to make a move, but close enough to keep her from thinking she could.  The redhead was keeping a low profile and not really looking at Abby.  The knife in the hand of the closest woman was keeping Abby’s attention just fine.  It was her knife.

Abby spoke to her.  “What’s your name?”

“Fuck you.”

The redhead behind her sighed
. “I’m Emily, she’s…”

“Shut your mouth!” the woma
n screamed at her.  “She doesn’t need our names any more than we need hers.”

“I’m Abby,” she smiled.

In the background, Emily did not smile, though she held Abby’s gaze for a moment before looking away.  The woman with the scar never broke her stare.

“Why are you doing this?” Abby asked.

“You did this to me,” the woman said.  She held up Abby’s knife. “With this.  I’m blind in this eye now.”

Abby said nothing.

Standing, the woman approached her, holding up the knife.  “Do you know what that feels like?  Of course not, but you’re going to find out.”

Abby looked away as the woman got closer.  The cut across her face looked unnatural.  It oozed something yellow. 
Probably infected
, Abby thought.

“Tom is going to let me kill you.  Right after your pretty boy is gone.  I’m going to love every second of it.”  She walked closer still
. “I’m going to cut out both of your eyes first, but not until they drag his body in front of you.  I’m going to make you stare at his lifeless corpse.  It will be the last thing you ever see.”

Abby thought that the woman’s calm voice would have been unnerving had it not been for her knowledge that Eric was
fine.  She faintly saw him moving through the trees toward the sound of the digging.  He stepped on something, a dry stick maybe, and it snapped loudly through the otherwise quiet scene.

The two women turned to look, but he was too well hidden in the dark trees. 
To direct her attention away from Eric’s hiding spot, Abby spit at the feet of the scarred woman who was standing mere feet in front of her.

“You like to start trouble, don’t you?” the woman asked.

“I like to start trouble?  None of us would be here right now if you would have left us alone.  I think we would both be better for that.”

“Oh, that’s bullshit,” the woman spat.  “Tom knows why you’re here
.  We all know why you’re here.”

Abby was trying to keep them distracted while Eric
pursued the others.  She was doing a fine job of keeping this woman’s attention, but the redhead behind her had stood up and was peering into the woods.  Did she see him?  If she did, how come she was not alerting everyone else?

She could still taste blood in her mouth.  Again, she spit at the ground toward the woman’s feet.  The woman pointed the knife toward Abby and stepped a little closer, standing within an arm
’s length.  “Don’t even think about it,” she said, looking at Abby’s feet.  “Emily, bring those vines over here.  Tie up her feet so she doesn’t make another run.”

Emily walked over with the vines and tried to hand them to the woman.

“No, you do it.  I’ll hold the knife on her so she doesn’t pull anything.”

The two of them argued over who should tie up Abby’s feet, while Abby watched Eric disappear further into the trees toward the digging sounds.  When she could no longer see Eric, she looked up at Emily, “So, she’s the one in charge?” she asked, indicating the woman holding the knife.  “It seems to me that whoever is in charge should have use of both of their eyes, don’t you think?”

Suddenly, far off in the woods, Abby heard one of the men scream.  She knew Eric had made his move.  The women turned their attention from Abby for a split second and swung around to see where the scream had come from.  Emily immediately ran into the trees toward the screaming.  The other woman remained frozen. 

Her body was turned sideways to Abby,
and she still had the knife.  Abby had only a second to make a move before the woman would turn her attention back to her.  Cocking her right leg back, she kicked out with it, slamming the base of her heel into the side of the woman’s knee.  She heard a loud pop, and watched the woman’s leg bend out from under her, as if the knee was on the inside of her leg.  The woman was shocked, and dropped to the ground, screaming in agony, her leg bent in a wholly unnatural position. 

I
n her shock, she dropped the knife by her side to grab her knee.  Abby picked up the knife with both hands to hold it on the woman.  It was immediately obvious to her that the woman was in such pain that she posed no threat to Abby.  While she writhed, screaming on the ground, Abby cut her own bonds and flexed her wrists.  She looked at the woman on the ground and considered ending her suffering right there, but did not.  The woman probably could not stand up, even if her life depended on it.  It would not be right to kill her in this condition.  She would not be a problem anymore.

Abby looked around the area for the sheath to her knife.   She found it
next to a rock by the fire that the woman had been using as a seat.  She was crouched down, strapping it on, when Emily came back into the clearing.  She did not see Abby, but she saw her friend writhing in pain on the ground.  Looking around and not seeing their prisoner, Emily started running toward her friend.  With Emily only a few feet away, Abby sprang from her crouched position behind the rock.  Propelling herself low and leading with her shoulder, she crashed into Emily’s stomach. 

As they collided, Abby pushed her small frame upward, flipping Emily over her back and sending her airborne.  She snapped her head around just in time to see Emily land on the ground, flat on her back
, the wind knocked clear from her lungs.  Her eyes closed, and she fell motionless. 

“Shit,” Abby said, “
did I just kill her?”  She walked over, not wanting to get too close.  She eventually saw Emily’s chest rising and falling. 

Hearing another scream from the direction of the men, Abby suddenly pictured Eric taking on those two guys at once.  She had to help him, but could not risk Emily waking up and surprising them.  The vine
on the ground caught her eye, the one they had intended to use on Abby.  She looked over to the half-blind woman, now sporting the busted knee and was struck with an idea. 

She bound Emily’s wrists with the vine, and then dragged her over to the other woman
.  Looking at the other woman Abby commanded, “Roll over.”

Between gasps and groans, the woman managed to say two intelligible words
: “Fuck… you.”

“Wrong answer,” Abby said.  She swiftly kicked the woman’s
wounded knee as hard as she could.  This produced an ungodly scream from the wretch lying on the ground.  The next well-placed kick felt like it cracked one of her ribs and convinced her to roll over.  Using the rest of the vine, Abby quickly bound her wrists as tight as she could, leaving the two women bound together.  Even if Emily did wake up, she would have to drag this anchor with her wherever she tried to go.

After giving the vine a final tug to make sure it was secure, Abby
took off, running toward the sounds of the struggling men.  The trees were thin here, and she moved through them quickly.  The sky was getting lighter.  Dawn would be coming soon.  She followed the sounds of struggle to a very large clearing in the trees. 

Fifty
yards away on the far side of the clearing she could see a massive man on top of Eric whose feet were kicking furiously.  Not knowing what else to do, she screamed, “HEY!” at the top of her lungs and ran toward them.  After a moment, Eric’s feet stopped moving.  The man sprung up, turning to see her approaching from across the clearing.  She saw him look back at Eric lying motionless on the ground.

As she closed the distance
, he turned away from Eric and faced her.  He smiled.  The sight of his smile made her stop dead in her tracks about thirty feet away.  It made her sick to her stomach. 
Is he dead?
  She reached down and lifted her knife from its sheath, and began walking toward him. 

Slowly she closed the distance
. He towered over her small frame.  Even at a distance it was clear that he was over foot taller and well over one hundred pounds heavier.  He opened his arms, as if to welcome the fight.  Her anger and hate welled up inside, searing through her veins as she broke into a sprint to close the final gap. 

Steps away from him she raised her knife, ready to plunge it into whatever part of his body it might find.  Without warning
, the side of his head exploded in a shower of blood, flesh and hair.  The huge man collapsed to the ground like a building whose supports had given way. 

Abby froze.

The man fell to reveal Eric standing behind him, holding a thick wooden branch the size of a baseball bat. 

Ab
by was overcome with emotion, and the adrenaline coursing through her veins made her tingle all over.  She wanted to scream.  She wanted to break down and cry.  She waivered for just a second until their eyes met.  He was breathing heavy and his eyes glazed over as if he might shed a tear at any moment.  She walked close to him, never breaking eye contact.  Putting her hands around his waist, she held him close, able to smell the fight, the desperation, and the fear. 

She looked up into his eyes.  Putting her hands behind his head
, she brought him close and kissed him.  It was a moment frozen in time, as though she had never kissed anyone before.  His soft lips met hers, and everything else disappeared. The island, their helplessness, their fight to stay alive; all of it stopped existing for those few moments. 

Finally
, they pulled away.  Eric smiled and said, “I’ve been wanting to do that for awhile now.”

“Then why didn’t you?”  She pulled him close and kissed him again.  She broke away and looked around.  There had been two men digging the graves.  “Where’s the other guy
?”

“He’s over there,” Eric said, pointing toward the incomplete holes in the ground
, “making use of the graves.” 

Squinting in the dim light
, she saw the man lying in the very shallow hole.  “What did you do there?”